Anzac Day

(Context - In Australia we have an annual remembrance day which is focused on the battle at Gallipoli in the first world war. This year marks 100 years since that tragic day.It is a big event in Australia with many vents held at all levels of the society and with a massive media focus. The day is called ANZAC day because it particularly focuses on the participation of the Australian and New Zealand armed forces at Gallipoli)

None of you need to be told that yesterday Australia celebrated the hundredth anniversary of the landing at Gallipoli. For several years we have been reminded more and more of Anzac Day and in recent months our media has been full of stories. Whole series of programmes on television have been based on the First World War and its impact on young Australians and New Zealanders. Many thousands gave up their lives for their country by dying in the fighting and many more paid an enormous price as they lived with the consequences of injuries and gassing. If we have been reading, watching or listening, we will have heard story after story of what it cost these people.

Is it just a coincidence for us who are called to follow Christ the Good Shepherd that the Gospel reading for today is about being ready to lay down our lives for others? Was Jesus talking about war or could he have been thinking of other ways of protecting the more vulnerable members of our communities?  Many of us these days are more familiar with ideas of the futility of war and hope that we and our children and grandchildren are never called to lay down their lives like this. But there may be other ways in which this call may come.

A teenage girl learned that a friend was self-harming and looking at methods of suicide on the internet. She immediately spoke to her mum and together they went to see the mother of her friend. The mother was grateful but the daughter has completely cut herself off from the girl, feeling she had betrayed her trust. Some of their friends are also not talking to her and this is deeply hurtful as she was trying to save her friend’s life and thought she was doing the right thing. Is this what it means to lay down your life for someone else?

A man was widowed several years ago and has two teenage children. He feels stuck in an unsatisfying job. He has toyed with the idea of doing something different but that would require several years of study and he thinks his only priority should be educating his children so they can have better opportunities than he has had in life. They need the income from

One of the reasons given over and over that women can expect to have considerably less savings in superannuation when they retire is because they take time off from the work force to have children and to look after them. Are women laying down their lives for the future of this country by sacrificing their wealth or even their comfort in old age to have and care for children?

There are thousands of grandparents looking after children, giving their lives so the young ones don’t have to go into government sponsored care of some sort. And there are many people, some elderly who have given up their lives to take care of others with disabilities.

Perhaps it is time someone proposed a day to celebrate the sacrifice of all these and the many others, who give their time, effort and money, not in big dramatic gestures but in everyday, low-key plodding on and on through the years.

We could assure these people that Jesus, the Good Shepherd cares for them, or suggest that they might like to read Psalm 23 from time to time because it has been a comfort to us, but what I suspect might encourage them and restore their souls would be for others to occasionally carry their burden for them so they could have a chance to lie down in green pastures, beside still water for a few days. We can make some sacrifices to enable them to have some financial help where that is needed.

REv Julianne Parker