In Search of the Ultimate Memorial

The little village of my childhood celebrated Memorial Day with a parade featuring veterans of the two world wars and the Korean conflict, each marching proudly in the decorated uniform of his respective branch of the military. The parade ended with a 21-gun salute at the Revolutionary War monument across the street from my parsonage home. Our rather limited color guard attempted to fire their three rifles seven times.

Attempted is the operative word. Almost always, a gun jammed or the one of the cartridges lacked powder as well as lead. (Not very reassuring to a boy living under the threat of an imminent nuclear bombardment. All my pals were sure our Ticonderoga would bear the brunt of such a Soviet attack, with the tank and two cannons housed in our town armory and all. But I digress…) Really, who was counting the rounds anyway? It was the thought of honoring our heroic dead that carried the day.

So at the end of May when the cemetery begins to bloom with color – red, white and blue in particular – I still get a bit misty-eyed. Only recently did I come to understand why those flags among the flowers had such a singular effect. It was more than the sentimental love of country. It was patriotism of the highest order, patriotism demonstrated by sacrifice. It reminds me of that verse from “America, the Beautiful”:

“O beautiful for heroes proved
in liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life.”

Those flags proclaim the final resting place of soldiers and sailors who knew what it meant to sacrifice for the sake of their comrades and country. In a culture of me-ism and the mad pursuit of trinkets, the concept of sacrifice stands out like those bright colors in the stone gray cemetery.

This is the essence of the ultimate memorial. When Jesus asked His disciples to remember Him – wrote His own eulogy so to speak – He chose the symbols of the bread and the cup. A broken body. Bloodshed. Sacrifice. There were certainly other epitaphs just as appropriate. Faithful Friend. Great Physician. Wise Teacher. But He wanted us to remember Him as the One who willingly laid down His life.

Has Jesus set a high standard for those who follow Him? Certainly. Unreasonable? Consider this observation discovered in the diary of missionary Jim Eliot after he made the ultimate sacrifice in the jungles of Ecuador: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”

As a pastor I attend more funerals than the average person. I can tell you that most people are fondly remembered for their sacrifices in service to others. Even the more rascally individuals are so eulogized, though it may require greater flights of imagination!

I hope this recent holiday will cause you to consider how you want to be remembered. Don’t shirk the call to sacrifice. Take steps to ensure that your eulogizers don’t have to be too creative in substantiating their good words!

Blessings,

Pastor Dave