Is ANZAC Day more impoertant than Christmas?
A piece of research by McCrindle asking ordinary Aussies this very question – which special day is the most important? And, to my surprise, 30% thought Anzac Day was. You may be relieved that for 37%, it was still Christmas. But not much in it. (The clear winner, for interest, with 48% of the vote, was Mother’s Day.
I was entirely unaware that a huge proportion of the Aussie volunteers who sailed to fight in WWI were Christian believers and faithful churchgoers. Robert Linder’s book The Long Tragedy: Australian Evangelical Christians and the Great War, 1914-1918, examines the curious ‘airbrushing’ out of the religious beliefs of the ‘diggers’.
Linder suggests that a disproportionate rate of enlistment by evangelical protestants points to as many as 40% of Aussie soldiers being from this one Christian tradition alone. Other historians suggest that these ‘wowsers’ (as they came to be known) made up around 50% or more of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) during World War I. Australian churches were devastated by the number of young men (clergy and laity) killed in the Great War.
Hard Jacka: The Story of a Gallipoli Legend by Michael Lawriwsky is the biography of VC-winner Albert Jacka, one of the greatest war heroes our nation has ever known. He went on to be promoted to officer in the field and was also awarded the Military Cross. Jacka was a teetotaller and a member of his local church choir before enlisting. He famously refused to salute or be saluted—not because he was an irreverent, knock-about Aussie larrikin, but because he believed all men were created equal before God.
What would these diggers make of the idea that Anzac Day is more important than Christmas? Or Easter? What would they make of the idea that their sacrifice has become more important to Australians than the sacrifice of their God? That is worth thinking about.
But while it may be tempting for Christians wring our hands at the demise of Christmas, or to denounce Anzac Day as having become idolatrous, perhaps the best way to go is to make the very most of the opportunities it gives us (just like we do at Christmas amidst the baubles and commercialism, and Easter awash with chocolate).
Surely this is made easy when so many (half?) of those men who were prepared to die serving others did so as followers of a saviour who did no less for them. I don’t think it is too much to join the dots between the two. Do you?
So whether the topic is selfless service, the cost of freedom, the shedding of blood, innocent life spent, or even mateship, everything from a public prayer, to an Anzac address, to a chat over a barbie ought to provide us a timely opportunity to point people appropriately to Jesus—our saviour and their saviour. As for the Sunday prior (Anzac Sunday as it is known) surely it is a no-brainer for every church to approach local RSLs, schools and community groups and offer to host a service to remember the Anzacs.
Lest we forget.
