Faith features

For most of his eighteen years, Bromsgrove was home to Robbie.

He knew, as a local lad, this town and many of its people, particularly of his own age. Equally people knew him; streetwise enough to have friends in every place and situation, because of his warm friendliness that was the true reflection of his open and engaging character.

Raised in the midst of a caring family and community, we have gathered in this church, which sits at the centre of Bromsgrove, to remember Robbie with all the love and thankfulness we can muster.

Bromsgrove is a busy place; it's a bustling town in the heart of the country, where people live out their lives following the whole range of activities that forms the richness of our shared life; commerce and industry, education, the life of the local authority, the whole spectrum of goings-on. Robbie, for most of his life, belonged to this place.

Many of you will have known him a long time and counted him as a friend, having shared, for instance, school with him. The thoughts you'll be having today about Robbie will be the memories of him that you'll carry for the remainder of your lives. Hopefully they will encourage you to copy the good you saw in him; his death is a reminder that, when all is said and done, it's the way we've treated one another that is remembered about us.

Naturally the deepest thoughts belong to Robbie's parents, Steve and Wendy. Along with his grandma, Joyce, theirs are the deepest and saddest thoughts.

I've read about and listened to many stories about Robbie. In my minds eye, I see a lad with a broad and probably mischievous smile. Someone who knew him at Catterick, where he completed his initial training as an infantryman, wrote that he "used to make the section (a small team) laugh; whether it was him sleeping all the time, his giddy sense of humour or his random taste in music".

Robbie's ambition was to be a soldier and to be one as quickly as possible. To achieve this, he served with the Second Battalion the Mercian Regiment, which recruits from this area. There are fewer better ways of soldiering than to be in your local infantry battalion.

The first time he tried to join he didn't succeed; he was too thin. Second time around what would he do? The nurses who examined him were surprised to find that he'd apparently shrunk in size; Robbie deliberately made himself smaller to increase his BMI and so reach the standard required. That's the ingenuity of the infantryman!

Robbie lost his life many, many miles from Bromsgrove, in Helmand Province, where he was taking part in an attack to capture land and free the people from the intimidation of the Taliban.

It is hard for most of us here to conceive what life would be like living in Afghanistan under their sway. There is a sense of well-being that the human spirit finds in many diverse ways of living on this planet. I doubt that such well-being is experienced when the Taliban have control. People who want to go about their lives in similar terms to how we wish to live ours in towns like Bromsgrove have their spirits crushed by a world-view that is backward in vision and brutally oppressive in practise. And, although this ideology is sometimes seen as one confined to Afghanistan, it is driven by a desire to see it spread across the world; and our way of life is seen as a particular target.

Robbie lost his life doing what he wished to do, being a soldier, and for what he'd been prepared for through excellent preparation. He was with men who would have done everything they could for him, just as he'd have done so for them. 

Robbie showed throughout his life, but especially in his military service, the qualities that are essential for soldiers. His Commanding Officer wrote of him:

"He was a warm and cheerful young man
who mucked in when there was work to be done
and quickly made friends. Robbie's falling has
taken a good soldier from us; a man who was
not afraid to move forward, endure hardship,
and he had the courage to fight the enemy
alongside his brothers."

In one so young, clearly there was so much to be admired.

Private Robert Laws being repatriated

In our Bible reading, we heard about one of the encounters that Jesus had. A needy soldier asks Jesus to help his sick servant. He displays in his compassion and bearing qualities that it appears Jesus did not expect. These qualities were evident in the soldier because they were bread and butter to him. Loyalty, duty and trust are all present and are amongst the foundations for effective soldiering.

Jesus explains that never amongst all the people he'd meet had he found such faith. The soldier had therefore surprised Jesus. Jesus, God's picture of goodness and truth, was surprised by a soldier.

Robbie was a soldier of this same spirit; he displayed the self-same qualities that Jesus commends.

We find faith in surprising places at times. It is best found in a life shaped by a pursuit of godliness by active membership of the Church. However it is also found elsewhere.

Military service can be a special place where this happens. Therefore, although we'd have matters differently if only we could, we do the very best we can for Robbie and commend him to God's care.

Utterly confident of God's love shown to us in Jesus, we place Robbie into His care. Robbie's life was too short and his promise in many ways unfulfilled. Yet trusting God, we thank him for Robbie to whom, surrounded by our love and thoughts, we commend him. 

Robbie's parents describe their son as a natural, 'a morale booster, always smiling, always with something funny to say.' That's a good way to be known.