Memory, Gratitude, Responsibility

O Judge of all the nations, we remember before you with grateful hearts the men and women of our country who in the day of decision ventured much for the liberties we now enjoy. Grant that we may not rest until all the people of this land share the benefits of true freedom and gladly accept its disciplines. This we ask in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (The Book of Common Prayer, pg. 839) 

The prayer above is one I find particularly appropriate for Memorial Day weekend. It begins by acknowledging that God is judge of all the nations and therefore every nation (including our own) is accountable to God. Matthew's gospel reminds us that the nations will be judged first and foremost on how they cared for (or did not care for) the poor in their midst. For me this serves as a reminder that patriotism is a penultimate good, not an ultimate one. (As such it can be manipulated by scoundrels to become idolatrous if we are not vigilent.) But as such, we are right to be proud of our homeland, "the country where my heart is" as Georgia Harkness puts it in her poem, "This is My Song." We are right to notice how blue our skies are, even as we are reminded that skies are blue in other lands too!

From there, the collect calls us to memory, gratitude, and responsibility. First of all, we remember on this Memorial Day weekend those men and women who "in the day of decision ventured much for the liberties we now enjoy." Their lives of service, their willingness to lay down their lives for the sake of something bigger, evokes in us grateful hearts. Those who have given the ultimate sacrifice deserve our humble thanks.

But if it stops there, it seems to me we do not fully honor their memories. The second half of the prayer goads us to live in such a way that does honor to their memories. We cannot talk about freedom without discipline (or for that matter about discipline without freedom.) True freedom is not the "right" to do whatever we damn well please; that's anarchy. Discipline without freedom, however, is facism. Those who serve in the Armed Forces understand this connection; so, too, do disciples of Jesus Christ.

So we continue to engage in this dance toward freedom and justice and peace--pausing this weekend in between grilled hot dogs not only to remember and to give thanks, but also to ask the harder follow-up question: how can we live our lives this week, in ways that honor their sacrifices?