Sermon Remembrance Sunday – 09/11/2025 – Psalm 46 and Romans 12:15-end

What and where is evil? We often think evil is ‘there’, somewhere else. In those parts of the world torn apart by war. And many of our brave service men and women have been called ‘there’, to stand up, to fight against evil like that, and many more have done so in the past.

We also tend to think evil is ‘them’, the others, destructive forces in the world, in our society, and in our life.

Or we tend to think evil is ‘out there’, somewhere in the spiritual realm, a force that is intend on our destruction, a force that loves to derail us and create chaos, and Christians have often identified this force as the devil or as demons.

Some years ago I read Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s great work The Gulag Archipelago. Its descriptions of evil are vivid and horrifying, and we know Gulags – those prison camps – continue to this day.

You may have heard Solzhenitsyn’s famous quote, that the line between good and evil is not between peoples, classes, political parties, or groups, but ‘cuts through the heart of every human being’.

A great quote. But what does that mean?

What I was struck by the most in his book is Solzhenitsyn’s self-awareness. Someone who has faced and suffered unjustly so much evil, does naturally for us fall on the side of ‘good’. He is a ‘good guy’, they are ‘bad guys’. And that’s how he saw himself at first. He was arrested because he had written nasty things about Stalin. He was an army officer and now a political prisoner. He was good, they were bad. But was it that simple?

As Solzhenitsyn was arrested, there were a couple of other convicts. Solzhenitsyn was then told to carry his own big suitcase, but responded: I am an army officer, let someone else carry it. And this whole long walk, as these other convicts were carrying his suitcase, and took over from each other because it was too heavy, Solzhenitsyn not once considered that he was increasing the suffering of his fellow convicts, not once had compassion on them, because he was proud to be an army officer and a political prisoner.

And this is the great reflection throughout the Gulag Archipelago. When surrounded by evil, how do you prevent going along with evil? Because Solzhenitsyn realised, looking in his own heart, that he was not immune to evil. Evil was not only ‘there’, ‘them’ and ‘out there’, evil had also infected his own heart. Even when we’re opposing one evil, we might still be infected by it or by other evils.

And if we fight evil with evil, evil will only increase. There are numerous conflicts in the world where people just hold so many grudges, that it is quite impossible to see all these grudges ever avenged. ‘They’ did this. And then ‘they’ did that. And when you talk to people on the other side of the border, it is just the same. And I see this happening on the micro level of my own life, and, for instance, in my own wider family.

So what can we do?

Thank God, there is an antidote. As St Paul says in our reading, when we fight against evil we need to remember that evil can only be overcome by good. And that good is based in Jesus Christ, in his teaching to love your enemies, to forgive those who hurt you. To overcome the power of evil by overwhelming it by good.

But Jesus’ is not only a moral teacher, He also helps us actively to follow his teachings, through what happens in his own life. He was fully good, and evil brought him to the cross, where he suffered. He was not only good, but also powerful, yet he did not use his power to avenge himself, or for his own good. But chose to lay down his life for his friends.

What is actually a greater show of power? Having power but choosing not to use it or having it and using it?

Jesus did not use his power to avenge himself or escape suffering, and he suffered evil on the cross until evil had lost all its power, and showed He was a force stronger than evil. He rose again from the dead, showed evil, suffering, death is not the end, but there is a God who is stronger than it all.

It is especially appropriate on a day like today that the Easter candle is burning in the front of church here. Every year when we remember Jesus’ victory over evil, death and all powers that are out there to harm us, on Easter Sunday morning, we light a new Easter Candle. That candle stays in the church all year. We light it for special occasions, especially for baptisms. And we give a candle to newly baptised Christians, as a sign that light, love, life, hope, good things are not only stronger than the infection of evil, they are also infectious themselves. They pass on. We receive the light and then take it out of this church so that we might pass it on to others. And like Jesus did not only talk but also do, so should we.

And that’s not easy. It’s why Paul only a few years after the death and resurrection of Jesus has to remind the early Christians that they need to overcome evil by good. If you feed your enemy, give him something to drink, you may win him over, he may no longer be your enemy, but become your friend. And even if not, you have done the right thing in looking after a fellow human being. You have remained good in the face of evil.

We can carry it with us as a prayer, as that beautiful prayer from Psalm 46 that we heard earlier. The Lord is our Refuge and Strength, and ever-present help in trouble, therefore we will not fear …

It was one of the prayers soldiers in the trenches used to pray, that gave them comfort and strength, in the midst of the worst kind of things that happen on this planet. God as a safe place against all evil.

As we remember those who have fought in the wars, those who fought against evil, those who showed great bravery, sacrifice and love even in the darkest of circumstances, their example summons us to join in the battle to overcome evil with good, within ourselves, our families, our communities, and in the world.

And we do so in the faith that, because of what Jesus has done and still does, the infectious power of good will always be stronger than the infectious power of evil, and will one day overcome it forever.

Amen.