Go to the ant, you lazybones; consider its ways, and be wise. Without having any chief or officer or ruler, it prepares its food in summer, and gathers its sustenance in harvest. How long will you lie there, O lazybones? When will you rise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want, like an armed warrior.
(Proverbs 6:6-11)
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Ants. They’re not exactly what you’d think of right off the top on Remembrance Sunday - but as I was thinking about what to share today I thought about this passage and realized that it had something important to say. Ants are amazing little creatures. They’re small, but they’re tough. And surprisingly enough, they’re a lot like us. They organize themselves into colonies just as we organize ourselves into nations. Different ants have different roles to play in the community, just as we have different jobs. The centre of the colony is the queen, there are worker ants whose only job is to take care of the queen, and other ants who care for eggs and larva. There are ants that hunt, and there are ants that farm - some grow fungus to feed the colony and others actually take care of little insects called aphids, like humans look after cows. There are also soldier ants whose only job is to protect the colony against invaders - whether the invaders are other ants or other animals, but except for a few very aggressive species of ants they really do just defend rather than attack. And unlike human society (at least unlike many human societies) for the most part ant colonies actually work.
You’re probably wondering what any of this has to do with Remembrance Sunday. How are ants relevant? Well, they were relevant to the author of Proverbs as an example of how societies should function. “Go to the ants,” he said. Another way to say it would be “consider the ants” or “look at the ants.” Nature has a way of reflecting God’s ways and God’s priorities, which isn’t surprising since nature is, after all, the work of God. I wonder if the ant colony isn’t a good analogy for the Kingdom of God - and if that isn’t why the author of Proverbs refers to it. “Here’s the way things should be,” he says. None of the ants are motivated by selfishness or greed or a desire to be noticed. They just work together as a community, every ant having a part. They will rescue ants that get trapped somewhere, and they will carry injured ants back to the colony and care for them. They’re truly amazing creatures. And as I think on Remembrance Sunday of those who have served in past conflicts I wonder how much suffering could have been abated - and how much could be abated in the future - if we could have taken the advice of Proverbs seriously. If we could work together. That, it seems to me, would be the Kingdom of God, and that, it seems to me, is what most who have experienced war would like to see.
I know people who dislike Remembrance Day or Remembrance Sunday. They think it doesn’t belong in church because they find it too militaristic; they feel as if it glorifies war. I respectfully disagree. I don’t think we glorify war today - but I do think we honour the warriors who believed in a cause and who gave themselves for that cause. Is honouring warriors glorifying war? I don’t think so. Over the years, I’ve known a lot of veterans. I’ve known them as parishioners. I’ve known them from having served as a Legion chaplain for a few years. I’ve know some in my own family. I’ve never known anyone who is more opposed to and appalled by war than a veteran of war. And I wonder what they would say about the generations that have succeeded them. The generation that fought in World War II was called “The Greatest Generation.” And then came the Boomers, and then came Gen X, and then came the Millennials. Each succeeding generation more distant from the experience of war, and perhaps each succeeding generation more averse to the types of sacrifice that the Greatest Generation was called upon to make. And the end result is perhaps a society less inclined to pull together for the common good or for great sacrifices and far more fixated on “me.”
I think about that ant colony and how it reflects the values of the Kingdom of God. And then I think about Canada. What unites us as a nation? What symbolizes us as a nation? Some would say - perhaps flippantly - hockey. But there are other things. Multiculturalism? Peacekeeping? Universal health care? Perhaps all of those. But a recent survey suggested that what defines Canada is now the Charter of Rights And Freedoms - which is interesting, since it’s only been around for a little over thirty years. I value my rights, of course - but I wonder sometimes if we don’t put too much emphasis on rights, and not enough emphasis on responsibilities? We seem to be living in a society in which we all want what’s ours - and we’re not shy about demanding it - but sometimes we aren’t willing to sacrifice much so that others can have a little bit. We don’t accept our responsibilities to each other or to society as a whole as willingly as perhaps happened in the past.
The ants don’t worry about their rights. They simply work together. They support each other. They defend each other. They take care of each other. They’re a community rather than an isolated set of individuals. “Consider the ants.” It’s an analogy for the Kingdom of God. It’s an analogy for the church. People choosing to live in community, sharing with and supporting and caring for each other, and sacrificing for each other.
There’s no group in my experience who would like to see the Kingdom of God come more than veterans of war. There’s no group that would like to see God simply break the arrows and shields and swords and all the weapons of war (as our Call to Worship spoke of) more than veterans of war. There’s no group who understand how precious peace is more than veterans of war. When Solomon writes, “go to the ants, you lazybones,” he’s not being flippant. Neither am I when I bring your attention to those verses today. The ants - with their focus on the community rather than the individual and on the well being of all rather than on survival of the fittest or strongest or most powerful - are a wonderful reflection of what the kingdom of God will be like, and on what our society could be like, if only we as a society can get our act together and work towards it.
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