It's Memorial Day weekend. It's come to be a time of celebrating the start of summer, picnics and family cookouts, parades, golf outings, reunions, fishing tournaments, ballgames, the end of school for the summer.
This year, as in the past several years, and as we prepare to celebrate, we are a nation at war. Which should give us pause, entering a holiday conceived to memorialize the human cost of war. And since we are at war, on this Memorial Day, many families--some whom we know and live with--are remembering loved ones recently killed and wounded. It's not like in the past, when we rightly paused to remember those who fought and died a generation or two ago. It is the current generation of young men and women who are fighting and dying. So it makes me reflective, and I think about the bumper sticker on the car of a wonderful friend, which says "Wage Peace." I understand that hope and imperative. Another good friend wrote a long letter this week, itself a response to a letter from her friend who had been looking at pictures--not pretty--from the current war. Here is an excerpt from what she wrote, followed by my response...and then a prayer for Memorial Day.
"We desire to extend to each individual the kind of gracious and radical hospitality that Jesus practiced. But to do so is also to acknowledge that we are broken and deeply flawed human beings whom God is gradually knitting back together. We cannot and will not reflect a perfect hospitality, a deep and abiding generosity of spirit without the presence of God in our own lives. Equally, we have to name and reflect on the places where we are guilty both of individual and of corporate sin."
This year, as in the past several years, and as we prepare to celebrate, we are a nation at war. Which should give us pause, entering a holiday conceived to memorialize the human cost of war. And since we are at war, on this Memorial Day, many families--some whom we know and live with--are remembering loved ones recently killed and wounded. It's not like in the past, when we rightly paused to remember those who fought and died a generation or two ago. It is the current generation of young men and women who are fighting and dying. So it makes me reflective, and I think about the bumper sticker on the car of a wonderful friend, which says "Wage Peace." I understand that hope and imperative. Another good friend wrote a long letter this week, itself a response to a letter from her friend who had been looking at pictures--not pretty--from the current war. Here is an excerpt from what she wrote, followed by my response...and then a prayer for Memorial Day.
"We desire to extend to each individual the kind of gracious and radical hospitality that Jesus practiced. But to do so is also to acknowledge that we are broken and deeply flawed human beings whom God is gradually knitting back together. We cannot and will not reflect a perfect hospitality, a deep and abiding generosity of spirit without the presence of God in our own lives. Equally, we have to name and reflect on the places where we are guilty both of individual and of corporate sin."
Amen. And here's the part I struggle with...
Why are we broken? Original sin. We're born busted. Or, born "tabula rasa" in a busted world that breaks us and molds us, inevitably, into less than God's intention for us. Call it whatever you will, this brokenness means there will always be, until Jesus comes back, those in this world who will use evil--in all its guises, cruelties, and manifestations--to impose their selfish will on others. Do we not see this every day?
How to respond? Especially to those so totally amoral and broken that hacking off arms of innocent children, or burning people alive (to name just a few horrors of war--ever read "The Rape of Nanking"; THAT one will keep you wake nights!)? I used to think Gandhi's form of nonviolence could and would always out. In some circumstances, perhaps it can. I also know that, in this busted world, the poor we will always have with us, as well as war, and selfishness, and cruelty. Jesus warned us about that. No amount of wishing it weren't so can change that. That said, of course, I believe in working for peace, and trying to end war. It just is never going to happen until the redemption of creation is complete. And only God knows when that is going to happen.
So I will honor those who fight, and celebrate that we have a military, unlike that in other places, where there ARE rules, and where we continue to try and reduce the costs of war--understanding of course that you cannot make something inherently bad into something good. Be that as it may, most soldiers I know--even generals, especially the generals--NEVER want to go to war. They've seen it. They understand the costs. They know it's really bad.
I'm not smart enough to figure it all out! I believe in Waging Peace...and think we should have a cumpulsory draft, like in Israel. I believe in Just War theory and diplomacy...and in sending in the Navy Seals, or a Marine Expeditionary Unit when the occasion demands. I believe in walking softly, treading lightly...and having a big stick, just in case. We SHOULD be careful, and count our own personal and corporate sin; that is at heart the focus of the debate about the current war, when you get right down to it...and we all want it to be over, and soon.
Until then, let us not forget those who have given part of themselves, literally, or given their very lives, for us. Whether or not you agree that the current war is "just," our brothers and sisters fighting it are doing it for us, and because they are willing to risk everything for us.
A Memorial Day Prayer
God in Heaven, how you must grieve our warring ways. Eden is your goal for Earth, but Hell is what we so often make of it. However we are responsible for turning Heaven into Hell, forgive us, and through your ever-gracious and loving Spirit, convict of us our sin and short-sightedness, our greed and ambition, our pride and lusts for power, and every other cause that turns us against one another. Your Son would have us seek you first, before everything else. So simple...and yet we are so unwilling. God, hurriedly, quickly, change our willful ways and be merciful to us.
And Lord, grant peace beyond whatever we can give to those who have given their lives to defend and protect us. Be with their families in a supernatural way, that they might know peace, even as they suffer the terrible cost of war. Strengthen and miraculously comfort those with ruined bodies; unfailingly help those who help them to offer great compassion, and unending patience. Stir the hearts of all those who have the means to help the wounded and the dying, especially our leaders who hold the purse strings, so that nothing is held back. Help us all to count the costs, and understand; to tread lightly when we can, and exercise restraint when we must, and serve courageously when needed. And finally, God of Creation, help us pursue, with your unstoppable divine power, every option for justice and peace, before we turn against others and unleash our earthly power. Give us your wisdom, and help us depend less on our own. Amen.
Until then, let us not forget those who have given part of themselves, literally, or given their very lives, for us. Whether or not you agree that the current war is "just," our brothers and sisters fighting it are doing it for us, and because they are willing to risk everything for us.
A Memorial Day Prayer
God in Heaven, how you must grieve our warring ways. Eden is your goal for Earth, but Hell is what we so often make of it. However we are responsible for turning Heaven into Hell, forgive us, and through your ever-gracious and loving Spirit, convict of us our sin and short-sightedness, our greed and ambition, our pride and lusts for power, and every other cause that turns us against one another. Your Son would have us seek you first, before everything else. So simple...and yet we are so unwilling. God, hurriedly, quickly, change our willful ways and be merciful to us.
And Lord, grant peace beyond whatever we can give to those who have given their lives to defend and protect us. Be with their families in a supernatural way, that they might know peace, even as they suffer the terrible cost of war. Strengthen and miraculously comfort those with ruined bodies; unfailingly help those who help them to offer great compassion, and unending patience. Stir the hearts of all those who have the means to help the wounded and the dying, especially our leaders who hold the purse strings, so that nothing is held back. Help us all to count the costs, and understand; to tread lightly when we can, and exercise restraint when we must, and serve courageously when needed. And finally, God of Creation, help us pursue, with your unstoppable divine power, every option for justice and peace, before we turn against others and unleash our earthly power. Give us your wisdom, and help us depend less on our own. Amen.
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