Why Remember Remembrance Day

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On 12 November (Remembrance Sunday) we will formally devote two minutes of silence to an act of remembrance. Why should we do this? Do we really need to? Might we be glorifying militarism and war? Remembrance Sunday falls on the Sunday nearest Armistice Day, the day on which the First World War was brought to a close at 11 am on 11 November 1918. But its application is much broader. On Remembrance Sunday we remember all, men and women, service and civilian, who laid down their lives in the service of our nation. We remember the suffering they went through and the sacrifice they paid. Many still living have been personally bereaved by such deaths. But the question remains, why should we remember together? Isn’t it just part of history? What’s it got to do with us here today? The answer lies in what we enjoy today. We are a free people. What guarded and preserved that freedom was the lives of those we shall remember this morning. Because of the price they paid - for them the ultimate price - we are free today. In other words the freedom and security we enjoy now was bought at the price of their lives then. So Remembrance Sunday is relevant to us all. We all have cause to be grateful for the price paid. And it is fitting that respect be shown towards those who paid that price for the legacy that remains ours today. And for the Christian believer, Remembrance Sunday has an especial and deeper significance. In remembering those who laid down their lives for our earthly freedom, our minds fly naturally to the One who laid down his life for an even greater freedom - freedom from the condemnation of sin - and freedom for Christian believers to live with God as members of his family for all eternity. When Christ died on the cross, he was paying the price of sin. He was setting the Christian believer free from the consequences of sin, the righteous judgement of God. As
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