Memorial Day 2009

Today is Memorial Day. At eight o’clock this morning I went to the flagpole in my front yard, and I lowered the national ensign to half-mast as a token of respect to our nation’s war dead. When I looked around at my neighbor’s home, those people who display flags had not lowered them. I also noted that there were fewer flags flying than last year, and far fewer than after September 11, 2001. At noon, I closed-up the national ensign, just as Memorial Day requires. I was disappointed that, as far as I could determine, I was the only person in my neighborhood who flew his flag at half-mast during the prescribed time.

I was also disappointed yesterday afternoon when I attended a Memorial Day worship service at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery. After the service, my sons and I strolled through a small portion of the graveyard looking at several headstones. Twenty-three Medal of Honor awardees are interred in the cemetery, including Master-at-Arms Second Class Michael A. Monsoor, U.S. Navy, who gave his life in Ramadi, Iraq, on September, 29, 2006. After looking for a while my younger son remarked that many of the dead were so young when they died. Yes, they were; and so is he.

My disappointment came when we were returning to our car to leave, and we walked through the chairs that had been arranged for this morning’s ceremony. All the chairs around the rostrum were to be filled with dignitaries and politicians (not to distinguish them from the dignitaries, at least as a class), veterans and chaplains. The main body of chairs for the audience had several rows whose seats were reserved for representatives of veteran organizations. But, in the third row, on the left side, on the aisle were six chairs reserved for Gold Star Mothers. I shook my head. I remember a day when these mothers, who had lost their sons in the line of duty (this is before the reprehensible and sinful military policy of women in combat) were given THE place of honor.

Traditional observances on national holidays are important, I think. It reminds us of who we are as a people (E Pluribus Unum, or so it was at one time), and of our history as a nation. However, it has been a long time since our observances of national holidays have served to remind us of what sort of people we can become as a nation. I have grown weary of the speeches of politicians, generals, and admirals who merely rehash Pericles’ Funeral Oration and offer no hope of a future when wars will cease. Thus, I avoid parades and Memorial Day commemorations. Except for the annual Memorial Day worship service.

As our nation sinks deeper and deeper into the pit of pagan idolatry and perversion, I have grown cautious of those who seek to return our nation to the time when the Christian faith flourished at its founding. I think I understand what they mean. Any cursory reading of Scripture reveals the longing for righteousness of an exiled people certainly resonates with the longing for righteousness in our land which most, but not all, Christians seek. However, my caution is based on a refusal to participate in sentimentalism. However, if Christians desire to study the history of this nation with a mind firmly rooted in the Word of God and of His providential care for us, then I am most hopeful. The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is always forward looking.

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.”Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
Matthew 28:18-20

If we desire to return to a time when righteousness was a national characteristic, then we, as God’s people, are going to have to seek God’s kingdom and His righteousness first. We must seek God’s righteousness in every area of our life, from economics to health care, from diplomacy to education, from justice to the care of the poor. As Abraham Kuyper once stated, "Oh, no single piece of our mental world is to be hermetically sealed off from the rest, and there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: 'Mine!'" Apart from this, we have no hope. But, do not fear. The Lord Jesus Christ has overcome the world.