The first congregation that I served as pastor was in a small town in Wisconsin. On Memorial Day weekend we gathered at city hall for a procession led by the high school band. We marched down the street to the city cemetery, where a religious service was held. Local dignitaries spoke, we honored members of the community who had died in service to their country, said prayers and sang hymns. It was a community event. That was more than 40 years ago. I do not know if any communities in the United States celebrate Memorial Day in same way today.
When I lived on the island of Oahu one of the places I frequently visited was the National Cemetery of the Pacific, otherwise known as “Punchbowl.” It was located in the crater of an extinct volcano. The Hawaiian name for it is “Puowaino,” which means “Hill of Sacrifice.”
The first Memorial Day services were held after the Civil War: 1866 in the South and 1868 in the North. Over 600,000 soldiers died in the Civil War. Great as the number of people who died during this war was, it was not the costliest war measured in terms of deaths per capita. The King Phillips War (1675-1676) was the costliest in terms of lives lost as a percentage of the total population.
The South and North met together at Gettysburg to commemorate that 50th anniversary of the Battle at Gettysburg in a “Blue-Gray Reunion” in 1913. Only now are some of the monuments honoring Civil War leaders in the South being removed from the public square and some streets and other public places being renamed. These actions are celebrated by some and protested by others.
Memorial Day is a fitting time to remember and honor those who have died in service to their/our country. It is also appropriate to reflect on the enduring consequences of war. The shadow of the Civil War still hovers over us. How many generations in Afghanistan, Syria, Korea, and elsewhere will be living in the shadows of war fought on their soil? What is the ecological footprint of war? What is the most fitting way to commemorate and honor men and women who died in service to this country? These are the questions I am asking myself this Memorial Day.
This Sunday, May 28, 2017, we will have a Memorial Day service of worship. Please join us. If you have a story you wish to share bring that too. We will have to keep each story brief, but there will be time for sharing.