The Upload
Posted on May 27, 2016 by
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
I pray you have had a blessed week.
This Monday begins the “unofficial” start of summer. Officially, summer doesn’t start until June 20 this year, but for many decades now in this country, we unofficially recognize the start of summer on Memorial Day, and for many it is a day off of work and a great day to go have a picnic.
But Memorial Day, or Decoration Day, as it was commonly known up until the late 1960s, is really so much more than just a day off of work and a day to go on a picnic. Memorial Day is intended to be the day when we remember all of those men and women who have died serving their country. Memorial Day started out as a way of decorating the graves of fallen soldiers after the Civil War. Literally, it served as a way of remembering that with war comes death. But sadly, most people today do not remember that this holiday is literally a day to remember that death is the ultimate cost of war.
During World War I, H.G. Wells published several articles in which he wrote about this being the “war to end all wars.” Unfortunately, as we know all too well, that did not happen. War continues to rage throughout the world and too often young people are sent into the front lines of battle. Thousands of miles away, back home, parents still continue to worry. When news of fighting comes on the news, they find an uneasiness that refuses to be put to rest, and in the back of their minds they wonder if their child will come home alive.
Although I have never experienced war firsthand, nor have I had to experience the fear of having one of my children go off to war, I can only imagine the shear joy of being reunited with a loved one when they come back from war and the deep sorrow when there is a knock on the door and someone says that your son or daughter will not be coming home at all.
Remembering those who have died while serving their nation, the prophet Jeremiah, centuries before the birth of Jesus, wrote, “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more” (Jeremiah 31:15). And then again in Matthew’s Gospel these same words appear after King Herod sent in troops to slaughter children in Bethlehem in hopes of killing Jesus. These words were words of lament for a nation whose children were killed. These are words of parents whose children have died way before their time.
War is not new to this world and all too often our children are killed in war because of decisions by others that usually are made as acts of greed, power and selfishness.
My prayer this Memorial Day weekend is that while we are all celebrating and enjoying our time off that we take time to remember those who courageously died for our freedom. I pray that we take time to remember the pain of all those who have lost loved ones because of war. I pray that the church might continue to be the one place left where a real voice can be given to the pain that people suffer and the grief to which Memorial Day points. Memorial Day is not a religious holiday, but it is a day of lament, and the church is called to reflect, remember and pray that someday, maybe even this Memorial Day, the last grave of fallen soldiers might be filled. Although this may not come this Memorial Day, the church is compelled to pray that it might be so one day soon.
Have a blessed and holy week!
Shalom,
Pr. Dave