Memorial Day Sermon May 30, 2010

Memorial Day Sermon
May 30, 2010
Rev. Michael Burch

The sermon I have for you this morning, on this Memorial Day weekend, is neither an uncritical defense of war and militarism, nor a naive explanation of how we can end all war by a romanticized application of a peace and love. We need to be more scrutinizing than choosing sides. The memorializing of the fallen in battle is an important act that begs for thoughtful consideration of war and human sacrifice. What really are we saying when we honor those who have died in battle?

Origins of Memorial Day Remembrances –
The Origins of Memorial Day go back to the Civil War, when at the conclusion of this war almost 600,000 lie dead, a staggering 2% of the United States population at the time. This would be the equivalent of the United States fighting a war today that would lead to more than six million dead. Imagine it, six million. Memorial Day grew almost spontaneously within a year of the end of the civil war because the losses could not be forgotten, ever. The human tragedy of that war affected every family in the United States. War is vicious, brutal, and the damages often permanent.
In spite of the heroism we can point to in war time, Memorial Day is a remembering of tragedy, and there has been no tragedy relative to the loss of life, as horrific as the Civil War.

Memorial Day has also, over the generations, grown into a general time of respect for troops, for the soldier who puts so much at risk in the course of civic duty. There has long been an ideal of the “good soldier.” Reaching back into the ancient period, there was a clear notion of a good soldier, which mirrored the notion of a good citizen. The reason was because virtually all Greek and Roman citizens were soldiers too – only men held citizenship, and warfare for all men was an honor and the most expedient way to a noble or glorious death that could have afterlife benefits. The protection and survival of the city-state was essential, and first in importance. The virtues championed for such a priority were popularized through Stoic philosophy, but were foundational in Greco-Roman culture – there were four chief virtues that led one to ultimate virtue; Wisdom, Justice, Bravery, Self-Control, the latter two were especially applicable to warfare. To fight in the ancient style of battle one had to keep rank and file. The armies typically fought in columns that weakened when they dispersed. One had to0 exercise the utmost in bravery and self-control to hold your station in your column as bodies dropped all around you. The temptation to flee was great, but death on the battlefield was the ultimate personal accomplishment in many ways. So much was this case that countless soldiers in ancient battle chose to run themselves through with their own sword, perhaps falling over their sword, rather than flee when the encroaching enemy was about to overrun their adversary.

From the ancient perspective, battle made one a more virtuous and better person. It defined men, and prevented women from ever truly being recognized as having a capacity for virtue.

That was then, this is now – and we have to ask ourselves if warfare really makes us better people. We can and should both commemorate the fallen soldier in U.S. history and ask if we cannot do better by that soldier. Is death on the battlefield what soldiers long for today? Or is it to complete their service honorably and return home to their families safely?

Honor by warfare requires an enemy. The violence of warfare must be justified by the creation of a deserving enemy – an enemy so evil their destruction is not only warranted, but demanded. Yes, warfare demands a justifiable violence. Thus honor can require the creation, the construction, of the “perfect enemy.” How many foreign rulers have you heard likened to Hitler?

Creating, defining the enemy – a tried and true means of recruiting troops
We are no longer living in the ancient past when it comes to warfare – too much has changed. At the same time, we can hardly make a case that war has never accomplished a good – a relative good, albeit, but a good that people recognize as such. Who here would claim the Revolutionary War did not have a positive outcome? Who here would stand up and declare the Civil War a bad war when it led to the emancipation of millions of African slaves? And who here wants to argue the United States should not have gotten involved in WWII, and led the liberation so many from the inhumane Nazi concentration camps?

You might not like it, but there is a compelling case for war. We live in a world where we unfortunately believe we can only end some kinds of injustices with violence. We smash violence with more violence – and sometimes we would say, “it worked.”

As the popular 20th century theologian Reinhold Neibhur stated, humans have a capacity for justice, but an inclination for injustice
Is he right? Can anyone claim otherwise that humans have a capacity for injustice, but an inclination for justice?

We live in a world where peace songs and peace protests don’t make evil go away – but also live in a world where good intentions with the use of force often rarely go as planned.

Today, not only do soldiers think differently about service and battle, but our wars are so profoundly different than wars prior to the 20th century, much different than wars in the ancient world, though the perspective and ethic of ancient cultures regarding soldiers and war have survived in part until today.

But the wars we fight are beyond words. WWI and WWII combined, just two decades apart killed over 100 million people by many estimates! 100 million people! This is truly a new world, a new kind of warfare. All War is not the same. It’s almost as if we need a name for war before our era, and contemporary war – they represent different tragedies and have far longer lasting implications This is a new age – total war not realistic. There has to be a better way.

Or am I just being naïve? Perhaps, but I still believe that Jesus teachings are relevant here, although I recognize that his words are not those of a person schooled in international diplomacy, nor does Jesus give much nation state advice. Nevertheless, how can we read the gospels and not think that Jesus would at least say, “we can do better than this, and we must do better than this?

Stop for just one moment, and think of our collective national history. Not a single generation has passed and there not been warfare – it is astounding – follow me through history and see that longest period of peace we have seen was between 1865 and 1898, only 33 years. We are a militaristic state, as much as one would rather opt for the words, “a leader of democracy in the world.”
• The American Revolutionary War, (1775-1783)
• The War of 1812 (1812-1815)
• The Mexican-American War (1846-1848)
• The Civil War (1861-1865)
• The Spanish-American War (1898)
• WWI (1914-1919)
• WWII (1939-1945)
• Korean War (1950-1953)
• Vietnam War (1955-1973)
• Persian Gulf War (1990-91)
• Iraq War (2003 - )
• Afghanistan-Taliban War (2001 - )

This is a sobering realization, and one that must compel all of us to say, “we can do better.”

I’ve never served in the military. I have never had the experience of warfare. There is no doubt that that experience changes a person, forever – and understandably so. There is no experience to which one can liken warfare. It is brutal, merciless, ruthless, and tragic. And it has indeed taken the lives of many.

And yet, we have this real dilemma in trying to live by a blanket principle of condemning all war. We have seen war prevent what we believe to be greater evils. Who can criticize what the allies prevented in WWII, stopping a deranged Nazi dictator, halting Jewish atrocities, saving Europe? Who can criticize what was accomplished in the bloodiest of battles the civil war, a war that not only ended slavery in the United States but had a ripple effect in the western hemisphere crippling the slave trade elsewhere, and allowing America to begin its path of healing racial hostility and beginning the building of one society – And who can criticize the American Revolutionary war that led to the founding of America, a world shaping experiment in democracy and new found freedoms.

We can defend war well - and we do.

But my reflection on this Memorial Day, in 2010, is focused particularly upon the soldier – the service men and women who lives were cut short, and our memorial to them is not just a passing thought but an invitation each and every year to consider the lives of these many, so, so many service persons, who lost promising lives at young ages – for others. But we would all be exercising neglect if we did not take this time to contemplate very seriously the place of war in our world.

Some say war is inevitable as long as human beings are human beings. Some say war is preventable and that we can build a world without such forms of destruction, and loss of life.

My message this morning encourages us to remember the fallen in a way that causes us to take seriously the question of war, violence, ethnic and religious hatred – these are things for which the Gospel calls us to take up, and remedy.

I believe war is still and will continue to be a real and constant threat. Many Christians have concluded that participating in war can represent a greater good than non-resistance or pacifism. They might be right, but to fail to try to disprove that is wrong. That’s right, it’s wrong. We cannot afford a world wide conflict. The potential devastation with modern warfare technology is unimaginable.

I believe today, what I have not always believed - that one day the world will be without war. I’m not talking about a pie-in-the-sky, when Jesus comes back and makes the world a better place, idea – I’m talking about human beings, deciding that we can dispense with war as a punitive tool or a means to solving disputes. There will still be conflicts in this world, that will not go away. There may still be ways for one group to deliver punitive damage to another, but not necessarily by warfare. Not by way of nuclear disaster that can potentially destroys hundreds of millions of people in days and set cultures back by generations

We have to give consideration to the steps we need to take to end war as a political tool. We are called to strive for that faith. Governments ought to be held accountable for wars, and our criticisms of government can be productive to be certain – but, it is easy to blame governments for wars. We are not powerless before any government.

How do I start with me? How do I begin to break down the walls of hostility, hatred, and fear within me? How do I begin to finally say the best way I can honor the fallen is to do my part in making sacrifices for peace, in coming to understand my world as a world that does not just belong to me and those like me, but is a world shared by billions, in a world where war has devastated millions.

Listen to this Pauline letter, a synopsis of his words in the letter to the Ephesians. How can one deny that part of the Gospel’s mandate is not just peace with God, but for groups in hostile relationships, to break down the walls of hostility and peacefully co-exist, even work together.

Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles… were at one time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth and strangers to the covenants of promise... But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near, For Jesus himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility… that he might create in himself one new human in place of the two, so making peace…killing the hostility. So then you are…fellow citizens… being built together into one dwelling place by the Spirit.

In closing, we are called to respect the conscience of our sisters and brothers, those who take up arms and sacrifice their lives – those who refuse and not just hope for fewer fallen soldier to memorialize, but take up the labor within, the spiritual quest for a better day. There has been no simple solution or easy 1-2-3 steps to take, offered in this sermon. This quest must be a spiritual journey we all as individuals take up individually, and do better on our own account first. That journey, that commitment will lead to better ideas, better tools, better conflict resolution – it will allow us just to do better. I recognize that I am open to criticism for being too naïve. Perhaps… Perhaps….

On this day, Memorial Day, we pay tribute to those who have fallen, and we ask of ourselves what more can we do, what more can I do, to carry out the Gospel that Jesus has called us to – the Gospel of Peace and Reconciliation.

Let those who have ears to hear, hear -