Sermon – Remembrance Day – 8 November 2015 – Mayfield Salisbury
Micah 4:1-4; Romans 8:31-39; John 15:9-17
At a Church of Scotland candidates’ conference two years’ ago, the
chaplain at the conference shared a story from his earlier days as a
young man in his home church being invited by one of the older ladies in
the congregation for an evening meal. As she went through to the
kitchen to make final preparations, she handed him a book and advised
that it might interest him to read some of it while he was waiting. He
remembered it was a rather dull, brown covered book with a faded
photograph of a minister on the front cover. His initial reaction was that
the book didn’t hold much promise of great interest. But as he started to
read, he became utterly absorbed and was rather sorry when his
hostess came back through to call him to supper.
The book told the story of Rev Theodore Hardy and his experiences as
chaplain on the Front line with the troops during WWI. From near Kirkby
Lonsdale in Cumbria, Hardy wasn’t accepted at the start of the war
because of his age, but as the war wore on and casualties increased he
was accepted in August 1916, aged 51. Throughout his time at the front
line he showed outstanding courage and bravery in supporting the
soldiers. He was guided by another chaplain serving at the time,
Rev Geoffrey Studdart-Kennedy, who became more familiarly known as
“Woodbine Willie”. In a letter, Studdart-Kennedy wrote to Theodore
Hardy and said:
Live with the men. Go everywhere they go. Make up your mind
that you will share all their risks, and more if you’ll do any good.
You can take it that the best place for a Padre (provided he does
not interfere with military operations) is where there is most danger
of death. Our first job is to be beyond the men in self-sacrifice and
reckless devotion. There is very little purely spiritual work, it is all
muddled and mixed – but it is all spiritual. Take a box of fags in
your haversack and a great deal of love in your heart, and go up to
them, laugh with them, joke with them. You can pray with them
sometimes, but pray for them always.
Hardy took all of this to heart. He was constantly to be found with the
men in the slime of the trenches, appearing in the stillness of the night to
bring cigarettes or sweets, with his familiar phrase “It’s only me, boys.”
He earned a DSO (Distinguished Service Order) after going out with a
rescue party to recover injured men stuck in the appalling mud of No
Man’s Land on the battlefield. On that occasion, he bandaged wounds
and helped carry the men to safety. At last, there was just one soldier
left stranded. As the battle waged on, it wasn’t possible for the rest of
the rescue party to reach him, but Hardy stayed with the wounded
soldier, chatting to him, encouraging him and feeding him for 36 hours
until sadly the young soldier died. For similar acts of outstanding
gallantry and devotion to the wounded, Hardy was awarded the Military
Cross in 1917.
During further raids in April 1918, he went to the aid of another young
soldier who was caught in the barbed wire with a mangled leg and
bleeding to death. With a customary, “It’s only me”, Hardy stealthily
arrived and bandaged up the soldier’s leg while quietly discussing school
cricket with him. He left the young man, but shortly returned with further
help to cut the injured man free and carry him to safety. For that and
other such feats, Hardy was awarded the Victoria Cross. The men he
was with thought it was a medal “he should have had served up for
breakfast everyday.”
Tragically, Hardy didn’t see the end of the war. On 10 October 1918
while crossing the bridge over the River Selle to rejoin his men at the
front, a machine gun opened fire and Hardy was shot in the leg. He was
hospitalised, but contracted pneumonia and died a few days later on 18
October. It is a truly remarkable account of selfless love and courage in
the midst of war, to provide an enduring presence of encouragement
and support to the soldiers around him in such a dire place of need.
Hardy’s story highlights the sacrifice of presence, made by so many
countless men and women serving on the frontline and in support during
the two World Wars and the wars fought since – the sacrifice of
presence of those willing to go and be, and give their all for the sake of
others and for the sake of peace and security and freedom. For some
that sacrifice was their own life, but for others it has meant the very real
ordeal of living with the invisible, open wound of psychological trauma
and for others the slow, painful recovery and rehabilitation from
life-changing physical injury.
Hardy made the sacrifice of presence. And we find the sacrifice of
presence at the heart of God’s love and intention for us also. For His
disciples and the world, Jesus said: “No one has greater love than this,
to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13) In Christ, we find
‘God with us’, his willingness to come, to be, to journey with us and to
give his all for us. The message of the gospel is that, despite
misunderstanding, denial, rejection and betrayal, Jesus is with us,
remains with us.
Jesus’ passion, God’s passion, is for “the transformation of this world
and life in this world.”1 Through faith in Christ and following him, we find
fullness of life “now centred in God, in Christ, in the Spirit”2, embracing
his way of seeing and doing things in the world.
1
2
Marcus Borg Convictions (London: SPCK, 2014); p.145.
Borg, pp.145-6.
The apostle Paul faced many hardships and suffering in his life and at
the last gave his life for the sake of the gospel. In his letter to the
Church in Rome, he wrote:
Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or
sword? … No, in all these things we are more than conquerors
through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death,
nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to
come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all
creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ
Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)
That Christ endured so much to bring new hope and life, leads to
reassurance and confidence in God’s committed, abiding presence with
us. As Jesus promised, “remember, I am with you always, to the end of
the age.” (Matthew 28:20) In reading the article in “Life and Work” this
month, ‘Letters from the Front’ (pp.12-17), it is evident how much the
sense of God’s enduring presence meant to those who served on the
battlefields. Favourite hymns included ‘Lead Kindly Light’, ‘Jesus, Lover
of my Soul’ and ‘Abide with Me’ with its poignant words:
Abide with me: fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide;
When other helpers fail, and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.
I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless;
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness;
Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, they victory?
I triumph still if Thou abide with me. (verses 1 and 4).
Favourite Psalms included Psalms 23 and 121:
“I lift up my eyes to the hills – from where will my help come? My help
comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” (Ps 121:1-2)
Visits from chaplains like Theodore Hardy, brought comfort and
encouragement in things familiar from back home. They brought fresh
reminders of Christ’s love and presence and reminders of the precious
worth of humanity so much obliterated by the carnage experienced on
both sides.
On a recent visit to Stratford, I came across a simple but poignant stone
carving in the park beside the River Avon. It showed a soldier standing
with a little boy looking up at him and bore the words: “Peace I give to
you.”
We remember and give thanks today for all those whose sacrifice of
presence in wartime stood against willful aggression and oppression to
secure peace for others.
We give thanks for our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, whose sacrifice
of presence has brought us life and hope and peace in showing us the
way to oneness with God and with each other.
In a world still so full of struggle, we press on in little ways and large, to
bring the love and joy and presence of Christ until swords are indeed
beaten to ploughshares and spears to pruning hooks and nations and
peoples set aside war and conflict for lasting peace. Amen.