The point of the activity was to celebrate their own God-given uniqueness, whilst also recognising that we are all parts of groups and teams that are best when the members work together as part of something bigger. So in that activity at the start of the school year we were particularly thinking about being part of the school community. But today, many of those children are here as members of different groups: as part of the Guiding or Scouting movements; or as part of a sports team. Indeed they may be members of more than one group whether represented here or not. And the same might be true of many others of us here today – The Ex-Service Association, the Town Council, Broughton Lives, the Lions, St Mary's or Broughton Methodists, sports clubs or other community groups – in our everyday lives, at work or at leisure, we all bring our God-given uniqueness into different groups and teams as part of something bigger.
As we gather today on Remembrance Sunday, we commemorate those who joined together to be part of something bigger. The Scouts came in a couple of weeks ago to make this paper chain of poppies: individual poppies joined together: all of them unique and special in their own right, but also part of something bigger. They came together, not just in their units and battalions, but as armies of people from all over the world. It symbolises all those who fought, some laying down their lives for friends and strangers, for a greater cause. For something bigger than themselves.
But the paper chain also reminds us of why they needed to fight in the first place: because, unlike the paper chain and the jigsaw puzzle pieces, humans do not fit easily together. Even in those groups or teams where we have a common purpose, we can still find it difficult to get on with each other, particularly when we let each other down. Our personalities, our priorities, our opinions often clash. And that's just with people we share something in common with. If that's true of friends, or family, or fellow-workers, it's even more true of those we don't want or need to work with. And if that's true for us as individuals, it's also true of us as groups, communities and nations. Conflict is inevitable, war is inevitable, because humans don't fit well together.
So is it all hopeless? Are we doomed to repeat the violence of the past just in ever more technologically advanced ways? Well yes, unless we heed the call of Jesus, the Prince of Peace: love one another as I have loved you. The great calling of the Church is to embody what a united humanity looks like.
In our first reading, and also in his first letter to the Corinthian church, the Apostle Paul talks about the church as being like a body – each member has a different rôle or function, but all of them are for the common good, so that the body may be built up, so that we all grow in unity of faith and knowledge of Jesus. Christianity is a corporate activity, believing in Jesus is not a solo endeavour; if you believe that Jesus is who he says he is, God's intention is that you join the body of the Church, you are to become part of something bigger. And if you're not sure if Jesus is who he says he is, or if you are like those Paul describes as “infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming”, the best way to find the truth is to join with those who gather around the words of Jesus today, who are united with those of all times and all places who also believe his words.
Of course, as the Church is made up of flawed humans, it doesn't always live up to that ideal of a united body. We are not always humble and gentle; patient, bearing with one another in love, or keeping the bond of peace. But though this ideal is really difficult within the Church, it is impossible outside of the Church. The Church fails when it forgets that we are to love each other as Jesus has loved us. Jesus' death is not just the supreme example of self-sacrifice for us to try to imitate. Jesus died for us; though he himself lived a perfect, sinless life, he took all of our sin onto himself. He died in our place, taking the punishment we deserve so that we can be forgiven. Jesus' death is the way our failures are forgiven and that we can be filled with his love so that we can love as he loves us. By believing and trusting that this is what Jesus did for us, we become part of his body, the Church and from him the whole body is joined and held together by every supporting ligament, and grows and builds itself up in love. It's only Jesus who is able to join us together when we don't fit together naturally.
So today we remember and give thanks for all the ways we can work together for good, for all the ways we can be part of something bigger. But we also recognise that as humans we don't fit together well, and our only hope is to become part of the new community that is unified not because of what we do, but because of what Jesus has done for us. Then we will truly be part of something bigger – a body which is made up of members from all times and places with a God-given uniqueness, and whose unity will last beyond death and into eternal life.
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