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Ecclesiastes 3:1-22 · A Time for Everything
Memorial Day
Ecclesiastes 3:1-22
Sermon
by Brett Blair
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Anwar Sadat, the late prime minister of Egypt, once noted that there were two experiences in life that were so traumatic, so far reaching in their scope, that having experienced them, one's life could never be quite the same. One was prison; the other was war. As we are gather here this morning, on the week of Memorial Day, I would like to address ourselves to the latter.

While there are many wars that will be remembered this week, I would like to take a look at the Civil War. And perhaps this is the appropriate place to begin a memorial, because it is in the Civil War that Memorial Day has its roots. It was John A. Logan, a former Federal general, who called for the first formal day of remembrance on May 30, 1868. School children were asked to spread flower pedals upon the graves of the war dead. Since that time the day has been changed to the last Monday in May and the concept has been expanded to include a remembrance of America's war dead sustained in all Her conflicts.

I would suggest to you two reasons why Christians should celebrate Memorial Day: to reflect and to re-commit.

I

First, we come to reflect. We reflect upon the awful cost of war and the fact that freedom is costly. Consider if you will these footnotes of history concerning the battle at Shiloh. If Lew Wallace who fought on the Shiloh battlefield, had been killed, then we would never have known of the great American literary work BEN HUR. If Ulysses. S. Grant had been slain at Shiloh we would have lost a president of the United States. If Francis A Shoup had fallen while leading his Confederate Battalions we would have lost a university president. But these were the ones who survived to live out their potential and life dreams. What of those who did not make it through? We must lament this day how many potential doctors, authors, college presidents, political leaders, clergymen, and inventors had their careers cut short during the horrible two days of Shiloh. Then multiply that by all of the battles and all of the wars in America's history and we begin to realize how staggering the toll: All in all 1 million deaths. Thus, it is right as we gather this morning that we remember, less we forget that war robs us of the flower of our nation.

We remember this day not only those who have been killed in battle, but also those who have been touched by the rippling effect of war. A pebble is tossed into a pond and the ripples grow, ever widening, until they touch the very outer banks. So, too, is war.

I introduce you to John Thompson of New York City, born to James and Ellen Thompson in the year 1844. There was a certain gentleness, perhaps even a naivety about the country at that time. Still, life was hard. At age 15 John's father died and he was forced to quite school and go to work to support his widowed mother and his younger sister, Elizabeth. At a salary of $4 a week, he became an apprentice bricklayer. Then came the war, and nothing would ever be the same again. On August 25, 1861, at the age of 19, John enlisted in the 51st New York regiment. Through mid-September 1862, Private Thompson continued to support his mother by sending home most of his meager army pay. On September 17, 1862, as his regiment was attempting to cross Burnside Bridge during the Battle of Antietam, a sharpshooters bullet found its mark, and young Thompson, in many ways just beginning his life, fell instantly dead.

But the tragedy did not end there. Records indicate that his mother, stunned and sickened by her son's death, became gravely ill and never completely recovered. From the autumn of 1862 to the autumn of 1863, her health declined steadily until finally on November 21, 1863, she died, leaving daughter Elizabeth, age 8, an orphan. Today we know that Private Thompson is buried in the National Cemetery at Antietam. His great sacrifice is easy for all to recognize. But we cannot forget the rippling effect of his death and how his loss effected the lives of others. His mother and his sister were also the victims of war, though history has long since lost track of their resting places.

II

We gather this day not only to remember but also to recommit. If we walk away this morning, and let our national holiday pass us by tomorrow, with no stronger resolve to end wars, then we have celebrated Memorial Day in vain, just another day to get some shopping done. Likewise, we in no way do our war dead a disservice by wrestling with the painful question: Were all of these deaths necessary? We must somehow come to the understanding that the seed of most all wars is to be found in economics. There was an expression in the Confederate army: "Rich man's war, poor man's fight." How tragic…that that can be echoed about most wars.

But, military strength is not to be despised when there are international gangsters on the prowl. However, war alone can hardly be the answer to the world's plight. And, in the end, it might well be our undoing. General Douglas McArthur stood on the deck of the battleship U. S. S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay in 1945 to receive the formal surrender of the Japanese Government. At that time he made a penetrating observation. He said: "The problem is basically theological in nature. It must be of the spirit if we are to save the flesh." That from a professional soldier.

Just outside the city of Atlanta, Georgia, there is a monument called Stone Mountain. It took two generations to create that enormous carving on the side of a mountain that depicts three heroes of the Confederacy: Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Jefferson Davis. Although it is a fascinating memorial, the logistics that were required in creating such a work of art is mind boggling, but the message is somewhat disturbing. For, all three men are clothed in battle uniforms and sitting atop white chargers. The message rings out loud and clear--war is glorious. Despite any positive personal qualities that these men may have exhibited in their own lives, I would suggest to you that in that chiseled artwork we have missed the message of war.

Someday, I would like to take my daughter to a mountain where the faces of, say, Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr. are inscribed and say to her: That, daughter, is the way. Thus, we cannot be deceived today as we move toward this Memorial Day and watch the celebrations and perhaps visit memorials all over this nation. It is easy to miss the message of war. It is only as we read the letters and diaries of those who fought that we can grasp that message. Listen to them speak:

During the Civil War:

"Oh, how I long to be home with you and I would forfeit all that I have in this world if I could be let loose from this," wrote a Louisiana soldier to his wife.

A Union physician stated: How I long for this war to be over so that I may go quietly back to my profession of curing and not killing people.

Wrote another Federal soldier at the battle's conclusion: You have no conception of the amount of suffering here. It is a horrible sight.

So we gather this day, both to remember and to recommit. We remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice for their nation. Some were instilled with a sense of patriotism and duty. Others may not have had such high ideals. They were in far away places, where they did not wish to be, fighting a war that they did not completely understand. At this point, it makes no difference whether they did understand. Those whom we this day honor all paid the supreme price. In death they are all equal. In death, they are all noble. It is now remaining to us, the living, to so purify our nation, that their deaths may not have been in vain.

ChristianGlobe Network, Memorial Day, by Brett Blair