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How does one explain Jesus eating a piece of fish
 | Sunday 30th April - Easter Three - Bridget
In his book “To Travel Hopefully”, Christopher Rush works through the desolation, despair, raw anger and loneliness of the death of his young wife from cancer. He just couldn’t handle all the emotions, the practicalities, the harshness, exhaustion, and the changes in his life and his two children.
Being a writer, a teacher of English and poetry, and admirer of Robert Louis Stevenson, he decided to follow in his footsteps, a journey Stevenson had made with a donkey (following the separation from a woman he loved desperately – but later married) in the wild, treacherous, mountainous country of central France. Rush hired a donkey and set off. In two weeks he experienced sheep exhaustion, the fear, the bitter cold, the desolation and the loneliness of that region, but he learned about himself. Out of all the trauma, the challenge, the utter hopelessness, the despair, came transformation; a new life. He was able to find the person he was – the person he was becoming, challenged and strengthened ready to move through a “death” – to life, with an unexpected peace, a different way of seeing, and living and loving?
The Disciples and followers of Jesus had seen the most terrible event. They were exhausted, disillusioned, terrified. The cruelty sickened them. The desolation, the confusion, the utter brokenness of life, hearts, and themselves, and their future, and that of Jesus – filled them with despair.
And here was the revelation that Jesus loved them, carded for them, was upholding them on the other side of all this despite everything, that he was indeed alive.
All that in three days!
People often say to me, they feel closest to God in a church. I have to say I rarely feel like that. I feel that closeness, that awareness, in an open field with livestock, in ordinary people at a bus-stop, with the bereaved, in a time of great vulnerability and openness. We are often closest to God when everything and everybody else is against us. That is when we face our inner-selves, and often don’t like what we see, but have to accept.
That is when we encounter Jesus, and learn about ourselves, and what He loves about us, and that is truly extraordinary, and humbling.
When he encourages us, loves us, supports us, we are able to go forward; strengthened and reassured, knowing He is truly alive. He reveals himself sometimes, thorough other people, unexpectantly. Look at Mary Magdalene in the garden. Who at that time, would have found it easy to believe that!
Or the two men on the road to Emmaus. In this case it was through the “braking of bread” at supper. Suddenly it all made sense!!
Often it takes other people’s lives and vision to convince us about the truth.
We experience the divine presence in the most ordinary inexpected situation. There is often no explanation but the mystery is there, holding us up in the most diverse of human conditions.
The most ordinary events can be the most revealing perfect ground for new growth, new vision, new understanding.
The stumbling block in today’s reading [Luke Chapter 24 verses 36b to 44] I think you will agree is How does one explain Jesus eating a piece of fish.
There are many things that are part of the deep mystery and revelation of the risen Christ to which we honestly have to say “I don’t know”.
I have thought very hard about this one!!!
Jesus often used food to teach, sustain to reveal the mystery of God’s love in the ordinary everyday situation. Think of the marriage at Cana – wine overflowing. The feeding of the 5,000. A young lad prepared to share all he had. The miracle may have been the boy’s offering of his small packed lunch, encouraged others to share what they had with those who had nothing. Whatever it was – people were fed.
At the last Supper, Jesus fed the Disciples bread and wine representing his body and his blood. Either side of the Crucifixion food is important, a symbol of life – of continuation of the divine in the ordinary, which we celebrate in the Eucharist.
But back to the piece of fish!
The disciples were fishermen.
They fished to feed people.
Fish lose there own lives to feed people.
But now the work of the Disciples and followers of jesus was to feed people with the knowledge of God’s live for them through Jesus who died for them, and lal creation
Jesus was now very much “alive” all be it in a different way – but it was through his sacrifice and the giving of his own life that in him we are truly alive today.
Amen.
And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.
But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.
And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?
Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.
And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet.
And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat?
And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb.
And he took it, and did eat before them.
And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.
Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,
And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:
And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
And ye are witnesses of these things.
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The parable of the mustard seed
 Sunday 18th June - Trinity One - Ian
I always wonder when I hear something on the news about new peace initiatives or grand schemes to solve some difficulty or other. It is almost as if a concerted once and for all effort will make a massive difference to something and change it for the better. In all of Jesus’ teaching, however, I can’t remember reading anything about that kind of idea. Jesus always began at the only realistic place he could begin – the base camp as it were. He always began with people.
The problem is- and – somehow we never seem to learn the lesson that is people who are the agents in conflict or whatever it might be. It is also people who are agents in resolving the conflict. They can come to some agreement whereby living together without killing each other is one thing – a good thing – as far as it goes. But actually having a change of heart to the extent whereby we can simply live together without having to be given something – some concession or some other incentive – that is something very different.
Jesus began with people. He tried to get them to be able to see the possibilities of changing the way they looked at life and other people. The trick is to change from within, to be able to see things from another perspective. A new perspective brings with it new possibilities. These new possibilities bring with then the real chance to change something for the better. The mustard seed is small, insignificant, and vulnerable; yet it has the potential to become something quite different, its growth potential is absolutely astounding. A seed, not much bigger that a pin head, in the right environment will grow into a massive bush. In such a bush the birds of the air can build nests in its shade and have protection from the elements.
Peace comes from within. It is not something which is imposed upon people as the result of some initiative or another, in some political process or another. It is only real peace if it has nothing attached to it. Peace begins with you- peace begins with me. From that small, almost invisible seed there is the potential for massive growth. Jesus’ great skill was to reduce what we make complicated for a variety of reasons, into something very simple but at the same time very sound.
There is a paradox though. The idea of peace starting from within is an idea reduced as far as it can be and that is precisely what makes it so very difficulty. Because for something to begin from within we have to give up so much which has been firmly obstructing us for so long as we can remember. The change is scary sometimes; the familiar even though it may not be perfect, more comfortable as there is comfort in what we know.
I came across this in counselling all of the time. Sometimes it gets to a point where someone becomes very aware of what is blocking growth and usually what is required to overcome that blockage. But this process would mean some changes and sometimes the unknown is a very scary place to contemplate. Some people will make the effort and take the risk. Some people will not and remain locked into a cycle which comes back round to the block and starts all over again.
I strongly believe that people do have a massive potential to solve their own difficulties given the right environment. I have seen massive changes in people during therapy, sometimes in a matter of weeks. I have also seen instances where people acknowledge what is required and then chose not to do it. Jesus started with people – he made them aware of what they needed to do to grow. He never offered to do it for them; he never left them off the hook as it were. They had a choice.
They could say YES and do whatever it was or they could say NO and carry on in the same old way. We read of instances, both during Jesus’ ministry and in fact right through the bible, of people who stand out because what they are about comes deep from within them, because it is right, not because they will get something in return.
There are people – we probably all know someone- who would fit into that category, and they do stand out. There is that almost indefinable quality about them which draws attention to them. Often they as not popular because they challenge and challenge is often seen as a threat. Particularly when the challenged realise that their game is up.
That quality comes from within, from an instinctual ethical centre which does not require something as an incentive. A quality which does not require a grand initiative, agreement or compromise; to broker something which will always have the potential to break down. If the will is not genuine for the sake of whatever it is. Peace for the sake of peace because peace is a good place to live.
The seed of peace is within us all; it may be small; it may be hidden under a pile of junk but it is there. And
We can access it
We can use it
We can share it
But only if the person whom we share it with does the same. Not for the hope of something in return but simply because it is good and to feel that return is sufficient. And so, and we will, when we hear of yet another peace initiative or a conference to broker something, perhaps we might wonder if the sense of peace is something that is deeply held within those concerned and everyone else around. Or if what is meant is something brokered to give each party enough to stop them from fighting with each other.
If it is the later – is that peace? Or does it need to be like Jesus taught.
Does it need to begin with ourselves from within, a tiny seed which grows into a massive bush which can give shelter, food and more seeds?
Amen
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Jesus Cares for the planet and all living things
 Sunday 2nd July - Trinity Three - Bridget
A desperate Father comes to Jesus; his little girl is dying. On the way to her a very sick woman touches Jesus’ garment, and she is healed. Power goes from him – to her.
In amongst all the hub-bub of the situation and the crowd there is something incredibly trusting, powerful, divine and beautiful in this most pitiful situation.
All parents, especially mothers, dread the thought of their children dying. For those who have experienced it the pain and memory never entirely goes, but healing comes eventually through the mind and spirit in different ways and through it all a new way of relating to life, to other people, that is helpful – with a deeper understanding that wasn’t possible before.
In every situation Jesus always sees the individual person who needs him.
Even on the Cross, in the excruciating agony, with noise, the anger, the cruelty, he arranged who was going to look after his mother after his death.
We can all empathize with the Father of the little girl. We desperately love our children even when they drive us to distraction! And because of that we worry about their future. Every parent does!!
I think every generation has concerns, worries, tragedies which they felt were impossible to change. In the last hundred years there have been two World Wars – as well as others; years of grinding poverty in the 1920’s and 1930’s; the very real threat of Nuclear War in the 1950’s and 1960’s. I remember going to a talk to the Young Wives on what to do in the event of a nuclear attack. (That was in 1965!).
In today’s World with all the different pressure of modern life – getting from one end of the day to the other is an achievement in itself.
As a parent, and a grandparent – at this point in time, I am deeply concerned about Global Warming, and our response to it. It is the major problem which faces the next, and oncoming generations. It is something that is simply not going to go away.
We are all responsible for the Planet, for the whole of the natural world – and not just for human beings: - All life is precious to god and He loves and cares about everything
Here in the joy of today everybody looks in the pink of health!!
Jesus is joyful with use, and you the parents, and families of these children, come in love and trust bringing the children for Baptism, affirming for them as we all say We entrust their lives to you. And we know they cannot be in safer hands.
P.S. for parents. On the day when things get tough – you are exhausted, your children are impossible to understand and the generation gap is stretched to the limits: REMEMBER Jesus is in the middle of all that – loving you as well!
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Reassurance and miracles
 | Sunday 30th July - Trinity Seven - Ian
This morning we are directed back to the miracles of the feeding of the multitude and the incident on the lake. What are the miracle stories about? What are they really about?
Of course they are about all sorts of things, but one thing perhaps is that they are about reassurance. Human beings, people, usually, even the most confident and independent people, at some point in their life will need and seek reassurance. Most people will have things they deal with well, other things they deal with and finally things that they deal with badly, or perhaps more to the point, things they have difficulty with.
Even the most commensurate professionals will have moments when they wonder about themselves and their abilities. They will seek reassurance; however that might be dresses up. The miracle stories might well be about reassurance.
Children will generally run to their parents for reassurance, encouragement and support when they fell out of their depth over some issue. Parents represent those things – sadly not always – but they should give that sense of safety we all really want deep down. The miracle stories tell us that God is that Parent, who reassures, encourages and supports. Jesus teaches us to call god ABBA which translates as Daddy rather than Father. It is much more informal, mush more familiar, almost as if it is saying – Why so Formal? Why so Distant?
It doesn’t have to be like that, I’m not demanding formality, I don’t demand distance as a mark of respect or recognition that I am God. Jesus did a lot of that, he did a lot of taking the formality out of faith, looking at what was beneath that in a sense. He brought faith to the reach of everyone, something very special which wasn’t just for the educated, pious, rich or influential. It was a faith for everybody, from the Shepherds watching their flocks by night, to the Street Girl, Roman Collaborator and tax Man, the Fishermen, Women of low birth etc. To the educated, rich, influential, pious – that did not matter and doesn’t matter, even if structures tend to perpetuate something of that distinction culture.
It was something very new for a people steeped in formality and structures. Jesus shows us the folly of those things as being ends in themselves. He shows us the hollowness of those things that represent very little really beyond the surface of things. God is for everyone – everyone can experience God. Difference is not to be feared and resisted but rather it should be embraced and valued. Everyone has a place in the Kingdom of God. This Kingdom is not exclusive – you can’t buy a place or reserve a penthouse suite, it doesn’t work like that. Everyone is welcome; everyone is as valuable as anyone else.
That can be very reassuring, just to know that we are valued, we are not just tolerated – we are genuinely welcome. Reassurance is important, it is not a sign of weakness that a person needs it, it is just a natural experience felt at some time or another by everyone.
Jesus bought reassurance by what he achieved in his ministry, through those miracles. If we try to rationalise them we will spend a lifetime, so wide ranging are the attached meanings. But what is underneath, what is really going on in those stories. Reassurance that however far away we feel God to be, however far away we perceive the Kingdom of God to be, however distant we feel from God. Actually God is never very far away and his Kingdom is all around. He is not distant at all, but very very close. We have seen in Jesus the “Face of God”. We have experienced in Jesus the “Mind of God” as we know the “Mind of Christ”. Jesus did not work in a formal, distanced clinical fashion. He worked as a mentor would work, or as a parent might work with a child. That should give us a clue as to how the Kingdom of God is.
I suppose if we know there things from the wealth of teaching available to us today, we have less excuse not to be as he was. We see far more now that anyone would have in his day, even those very close to him. We know more now – so we have much less excuse that they might claim. The reassurance is for us as much as for the people of his time. God is close, the Kingdom is close, and we have free access to both.
Reassurance, as if we should need any. But we do sometimes need it; even the most devout will need reassurance from time too time and will no doubt feel guilty that their faith was not unassailable. No faith is – even Jesus prayed to the father for reassurance that he was doing the right thing.
“Father if it is possible, let this cup pass me by, but if not your will be done”
And on the cross – “Father, why have you forsaken me?”
Reassure me! I am struggling with this! Reassure me!
Even the strongest of people are not an island all of the time. There is no shame in that, merely an expression of humanity. That in itself is a miracle. That the God of Creation, who caused all things to be done, has the time and the energy and the will to be accessible to everyone. To be a fatherly knee for the insecure to find comfort, the weary to find rest and the hungry to be fed, while at the same time remaining as the God of Creation. We will all know how comfortable it feels to be with someone who accepts us as we are and offers those things to us; often despite who we are.
“Come unto me all you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest”
Rest! Reassurance – very often they are one and the same, the burden is lifted. The problem might persist but the weight has been somehow lifted and it is not the burden it was. Perhaps we look at miracles stories and get confused. But at the very core is that idea of how close, accessible and hands on, God really is; whilst remaining the God of Creation.
We don’t have to book an appointment in a busy schedule. All we have to do is know how close God is and how close the Kingdom really is. If wee need to be reassured of that, it does not distance us at all; it just makes us human. That is all right, even if we think we should be stronger or have more faith.
It is all right, I hope it is or I am in deep trouble as we all would be.
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I am the Bread of Life
 Sunday 13th August - Trinity Nine - Ian
The Gospels deal very much with themes around “Freedom”, and “hope” and “Redemption”. As you may well recognise from the words, they are very much linked. Freedom, hope and redemption.
We constantly hear about freedom. We are constantly exposed to the rhetoric of freedom and how Western culture has at its very heart the idea of freedom. Freedom of speech, freedom of movement and the freedom to be. It is almost as if freedom has something to do with the ordering of things socially or politically or economically.
And yes!, in human terms at least, freedom is certainly connected to those things or perhaps the lack of freedom in those respects and the striving for more.
Have you ever tried to exercise freedom of speech?
What can happen?
What have you experienced?
Does our right to exercise that freedom do any actual good, except for perhaps making us feel better now that we have got that off our chest?
I would guess generally speaking probably not! We are often told that being honest, open and up front are good ways to behave.
But do those we speak to, perhaps within an organisation or an institution or even on an individual level actually want to hear what we honestly think?
I would guess that beyond the best ‘customer care tradition’, probably not.
We do have to recognise that in human terms, however free we are told we are, we do have to operate under some considerable constraint.
Freedom in human terms may just prove to be slightly more illusive than we are generally led to believe. And most people know that.
Another thing which can constrain is institutionalisation. Take our Church as an example. When we first enter the church it can feel quite odd and strange in some ways, particularly around the traditions, the teachings and the culture.
Some people find that difficult but survive. Some people find that impossible to get around and they leave or become malcontent and as far as the institution is concerned, bothersome. Most will get used to it and live with it.
Then comes the dangerous bit, the unhealthy aspect if you like. Some people come to depend on the institution and experience the illusion of freedom. Dependence does not set people free to be. Generally speaking dependence will constrain people and cause stagnation, particularly spiritual stagnation. People who are spiritually stagnant stand still and if they are the body of the church then the institution will stagnate as well and one feeds into the other and one perpetuates the other to become extremely inward looking with a narrow field of view. I think that is one description of institutionalisation.
Like or not most of us are institutionalised in some way or form just through our experience of the kind of world we are constrained to exist in.
So, what part freedom?
Where does or where can freedom fit in with the constraints we experience in human existence?
We will all be aware that there are a multiplicity of things which imprison us but on an extremely basic level we are made captive by the very things we depend on for life itself, namely food and drink. We die without them.
Forget the mansion with games room and swimming pool, the 6 figure bank account, the villa in St, Moritz, the Mercedes or the 51” plasma TV. Food and drink.
Before anything else comes a basic need to have those things. From th richest and most influential to the poorest and least of all.
Jesus knew that. Jesus had to know that because he too needed those things.
And he never denied that. After all he fed the multitude. When Jarius’s daughter was raised he told those present to give her something to eat.
But at the same time he declared something else quite openly, which cause some considerable consternation to some. He declared that the base line for our human existence was not a physical need in isolation but rather the base line for human existence was our need for God. John most certainly emphasises that in terms of our need for Christ.
John emphasises that if we do know who Christ really is and if we put both faith and trust wholeheartedly in Christ, we receive some extraordinary gifts. The ‘rub’ is and there is always a ‘rub’ or a price. They are not easy gifts to receive.
We still have to feed ourselves. We are still constrained by our human existence and our thinking, feeling and behaviour is still very much fashioned by experience. There is sometimes a massive tension to overcome between the poles of ‘freedom’ on the one hand and ‘constraint’ on the other.
It is very easy for us to see why the people of Jesus’ day assumed freedom had something to do with the re-establishing of the Nation as a Nation free from the fetters of occupation.
In a sense that is what he was offering. He was saying, “Give to Caesar what is due to Caesar but give to God what is due to God”. There can be a freedom within that.
When he makes the declaration, “I am the bread of life”, he is saying in essence that the freedom he is talking about and offers is to be found within whatever situation we live with. It is to be found right at the core of human existence.
It is not something which exists exclusively within the spiritual realm, out there somewhere and separate from corporeal human existence but rather it exists within this life we experience and it has a potential to be able to change how we live within the world we are constrained to exist in.
It is an extremely powerful message. It means more than living differently. It means thinking differently. We can’t always change situations but we can always change how we think about them.
As a therapist that is essentially what I enable people to do. I can’t change what has happened to them. I can’t change their situations or the fact that they will probably continue to experience certain situations. What I can do though, if they are open to it, is to allow them to begin to experience differing perspectives. I can facilitate greater self awareness and greater self appreciation and hopefully a more balanced way of perceiving themselves, their situations and also their options. It is very muck about changing thinking.
Changes in thinking will change how we feel and very often those changes lead to changes in behaviour.
Therapy is regarded as being a psychological intervention, something to be used alone or in conjunction with medication and that is absolutely fine but where does the psychological dimension end and the spiritual dimension begin?. Are ther one and the same?. In truth, I have no idea.
I have probably been guilty, yet again, of delivering coals to Newcastle Via Cape Horn. But the message is extremely important and so easily lost in the simple act of living.
The idea is not just to live differently but to think differently.
Changes begin with thinking. Feeling begins with thought. Behaviour results from feeling which has its origins in thought.
How then can anyone be taken back when John emphasises the need not only to live differently but to think differently. Because of God’s gift through the agency of Christ, in our constrained human existence and we are constrained irrespective of the freedom rhetoric we are constantly exposed to, we can live as if we are free. We can also choose to live life as if we are captives.
In therapy the choice and the responsibility for therapeutic change falls to the individual. They are free to choose to become less captive and more free to be or to self actualise.
In our spiritual life God gives us the same degree of choice. He offers the gift. He offers the means. He offers the support. What he does not do is make the choice or take the responsibility. That is ours to do with as we wish.
AMEN.
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Proudly and thankfully we will remember them
 Sunday 17th September - Trinity Fourteen - Battle of Britain Sunday - Ian
When the Battle of Britain was being fought in the skies over this country my mother was 19 years old and lived in a place called Haverton Hill, which no longer exists, having been demolished in the middle of the 1970’s.
Now, Mam can’t remember what happened 10 minutes ago, in common with many elderly people, but again in common with many elderly people she can remember every detail of her war time experiences of working in a factory in Leamington Spa which produced the landing gear for heavy bombers and transport aircraft. She spent most of the war years working in that factory operating a milling machine.
Before she went she can remember her father, my grand father, commenting about enemy bombers being overhead and on their way to attack the Vickers submarine yard which was and is still, I think, situated on an inlet separating Walney Island from barrow in Furness. He was undoubtedly right.
She is able to remember them heading West and then some while later again overhead and heading East over the coast.
She remembers learning to differentiate between the sound the enemy aircraft mad compared to the sound allied aircraft produced. Daimler Benz as opposed to the venerable Merlin.
She can remember watching as an enemy aircraft was downed by a British fighter over the hills to the South of the Tees and feeling sorrow that its pilot was someone’s son, husband or brother. She remembers the flames and smoke right to the ground but no parachute.
She can remember spending long hours in a cold damp Anderson Shelter and the occasional bomb falling in the areas between rows of houses and bobs meant for the Furness ship yard dropping harmlessly in the river Tees, making a lot of noise but causing no damage.
And then going back to the house only to find the glass from the windows strewn over the interior rooms, yet again.
And my father who spent his war years building ships and drilling with the Home Guard telling me about his younger brother, a Flight Sergeant and rear gunner on Lancasters going missing over the North Sea in the early hours of one morning in 1942. Also a cousin of his, another Flight Seargent and flight engineer on Lancasters suffering the same fate about a year or so later.
I have quite a range of first hand accounts of those days. I had an aunt in the Army who died this year aged 89, two uncles in the army, both of whom survived, another two uncles in the RAF, who survived one being 92 years old and the other somewhere in his late 80’s.
My mother is now 85 years old and realistically those of her generation will not be around for that much longer. As they die out so dies that first hand experience.
Remembrance is a very human mechanism by which those experiences are not forgotten or dismissed as being somehow unimportant today.
It is how we make sense of something to ensure that is passed on to those who have no experience of the event but who never the less live in a world shaped or influence by those events together with those involved in them.
Remembrance is part of a dynamic and ongoing process. History is part of a dynamic and ongoing process.
If we forget something it is because it has no meaning for us or within the wider scheme of things it seems insignificant.
When we remember something or someone, we do so for exactly the opposite. It has or they have some meaning to us or to our situation or it may be that we are searching for meaning.
The purpose of this Service is to remember those involved in the Battle of Britain and the contribution mad by the men and women of the Royal Air Force and Air Forces of the Commonwealth. All of those people, if they survived, will be just like my mother, quite elderly.
Our world has moved on quite some way from those times but sadly the lessons seem not to have been learned even though the messages have been numerous and quite clear.
When relationships break down and communication fails the inevitable consequence is conflict. The consequence of that is always human tragedy.
It is as if every generation has to learn this from first hand experience.
As a result the men and women of the Royal Air Force and of the other services are still serving the world over in situations of great danger just as they ever did. The context may be different but their service is not and the risks are still very real.
Perhaps the daily round of images we see on television or in newspapers is some way desensitises us to the realities of present conflicts, that is, except for when something jumps out and bites which grabs our attention.
The events of five years ago in New York, the events of just over a year ago in London and the loss of an entire crew in a Nimrod surveillance aircraft high over the mountains of Afghanistan, which happened just a couple of weeks ago.
Those kind of events impact on us as we realise it is not just the global conflicts which reflect a loss of life. Any conflict has that inevitable consequence and the scale doesn’t make it any more or any less significant or any more or less tragic.
Perhaps it is the perception of scale which plays into things a little. Because the scale is less and the events are not every day events it may well give a sense that they are less connected with daily life, after all it is nothing like the nightly air raids of the last world war suffered by ordinary people.
so we remember the events but perhaps less so the fact that everyday people are serving in situations here and now, which have the potential to be life threatening and inevitably that potential will become a reality from time to time.
And further more they are doing that on a daily basis for the most part invisible to the rest of the world as it engages with everyday life.
I would argue that ought to be a part of what we remember on an occasion such as this, as much as anything else.
And more than that it should be something we have a keen awareness of all of the time not just on occasions such as this.
We can move around as we do with relative ease. We can live in relative safety because others work tirelessly to allow that to be possible and to continue.
Perhaps we ought not to forget that any more than we ought to forget those who fought in the skies in the summer of 1940 and throughout the war years.
It is part of the same dynamic and ongoing process we call history and it is people who make history significance and attribute meaning.
Remembrance is something which needs to be embarked upon within the context of a time.
This morning we gather here together, representatives of several generations and we unite together in giving thanks for the men and women of our armed services and in particular for the men and women of the Royal Air Force, past and present and not forgetting those who will become its future and who may well come here long after this time to do exactly as we are doing today.
To remember the service, the sacrifice and the ongoing presence and contribution they have brought and continue to bring to the security of this nation and to the wider world community.
I began last year with a quote from a French scholar who spoke about remembering:
“To remember is to exist. It is more, it is to re-enact the primordial event. To forget is to consign the world to chaos”.
And so as we said before we came into church.
“Proudly and thankfully we will remember them”.
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