29 May SUNDAY – MAY 29, 2022

In John 15, verses 12-13, Jesus says, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends.” Memorial Day is a civic not religious holiday, but what the day commemorates is sacred. There is no greater love than laying down one’s life for the sake of friends. 

Memorial Day centers on the human toll of conflict and the cost of doing battle, common themes of the Bible. Because sin took such a great toll on humanity, Jesus came to battle sin. According to the Bible, tribes and nations constantly fought. People got killed over property and land. Sabotage happened among families. Jesus’ message was this: sacrificial relationships where love triumphs can counteract the human toll of conflict. 

One definition of war is armed conflict. Increasingly, armed conflict doesn’t only take place on foreign soil. It takes place closer to home. As we’ve witnessed on both fronts, armed conflict doesn’t usually solve anything. While it hopes to bring security, it seems to delay resolution. Armed conflict continues to take its toll on human life. 

In the gospel text, Jesus describes a rich heritage acquired by being in relationship with his father. Recently watching the movie, “Hamilton” reminded me of our heritage. In the light of history, our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness has been inherited and subsequently defended. Like Jesus, The American Legion recognizes a “rich heritage” acquired from being in relationship. Sometimes, a heritage is not enjoyed by the ones who directly earn it. Generations who live on receive it as it’s passed on. 

God is not opposed to doing battle. In fact, God was always recruiting soldiers and prophets. In Christ Jesus, God commissions himself to fight against any person, nation, principality or circumstance which causes harm. God enlists himself to counter guilt and unforgiveness, to resist vices that oppose love. Love was inherent to the relationship between members of the Trinity. It was  permanent and essential, a characteristic attribute within each member and between all. 

Love originated with God and because it is God’s doing, this heritage of love is God’s to bequeath. It existed long before the generations of Jesus’ time, yet is offered in the present. To bequeath love, we must name and count the blessings of our arrangement, as Jesus did. We must believe each other and agree upon some chartered course. Jesus knew that with God, all knowledge is encompassed: how to navigate, how to lead, how to deal with forces of nature, how to deal with human conflict. Everything. 

Jesus and the Father share a military-type mindset. They’re committed to shared beliefs and aspirations. Either one is capable of leading or following. Now it seems no one in our present culture is capable of doing either. I wonder if the human toll of conflict will finally bring us together?  

A military mindset recognizes a need for both rank and file soldiers and leaders. Groups separated into branches assigned different duties.  Jesus knew that if people were united in their beliefs and aspirations, they would succeed. They would reach their goals. Jesus said, “People believed based on the testimony of others.” Many voices with the goal of love can lead all to become one.   

If prayer focuses on unity, and not winning, humanity will reflect the unity of God. You in me and I in you, us in them and them in us, so the world may believe. When negotiations break down, ambassadors are often the first to leave a territory. God sent an ambassador in Christ, who stayed not only to fight, but die in the war. 

God declared war on evil and won. But humans aren’t so lucky. We can’t automatically label persons or countries as such. Even the war on terror, the war against drugs, and the war on crime has gotten us in over our heads, caused innocent people to lose their lives in more than one way. Whenever humans try to define oneness in any other way than by following the core command to love, the toll of human conflict increases.   

On this Sunday, let us remember that Old Glory is not a flag. Old glory is what Jesus first shared with his father for the purpose of perfect unity. He offers glory to us as a symbol of our heritage: love. Unless there is love between families, among friends, and within communities, there is no hope of glory for a nation. 

As we remember those whose lives were taken as the toll for human conflict, Jesus desires those of us who live now to practice a kind of mutual, equal and eternal love. Love given can always be multiplied. It won’t diminish, but grow as it becomes passed on as a heritage. 

For most of us, the greatest heritage we’ve received hasn’t been goods. It’s been growing up in families where at least one parent was dedicated. Where work at keeping the family together also meant keeping the faith. Our families taught us to have aspirations and appreciation for what I was given. 

They also taught us how to progress and make gain because they themselves understood the value of passing on whatever was beneficial: knowledge, good recipes, wisdom, skills, endurance without bitterness, acceptance of lifelong work, the joys of family, friendship and loving. 

We cannot know love without making known the love that has been and the love that is.

Whatever doesn’t get passed on or isn’t shared beyond one particular lifetime can become lost. To know love we must remember the names of those who contributed. I invite you to walk around a cemetery today or tomorrow and read the names of those upon whose grave an American flag has been placed. We cannot know love without making known the love that has been and the love that is. 

Jesus prays to his Father by sharing his desire. We can do the same. Ask to see God’s glory that was previously shared between them and has spread beyond the confines of heaven. Only through perfect unity in love can humanity share that glory so the world may know righteousness and surety, the love with which they love each other and Jesus loves those whom the Father has given him. 

As Christians and citizens of this nation, we’re taught to recognize what’s been purchased for us: salvation, peace and freedom. All three, purchased with blood, fought for, won and defended with love being core to the fight. Love’s ultimate goal is unity. 

Though soldiers from different military branches seem to compete for acclaim and kid each other about one branch’s superior capabilities over another, at the end of the day, there’s unity. Central headquarters, state authorities and local officials must agree. 

People of this nation and the whole world still experience the toll of armed conflict. At the very least, many families feel its side effects, some suffer direct blows. To paraphrase the encyclopedia Britannica, “what’s happened in recent years has put pressure on the need to anticipate and respond to unfolding world events.” As military commander in chief, Jesus advises we begin practicing love and strive for unity.

If we want to ever share in God’s glory or come from a place where glory is ours to offer,  we must recognize the wisdom of Jesus’ teachings and the ancestry of our heritage. Now that many of our elders have passed on, I’m thinking more seriously about getting a DNA test. One part of me doesn’t want to share more data than necessary, but another part wants answers to whether my maternal grandfather McManus was from Ireland or Scotland. 

On my father’s side, I heard from my grandmother that our people came from Austria-Hungary and left because the country’s borders were threatened again by takeover. According to Britannica, during my grandparent’s lifetime, Austria and Hungary remained together, “in alliance with the emperor for the purpose of war and foreign affairs. It was a direct alliance that went against an earlier promise to not make changes without advice from the imperial parliament.” 

According to St. John, Jesus consulted the heavenly equivalent of imperial parliament, the Trinity. Like Franz Joseph, the emperor, Jesus sought “to consolidate [and unify] his empire” of diverse characters and contents. In Jesus’ case, the alliance would not benefit him, but it would express his affinity for love that unites all. When love is shared, peace comes. Love brings unity, wholeness and perfection, three things the Trinity always share completely. 

The Trinity is a model of how we may join and be in association. The members are alike by nature and in trait. There is no division because members really know each other. Love between them unifies. All parties agree that sharing is better than not. The alliance of NATO exists not only because of who or what we fear, but because of what we all love: our heritage, our land, our lives and freedom.  

Let us pray and incorporate a few phrases from the American Legion Chaplain’s Prayer Handbook. Lord, when we allude to God and country, may our prayers center on service that benefits all, for unity and peace among nations. Help us be strong in you, to draw strength and power through your union with God and the Holy Spirit. Those who have died in military service remind us that only you have the power of boundless might. Give us the power of boundless love so that the toll of human conflict goes down. In your holy name we pray. Amen.