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Victory day!


It is wonderful to be here celebrating VE day 80.


Quite a few of you will remember the actual celebrations.
My mother travelled from Newcastle to London, to be in Trafalgar Square, along with thousands of other people.

Evil had been defeated
People were coming home. Children would see fathers for the first time, and there would be family reunions.
There was peace: no more fear of sirens calling people to the air raid shelters
There was the possibility to rebuild
There was the promise of abundance

Sadly, of course, we know that VE day was just a glimpse of what could be.

There is still so much evil.
Men and women go off to war. Today there is the fear of renewed war between India and Pakistan; and we add that to the litany of Sudan, Congo, Ukraine and Gaza
Families and communities are torn apart
People live in fear. Possibly tonight they will hear the sirens and have to run to the shelters
The arms industry is huge, and it is growing
And because of war, millions are homeless and many are starving. They have been stripped of everything.

But Micah 4 gives us hope that one day there will be a final ultimate Victory day.

The risen Jesus will come as God's King in a new heaven and earth. People from all nations and all faiths will look at him and realise that he is the embodiment, fulfilment of all their deepest longings, desires and dreams.

And on that day evil, and all who look at him and hate him for who he is, and what he represents, will be finally defeated

There will be justice and reconciliation
There will be wonderful reunions and an end to separation
Instruments of destruction will be transformed into implements for rebuilding
There will be abundance and laughter and singing and joy.

This is not wishful thinking. 

We have the promises of the prophets, the very physical resurrection of Jesus from the dead, the experience of those who have receive Jesus now and know the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

And we have the glimpses of hope - glimpses that VE day give us - of a new and transformed world in which life has defeated death.

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