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A Ridley Park UMC Publication
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| "A Word of Hope" |
| When we talk about the quest for peace and the need to forgive and forget, we need also to talk about the destructiveness that comes when one has lost the ability or the desire to remember. Remembering the past and what it has taught us helps to preserve our own individual identities as well as our corporate identities. During this time of prayer for peace in the Mid-East and what this terrible situation has the possibility of becoming, it is not hard for me to remember places like Seminary Hill, Normandy, Inchon, and DaNang. Do you remember? But those are just places and would mean nothing to any of us if we did not remember the names of those who died in these places. Those of us who fought in Viet Nam struggled that a list of those names might be placed in prominent display in Washington so no one could forget them. I'm sure that in towns around our country and in every country of the world you might find similar lists and regardless of the outcome of the conflict they were involved with did they really win? Did their families or loved ones or their countries really win or did we all lose? Many of us have had the personal tragedy of losing a loved one or a comrade in battle and it is very hard for any who have to revel in any kind of victory. Most of us have seen pictures of those in war ravaged countries and have seen the horror and pain on the faces of people in places like Dachou, Hiroshima, Me Lei, and Lebanon. Did you sense a victory? I pray to God that the day will soon come when I can speak to people for whom that tragedy and those pictures will not call to mind a first hand experience. That is part of the reason I'm here tonight. The God of creation calls each of us to be peacemakers. The peace that comes when men and women sit down together and negotiate. When differences are settled with words and not weapons. The peace that brings about a prayer vigil which remembers people not because they are about to do battle but people who used their minds so that death and destruction did not come about. People who can be remembered not for the violence their countries were forced to throw them into but for non?violence that prompted them to say, "free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, I'm free at last." |
| Dick Wolfe |
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