Sermon for Remembrance Sunday – 8 November 2020: Wisdom 6, 12-16; Matthew 25, 1-13.

Revd. Canon Leonard Doolan – St Paul’s Athens, on Zoom

 

On Armistice Day, November 11^th, in the year 1920, a body was solemnly laid in the ground in the nave of Westminster Abbey. It is now known as the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior. The body buried is in fact comprised of the bodies of four soldiers discovered in the battlefields of Aisne, Arras, the Somme, and Ypres. The stone slab is made of black Belgian marble quarried from near Namur in Wallonia. Among the words engraved on the monument are ‘Greater love hath no man than this.’ For 100 years it has been a place of many pilgrimages, an iconic monument, a memorial. It is part of our remembering of those sombre days of the Great War and the sacrifice.

Monuments help us to remember. In Greek a monument would be a mnimeio (μνημείο). Remembrance lies at the very heart of the Christian experience. At the Last Supper Jesus tells his disciples, and thus us also, to ‘Do this in memory of me’. In the New Testament the word for this is ‘anamnesis’. The opposite to this is a well – known word in English, amnesia.

 

When we speak of ‘remembering Jesus’ it is not like the exercise of thinking back to a great beach we went to on holiday last year, wishing we were there now. It is completely different, for in our ‘remembering Jesus’ we are bringing an event from the past into our present day. This is a divine mystery in action. So remembrance is a highly significant religious activity, ‘Do this in remembrance of me.’

If the monument of the Unknown Warrior is to come anywhere near that kind of remembrance it must both record in our historic memories the atrocities of that war, and hopefully all war, but also shape us in some way for our present lives, attitudes and formation, both as individuals and as societies. This would be a living memorial to that Unknown Warrior. I hope that this will be the lasting contribution of our annual services of Remembrance.

On this occasion a nation remembers. This year the public ceremonies will be greatly reduced. I don’t have to tell you why. Many of us worldwide will be remembering ‘virtually’ as we are now at this service on Zoom. I hope and pray that we will be gathered together physically this time next year for corporate remembrance. It would be tragic if this year began a movement towards a corporate amnesia.

What might we learn in our own day from remembering the Unknown Warrior? What might that legacy be to us, to bring that memory into our present day and into our corporate and individual reality?

Our two scripture readings set for today direct us towards at least 2 essential qualities; wisdom and discernment.

There is a section of the Old Testament scriptures that belong to a genre referred to as ‘wisdom literature.’ Many of these scriptures come from a Mesopotamian cultural provenance rather than a Hebrew origin, but they appear in the canon of the Hebrew scriptures, and are considered an integral part of what we as Christians call the Old Testament. In short, many of the sayings in the Wisdom tradition are divine precepts received as human practical wisdom. They are like a fusion of divine and human.

This Wisdom, sophia in Greek, is referred to as female, and addressed as ‘lady’ or ‘she’.  In the writings of a highly masculine and patriarchal culture and society, this is a refreshing change.

Lady Wisdom is highly prized and is a manifestation of God himself. In today’s reading we hear that she is radiant and unfading, and easily discerned by those who love her. So the scripture itself combines wisdom and discernment. Thanks to Sophia the beauty and glory of God is apprehended in the outpouring of wisdom in our lives, our behaviour and actions. When I was at school at Ayr Academy the words above the dais in the assembly hall were these, ‘Wisdom is the principal thing. Therefore get wisdom. Get understanding.’

It is discernment that we learn from the parable told by Our Lord, in our second reading. It is one of those parables that has the setting of a marriage. The metaphor of marriage is commonplace in Our Lord’s teaching. Today’s bridal story is about five foolish virgins and five wise virgins. The moral of the parable rests in a manifestation, a revelation of that practical wisdom that I referred to a few moments ago, personalized as ‘Lady Wisdom’.

An essential part of Wisdom is discernment – in the case of this parable the discernment of the wise virgins in knowing when the bridegroom will arrive (it usually means Christ) and being ready, prepared and alert to his presence among us here and now – ‘do this in memory of me’ springs to mind again.

It behoves all of to be open to the academy of Wisdom, good godly practical wisdom, which informs, forms, and transforms our abilities of discernment – to discern God’s presence; to discern the signs and the times; to discern what is the common good for all God’s people, and for his divine creation. Those of us who are called into any kind of leadership know the need of a wisdom whose origin lies elsewhere – ‘she is easily discerned by those who love her, and is found by those who seek her’. (Wisdom 6, 12).

In Athens we have heard in the last few days after many years of patient waiting, the first official mosque has been opened in Athens. I welcome this as I believe in the freedom of people to worship in their tradition – though I understand fully that Christians are not afforded this in return in many Islamic countries.

The first Imam is Moroccan born Zaki Mohammed, a Greek citizen. I certainly pray God’s blessing for him in his work and ministry among Muslims in this city, and in doing so I pray also for Lady Wisdom and gifts of discernment for him, especially given the historic and current background of extremist Islam in France, Belgium, and other European countries. He will need extraordinary gifts to provide good leadership that works for his faithful people and for the common good. I look forward to meeting him when this current lockdown of movement is over.

So the tomb of the Unknown Warrior has opened up for a us rich insights into the power of remembrance made real now; the need for God’s holy Wisdom and the precious gift of discernment, which is a daughter of Lady Wisdom.

‘Greater love has no man than this, that he gives up his life for his friends.’ Poignant words at the memorial, the mnimeio, of the Unknown Warrior. But they are not just words engraved on a tomb, they are the living words spoken by Our Lord (John 15,13) who came that we might have life and have it with abundance. (John 10,10).