Pastor’s Corner “Died that We might Live”

I enjoy a good country music song, and among my all-time favorites is Zac Brown’s “Chicken Fried.” He celebrates “the little things in life that mean the most” like “a little bit of chicken fried/and cold beer on a Friday night/a pair of jeans that fit just right/and the radio up.” It’s a joyful, fun song which steps briefly into sober gratitude with these words:

I thank God for my life

And for the stars and stripes

May freedom forever fly, let ring

Salute the ones who died

The ones that gave their lives

So we don’t have to sacrifice

All the things we love

Memorial Day can easily become a holiday when we celebrate the simple, important joys of friends and family, food and time off, while forgetting the Memorial part of this day – remembering those who died that we might live in freedom. I came across these words spoken by Billy Graham in 1955:

The freedoms we enjoy, the freedoms we take so much for granted, the freedoms we so often trifle with were bought not by the gold of our millionaires, nor altogether the genius of our scientists, nor the sacrifices of the people at home, but primarily by the blood, sweat and agony of those whose names on this day we honor—those who died that we might live!

This past Sunday, reflecting on Jesus’ command in John 13:34, I emphasized that when we love each other as Jesus loves us, we glorify God. So when Jesus also says, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13), we realize the deep significance of the self-sacrifice of the men and women in our military – Christ-like love glorifying God.

It’s sobering to write those words, knowing that such sacrifice requires “blood, sweat, and agony.” We think of “glory” as something beautiful; look to the battlefields to remember in this context that it is also anguished. And look to the cross as well. Billy Graham again:

Even though the sacrifices of our war dead have been great, yet the greatest sacrifice of all time was made by a man on a cross who died not only physically but spiritually that men might live. We have neglected Him too long! We have rejected His plan for peace, and as a result, we have fought, bled and died for centuries! I challenge the world at this hour to accept His program of heart regeneration that can transform the society in which we live, and we can know the meaning of genuine peace in our time.

Jesus died that we might live in a freedom that transcends even the freedoms we enjoy as Americans, and that can transform individuals, communities, and even nations.

I encourage you this Memorial Day to pause in your festivities, invite those around you to honor those “who in the day of decision ventured much for the liberties we now enjoy” (BCP 2019), and thank God for the offering of their lives – and do so in the name of the crucified Jesus, through whose death we can enter into the Kingdom life that brings the Refuge, Reconciliation, and Renewal needed by all.

Your Pastor in Christ,