Poppy for your Thoughts

November 11, 2019

 Scripture

Then the Lord said to him, “You Pharisees are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and wickedness!  Fools! Didn’t God make the inside as well as the outside?  So clean the inside by giving gifts to the poor, and you will be clean all over…. but you ignore justice and the love of God. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things.  (Luke 11:39-42 NLT)

 Poppy for Your Thoughts

 I frequently forget to put on one of my many poppies collected over the years. When I pass a poppy seller at the entrance to the liquor store or some other popular sales location, I don’t have cash in my pocket – who carries coins anymore? Yet I want to say to the seller “I’m with you, I’ll be at the cenotaph in Orangeville on November 11th”.

 Remembrance Day matters to me for several reasons. My late father’s birthday is November10th, so I think of him as a veteran and as my dad. I’m named after an uncle who fatally crashed his bomber in 1941 – my mother’s youngest brother. I was born six years later.

 Whether I have a poppy on my jacket or not doesn’t reveal what’s going on in my private spaces. This is true of most of us – much more is going on under the surface than is revealed by our external expression or fashion. Private spaces and public faces can be two very different places. Assuming that something good may be going on under the surface we see may be a good start for supporting civility in the free country we celebrate on this Remembrance Day.

 A Prayer for Today

Loving God, this is a bittersweet day as we remember lives lost in war. We know you don’t pick sides but you grieve over our propensity to wreak havoc on one another in so many ways. Let this day of sober remembrance temper our rush to judgement, hatred and rejection of others. Let us protect the vulnerable and advocate for the powerless.…. For Jesus’ sake