Remember to Remember

I speak to you in the name of the one who died so that we might be free. Amen.

I can remember growing up without any real understanding of remembrance day. I was born in the United States during the Vietnam war. This war left many people with anger and distrust which was aimed at the US government and bled over onto the military. It seems to me that from this time until just recently, the importance of having people who are willing to die for our freedom was lost. It just wasn’t necessary. The need for remembrance was dead, or so we thought.

I’m sorry that this is not true. These men and women deserve to be remembered, but I wish that the rolls did not need to get longer. Once again soldiers are being called to die for the freedom of others. It is even more upsetting to realize that this need has always been there, we just ignored it. As the world becomes more connected, it becomes harder to hide from the reality that there are people who are not free: people who are unable to go to school, children who are forced to fight to protect drug crops, men and women who are convinced that it is somehow a good thing to blow themselves up in a marketplace full of women and children. The world is not at peace.

Two thousand years ago a poor man from the region of Galilee went to battle with the weapons available to him. He used his words, his message, to fight for the rights of the downtrodden. He fought for those who couldn’t fight for themselves. He fought and he died for this cause: for our freedom. Our brothers and sisters in the military fight this same fight. They carry this cross. They march in front of us, protecting us on our way to God’s Kingdom. We thank them for their service. We remember their sacrifice. We look forward to seeing them again.