The Christian faith and the Bible may not be something you would normally be involved with. However, there is something we can ponder from our readings which speaks of identity and values, of knowing who you are and how that motivates your actions.

1 Thessalonians speaks about how the actions of the church in Thessalonica revealed their core values of faith, hope and love. And in our reading from Matthew’s Gospel, we hear the encouragement of a people’s identity being blessed. Albeit a topsy-turvy kind of blessed. But this affirmation that they were blessed meant knowing they were loved by God, giving them the courage and certainty to live life to the full.

Whether you have faith or not, the principles here are real to all of us. Our core values and our identity will ooze out in our actions. Who we are shapes what we do.

REMEMBERING THOSE BEFORE US

At this time of year, we hear the stories of those whose values and identity were shown in the face of conflict. It’s important to remember those before us, to honour and learn from them. Here’s the story of Flying Officer Cyril Barton.

Cyril Barton was motivated by his values, to join the RAF in 1941. He had grown up with a rhythm of faith in his life, and this was evident in his leadership of his eight-man Halifax bomber crew. A rule of no swearing during the flight to enable an attitude of calmness; on the ground cheekiness and fun displayed his deep-founded joy and the prayers he would say by his bed at night, a discipline which he grappled with in the face of the danger and difficulty of war, but he clung on to the ritual as it brought him hope and peace. Cyril’s conviction in his identity as loved by God, enabled him to be calm, caring, content and courageous.

On the night of 30 March 1944, during a bombing raid to Nuremburg, Cyril’s courage was tested. With a damaged aircraft en route to the target, three crew mistakenly bailing out, a huge loss of fuel, no communications and a navigator no longer on board, Cyril made it the 800 miles home. Avoiding houses and ensuring his remaining crew were in the safest crash positions Cyril belly-landed in a field… the impact killed Cyril, but his crew survived.

Cyril was posthumously awarded a VC ‘for an act of “unsurpassed courage and devotion to duty”’. Cyril’s values and certainty in his identity were his motivation. He writes about it in his final letter to his mother.

‘All I can say about this is that I’m quite prepared to die, it holds no terror for me… I have the sincere conviction as I write, a force outside myself and my brain, that I have not trusted in vain. All I am anxious about is that you and the rest of the family will also come to know Him.’

In this season of Remembrance, we look back and hear stories of incredible courage. We must remember that we tell the stories, to both honour and know the fallen as their actions reveal their values and identity.

ENCOURAGING THOSE BESIDE US

So, we remember those before us. And as we remember, we recognise and encourage those we sit shoulder to shoulder with today. Cyril was keen to encourage those around him. Do we take the opportunity, like the words we heard in the letter to Thessalonica, to encourage people while they are still here? What is said and written about people when they have gone is often profound, encouraging and revealing. I want to encourage us to do that more with those to your left and right today. When we speak encouragingly about people, we reveal their character, personality, and the things which make them tick… and in so doing, we get glimpses of what motivated them. The real them.

I wonder how you show your values and identity, what character, personality and actions do you live that show others who you are? As we remember those who gave their everything, about whom we read incredible things, let us also encourage those around us today, to discover more about who they are, and to remind them that they are known and loved. Let us remember those before us and encourage those beside us.

Information on Flying Officer Cyril Barton taken from:

https://www.keymilitary.com/article/wing-and-prayer

Last letter from Cyril to his mother:

https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/17243