Between two Memorial Days

Later today my wife and I will attend a service of quiet memory.  It will be a Memorial Day celebration held at a local American Legion Hall.  We will, with others, consider the heroic sacrifices of our service men and women who, over the years and wars of our nation, have given their all in the name of our nation.  

It is hard to call this a celebration because as Ronald Reagan said a memorial represents “a tear in the fabric, a break in the whole.  They gave up two lives.  The one they were living and the one they would have lived.”  We look back on the fallen as heroes, with a wholesome nostalgia that inspires us to do our part for home and country. 

The past is a memory painful to recall.  The lives we remember were tragically cut short of their potential.  As precious as these memorials are they will always be painful and marked with one over arching question, “Was it worth it?” This is a question that can only be answered in the abstract; yes, freedom is worth the blood of a nation’s sons.  But “Is it worth it?” is harder to weigh against the tears of an orphan or a widow. 

In the present we call today, will you obey the law that requires you to stop and remember?  In December 2000, Congress passed a law requiring Americans to pause at 3 p.m. local time on the last Monday in May for one minute of silence or prayer to remember and honor the fallen.  Being without penalty or consequence it’s more of a national suggestion than a law.  It represents 1/525,600 of our year. Memorial Day is more about the long weekend, summer vacations, cookouts and sales than the 60 seconds of silence.  For most the memorial part of the day is a footnote not the focus.

Today we will hear about the sacrifices of the past and how they secured our present freedom, and preserve our national rights for the future.  But it seems that future is somewhat in doubt.  We are a deeply divided nation and after each national election one side or the other talks about leaving.  We could make a long list of reasons, some very solid some farcical, as to why this nation is marching toward ruin and may not last.  Could it be that Memorial Day recalls the sacrifice of those who died in what will one day be a lost cause?  Memorial Day in the future tense is not a sure thing.

Do not imagine that I am dishonoring the service and sacrifice of men and women in uniform.  Mine is a military family, I number three uncles, a brother-in-law, and a daughter who served in the Navy; a brother, two nephews and a son-in-law who served in the Army, and a son and son-in-law who are active duty Navy.  When I think of the loss of life for military personnel it is a heart issue.  We need the perspective of Memorial Day.

Today we are between two Memorial Days. 

Yesterday, I participated in an altogether different Memorial Day, a memorial that is without the shadow and clouds that haunt today.  I was given a bit of unleavened bread and a sip of wine.   The words of the Apostle Paul came to me again.  For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. _{I Corinthians 11:26}

These words bind all time together in a moment.  For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup in the present.  The Lord is with me in the moment.  Not just for the second or the minute that I take to remember.  There is in this moment and every moment the abiding and lasting presence of the Lord.  

This moment is also about the past, you proclaim the Lord’s death. The past historical event comes into this moment.  In time and space the Creator became man and as the ancient church said, “Who (Jesus), for us men for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again…” As to the question was the sacrifice worth it? The answer is a resounding, “Yes!”  In fact, we know that “for the Joy set before Him He endured”… it was not just a worthy sacrifice it was worth the joy. 

As for the future, “you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes”.  In this Memorial I remember the past in the present and anticipate the future.  I love my country, but I know this is no eternal kingdom.  There will come a day when the United States of America will only be a note in history.  Not so the Kingdom of God and its Messianic banquet.

Between two Memorial Days we stand.   Both are filled with love and respect and admiration.  But only one fills the past, present and future with un-bounding hope and adoration.  To those who died we offer our respect and love, to the One who died and now lives eternally we give our worship and ourselves.