Remember

Deuteronomy 8:2

2 And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.

Today – let’s take a moment to remember a few things. This is Memorial Day weekend. Here’s a great article explaining the history:

“Memorial Day is an American holiday, observed on the last Monday of May, honoring the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. Memorial Day 2020 occurs on Monday, May 25.

Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971. Many Americans observe Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries or memorials, holding family gatherings and participating in parades. Unofficially, it marks the beginning of the summer season.

Early Observances of Memorial Day

The Civil War, which ended in the spring of 1865, claimed more lives than any conflict in U.S. history and required the establishment of the country’s first national cemeteries.

By the late 1860s, Americans in various towns and cities had begun holding springtime tributes to these countless fallen soldiers, decorating their graves with flowers and reciting prayers.

Did you know?

Each year on Memorial Day a national moment of remembrance takes place at 3:00 p.m. local time.

It is unclear where exactly this tradition originated; numerous different communities may have independently initiated the memorial gatherings. And some records show that one of the earliest Memorial Day commemoration was organized by a group of freed slaves in Charleston, South Carolina less than a month after the Confederacy surrendered in 1865. Nevertheless, in 1966 the federal government declared Waterloo, New York, the official birthplace of Memorial Day.

Waterloo—which first celebrated the day on May 5, 1866—was chosen because it hosted an annual, community-wide event, during which businesses closed and residents decorated the graves of soldiers with flowers and flags.

On May 5, 1868, General John A. Logan, leader of an organization for Northern Civil War veterans, called for a nationwide day of remembrance later that month. “The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land,” he proclaimed.

The date of Decoration Day, as he called it, was chosen because it wasn’t the anniversary of any particular battle.

On the first Decoration Day, General James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, and 5,000 participants decorated the graves of the 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers buried there.

Many Northern states held similar commemorative events and reprised the tradition in subsequent years; by 1890 each one had made Decoration Day an official state holiday. Southern states, on the other hand, continued to honor their dead on separate days until after World War I.

Confederate Memorial Day is still celebrated in several states and will be on Sunday, April 26, 2020 in Florida; on Monday, April 27, 2020 in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi and on May 11, 2020, in parts of South Carolina. The practice of commemorating the Confederacy became even more controversial after massacre at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston in 2015.

History of Memorial Day

Memorial Day, as Decoration Day gradually came to be known, originally honored only those lost while fighting in the Civil War. But during World War I the United States found itself embroiled in another major conflict, and the holiday evolved to commemorate American military personnel who died in all wars, including World War II, The Vietnam War, The Korean War and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

For decades, Memorial Day continued to be observed on May 30, the date Logan had selected for the first Decoration Day. But in 1968 Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which established Memorial Day as the last Monday in May in order to create a three-day weekend for federal employees; the change went into effect in 1971. The same law also declared Memorial Day a federal holiday.

Cities and towns across the United States host Memorial Day parades each year, often incorporating military personnel and members of veterans’ organizations. Some of the largest parades take place in Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C.

Americans also observe Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries and memorials. Some people wear a red poppy in remembrance of those fallen in war—a tradition that began with a World War I poem. On a less somber note, many people take weekend trips or throw parties and barbecues on the holiday, perhaps because Memorial Day weekend—the long weekend comprising the Saturday and Sunday before Memorial Day and Memorial Day itself—unofficially marks the beginning of summer.

https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/memorial-day-history”

As we gather with family and friends this Memorial Day weekend – we will be doing so in one of the most memorable times of our lives. There will be many conversations about what is happening all around us, and more than one mention of the freedom we feel we’ve lost or the lack of liberty at being able to choose for ourselves.

The men and women we memorialize this weekend are the men and women who laid down their lives in an effort to preserve the freedoms and liberties we have have recognized since our country’s founding as rights – rights endowed by our creator. These rights are recognized as inalienable – or – unable to remove from – the individual. The difficulty is that to we must be free to exercise these rights or we are not, in essence, a free people. But the free exercise has been inhibited because of “the greater good” – that people will be unnecessarily risking the lives of others if they so much as venture out of their house without a mask on. This greater good is enforced because we have been told that we are not able to, as free individuals, recognize and apply on our own the necessary measures within society to protect one another. In short, a large part of those in power have derided their constituents by telling them they cannot be personally responsible in this moment in history. Judging by the number of people who continue to smoke while wearing a mask in public – I don’t doubt the individual’s ability to be irresponsible. Based on the years of working in behavioral classroom environments I don’t doubt the individual’s ability to be irresponsible. Knowing myself, I don’t doubt the individual’s ability to be irresponsible. It is this impulse that sits right below the surface that desires to rebel against authority that is both an expression of individual rights and our ability to responsibly live together in society and an expression of individual irresponsibility driven by the idea that you cannot force me to do or not do anything.

The heart of the Gospel is capacity to be personally responsible. Think about it. No one can “accept” Jesus for me. No one can make me believe in Him. No one can package Him up and sell Him to me. I must make that decision for myself. I must be personally responsible for making a decision to follow Him. This may be the only true exercise of an individual right – to accept or reject the person of Jesus. Oh the joy in accepting, and the terror of rejecting! Galatians 5:1 says, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” That freedom is the expression of our individual responsibility. And the denial of pursuing a sinful life. Isn’t that what it boils down to? Even now? I can choose to pursue my freedom in a way that either protects myself and others (following Christ) or embellishes myself at the expense of others (following sinful self). Both of these conditions can be present in the same moment in different individuals and we are seeing this played out before our eyes today more clearly than before.

The beauty of being a Christ follower is supposed to be that we can come to different conclusions about a moment and still all be followers of Christ. You want to gather in a common place to share in fellowship and God’s word during a pandemic? Do so, and do so safely and wisely. It does not make your faith greater because you choose to exercise that faith in a common place. As a Christ follower are you uncomfortable gathering in a common place during a pandemic out of an abundance of caution? The join with those other believers through prayer and scripture from home. This does not make your faith greater because you choose to exercise that faith from home out of a sense of caution and care. As a Christ follower one of the keys to community is to exercise within the faith without bringing judgment on one another in issues that don’t warrant judgment. The wise exercise of personal responsibility during a pandemic (going out or staying home based on the wisdom of the individual and their current assessment of their health and risk factors) is by far a non-judgmental issue.

Ultimately – we look forward to and long for the time when there will be no more suffering, no more tears, no more death. But these things are not yet come – they are the promise of a life having been given to Jesus. But that promise is unrealized in a life that does not take on the responsibility of following Jesus. To deny Him is to follow self. And trusting in myself is the most irresponsible thing I could do. The wisdom and guidance we are promised (and receive!) from the Holy Spirit and through the body of Christ is irreplaceable. More than anything, I pray that we have exercised our rights within our homes to increase our faithfulness to Christ in everything we say and do.

Let’s pray,

Father – we love you and thank you for the selfless act of so many. We know that these selfless acts are a reflection of the greatest act of love – the death of your Son. We are so thankful you raised him from the dead and defeated death for all who believe and follow him! May we be the people who carry this word of life in all that we say and do as we exercise your wisdom in these difficult days. God we love you and pray these things in your name. Amen.