On the 11th hour...
On the 11th hour...
of the 11th day...
of the 11th month of 1918...
hostilities ceased.
World War I had been raging four long years, leaving 9 million soldiers dead and 21 million wounded. Germany, Russia, France and Great Britain each lost around a million soldiers. The United States suffered 116,000 losses, about twice the number killed in Vietnam.
By the end of the war, Germany was running out of soldiers and supplies, and the country was facing an imminent invasion. On November 11, 1918, German leaders met with Allied leaders in a railroad car in France, and there they signed an armistice agreement — a temporary suspension of hostilities. World War I was over, and no more blood would be shed. It was the "war to end all wars."
One year later, November 11 was declared in many countries to be Armistice Day. It became a federal holiday in the United States in 1938, and later, in the aftermath of World War II and the Korean War, the name was changed to Veterans Day. The day is now a holiday dedicated to American veterans of all of our wars.
When veterans make their sacrifice, they give up their own security for the security of others. They put themselves in harm's way to protect their family members, friends and neighbors from danger. Following the example of Jesus, they show a willingness to "lay down one's life for one's friends" (John 15:13).
This Sunday is the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Armistice. We will honor all our veterans here at Spring Creek. We invite you to come and let us honor you and say "thank you" for your sacrifice.
If you cannot be here, I encourage you to contemplate these words in honor of a veteran, and to remember November 11th is also known as "Peace Sunday."
"Can you hear it...
...it is the silence that holds all our stories the hurt for which there are no words the pain that cannot be expressed from war.
...it is the silence that shares the ache of the past and knows the deep cost of conflict that always costs too much yet there always seems more to give.
...it is the silence of a God who has no words left for a love that has nothing left to give yet will give even that may we gather in the clutch of such a silence
for it is in this silence and no other we hold together the perplexing truth of poppy fields and our honest turmoil of emotion. Here we gather in remembrance."
~ written by Roddy Hamilton, and posted on the New Kilpatrick Parish Church website. https://www.nkchurch.org.uk/original-liturgy
Pastor Steve