Second Reading, from the Gospel of John Chapter 20: 1-18

The Rev’d Sonia Falaschi-Ray

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb.  So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.”  Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb.  The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.  He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn’t enter.  Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself.  Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they didn’t understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.  Then the disciples returned to their homes.  But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet.  They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.”  When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she didn’t recognise him.  Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?  Whom do you seek?”  Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him off, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”  Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher).  Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I’ve not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

 

• 93 years since battle of the Somme
• That battle alone claimed 1 million 200,000 lives
• I should like to read you part of an account, written by a young British lieutenant, of one day at the Somme and its aftermath.
• First, the telegram to his father

20^th September 1916

Sir, I regret to inform you that 2^nd Lt A A Vandyk, 24^th London Regiment was admitted to No.10 Red Cross hospital, Le Tourquet on Sept 18^th suffering from gunshot would in head, slight.

21^st September 1916  Lady Murray’s ward, No.10 Red Cross hospital, Le Tourquet

My dear parents

I think some days ago I promised you an account of the whys and wherefores.  Well here goes.  My company was in reserve of the battalion where we were holding the line before the attack.  On our right were the New Zealanders.

During the previous days we had gradually been surrounded by batteries of field guns and heavy artillery and the roar was something intolerable.  The place was simply seething with them and the limbers bringing up the ammunition pulled up actually on top of our men.  By the time we left, every available trench was overcrowded by humanity.  On the way, we got a good view of the “Tanks” of which we had heard but had not yet set eyes upon. 

[There are then some details of troop movements.  To continue]  I witnessed the bombardment.  For 20 minutes from 6am every battery for miles around kept up rapid fire.  As we advanced, Red Cross vans were speeding up and away again. Stretchers, German and English walking cases, German prisoners and officers un-wounded were all mixed up.  Everyone had wandered down from the front line.  Germans were being made use of, to carry both their own, as well as our men.

Our special job was to make our way through the wood to reach our first and second objectives.  The wood was at the top of the ridge and the walk “over the top” was not so bad except for shells and shrapnel flying around.  Bodies were lying around us, dead, maimed and wounded and I really thought that some of the men would turn, but they stuck it splendidly.  We emerged [from the wood] and I left the other battalion of our brigade digging in, as we advanced to our second objective 600 yards ahead in a hollow.  I got my men in a sort of line and carried on, taking advantage of shell holes as we could. 

At the first go off the man immediately next to me was shot through the head and fell without a groan.  Another chap got a bullet though his finger.  I managed to get on a bit when I caught a bullet in my head.  I dropped like a log and thought I was done for.  Blood flowed and I became weak, convulsive about the legs and I waited.  I don’t know how long I lay there but I gradually recovered my sense, and crawled into an empty shell hole.  As I got up I distinctly remember seeing three Germans in a shell hole nearby at least one of whom was alive.  I began to feel at home in my shell hole and applied a field dressing to my head.  It was five past six in the evening and I had lost all sense of time. I settled down to spend the evening there.  Shells were landing and bullets whizzing but I felt quite safe in my hole.  I then espied my helmet and I discovered a bullet hole clean through the right front and the steel around the left centre simply curled upwards and outwards in shreds.

[Well around 10pm his sergeant found him and, with some difficulty, they made their way back to the British lines.  He continued] I will not burden you with the wearisome details of my passing from the dressing station to the field ambulance thence to the advanced clearing station, the clearing station and thence to here.  Yours affectionately Arthur.”

That was written on the 20^th September.  Remember there were no antibiotics at that time so seemingly slight wound could have serious consequences.  On the 30^th September a signal was sent to London.  “Lt AA Vandyk deteriorated from seriously ill to dangerously ill today.”  In fact they took him out to bury him at one point, but he indicated he was still alive!

At this point his parents went out to visit him in the French hospital behind the lines, as he was not expected to survive. A Military car and escort was laid on.

Telegram:October 20^th  Lt Vandyk removed from dangerously ill list today.

Eventually he got home and had hole in his head in which he could hide a ping-pong ball, brushing his hair over the top

That Lieutenant was my grandfather whose medals I am wearing today.

Huge memorial arch to the Missing of the Somme at Thiepval, designed by Edwin Lutyens, which is on one of slides you’ve been seeing.  This arch is the principal tangible expression of the defining event in Britain’s experience and memory of the Great War of 1914-1918.  On the disastrous first day of the battle on 1 July 1916, there were 60,000 British casualties, of whom 20,000 died.

I’d like to read you a description of a visitor to the memorial in a book by Gavin Stamp. [p172-3]

‘As she came up to the arch Elizabeth saw with a start that it was written on.  She went closer.  She peered at the stone.  There were names on it.  Every grain of the surface had been carved with British names; their chiselled capitals rose from the level of her ankles to the height of the great arch itself; on every surface of every column as far as her eyes could see there were names teeming, reeling over surfaces of yards, of hundreds of yards over furlongs of stone “Who are these…?” she gestured with her hand.  “These” The [gardener] man with the brush sounded surprised.  “The Lost.”  “Men who died in this battle” “No. The lost, the ones they didn’t find.  The others are in the cemeteries.”  “These are just the unfound?”  She looked at the vault above her head and then around in panic at the endless writing, as though the surface of the sky had been papered in footnotes.  When she could speak again she said, “From the whole war?”  The gardener shook his head.  “Just these fields.”’

Here we have a woman shocked by the evidence of death who cannot comprehend that these are just the lost.  Reading that I was reminded of another woman who was shocked at the death of a man in whom she had had so much hope.  Mary Magdalene went to Jesus’ tomb and found it empty

“Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. ……….”They have taken away my Lord, and I don’t know where they’ve laid him.”  His body is lost, we only have his name.…..She turned and saw Jesus, but she didn’t recognise him.  He said, ” Why are you weeping?  Whom are you seeking?”  She thought he was the gardener,… Jesus called name, “Mary!” “Teacher!”. Jesus said to her, “Don’t hold on to me,…But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’  Mary sees the risen Jesus and after that hundreds of people see him before his ascension into heaven.  He is alive and, even though we can’t see it, his Spirit is with us. 

But where was he in the carnage of the Somme?  How could he allow such a thing to happen?  He was there in the trenches sweating blood, terrified; cut down by machine gun and pinned to barbed wire; he was there in the field stations as wounded survived; he was operated on, barely alive; he was in the hands of the surgeons and nurses; up to his neck in mud, blood and curses.  He was at home when the cable arrived.  For you he was crucified, for you he died, for you he is risen and glorified.

He allows us to have freedom of action, wherever that might lead.  He didn’t make us obedient robots, but freedom allows us to perform both good and evil acts.  However he is longing for us to let him into our lives and if we do, if we just say, “Lord Jesus, I’m sorry for what I’ve done wrong in my life.  I now turn from all that.  Thank you for dying for me.  Please come by your Spirit and live in me.”  He will.  He will be with us all the way, until at last we find our rest in him.