What we still need to learn from the Battle of the Somme

Here's my sermon from this year's Remembrance Service at Hibaldstow (the reading was Luke 21:5-19):

Jesus said “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom” words that are as true now as when he first spoke them, indeed they seem to have been true for the whole of human history. But out of all the many wars that this world has seen, what was it about the First World War that has left such a permanent mark on our psyche and collective memory? Why is it that it is this war that spawned and indeed is still the focus of Remembrance Sunday?

It seems to me that the answer may have something to do with the Battle of the Somme, the centenary of which has been commemorated this year. The Somme features many of the common images of the First World War: trenches, mud, barbed wire, machine guns and so on. But it also highlights some of the themes of the war: industrialised mass slaughter; tiny gains at a massive cost; conscripted young men, promised glory but sent to their deaths by old commanding officers. By the end of the four and a half months of the offensive, the Allies gained 12km of ground at an estimated cost of 620,000 casualties (420,000 British, 200,000 French). The Germans lost around 500,000 men.

The Battle of the Somme also seems to represent another feature of the First World War that has made it so outstanding, and that is that it was the end of the idea of human progress, that humanity is getting better and better, that the world is improving. What the First World War demonstrated was that history wasn't inevitably improving, because so many civilised nations ended up fighting each other - the only progress that was made was our ability to kill more people, more efficiently.

The destruction of the view of the inevitable progress of humanity has had bad consequences for us all. Since then, without the feeling that we're working for a better world, we've become self-centred, out to get the best for ourselves no matter what it takes and no matter who suffers as a consequence. With no hope for the future we become people who live only for the present.

Remembrance Sunday is a day to recall the consequences of war, not just in terms of the people who died, who were injured or who lost loved ones, but also in terms of its effect on us as a society. More importantly, remembering the past must lead to learning from it, otherwise our remembrance is pointless.

We no longer share the naïve optimism of the Victorians and Edwardians that humanity is marching to a glorious future by its own efforts. But that shouldn't mean we should only think about the present and what we can get out of it for ourselves. The First World War reminds us that we have an almost limitless ability to be cruel to each other especially when we believe we are in the right. Our present time reminds us that we will do almost anything if it makes us happy, regardless of its effect on others.

There is a hope for the future but it lies outside of humanity. Yes we should do all we can to make this world a better, more peaceful place, but ultimately only God will bring a lasting kingdom of true justice and peace. Jesus came to announce the coming of that kingdom, but he also came to die so that those self-important and self-centred desires can be forgiven and changed. And he promised that one day he will return to make all things new and those who believe in him will share in that glorious future.