Revd Chris reflects on "Remove not the ancient landmarks"

“Remove not the ancient landmarks” Proverbs 22.28 By the phrase “ancient landmarks”, I guess the author of the Book of Proverbs was referring to stone markers like cairns which may have marked out ways for journeying through rough terrain, or markers erected to denote boundaries showing the demarcation lines between different people’s lands. We still have some ancient landmarks of crosses in some moorland landscapes. However, we use the word “landmark” to refer more commonly nowadays to events, as well asstructures, buildings, monuments. So, Remembrance Sunday is a landmark. A significant day in the life of our nation. The war memorial is a landmark in many of our towns and villages, and church buildings remain so, for example. So, we might give directions to a traveller by reference to such landmarks. And 12 months ago no one among us would have even heard of the new landmark Coronavirus or Covid19. “Remove not the ancient landmarks” sounds like something someone passionate about history might say. Well 37 years ago this Autumn I headed off to University to read History. So, I might be a little biased about such things. The year 2020 will go down in history as the year of corona virus. A landmark year and that is before we know the election result from the US Presidential election. As a boy I remember some old men who had served in the First World War. I remember one particular chap who used to frequently complain to my grandad about his feet and his lack of funds (both were retired ironstone miners) “No wonder he has bad feet”, my grandad would say, “he fought in the water-logged muddy trenches of Flanders field!” This reminds me of the poem by Wilfred Owen “Dulce et decorum est” which mentions the bootless soldiers marching towards rest, and the horrendous conditions in the trenches. “many had lost their boots but limped on, bloodshod. All went lame…”. My connection with past conflicts is slim but I remember with pride taking the funerals of some old men in their 90’s when I first began as a minister 29 years ago including one who had fought in a Cavalry Regiment in the First World War because they still fought with horses in WW1. My own grandfathers did not see active service, either too young and still at school, or too old and both in any case in reserved occupations as a miner and farmer. My maternal grandfather did send a Cleveland Bay horse he had bred and trained from a foal to the western front that he sold to the army in 1916. There is a photograph in the family album to prove it! I had great uncles who served in WW1 (one was gassed and never was a well man afterwards) and uncles who served in WW2. Others served in the Home Guard whilst at home in reserved occupations of farming. One served in what was called the WarAg (County War Agriculatural Committee) . My father did his National Service beginning in 1949 with the East Yorkshire Regiment and was stationed in Graz in Austria at the time of the Cold War with British troops tasked with keeping a close eye on the Russians. My son has just gone earlier this year as a recruit in the Royal Corps of Signals and is undertaking training at Blandford Forum at the moment. Today we remember and salute those who served in conflicts past and especially those who made the supreme sacrifice and did not return but gave their all is the service of freedom whose memories we cherish and whose names are recorded on our war memorials here in our towns and villages who served in the British Army, RAF and Royal Navy. I have had the privilege of conducting funerals of some who served in conflicts past. Landmarks, however, are about other challenges too. We live in a world where coming into sharp focus this year have been the “Black Lives Matter” campaign, the deaths of George Floyd and others, the deep divisions in our world and not just in the US with whom we watch and wait for what the next political chapter might bring. The stories of Black History Month and the struggle here in Britain for people of colour to be truly welcomed and feel they truly belong is a work still in progress. All that has been experienced has not been good. And the beheading of French Teacher Samuel Paty as an act of terrorism sparked by a history lesson on tolerance and freedom of expression. And last week three people stabbed in a Church in Nice in France, just because they were Christian. And this week in Vienna, Austria another terrorist attack with a man with Islamic State sympathies killing people at random as they went about their ordinary daily life. As human beings we do not always deal well with those we perceive as different from ourselves be that in colour, race, religion, sexuality, identity. And we have seen landmarks torn down this year of memorials to characters from the past whose stories we are now seeing in a different light. So, Edward Colson’s statue was torn down in Bristol because of his links with slavery and Cecil Rhodes statue at Oriel College Oxford is under review. His future looks a bit trepidatious. And the latest domestic issue of free school meals in school holidays has brought to the surface some passionate expressions by footballers, authors, actors as well as politicians. Views on the free school meal children’s food in holidays may yet prove to be a landmark. The issues of north-south divide in England seem also to be raising their heads again. The landmarks of peace and justice, of respect for every human life, for life itself and the life of our fragile planet and the causes of climate change calamity brought to our attention by people like Greta Thunberg addressing the UN and other voices like Sir David Attenborough and Lord Sumption on issues in British society too are landmark events. We need to fight for a greener, cleaner, more sustainable planet that we and future generations can enjoy and thrive on and in. We need to make a stand for the landmark values of tolerance, freedom and democracy. Covid19 has brought into sharp focus how vulnerable we are as human beings and how dependent we are on others who offer care and support to us in our need. The creation of the NHS was a landmark event and we rightly have saluted NHS workers this year in a way we have perhaps taken them so much for granted in the past. No more needing to pay the doctor if we are sick and worrying about the cost of contacting the doctor when we feel ill. So, I wonder what ancient landmarks you might not want to see removed from our societies, and what we are going to do to preserve those landmarks, to value them, cherish them, protect them and teach them to the next generation? For this is a work for every single one of us, of passing on the values and guiding principles that really matter. May the landmarks we set down guide our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren into a better world.