April 24, 2016

Helen Jacobi

Easter 5     Anzac Day     Revelation 21:1-6     John 13:31-35

The year is 2154, on the planet Pandora the Na’vi people are under attack from the humans (in one of my favourite films Avatar). Jake our hero – part human, more and more Na’vi, goes to the Tree of Souls, a hauntingly beautiful place; he joins the strands of his hair to the tendrils of the tree and haltingly prays to Eywa, the god of the Na’vi people.

JAKE

I’ve never done this in my life.

He squats at the base of the tree.

JAKE

And I’m probably just talking to a tree right now. But if you’re there – I need to give you a heads up.

He looks up into the tree. The hanging tendrils undulate softly. It’s easy to imagine a presence.

JAKE

More Sky People are gonna come. They’re gonna come like a rain that never ends –

Neytiri approaches silently behind him, listening.

JAKE

– until they’ve covered the world. Unless we stop them. Look, you chose me for somethin’. And I’ll stand and fight, you know I will. But I could use a little help here.

Jake senses Neytiri and turns.

NEYTIRI

Our Great Mother does not take sides. She protects only the balance of life. [1]

In war all people pray for protection and help; for strength to face the horrors unfolding. People pray for forgiveness for the tragedy and the violence. And God does not take sides, God is the god of all humanity, suffering with us in our folly and in the wasteland of war.

As we come again to Anzac Day tomorrow amongst the stories told of Gallipoli are the stories from today of Turk and Allied soldiers standing together in mourning, and remembering the loss and the bravery on both sides. They see in each other the same humanity, the same goodness, the same hope; those things seemed lost in the battles but they have been found again. And their prayer now is that no one again will have to fight as they did.

And yet battles and wars rage across our globe. Not just the high profile ones in Syria, Afghanistan and Palestine/Israel but also Sudan and Yemen and Nigeria. And our soldiers serve as peacekeepers and community builders. And many civilians serve as teachers and doctors and nurses and missionaries to build hope in war torn countries. And they pray for peace and for strength and that no one will have to fight again. And we fight the new war against terrorism which Helen Clark says can only be stopped through education and development and peacebuilding in local communities.

Our reading from the Book of Revelation is a vision the writer had of people from all corners of the earth standing before the throne of God. They have been though great suffering we are told but God promises protection from hunger and thirst and sorrow. God does not promise victory, for God does not take sides, but God does promise an end to sorrow. God does not take sides in a war but having said that, God is always on the side of the oppressed and the victim and the just. So in that sense God does take sides, for good and for justice. In Avatar the animals and creatures of Pandora rise up and help the Na’vi and Neytiri declares that Eywa has indeed heard their prayers.

For us in 2016 can we imagine the world in 2154, the year of the film, could those in Gallipoli in 1915 imagine our world – not at all probably; and yet we want the same things, peace and justice and prosperity and a future for our children. The army and airforce and Navy personnel and civilians we remember on Anzac Day gave their lives so we could have a world of peace. Every time a part of our world collapses into war we dishonour their memory; every time we pray only for our own needs and not those we think of as our enemies we dishonour their memory.

And so we honour their memory in building peace in our lives, in our homes, our schools, our nation and across our globe. We cannot fix the tragedy of war in far flung nations but we can endeavour to live lives of peace in the way we raise our children, the way we nurture our families and communities. We are all capable of violence, all capable of hate and destruction. We are all capable of bullying and lashing out. And so we start again today, and this Anzac Day with ourselves, our attitudes, our prayers. We pray for peace and pray for strength to be people of peace.

Jesus says in the gospel today “love one another”. Seems a bit simple really. Surely there is plenty of love in the world, people have always loved and yet people have always gone to war. If it were that simple it would have worked already.

Why does Jesus say “I give you a new commandment”? A new commandment that you love one another. What is new about love? He does elaborate – “just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” In the same way as I have loved you – what way is that? The setting for these words is the Last Supper. Jesus has just washed his disciples feet and Judas has left to betray him. A pretty highly charged night. They are not just relaxing after a day’s fishing. Tension is in the air. Betrayal is in the air. Love one another – wash each others’ feet – serve one another – forgive one another – forgive even your enemies. Ah there is the rub – love your enemies – this is the way Jesus has loved and this is the way to avoid wars. Simple words, very hard, extremely hard to do. But there are examples across the world in many of the conflicts of people reaching out to each other and stopping the madness of war with love. Usually just not early enough in the conflict. But we keep trying, we keep hoping and loving and building peace.

We learn, or we can learn also from our history. Around Anzac Day we are pretty drenched in stories from Gallipoli and as the 100th anniversary of WW1 rolls on we hear many stories told. We seem to be struggling though to tell the stories from our own land of Aotearoa. There has been discussion on the press lately about the NZ (land) wars and how and when that history can be taught in our schools and whether we need a day to commemorate them. The stories of the battles of the 1800s in our land are not well told. Battles of Kororāreka, Puketutu, Ruapekapeka, Waireka, Meremere, are not as well known to us as Quinn’s Post and Chunuk Bair. To build peace today we also need to know those stories. My generation did not learn them at school and neither did my children; it is time we all learnt and knew more. I know more about the battle of Gettysburg in the US Civil War than I know about Parihaka; because I have visited the amazing museum and site.

As we go through the Anzac Day rituals tomorrow we give thanks that the only “side” God takes is the side of the victim and the oppressed; and remember that there is so much that we can do to build peace in our hearts and in our homes and in our nation.

[1] http://www.foxscreenings.com/media/pdf/JamesCameronAVATAR.pdf