Do yourself a favor: see Peter Jackson’s stunning World War I documentary, They Shall Not Grow Old. If you were enthralled by what he did with Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, you should see what he does with reality. Gone is the jerky silence of those hundred-year old, black and white films. What he and his production team have accomplished with sound, color, and digitization is amazing.
He makes those soldiers come to life.
The film’s only narrators are men who actually fought in WWI, which adds authenticity. But the real magic came when I heard the sounds of the soldiers eating, laughing, marching, speaking. They came to life in full color. It felt as if I knew them, these men from a century ago. That’s some incredible filmmaking.
As we watched, one comment jumped out at me. One of the narrators made a joke, with the punchline, “We got mittens, too!” It triggered a memory of a story my own father told me about his military service in the Second World War ...
D-Day was mere days behind them. Dad and his crew continued to operate their British 40MM Bofors gun, one of six the U. S. Army had borrowed from the Brits. Since they were part of the infantry, they were always in the thick of the fighting. It was in these early battles that Dad first heard something strange being shouted by the enemy:
GOT MITTENS!
The voices were, of course, German and heavily accented; but Dad could think of no other phrase that made any sense. And yet ... it made no sense. But there was no mistaking what he was hearing. For some reason, as they charged Dad’s position, the German soldiers were shouting “Got Mittens!” Over and over Dad heard them shout “Got Mittens!” So many were shouting it, the rattle and thump-thump-thump of gunfire didn’t drown it out.
But, strange as he thought that was, it didn’t even come close to how strange Dad thought it was when he learned what they were really shouting.
He couldn’t exactly recall when he came into possession of the belt buckle; one of those early battles. He found it just lying on the battlefield, a ragged piece of webbed belt still clinging to one side. When he saw the swastika gripped in the Eagle’s talons, he knew for certain. It was German. Then, he saw something else. At first, he didn’t realize what he was looking at; he thought them just embossed symbols, part of the design.
But then he saw they were words.
There, stamped into the thin metal of the buckle, in a tight circle around the Eagle and Swastika, was “GOTT MIT UNS.”
It took a little bit; but slowly his mind worked it out. Dad felt his skin begin to crawl; some part of his brain already realizing. There on the belt buckle were the words he had been hearing as wave upon wave of Germans assailed their positions all throughout those early battles. “Gott Mit Uns! Gott Mit Uns! Gott Mit Uns!”
God with us.
It seems shockingly pretentious to believe God favored one side over the other in WWI. And yet ... God did favor one set of people over other people in many conflicts in the Old Testament. But, it is also no stretch to say that much changed along those lines with the death and resurrection of Jesus.
When the leaders of Israel confronted Peter and the Apostles in this week’s selection from the book of Acts, those leaders may well have believed God was on their side. In demanding that the Apostles stop sharing the good news, they may have believed God approved of their actions. But, as we know, many of Israel’s past leaders still believed they acted with God’s approval long after God had rejected them for failing to obey His commands.
That was the situation in Acts chapter 5. Even after three years of Jesus telling them, those leaders had not accepted the truth: God had rejected them. And, in the gentlest way possible, that’s what Peter and the Apostles communicated to them in responding: "We must obey God rather than any human authority.”
The message? God was not with them.
There will always be people who believe God favors their side in a conflict. For the most part, though, they will be wrong. Yes, God does favor some folk over others, even today. But, for those whom God favors, the conflicts are spiritual ones.
Peter and the Apostles did not take up arms against those who had decided to be their enemies. They knew Jesus, whom prophecy called Immanuel; “God with us.” They knew the true battle was a spiritual one, and so they fought with spiritual weapons; truth, prayer, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. And with Immanuel on their side.
We must do the same. For we, too, can declare, “God with us.”
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PHOTO: https://m.imdb.com/title/tt7905466/?ref_=m_nv_sr_1
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Some portions of this reflection were taken from an October 2011 reflection entitled Got Mittens?
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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Second Sunday of Easter (April 28, 2019)
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu//texts.php?id=134
Acts 5:27-32
Psalm 118:14-29 or Psalm 150
Revelation 1:4-8
John 20:19-31
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I hope you can join us Friday morning for DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast. In this season of Easter, it is a great way to continue our focus on that empty tomb and its meaning, today. We meet at 8:00 at the “Egg and I” for a wonderful hour of food, fellowship, and Bible discussion.
Blessings,
Steve
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