SPEAKER_00: So we start at Joshua twenty-two in the first five verses.
SPEAKER_00: Then Joshua called the Reubenites and the Gideites and the half tribe of Manasseh, and said unto them, Ye have kept all that Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you, and have obeyed my voice in all that I commanded you.
SPEAKER_00: Ye have not left your brethren those these many days unto this day, but have kept the charge of the commandment of the Lord your God.
SPEAKER_00: And now the Lord your God hath given rest unto your brethren, as he promised them.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, now return ye and get ye unto your tents, and unto the land of your possession, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave you on the other side of Jordan.
SPEAKER_00: But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of the Lord charged you to love the Lord your God and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So for those that don't know what's going on here, when the tribes crossed the Jordan, the two and a half tribes, the tribe of Reuben, the tribe of God, and half of the tribe of Manasseh decided to stay where they were before Jordan, because it was great feeding ground for the cattle.
SPEAKER_00: But they were charged that if Israel went to war, the two and a half tribes had to cross the river and join in to support their brethren on the other side.
SPEAKER_00: You can see the picture on where this is coming from.
SPEAKER_00: My dear brethren and sisters in Christ, and I pray you are in Christ's night.
SPEAKER_00: Today of all days, we gather in solemn remembrance.
SPEAKER_00: The first of July is not simply a date in the calendar.
SPEAKER_00: It is wound in our shared memory, a moment when thousands of young men stepped forward in loyalty, duty, and faith, and they never returned.
SPEAKER_00: The battle of the Psalm remains one of the darkest days in the history of these islands, and yet it is also a testimony to courage, to sacrifice, and to fraternity.
SPEAKER_00: Our scripture reading places us with the two and a half tribes of Israel, the tribe of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, who crossed the Jordan to fight for their brethren before returning to their own inheritance.
SPEAKER_00: They had made a promise.
SPEAKER_00: We will not rest until our brethren have rest.
SPEAKER_00: The loyalty was not theoretical.
SPEAKER_00: It was lived, it was costly, and it was real.
SPEAKER_00: And so it has been even in our own history.
SPEAKER_00: Across the centuries, the people of these islands, this island of the United Kingdom, Great Britain, and Ireland, have known what it means to stand shoulder to shoulder.
SPEAKER_00: At the breakout of the First World War, men and women from every corner of the empire, the old empire as we call it, rallied to the crown.
SPEAKER_00: From Australia and New Zealand, from South Africa, from Canada, from Newfoundland, and from every part of the United Kingdom they came.
SPEAKER_00: The people of the cross were returning home.
SPEAKER_00: The children of Israel were being gathered for war.
SPEAKER_00: Some were first generation immigrants.
SPEAKER_00: Some were the sons and grandsons of settlers, but they shared a loyalty to home, to freedom, and to one another.
SPEAKER_00: Among them were very many Orangemen, men whose faith and fraternity shaped their sense of duty.
SPEAKER_00: The 36th Dulcer Division, the Newfoundland Regiment, and countless others stepped forward not out of hatred, but out of conviction that tyranny must not prevail, and that the liberties we cherish, freedom of conscience, freedom of worship, freedom to live as God has called us, must be defended.
SPEAKER_00: And their sacrifices were immense.
SPEAKER_00: Their courage was unquestionable, and their loyalty was unshakable.
SPEAKER_00: And for those of us who are members of the loyal orders or the bands or the wider pole community in any way, shape, or form, we understand something of that spirit.
SPEAKER_00: We are a fraternity.
SPEAKER_00: We're not merely a club.
SPEAKER_00: We're not merely a tradition, although some would like us to be.
SPEAKER_00: We are a body of men and women bound together by shared principles.
SPEAKER_00: Our first pillar is fraternity, the commitment to stand with one another, to support one another, to uphold one another in Christian love.
SPEAKER_00: Our second pillar is friendship, the bonds that stretch across countries, across nations, across counties, and across oceans, from Scotland to Northern Ireland, from England to Canada, from Australia to New Zealand.
SPEAKER_00: Wherever the orange banner flies, there is a shared identity rooted in Scripture and the gospel of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But these pillars stand only because of the keystone that holds the arch together, and that is our Protestant faith.
SPEAKER_00: Not Protestantism as a cultural label, but Protestantism in reality and truth, a living faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, a confidence in the authority of Scripture, and the commitment to the gospel that proclaims salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what truly unites us.
SPEAKER_00: This is what makes us different to others.
SPEAKER_00: This is what strengthens us.
SPEAKER_00: This is what gives us meaning, and this is what our remembrance is about today.
SPEAKER_00: The men who went over the top on that first of July morn in 1916 did not go lightly.
SPEAKER_00: They knew the danger, they knew the cost, but they also knew their duty.
SPEAKER_00: The Newfoundland Regiment, as I said previously, suffered devastating losses.
SPEAKER_00: So severe the very identity of Newfoundland itself as a nation was changed forever.
SPEAKER_00: The totality of the 36th Ultra Division advanced with extraordinary bravery, many carrying the scriptures, many wearing their orange colours, given to them by faithful brethren before they sailed.
SPEAKER_00: And their sacrifice, great as it was, was not for themselves, it was for others, and more importantly, it was for us.
SPEAKER_00: And so the question comes to us today what does loyalty look like in our generation?
SPEAKER_00: Not a call to war, not a call to violence, not a but a call to faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: Faithfulness in Christ, faithfulness in his church, faithfulness in the principles we profess, faithfulness to the gospel and has shaped our people for over a hundred years now.
SPEAKER_00: Today we honour the foreign people not just by sentiment, but by living lives worthy of their sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: And for us that means standing firm in our Protestant faith, living as disciples of Christ, supporting our brethren across the world, upholding the liberties handed down to us, and walking with dignity, humility, and conviction.
SPEAKER_00: And when we march, we do not march for ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: We march for the faith that sustained our forefathers.
SPEAKER_00: We march for the gospel that gives life, and we march for the freedom to worship God according to his word.
SPEAKER_00: And we march in remembrance, we especially march in remembrance for those who gave everything, so that we might stand here today.
SPEAKER_00: The two and a half tribes returned home after their brothers had rest.
SPEAKER_00: The men of the Psalm gave their rest so that others might live in peace.
SPEAKER_00: And may we in our generation be found faithful, faithful to Christ, faithful to Scripture, faithful to one another, faithful to the principles of the Orange Institution, and to our band, and to other societies that stand with us, faithful to the memory of the fallen.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord grant his grace to work worthily and be worthy of the sacrifice we remember today.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Eternal Father, we have gathered to death tonight in the shadow of great loss and great courage.
SPEAKER_00: We have remembered the men who went over the top of the sun, the men of our own communities, and the men who face them on the other side of no man's land.
SPEAKER_00: We honor their sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: And we acknowledge the sorrow carried by every family left behind.
SPEAKER_00: Lord teaches to remember truthfully and humbly.
SPEAKER_00: God is from forgetting the cost of war, and God is from ever taking lightly the guilt gift of peace.
SPEAKER_00: Whether has been bitterness, spring healing.
SPEAKER_00: Whether has been division, show compassion.
SPEAKER_00: Whether has been hatred, plant the seed of mercy.
SPEAKER_00: We pray for those who serve today in places of danger, for all who carry the wounds of conflict, and for all who grieved loved ones lost.
SPEAKER_00: Be their refuge and their strength, their comfort and their hope.
SPEAKER_00: And as we leave this place, turn our hearts towards the Prince of Peace who laid down his life for his friends, and who calls us to walk in his way.
SPEAKER_00: In his holy and precious name we pray, Jesus Christ, our Lord, and Amen.