Monday Ministerial Musings
By Rev. Mark William Ennis
2022 Blog #29
July 25, 2022
Summer Cinema Scenes in 10 parts
Part 4 “War and Remembrance”
“Who Are You?”
“A Christian”
I realize that “War and Remembrance” is quite old now. It is television miniseries that was first aired in 1988. Because I had read the book that inspired this, I looked forward to watching it and was not disappointed.
The miniseries is the story of World War II through the eyes of the Henry family. These family seems to have a relative in every part of the world at every significant time of the war. In this mini-series we see a broad overview of the war through the eyes of this one family. This, like every documentary or movie of war is troubling. The violence is difficult to watch. For me, the most difficult parts to see were the scenes of the mistreatment of Jews, and Hitler’s “Final Solution.”
One of the most difficult scenes for me to watch was a scene were Natalie, one of the most featured characters, is crowded in a train heading to Auschwitz. The transported Jews are crammed in like cattle under harsh conditions. Unsympathetic guards grudgingly gave small amounts of water to sustain those being transported. Of course, no food was given. The train was a death train for Natalie and the others on the train. If they survived the ride, their chances of surviving Auschwitz were low.
In the middle of this difficult scene came a moment of awe for me. A local farmer carried a sack up to two guards. “Apples,” he proclaimed and he was allowed to walk past the guards and toward the train. The guards allowed him to pass and he brought his gift of apples to the starving Jews.
One of the transportees asks him who he is. He humbly replies, “a Christian.”
How would we answer such a question? If someone asks us who we are would we tell the person our name? Would we identify ourselves by what we were doing? Would we identify ourselves by our nationality or our profession? I admire this farmer who did this good deed who simply identified himself by his religious faith. I hope that we all grow to identify ourselves by our relationship with Jesus above all else.
War and Remembrance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eteXEmhiBIo
Pastor Mark Author 