As you came into church this morning most of you received poppies in recognition that tomorrow is Memorial Day. If you didn’t receive one you can get them from the ushers following the service.
In this country, Memorial Day is the day we recognize those who have paid the supreme sacrifice; giving their lives in service to our country.
This tradition began shortly after our civil war with Southerners visiting their local cemeteries to decorate the graves of Confederate soldiers, and was picked up shortly thereafter in northern states.
The tradition of handing out poppies is something we picked up from the British following world war 1.
A Canadian soldier, Lt. Col. John McCrae was a medical officer in the British army in WW1. In the midst of the bloody carnage on the western front, he had the sad experience of burying a close friend there on the battlefield in Flanders.
he noticed that despite the carnage and utter ruination of the land, red poppies defiantly poked up amidst the detritus of battle, and he penned the following words first published in 1915:
in Flanders fields the poppies blow
between the crosses, row on row,
that mark our place; and in the sky
the larks, still bravely singing, fly
scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead. Short days ago
we lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
loved and were loved, and now we lie
in Flanders fields.
take up our quarrel with the foe:
to you from failing hands we throw
the torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
we shall not sleep, though poppies grow
in Flanders fields.
These words so captured the soul of wartime Britain that it gave birth to the tradition of wearing poppies on the 11th of November, Armistice Day; the day the Great War, World War 1, ended.
And so that day became their Remembrance Day, their Memorial Day, and every year on that day since; poppies remind the British nation of the tremendous sacrifice of life paid for the inheritance of freedom they have received and continued to experience in subsequent generations.
That tradition of poppies as a symbol of remembrance was later translated to our American Remembrance Day: Memorial Day, where we remember those who gave their lives that we might inherit the freedoms we have today in this country. I grew up with some sense that what we have today is not ours to possess, that it is something we’ve inherited at great cost.
My dad, my friends’ dads were all World War 2 veterans, and Memorial Day was always important to us in the town where I grew up and in the schools that I attended.
We had a parade where we saw the vets from World War 1& 2, we visited the cemeteries and put flags on the graves. We wore poppies handed out by the American Legion.
But it was really brought home to me in the 70s when I was stationed in Germany. With another army family, we took a trip to Normandy where we walked the beach at Omaha.
Before the French cleaned up the beaches there were still the remnants of battle present. We saw hundreds of small arms casings that would disintegrate when you pick them up; shards of rusted barbwire, rusted handles of entrenching tools, the tops and bottoms of C ration cans, I even picked up what I thought to be a German 88 projectile that was sticking up out of the sand. It was split so there was no risk.
We walked from that beach, up the slope, on a trail that dropped us suddenly and unexpectedly into the midst of acres of white crosses. I had to just stop. It was as if we had walked into an invisible wall, and the weight of that place bore down on me. It brought me to tears. I felt the weight of indebtedness to all those in that place. I had this sense that I owed them something, and thanks is just not enough. Maybe it is just a generational thing, but I have a sense that Memorial Day is slipping from memory – at least its true meaning. We still have the vacation time but it seems it is so easy to forget, there is a cost paid for who we are and what we have in our lives today.
Our problem, it seems is that we do forget, we sometimes tend to take our lives for granted, to forget the cost, it may just be a part of our human condition, that thing called sin. We are still in the period in the church year where we measure time from Easter; the whole Easter event, not just the Resurrection. There is no need to remember a resurrection unless there is a dead person to resurrect.
looking over our shoulder we are reminded that just a few weeks ago we celebrated an event of much greater significance, of far greater magnitude and influence in history, and certainly more life altering.
You see, every time we gather in worship, every marriage, burial, holy day, in our liturgical tradition, we celebrate a Memorial Day. A day we remember a huge battle, a battle in which there was but one death; only one laid down his life. But that one death gained us so much more than the millions that have died in all the battles in history. In the Gospel of John this morning we hear a part of Jesus in prayer on the eve of this great battle, his battle for us, his battle for our life. In anticipating this coming battle, he prays that he might glorify the Father in that moment, that he will have the courage to stand, because that moment of glorification –his death–is to bring eternal life to all who would believe in him. It is the definitive proof of God’s love for humanity and it will literally change everything.
He claims responsibility for those who follow him, he claims to have given all he has, to them and for them. He bequeaths to them the truth of his word, and the potential of the very relationship he has with his father.
As he and the Father are one, so might we be one in Him. And finally, he prays protection upon them as he faces his battle, knowing he will die for these he’s prayed for.
This prayer we see coming to fulfillment in Jesus’ ascension to the Father, which we celebrated this past Thursday, and in Pentecost which we will celebrate next Sunday, where the church, to paraphrase McCrae’s poem: takes up the quarrel with the foe, taking the torch to hold it high.
We know the outcome of that battle. We remember that battle and celebrate the outcome of that battle every Sunday. We proclaim that he died for the forgiveness of our sins. then he rose from the dead victorious and he bequeathed to us the laurels of that victory: Forgiveness of our sins, victory over our own inadequacies and failures, and eternal life, eternal salvation, victory over death.
Remembrance is an important thing; not to remember is to devalue, and that which we devalue we discard.
So, wear these poppies this weekend. May we remember those who have given their lives so that future generations might inherit the freedoms and nation in which we live today.
And going forth from worship in this place today, be reminded of him who gave his all for our salvation, and let us intend to be a poppy in this world, living life in the light of what we have inherited through Jesus, to remind others of that other battle, that other life given, that others may inherit the joy, the hope, the blessings we have inherited through Jesus Christ.
Sermon preached by the Rev. Richard C. Marsden
Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota Florida
7th Sunday after Easter
28 May 2017