The following was preached at Romford Evangelical Free Church by Rev Andrew Bryant on Sunday morning, 13th April 2003
"I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read,
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed,
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away."
- Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792-1822
The poem, Ozymandius - testimony to the transient nature of all kings and potentates. Particularly poignant in the light of events in Iraq this past week as statues and portraits of Saddam Hussein have been pulled to the ground, kicked and spat upon in the light of the Coalition liberation of Baghdad and other major cities.
But where do we stand on this war? What is our perception of what has taken place? Were we among those who conscientiously believed it to be wrong? Have we maintained this view, or have we revised our attitude in the light of the dramatic events of the last few days.
There are several questions we might consider. For instance:
- Is it ever right to go to war?
- If so, in what circumstances?
- What about this war? The failure to secure UN approval and France's absolute veto on a military response has led many to have grave concerns about the actions of the Coalition. In particular the pre-emptive strike, on a country that has never officially declared war on the USA or Britain, takes us beyond the bounds of what was deemed permissible under the classic rubrics of the "Just War" tradition. This uncharted territory of responding to states that apparently sponsor the kind of terrorism unleashed on September 11 2001, and the lingering uncertainties as to what "weapons of mass-destruction" the Iraqi regime possessed, have made the issues all the more complex.