‘A time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.’ I thought it would be appropriate, as Remembrance Sunday approaches (see adjacent poster), to start my reflection this month with an extract from a well-known Biblical passage from Ecclesiastes. The passage (chapter 3: verses 1 – 8) highlights the cyclical nature of many different aspects of life, including, in this extract (verse 8), the inevitability of war.
On a positive note, this passage is commonly read at weddings, where the ‘time to love’ becomes the focus.
Unfortunately, in the world we live in today, there doesn’t appear to be much love, and hate and war appear to be, not cyclical, but ever present. Both are rarely missing from the daily news. If we are totally honest, there often seems to be a predominance of negative, even depression news items. These items are commonly of great significance on the world stage. In contrast, positive news items often appear to be trivial and of little significance on that world stage.
At times, even Jesus himself focussed his thoughts on the hostility between men, Matthew 24: 6 -7 ‘And you will hear of wars and rumours of wars…for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.’
What is missing from the middle of this quote are the words ‘see to it that you are not alarmed.’ Jesus asks us to remain positive throughout and elaborates in the passage below.
Many people would rather switch off when it comes to contemplating war, perhaps understandably so! Please join us when we remembering does who, in the past, have died fighting for justice and freedom in this country, and, no doubt, in the future, will continue to do so.
God bless,
Tim and Norma