WEBVTT 00:00:16.239 --> 00:00:19.839 So we start at Joshua twenty-two in the first five verses. 00:00:20.079 --> 00:00:33.679 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. 00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:42.240 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. 00:00:42.479 --> 00:00:46.960 And now the Lord your God hath given rest unto your brethren, as he promised them. 00:00:47.200 --> 00:00:57.759 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. 00:00:58.960 --> 00:01:16.319 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. 00:01:16.640 --> 00:01:17.280 Amen. 00:01:17.760 --> 00:01:32.319 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. 00:01:33.840 --> 00:01:45.760 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. 00:01:46.000 --> 00:01:48.560 You can see the picture on where this is coming from. 00:01:50.079 --> 00:01:55.280 My dear brethren and sisters in Christ, and I pray you are in Christ's night. 00:01:55.840 --> 00:02:01.359 Today of all days, we gather in solemn remembrance. 00:02:01.599 --> 00:02:05.599 The first of July is not simply a date in the calendar. 00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:19.520 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. 00:02:19.759 --> 00:02:32.080 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. 00:02:33.039 --> 00:02:46.000 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. 00:02:46.479 --> 00:02:48.400 They had made a promise. 00:02:49.280 --> 00:02:52.719 We will not rest until our brethren have rest. 00:02:53.680 --> 00:02:56.879 The loyalty was not theoretical. 00:02:57.439 --> 00:03:02.639 It was lived, it was costly, and it was real. 00:03:03.520 --> 00:03:07.199 And so it has been even in our own history. 00:03:08.319 --> 00:03:18.319 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. 00:03:19.120 --> 00:03:27.840 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. 00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:37.039 From Australia and New Zealand, from South Africa, from Canada, from Newfoundland, and from every part of the United Kingdom they came. 00:03:38.639 --> 00:03:41.360 The people of the cross were returning home. 00:03:41.599 --> 00:03:44.800 The children of Israel were being gathered for war. 00:03:46.080 --> 00:03:49.120 Some were first generation immigrants. 00:03:49.439 --> 00:03:58.639 Some were the sons and grandsons of settlers, but they shared a loyalty to home, to freedom, and to one another. 00:03:58.960 --> 00:04:06.719 Among them were very many Orangemen, men whose faith and fraternity shaped their sense of duty. 00:04:06.960 --> 00:04:29.519 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. 00:04:30.240 --> 00:04:33.040 And their sacrifices were immense. 00:04:33.439 --> 00:04:38.720 Their courage was unquestionable, and their loyalty was unshakable. 00:04:40.399 --> 00:04:51.040 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. 00:04:51.439 --> 00:04:53.439 We are a fraternity. 00:04:53.759 --> 00:04:55.680 We're not merely a club. 00:04:56.000 --> 00:04:59.680 We're not merely a tradition, although some would like us to be. 00:04:59.839 --> 00:05:04.879 We are a body of men and women bound together by shared principles. 00:05:05.680 --> 00:05:14.959 Our first pillar is fraternity, the commitment to stand with one another, to support one another, to uphold one another in Christian love. 00:05:15.439 --> 00:05:29.279 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. 00:05:29.519 --> 00:05:36.879 Wherever the orange banner flies, there is a shared identity rooted in Scripture and the gospel of Jesus Christ. 00:05:37.519 --> 00:05:46.240 But these pillars stand only because of the keystone that holds the arch together, and that is our Protestant faith. 00:05:47.199 --> 00:06:08.720 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. 00:06:09.360 --> 00:06:12.079 And this is what truly unites us. 00:06:12.480 --> 00:06:15.199 This is what makes us different to others. 00:06:15.519 --> 00:06:17.439 This is what strengthens us. 00:06:17.759 --> 00:06:23.600 This is what gives us meaning, and this is what our remembrance is about today. 00:06:24.879 --> 00:06:31.360 The men who went over the top on that first of July morn in 1916 did not go lightly. 00:06:31.600 --> 00:06:36.399 They knew the danger, they knew the cost, but they also knew their duty. 00:06:36.639 --> 00:06:41.439 The Newfoundland Regiment, as I said previously, suffered devastating losses. 00:06:41.680 --> 00:06:47.360 So severe the very identity of Newfoundland itself as a nation was changed forever. 00:06:48.160 --> 00:07:03.040 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. 00:07:04.480 --> 00:07:15.600 And their sacrifice, great as it was, was not for themselves, it was for others, and more importantly, it was for us. 00:07:16.800 --> 00:07:22.879 And so the question comes to us today what does loyalty look like in our generation? 00:07:23.920 --> 00:07:28.879 Not a call to war, not a call to violence, not a but a call to faithfulness. 00:07:29.759 --> 00:07:43.600 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. 00:07:45.680 --> 00:07:54.160 Today we honour the foreign people not just by sentiment, but by living lives worthy of their sacrifice. 00:07:55.360 --> 00:08:14.319 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. 00:08:14.720 --> 00:08:17.920 And when we march, we do not march for ourselves. 00:08:18.240 --> 00:08:21.519 We march for the faith that sustained our forefathers. 00:08:21.759 --> 00:08:27.920 We march for the gospel that gives life, and we march for the freedom to worship God according to his word. 00:08:28.480 --> 00:08:39.200 And we march in remembrance, we especially march in remembrance for those who gave everything, so that we might stand here today. 00:08:40.399 --> 00:08:45.039 The two and a half tribes returned home after their brothers had rest. 00:08:45.360 --> 00:08:50.720 The men of the Psalm gave their rest so that others might live in peace. 00:08:52.000 --> 00:09:12.480 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. 00:09:13.200 --> 00:09:21.919 And the Lord grant his grace to work worthily and be worthy of the sacrifice we remember today. 00:09:22.720 --> 00:09:23.360 Amen. 00:09:24.320 --> 00:09:25.519 Let's pray. 00:09:26.080 --> 00:09:31.440 Eternal Father, we have gathered to death tonight in the shadow of great loss and great courage. 00:09:31.679 --> 00:09:40.399 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. 00:09:40.720 --> 00:09:42.639 We honor their sacrifice. 00:09:42.960 --> 00:09:47.039 And we acknowledge the sorrow carried by every family left behind. 00:09:47.519 --> 00:09:50.960 Lord teaches to remember truthfully and humbly. 00:09:51.360 --> 00:09:58.240 God is from forgetting the cost of war, and God is from ever taking lightly the guilt gift of peace. 00:09:58.559 --> 00:10:01.039 Whether has been bitterness, spring healing. 00:10:01.200 --> 00:10:04.080 Whether has been division, show compassion. 00:10:04.320 --> 00:10:07.840 Whether has been hatred, plant the seed of mercy. 00:10:08.159 --> 00:10:17.360 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. 00:10:17.840 --> 00:10:23.440 Be their refuge and their strength, their comfort and their hope. 00:10:23.679 --> 00:10:32.720 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. 00:10:32.960 --> 00:10:38.639 In his holy and precious name we pray, Jesus Christ, our Lord, and Amen.