World peace - can it ever happen?
I would suggest that World Peace can happen and is in fact inevitable
This year we are celebrating the end of World War II 80 years ago – VE Day and VJ Day mark our entry into 80 years of no world wars – an extraordinary achievement!
We will relate this to the wisdom of Our Lord scriptural guidance which seems idealistic but is in fact world changing practicality.
World War I was called "the war to end all wars". It was not. It generally is acknowledged that that treaty Versailles was the tinder which led the blazing inferno of the Second world war.
World War I produced World War II
What was difference between WW1 and WWII? It was way the victors treated the vanquished. The treaty which ended WW1 was signed in the Palace of Versailles in France 28th June 1919. There was no forgiveness in that treaty. There was no compassion - only demands for crippling levels reparation.
It was the forgiveness, compassion and the desire for unity at the end of World War II that produced NATO, the United Nations and the European community. It was the forgiveness and compassion at the ended that war which created the lasting peace at we enjoy today.
In 1946 the US Government Aid and Relief in Occupied Areas (GARIOA) program began. It was a great, magnanimous gesture.
In 1948 the Marshall aid began. It also was a great, magnanimous gesture.
In 1949 NATO was formed. It was a purely defensive organisation. It has worked
March 25, 1957, The European Economic Community was created by the Treaty of Rome. War within that community is close to inconceivable
Anyone announcing a century before that we would never again go to war with Germany, France, Spain or any of our traditional European ‘enemies’ .... or indeed America would be scoffed at. Today war with any of these countries would be inconceivable.
By the 21st Century democratic nations have given up their empires and don’t fight. It is all about maturity - living in the 21st Century. Nations still living in 20th Century expansionist autocracies become pariah states facing isolation, sanctions, international opprobrium. If they go to war, they discover that it is at terrible cost. The world is against them – they never win.
Who do we have to thank. Those who died for us in World War II – especially those who died in the Pacific and Far East theatres. These were brutal theatres of war and ended with the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. These weapons were so horrific that they have never been used since. In fact there have never been World Wars since.
Today therefore we are we are remembering not only the loss and sacrifice of the 880,000 British can commonwealth personal who died in the Second World War but especially the 1/3 of whom were in the Pacific Theatre of war
We remember 9,000 who fell in the disastrous Malaya and Singapore campaign
We remember 5,600 British service personnel died in ground operations in the Pacific/Far East, with over 1,100 killed in air and naval engagements
We remember 37,500 British prisoners of war held by the Japanese and 12,000 Allied prisoners died building the Burma-Thailand "Death Railway"
We remember 71,224 who fell In the Burma Campaign,
Mercifully eventually there was peace. The evil autocracies were vanquished – and forgiven.
In immortal passage in Ecclesiastes we hear that there is “A Time for Everything and a season for every activity under the heavens: A time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.”(Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)
Our Lord said “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you (Luke 6:27-28)”. Never pay back evil with more evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honourable. Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone. (Romans 12:17-18)
I would suggest that love works.
We have not had another World War for 80 years. In short we don’t have world peace yet but we are getting there. Most 21st Century nations will never go to war again. The remaining nations still living in the 20th Century now know that going to war is now a zero-gain end game which only the foolish or wicked indulge in. Now it is a time for peace.
However we will always have to remember and be eternally grateful to and those lost in Kohima, North-East India. “Those who gave their todays for our tomorrow”.
As our Lord said “Greater love has no one than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13)
We will always remember them.
Amen
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