St. Luke’s Episcopal / Prescott
The Rev. Mark Moline
Memorial Day Sunday / May 25th, 2008
Title: “Truth Marches On”
“In the beauty of the lilies, Christ was born across the sea, with a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me: as he died to make men Holy – let us die to make men free…. His truth is marching on.” This weekend we celebrate Memorial Day, and so we pause briefly to reflect that God’s truth is still marching on.
Back in 1942 God’s truth marched across the southern deserts of Arizona as fellow Episcopalian George Patton and his army of very young Americans prepared and trained to march across North Africa and Europe. And so they did, and subsequently lost many of their own – many of our own along that treacherous path. I know that today it’s not trendy, it’s not popular theology, it is not even pleasant to consider – but still I believe God’s truth rolled with them in their M4-Sherman tanks, marching across war-torn Africa and Europe in 1944 and then on April 11th, 1945 God’s truth rolled through the very gates of hell – at a place called Buchenwald.
Many will disagree, but I believe there are some things worse than the horrors of war. In raw terms of human suffering and death, our own nation’s history of institutionalized slavery produced far greater pain, suffering, deprivation and loss than did the war that ended all that evil. I think such was the same with the European Holocaust of the mid 1900s. I know it’s not popular with all Episcopalians, but “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: there is a time for war, and a time for peace.”
War is indeed a terrible thing. Memorial Day was never intended as a celebration of War – it is not my intent today to glorify the awful realities of war, but one must at least consider what a Nazi dominated world would be like today with its hi-tech Buchenwalds scattered around the globe. The young martyrs of Patton’s 3rd Army still stand between us and that unimaginable hell.
Yes indeed -There is a time for every matter under heaven and on April 11th 1945 it was long past due time for Hitler’s death camps to be closed down with force. Our nation did just that and it cost us a lot —- on this Memorial Day let us remember that high price of freedom.
As Julia Howe continues in her Battle Hymn – “I have read a fiery Gospel writ in burnished rows of steel; Let the Hero born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel – God’s truth is marching on. I know “non-violence” worked for Gandhi against the British Empire, it did not work against the Nazi evil. One size does not fit all with sin and oppression. Evil is complex. In this life, there is no simple easy answer in rectifying cruelty.
General Dwight Eisenhower immediately visited Buchenwald following its liberation. Later on he wrote home to Mamie, “I never dreamed that such cruelty, bestiality, and savagery could really exist in this world.” Ike was a war hardened veteran soldier. He knew that many would just be unable to grasp the extent and full scope of this horror. Human inhumanity to humankind is something we don’t want to consider to its fullest extent – even the thought is too painful.
Eisenhower knew that such extreme human behavior which was so utterly inhumane might eventually be denied. With this very real possibility in mind, he mandated that the news media and military photography units be required to tour the camps and record their observations in print, still photos and even motion pictures. Ike’s prediction proved all too accurate. Even in the face of such massive official documentation, some folks deny the Holocaust to this day. In fact, to this casual observer there seems to be a resurgence of denial as of late.
Today – Historical revisionism grows rapidly. Now the war-between-the-states was no longer fought primarily to abolish slavery. To these revisionists it is as though John Brown and the rebellion at Harper’s Ferry never really existed. The sinking of the “Maine”, pre-world–war-one torpedoing of innocent passenger liners, Pearl Harbor, Korea, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Gulf of Tonken Incident, and of course now, the destruction of the World Trade Center can all be explained away as the sinister fault of our own evil war mongering government. The revisionist’s political game and biased agenda are at least a little suspect when some of our own citizens can find nothing our nation ever did for the good of the world community. I suspect we now owe Nathan Hale an apology. Both the truth and our indebtedness to our nation’s martyrs suffer at the hands of those who re-write our history to suit their self-serving politics driven agenda.
The 25th Chapter of Matthew is one of my favorites. I think that portion of scripture, that great imperative about separating the sheep from the goats based on a criteria of feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, welcoming the stranger and visiting the sick and those in prison – I think that passage serves as a valuable personal tool of assessment for each of us in taking stock of our personal life as individual Christians.
But this passage also addresses the nations and the world community – and I think that we dare not ignore such on this Memorial Day weekend. Jesus begins this great imperative by saying “When the Son of Man comes in all His Glory, and all the angels with him, then He will sit on the Throne of Glory, and all the nations will be gathered before him and He will separate one people from another as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.” It almost sounds as though, that throughout human history there have been sheep nations and goat nations based solidly upon their willingness to care for those in need?
Surely only a free nation would be free to do that good work based upon individual and community compassion and love. True love cannot be mandated by a central authority. I think using our freedom to help the needy has a lot to do with who we are as a nation. Our critics are many – both inside and out, but the United States has long led the world in sending out missionaries and aid to missions, more than all of the rest of the nations put together. More charity, more aid to the afflicted, more medical help, more educational endowment, more industrial assistance and especially more Christian outreach has gone out from our beloved nation than any other nation. I believe the Marshall Plan alone — must be viewed as one of the single greatest accomplishments of humankind. Never before in history has a victorious nation been more willing to help others ravaged by war, including its own former enemies.
Because we are a government of and by the people, we must always continue to assess our individual willingness to care for those less fortunate regardless of their faith, nationality or culture. But we also need to thank God for the United States of America and its common spirit of sacrifice and giving. We must thank God for our right use of freedom. God Bless America. Let America Bless God. God bless those who died to protect our freedom to seek the truth, His truth is marching on.
