ANZAC DAY

Another ANZAC Day is upon us where we honour and remember those Australians and New Zealanders that fought and died for our freedom, those who gave their precious lives in war and in conflict for the cause of peace. Today we are particularly inspired by those who fought and died at what many call “the birth of our nation” at faraway ANZAC Cove.

These brave young men when children would have learned and would have grown up singing the following popular words:

To help the weak against the strong,

To guard the right against wrong,

And bear the flag of Truth along.

Helping the weak against the strong takes physical strength mixed with spiritual fortitude. One writer, speaking of our heroes who were at ANZAC Cove, says, “Mental strain and physical illness reduced the bodies of our finest youth to gaunt skeletons held together only by determination.”

Yes, it was shear determination that held these brave men together. They were fighting to help the weak against the strong because it was, it is, and will ever remain the honourable thing to do! In doing so they were bearing “good fruit.” For it is just to guard the right against the wrong. It is right to bear the flag, the banner of truth along!

In this one is reminded of that verse of Scripture that says,

“So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.” (Isaiah 59:9)

March proudly on ANZAC Day with your flags and your banners unfurled, waving in the breeze, as you breathe in the air of freedom, as you march to the beat of liberty, with the Australian sun glinting off of the “Rising Sun” badge on your slouch hats! We are here today because the LORD has lifted up standard against the enemy, the enemy of truth, the enemy of justice and of freedom.

The people who line the streets as you march on ANZAC Day will cry out to you, saying, “Thank you!” They are thanking you for your determination to help the weak against the strong, to guard the right against the wrong, and bear the flag of truth along – just like your forefathers, just like all those brave men and women who died in all the wars and conflicts which have been and are being fought in the defence of our great nation.

It was a Padre, the Reverend Arthur White, who began our “Dawn Service” tradition. He had conducted a service at 0400h on the morning of the departure of the earliest ANZACs to leave Australia. After the Great War, at dawn on 25th April in 1923 he and twenty others watched a wreath they had thrown into the water. As it floated out to sea, White recited these words, “As the sun rises and goeth down we will remember them.”

How can we forget them? How can we ever forget our fallen? They have made the supreme sacrifice!

In Laurence Binyon’s 1914 poem “For the Fallen” from which our “Ode of Remembrance” is taken, we find the following words:

They went with songs to the battle, they were young.
Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.

Yes, they fell with their faces to the foe. They were brave!

In Scripture we read of the Saviour who set His face against the foe as He went to the cross to defeat death itself! Yes, death killed Him, but death has no victory, for He slew death by rising again on the third day.

The enemy may come in like a flood, but the LORD has lifted up a standard. Like the rising of the sun, the Sun of Righteousness has risen with healing in His wings. It is to Jesus Christ we look for ultimate justice and absolute truth. He fought the good fight. He conquered the last enemy which is death. In Him alone is there victory! In Him alone is there forgiveness and reconciliation with God, everlasting life, for He is the resurrection and the life.

Keep this in mind as we remember those who have laid down their lives while defending our nation. In their sacrificial bravery they have shed their blood for Australia – that we may live in freedom!