"”˜D-Day' for Democracy"
The saints need to be in circulation
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Dr. Andrew Stirling
Sunday, June 6, 2004
Text: Joshua 24:1-10
In preparing for this morning, I thought of the eight children and their families represented here today, and how fitting it is that on a day when we look back in time, we are celebrating their future with them. I thought of the different and varied challenges these young families are going to face in raising their children. To begin one's life with a blessing from God, a prayer and a sacrament is indeed a wonderful gift. I thought a few moments ago, as I held the children in my arms, just how vulnerable they are. But that doesn't mean they don't have any influence.
I once heard a story about a father who answered the phone to a telemarketer who said: “I would like to talk to the person who has the greatest influence on the purchasing decisions in your household?”
The father said: “I'm sorry, but that person is currently in kindergarten and won't be home until four o'clock.”
Children are not without influence, but the world is still very much before them and when they grow up the days that are behind them seem to be long ago and long forgotten. But, as Abraham Lincoln said in his Gettysburg address, “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.”
I think of the words of Joshua, read so beautifully today. Joshua is standing before his people on the border of the Promised Land and what does he do? He gathers all the tribes together, all the elders, all the leaders in the presence of God, for he knows that many challenges lie before them. He knows that getting into the Promised Land is not going to be easy, for Moses, his predecessor, is dead and it is now on his shoulders to take this fledgling nation into the Promised Land.
His first action as leader is to bring the people together and in so doing, seek the guidance of God for the future. It is no coincidence that Joshua, as he is bringing them together, looking to the future, nevertheless gives an account of the past. It might have seemed boring to listen to it this morning, but if you had been there with Joshua and the people of Israel ready to enter the Promised Land, it would have been utterly gripping. The inspiration that it would have given you! Those words that stemmed from Genesis 11 to Exodus 15, the history of how God had saved Israel, would have risen within your hearts like an eagle rising and soaring with its passion and its power. You'd have heard those words and you would have been confident that you could go into the future because you know that God had been with his people in the past.
In many ways every time we celebrate baptism it is a celebration of the past, of what God has done in Jesus Christ. But it is also a celebration of the future, of the life that these children and their families and the church and the next generation are going to live.
Therefore it would be wise at a moment like this to take time to remember one salient day in our history: D-Day, June 6, 1944. A day that will live in the minds of those who were there until their dying day; they will never forget it. How could you? Three-and-a-half million people gathered to cross a small body of water for an invasion the likes of which had never been seen before and has never been seen since. Thirteen thousand aircraft, 4,500 gliders, 1,200 fighting ships, 1,400 merchant ships, 4,000 troop carriers. This was enormous by any standards. The names Omaha and Juno Beach will go down in the history of countries and remain in people's memories for years to come. Operation Overlord will not be soon forgotten.
Within only a day or two, some 1,000 Canadians were dead and 1,800 were injured. As they went into Caen, many, many, many more died. It was fitting that at a dinner on Friday night in Nova Scotia after the funeral of one of my closest friends, my wife's uncle told me something I didn't know: He had actually been part of the D-Day invasion. He said, “It was difficult to talk about.” He revisited Normandy 10 years ago but is now not well enough to go back. He said he would never forget that when you walk up to a beach you usually walk on gravel or sand, but when he alighted from his boat that day he was walking on fallen bodies. “You don't forget things like that, Andrew,” he said.
Nor should generations to come forget. Not in any way to glorify it, but to remember the sacrifices that were made for us that day. Some of the young men alongside him were 16 years old, and their future was taken from them at that moment. They were killed, right at his very side. So, when I woke this morning I thought of the children today and I prayed that they will never have to make the sacrifice of a D-Day, but also that they would come to realize that the democracy that we have today, the freedoms that we celebrate have not come cheaply.
I'm always pleased to think, as one person reminded me this week, that only four years after the D-Day landing it was Allied planes that flew the Berlin airlift to help Germans during their time of need. When, four years later, there was some reconciliation when Canadians dropped chocolate bars from the skies for German children to eat. It is not as if there is always a nicely cut division between good and evil - it's not that simple. It does mean that there is always the hope, even after war of the most important thing: reconciliation. So, we remember D-Day today and we understand that our world has been very much formed by the sacrifice of those who gave themselves on Juno and other beaches on June 6, 1944.
Now, let us cast our minds to June 28, 2004, the day of the federal election. Let us think about the fact that how we vote is going to determine to a large extent how our country is governed, how our young people are brought up, many of the decisions that are made about health and politics and governance, of economics and the environment are going to influence the children that we baptised not long ago. Here we are with this great freedom, this great opportunity to participate, to make a decision, to actively do something.
I know people are cynical. I know we always want something better. Indeed, we should never stop wanting things better, but how dishonouring it would be to the memory of those who fell at Juno Beach if, when we have the gift of democracy to vote, we don't take it. The past, you see, should inform our sense of the future.
Just as Joshua brought the people together to seek the will of God, just as Joshua understood the power of a gathered community making a decision so, too, we are blessed in this country to have that great gift of democracy. Unlike a country in which I lived where people were prohibited from voting because of the colour of their skin, we have no such prohibition. We are blessed and we should give thanks and honour those who made it possible.
What I want to dwell on for a moment is something that arises out of what Joshua said to the people. Not only did he gather them together, not only did he look to the future, but he also believed that in gathering together they should seek the guidance of God.
There was a critical moment during World War II when Britain was on its own and had run out of many of its resources. Apart from Canada and a few other countries, they little or no support, and the most precious thing they needed was silver. So Winston Churchill put out a call for people to give silver for the manufacturing of arms. One person finally said, “Well, you know who has the most silver? It's the churches, the abbeys and the cathedrals.”
So, Churchill asked the church for its silver. He said, “Today, my friends, finally we need to put the saints into circulation.”
I think as we remember those days past that there is a need for the saints of God to be in circulation. One thing that has often been strange about the relationship between Christianity and democracy is that it has sometimes been antagonistic, no doubt about it, the mediaeval period in particular. There have been other times when it has been ambiguous. We want to serve God, but we've also got to serve the people and respect their decisions - and their decisions are not always in line with the word of God. Sometimes, then, we're ambiguous.
But there is something I think we should remember: As Christians and as Jews, as people of the Bible, people of the Word, our beliefs to a large extent have formed particularly as a trajectory, the development of democracy. While democracy itself is most definitely founded in Greek thought and in Greek ideas, nevertheless democracy - the listening to the people and the desire of the people to live in freedom - has its roots in biblical teaching and thinking.
Think first of all of freedom. If democracy stands for anything, it stands for resistance to tyranny. It stands against the oppression of others and nowhere in the whole of human literature is that more poignantly demonstrated than when Egypt is confronted by Israel, when Pharaoh is taken on by Moses, who said, “Let my people go.” To live in freedom, to have the liberation to move to the Promised Land, this is a biblical mandate. Democracy's roots go back over 3,000 years, and Christians in their hearts and minds have always believed that as human beings we should be free from the power of tyranny. If that is not a cornerstone of democracy, I don't know what is.
We also believe in the need for a civil society, a society that is defined by having representatives, people within that society who are elected to carry on the civic work of the people as a whole. Joshua did this when he brought the elders together that they might be under God and represent the people in the community.
Many of the trade guilds of the mediaeval period were supported by the church and people were elected in order to represent them, to do the work of the people in a civil society. Even Jesus brought 12 disciples around Him to do the work of God. Elders and deacons were appointed in the church, stewards were appointed to carry on the work of God, to carry on the work of the people. Civil society, then, finds its roots very much in the biblical selection of people who are chosen to represent the people before God and the world.
Another cornerstone of democracy is a social contract, where we understand that when we live together and vote together we might vote for different parties or people or leaders, but we are still fundamentally responsible one for the other, as citizens who rise above any partisan feelings. A social contract understands that I am responsible for my activities when they influence you, and you are responsible for your activities when they influence me.
John Calvin in Geneva believed that all of this is based and founded on God's covenant with Israel. As God gave a promise to Israel that He would be with them, He expected them to make a promise to Him that they would be faithful to Him. And from that covenant comes a social contract: the desire and understanding that we must care for one another. What is democracy if we stop doing that?
We also have as part of our foundation individual freedom. Not just individual freedom but individual rights. The apostle Paul in particular understood that every individual was valuable. Jesus looked on every individual that He met with compassion, love and grace. He understood the power and importance of an individual. Even when society and the movement of nations was important, the individual could not be crushed in the midst of it. That is why Jesus in the midst of crowds would go to individuals to touch and heal them. That is why the apostle Paul said that we should be people of conscience - individuals who make our decisions based upon our faith and what we believe to be right.
My friends, when the power of tyranny, the power of conformity starts to oppress a land, it is that very sense of the power of the individual as a subject before God that rises above that cloud of oppression. It is for that individual liberty that so many died on the beaches of Normandy.
There is a final thing: Christians have always believed in the fundamental, inalienable importance of justice. Not only must there be democracy but there must also be equity. There must not only be the rights of individuals, but there must also be the justice that undergirds the very existence of those rights. The justice that allows people to participate as one of the people, the justice to be able to live without the tyranny of poverty, the justice of being able to live by God's ultimate will and purpose with the love of one another.
We find that in the prophets of the Old Testament. We find that in the teaching of John the Baptist and of Peter and of Jesus Himself. It is there, it undergirds what we believe and it has been a cornerstone of our faith.
My friends, if people tell you that democracy does not matter, tell them that they should merely read the Bible. Look and see how important it is that there is freedom. Look how important it is that there is a civil society. Look how important it is that there is a social contract. Look how important the individual is and look how critical justice is. For all these things, Christians should be willing to die.
So, when people tell you that what happens in a few weeks' time will not matter, or when they tell you that what happened 60 years ago is only in the past and is irrelevant, when some would tell you that there is nothing to be learned from Joshua or the Scriptures, you tell them that we stand here this day on the basis of a God who reaches beyond all time and who has given us the freedom to express our views and to say thank you for those who have gone before us.
On Friday night, as I was sipping tea and nibbling on some lovely lemon angel cake with Marial's uncle and aunt in a quiet time before I left, I told Marial's uncle how much I appreciated his taking me to one side and recounting his experience of D-Day. This poor man is not healthy. He gets around reasonably well but he can't walk much further than from his front door to his car. So, I was teasing him a little bit. I said, “It's amazing, but I notice that you're able to walk to a buffet very easily.”
He said, “Oh, there are certain things for which you are willing to make sacrifices.”
And I said to him, “Are you going to be voting on June 28?”
He looked at me, and he said, “Well, it's a long walk up the hill from the parking lot to the polling station in the fire hall.”
I said, “Yes, it is.”
Then he looked at me again and he said, “But you can bet your life that I'll be there, because if I don't go, what was D-Day for?”
My friends, D-Day and democracy are linked. We pray a day such as D-Day never happens again. But if it must, we pray that it will never exact such a terrible price.. But democracy lives on as long as we are committed to it and to the principles of God that undergird it. Amen.
This is a verbatim transcription of the original sermon.