Rev. Dr. Bary R. Fleet - Pastor
May 25, 2008 – 2nd Sunday after Pentecost
Isaiah 49:8-16a; Ecclesiastes 3:1-9/
1st Corinthians 4:1-5
Matthew 6:24-34

Something’s Gotta’ Change

An event happened this week that escaped the evening news … the 4,000th member of the U.S. military was killed in the Iraqi war. Our news media is too busy with the presidential nominations and the weather to let us know what is happening in other fronts.

Of the four thousand killed, one in six was too young to buy a beer. About two dozen were old enough for an AARP card. Eleven died on Thanksgiving Day, 11 on Christmas and at least five on their birthdays. One percent were named Smith.

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 petals 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.

There are two reasons why Christians should celebrate Memorial Day: to reflect and to re-commit.

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 professor and Episcopalian rector. 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.

John Thompson of New York City, was 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 quit 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 sharpshooter’s 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 affected 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.

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.

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.

Wouldn’t it be nice some day to be able to take our children and our grandchildren to a mountain where the faces of, say, Abraham Lincoln or Martin Luther King, Jr. or Gandhi - those whose faces remind us of both the pain of war and the commitment to a peaceful way of life. 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.

Based on a sermon entitled “Memorial Day,” Brett Blair and Staff, ChristianGlobe Network, 2000,

SERMON IN A SACK: Memorial Day flowers. Tell the story of the origins of Memorial Day – about how the idea was for children to sprinkle flower petals on the graves of the dead soldiers from the Civil War in 1868.

IN MEMORY OF THE SOLDIERS FROM RHODE ISLAND WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES SINCE THE BEGINNING OF THE WAR IN IRAQ.

In order of their deaths:
 Michael Andrade, 28 – Bristol;
Gregory Belanger, 24 – Narragansett;
Charles Caldwell, 38 – No. Providence;
Matthew August, 28 – No. Kingstown;
Matthew Serio, 21 – No. Providence;
Christopher Potts, 38 – Tiverton;
Holly Cherette, 21, Cranston;
Matthew Coutu, 23, No. Kingstown;
Brian St. Germain, 22 – Warwick;
Moises Jazmin, 25 – Providence;
Michael Wedemann, 23, Newport;
Nathan Schuldheiss, 27 – Newport
 .