Memorial Day - 2005 Living So You Will be Remembered

    Last year on Memorial Day weekend - 2004 was the 60th anniversary of the D-Day Invasion.   The World War II Memorial dedication took place.  Men and women whose stories of duty during WW II were chronicled on some of the news stations.   The Mall in Washington D.C. was filled to capacity with aging WW II vets. Those who tally such grim statistics tell us that already two thirds of them have passed on and over one thousand join their ranks each day. They have every right to be proud of their service to our country and the memorial raised in their honor. Each star in the memorial represents one hundred war dead, we are told - and the stars stretch on forever.  Four hundred and seven thousand American men and women.
     At the Vietnam Memorial, Fifty eight thousand names are carved in stone.  It is one of the most visited sites in the D.C. area.  Yet I have wondered, as I stood looking at all those names, how many of us today are able to see through the countless names on the monument and look into the life of one person or their grieving family who is listed there.
    You see sometimes it’s easy to lump men and women into a compilation of numbers and forget that each of them died, one at a time.   Individual men and women who wanted to live as badly as you and I. Men and women who wanted to raise families. Men and Women with dreams and hopes for the future, just as you and I have. How do we keep them from becoming just statistics or numbers? How do we keep ever before us the fact they were someone’s Father or Uncle or Aunt or Sister or Friend?
    I’m not sure we can. The numbers are too large - The contributors too diverse - The time span is too great.  BUT we can “show honor or esteem for - hold in high regard; and consider or treat with deference or dutiful regard”.   We can remember.  There are several ways we can do that.

      1. Honor those who died in wars for our freedom.   Memorial Day is a time to honor our war dead.  This observance has nothing to do with the justness or unjustness of any particular war.  Beyond politics, we remember these men and women who gave the last full measure of devotion, - even their lives.  Memorial Day is more than just a three day weekend.  It is more than just a sale at the Mall.  It is more than a big discount at the car lot.  In fact, we cheapen the memory of those who have died when that is all it is for us.  Instead, in church, in a cemetery, at a ceremony, we might say a prayer of thanks.  We might remember for a moment that many gave all they had so we could live.

   2. Remember other family/friends that have passed on.  In recent years, Memorial Day has evolved into a time to honor all family and friends who have passed on.  I do not think this inappropriate.  Those who built this nation with their lives in factories, on railroads, on farms, have made this country into a place of prosperity and freedom just as those who gave all on fields of battle.   Memorial Day can a time to remember the past and those who built our nation into a place of freedom.  Memorial Day is a great time for sharing with your children and grandchildren the fact that we would not be living life as we now know it if someone had not paid the price of liberty for us.   When children are old enough, a walk through a cemetery to decorate a grave can be a time for important conversation about your family history and our nation’s history.  Perhaps that seems awkward to you, but if we do not teach our children about the price paid in the past, then they will surely pay for it again and again in the future.   

    Finally, we best remember and honor the past by how we live today, and what kind of world we leave behind us for tomorrow.  At the end of the movie “Private Ryan,” as all the main heroes are about to die, the question is asked of Private Ryan, “Do you deserve this?”   We are all Private Ryan.  Those men, who surely wanted to live, they died for us.  Do we live so as to deserve it?  For most Americans, freedom just means the freedom to watch more trash on TV, eat more junk from McDonalds, buy more rubbish from Wal-Mart, get drunk at another ball game, and just do whatever I want to do.  Is that the freedom they died for?  Did they die so we can live cheap lives that amount to so little?  Or did they hope for more from America?    Freedom is not the ability to do whatever you want.  Freedom is the opportunity to be all that you can be. 
      Such an opportunity comes at a high price.  A high price for those who died for freedom and a high price for those who would live free today.   Do you want to be free today?  Then you must break the chains of slavery.  Where in your life have you surrendered, waved the white flag, and given up your freedom to be all that you can be?   Well, if you want it back, you will have to fight for it. 

      You know, too many sermons these days promise us that if we will just pray a little and read a few verses in the Bible, then a great life will fall out of the sky into our laps.  Well, that is a lie.  You must fight for a life of freedom.  Plato wrote that “order must be imposed.”  Pascal said, “Justice without force is a myth.”  St Augustine commented, “History has shown us that when a people declare they will not fight to defend themselves or protect their rights then they will surely be over run by those with no such qualms.”   And what is true in the broader political world is true in your life.  You must fight for a life of freedom.  Yes, you must pray for strength, but not just a little prayer, but years and years of prayer.  You cannot merely read a few verses of scripture, but you must study and seek diligently for the wisdom of how to live.  And then when God has shown you the way in His Word and you have been empowered by prayer, then you must rise up and march forward into battle.  A free life comes no other way but by hard effort.   God has a life of freedom for His people who will seize it, hold it, cherish it, and never let go.  

     What is it that you want in life?  What kind of person do you want to be?   Men and women have died so that you can enjoy life and liberty in this nation, but the pursuit of happiness is your work.  No one can give you that.  You must pursue it.  What are you waiting for?  This very week, make up your mind that you will no longer live as you have lived.  You will become more.  Stop being vague about your future.  If you wish to be an extraordinary person, then explicitly identify the type of person you wish to become.  Write it down in a notebook.  Studies show that of people who make New Year’s resolutions in their minds, less than ten percent fulfill them.  Those who write them down have over a fifty percent success rate.   Get serious about how you will live your life so as to honor those who have gone before us and to leave behind a legacy for those who will come after us. 
      Memorial Day honors the past, but it must ask us how we shall live in the future.  Otherwise, all of them have died in vain if we squander the opportunities given to us.  How will your life remember?