Memorial Day Reminds Us…
1 Peter 2:17
Emmanuel Christian Church 5.25.2025
INTRODUCTION: Here’s a piece of little-known “Memorial Day”
trivia: Boalsburg, Pennsylvania (near State College) claims to be the
birthplace of “Memorial Day”!
In October of 1864, Emma Hunter, Sophie Keller and Elizabeth
Myers are credited for decorating soldier’s graves in honor of their
service.
Four years later, General John A. Logan issued the following
proclamation:
... Let us then gather around their sacred remains and garland the
passionless mounds above them with the choicest flowers of
Springtime; let us raise above them the dear old flag they saved from
dishonor; let us in this solemn presence renew our pledges to aid
and assist those whom they have left among us as a sacred charge
upon a Nation's gratitude—the soldiers' and sailors' widow and
orphan.
—John A. Logan, May 5, 1868
TRANSITION: Memorial Day was established as a national day for
grateful reflection upon the ultimate sacrifices made by those who
have fought in all our nation's battles. As Christians, we are
commanded by Scripture to:
"Show proper respect to everyone…” (1 Peter 2:17)
PROPOSITION: I believe that our nation's fallen war-dead are
among those to whom this Scripture refers. Their contribution to our
lives is more that that of a life given in service to our nation, for it is
their example of selfless sacrifice that puts a personal face on the
truth of Jesus own statement that,
"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for
his friends." (John 15:13)
Their sacrifice and our memory of it teaches us valuable lessons
that, if learned, will enrich our own lives.
Lesson #1 We live in a fallen world.
- The horrors of war graphically illustrate the fallen nature of
mankind.
- The carnage of bodies torn apart.
- The combatants are the first to come to our minds:
young people who left home in the prime of their lives,
only to return blinded, crippled or so emotionally shaken
as to be unable to continue on with their lives.
- There are also non-combatants: innocent civilians
caught in the crossfire of war. Even long after the battles
are over, land minds (millions of which have been sown
like deadly seeds) continue to wreak havoc for decades
after the firing of the final shot. In 2021 over 2,000
children were killed or maimed after stepping on
forgotten landmines.
- The devastation of families torn apart.
- There are those among us today who have felt the sting
of a dreaded telegram, or visit from a representative of
the armed forces- informing of the loss of a brother,
husband, father or friend.
- I have personally conducted two notifications of families
who have lost sons in war.
- The hardship on humanity brought about by destruction of
crops, homes and entire communities. By far, most of the
famines throughout human history have not been the
product of drought, but by the ravages of war.
- The problems of mankind, whether they be personal,
relational, congregational, or political, or global, all boil
down to the same ancient problem first seen in the life of Cain
and expressed by the Apostle James in his letter:
"What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come
from your desires that battle within you? You want something but
don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you
want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not
ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask
with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your
pleasures." (James 4:1-3)
APPLICATION: Given the reality of our fallen world, it would be
easy for us to despair. And despair we would, if not for the message
and Person of Jesus Christ who said,
"…in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble.
But take heart! I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)
For you see, in spite of the tremendous mess we've made of this
present life,
"…God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that
whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For
God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but
to save the world through him." (John 3:16-17)
Lesson #2 Life is fragile and valuable.
- As young people, we live our lives believing ourselves to be
indestructible. This is precisely why young men are recruited to go
to war. BUT, life is fragile- which is why sometimes, young men do
not return from war.
- War, along with the tragedies of life, reminds us that our lives ARE
not only fragile, but that
- Our time is short.
- We CAN’T make time- we can only TAKE it. HOW we
choose to take time. On WHAT we choose to SPEND
time is a matter that requires wise, spiritual
discernment.
- Did you take the time yesterday to talk with God?
- Did you embrace a family member?
- Did you find yourself hurried, harried and harassed to the
point that another day slipped through your fingers
leaving you exhausted as you fell into bed?
“Show me, O LORD, my life's end and the number of my days;
let me know how fleeting is my life. You have made my days a
mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before
you. Each man's life is but a breath. Man is a mere phantom as
he goes to and fro: He bustles about, but only in vain; he heaps
up wealth, not knowing who will get it. But now, Lord, what do
I look for? My hope is in you." (Psalms 39:4-7)
Lesson #3 A life surrendered in service to others is a life well
spent.
- Those who have given themselves in service to our country have
demonstrated by their actions that they believed life's purpose to be
greater than that of self-interest.
- Nathan Hale, great patriot of our American Revolution, who was
apprehended by British General Howe and summarily sentenced to
hang for his work in spying on behalf of the Patriot cause, stands as
an example of one who willingly surrendered his life for an entire
nation's freedom. A British officer who attended Hale's execution
gives us an eyewitness account of the event:
"Early the next day he was led to his death. On the morning of the
execution (my station being near the fatal spot) I requested the
Provost-Marshal to permit the prisoner to sit in my marquee while he
was making the necessary preparations. Captain Hale entered. He
asked for writing materials, which I furnished him. He wrote two
letters; one to his mother and one to a brother officer. The Provost-
Marshal destroyed the letters, and assigned a reason that 'the rebels
should not know that they had a man in their army who could die
with so much firmness.' Hale asked for a Bible, but his request was
refused. (Provost Marshall) Cunningham asked him to make his
dying “speech and confession.” “I only regret,” he said, “that I
have but one life to lose for my country.” He was marched out by
a guard and hanged upon an apple-tree in Rutgers’s orchard.
Jesus said: (John 15:13) he lay down his life for his friends.
Greater love has no one than this, that
APPLICATION: Jesus did not merely teach about living a life for
others- He did it! Having led his life in complete perfection, He then
offered it up to God as the replacement price for our own sin-
wrecked lives. When Jesus did this, He purchased our eternal
freedom.
This freedom is available to all who would turn from their sin,
place their trust in Him and be cleansed through His blood by
baptism into His death. While Nathan Hale lamented the inability of
his single sacrifice to secure his countryman's freedom, we can rest
in complete assurance that Jesus' single sacrifice was more than
sufficient to purchase ours.