In July 1941, a prisoner escaped from Concentration Camp Auschwitz. As retaliation and to prevent further escapes from happening, the Camp Commander decided to pick ten men to be starved to death. One of them, a Polish man Franciszek Gajowniczek cried out, oh my poor wife and my poor children. I shall never see them again. When this happened, another prisoner stepped forwards and offered himself to go in Franciszek’s place. That man was Maximilian Kolbe, a catholic priest, who led the other nine in prayers and singing during the last days before their death. Franciszek survived Auschwitz and died at the age of 93 in 1995. 

How insignificant and vulnerable can the good sometimes seem in the face of overwhelming evil? Yet, Maximilian Kolbe’s sacrifice in Auschwitz showed even in that most evil of places that there is a force in the world stronger than the force of evil, a force of light, love, courage, sacrifice, and hope.

But how often can we feel discouraged and worried about the state of the world. A world in which apartment blocks, hospitals, schools are being bombed, children die of starvation, and wars are going on that we have no idea how to stop. How far away is that glorious vision of swords into ploughshares and people stop learning how to make war in our world! Where is this Kingdom of peace that Jesus came to bring?

We see this Kingdom come in the life of one individual at a time who responds to the call of Jesus.

Our Gospel reading told us a story that would have seemed insignificant to anyone seeing it happen. Jesus calls his first disciples, Peter and Andrew, James and John, four insignificant fishermen, in an insignificant town, in an insignificant province, in an insignificant corner of the Roman Empire. Galilee, where Jesus spent his time, was looked down upon even by other Jews, those who lived in Jerusalem and the surrounding area called Judea, who in their turn were looked down upon by the Romans as an insignificant and rather troublesome province.

Yet, this is the moment and the place that Jesus begins telling people about the Kingdom of Heaven He has come to bring, and what’s more important, when He begins to call people to live that life of the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth.

Because the way God works to that glorious vision of Isaiah is by calling one person at a time to follow Him, and to work for peace and for good. To work for his Kingdom to be on earth as it is in heaven, as we pray so often.

Two of my favourite Christian thinkers of the past century, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, both fought in the trenches of the Great War, and both of them came out with an appreciation of the values of courage, love, comradery, friendship, sacrifice, and good, and wars fought for and with these values feature very prominently in both the Chronicles of Narnia and the Lord of the Rings.

And one of my favourite scenes in the movie Lord of the Rings is when Frodo, whose call is to destroy the ring by throwing it into the fire of Mount Doom, is daunted by his heavy task, and says to Gandalf:

I wish the ring had never come to me, I wish none of this has happened. And Gandalf responds: So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide, all we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.

We don’t get to decide what time we live in, what challenges we will face, what dangers and threats there will be, but what we do get to decide is whether we will follow our own calling, and use our gifts and time to build Jesus’ Kingdom of peace, love and justice here on earth.

And what that calling means in our life is different for each of us.

When we remember the Great War, the Second World War, and the wars since then, we remember those brave soldiers, for whom this call meant that they put themselves into harm’s way for their friends, to protect their loved ones, to fight for their country and running the risk of being killed, or being physically or mentally injured for life.

As we remember these brave men and women today, we are inspired by their courage, their love, their willingness to give up even their own lives. A love, courage, and willingness, that resembles Jesus love, courage, and willingness, as he came to earth for us, and gave up his own life for us by dying on the cross, so that we might have life forever.  

And these brave men and women call and summon us with their example to work in our own time and place for good and for peace, so swords might be beaten into ploughshares and people might live in peace everywhere. 

Amen.