​Before this reflection, let us remember the words of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew:

​"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God."

(Matthew 5:9, NIV)

​

​Today, we honour the lives lost in conflict. We wear the poppy, some white, some red, but we all pray for peace. Our faith calls us to seek the Kingdom of God, a place where war cannot exist.

​We must listen to those who saw the horrors. Wilfred Owen spoke against the great lie of war, condemning:

​"The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est / Pro patria mori."

​Harry Patch confirmed the grim truth:

​"War is organized murder, and nothing else."

​Even those who commanded felt despair; General William Tecumseh Sherman said:

​"I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine... War is hell."

​Our Christian faith demands that we stop excusing war. As C.H. Spurgeon taught:

​"I wish that Christian men would insist more and more on the unrighteousness of war, believing that Christianity means no sword, no cannon, no bloodshed..."

​Our hope is found in God’s promise to guide us away from destruction:

​"They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." (Isaiah 2:4)

​Building this peace takes courage—a deeper courage than fighting. Albert Einstein challenged us:

​"We must be prepared to make heroic sacrifices for the cause of peace that we make ungrudgingly for the cause of war."

​We must work for it every day. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. taught us that:

​"It is not enough to say 'We must not wage war.' It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it."

​Let our act of remembrance be a promise: to follow Christ's love, turn away from hatred, and finally learn war no more.

​Amen.

*Image sourced from Gemini*