Christ Lutheran Church: Welcome

Pacem - May 25, 2008

Pacem

Matthew 6:24-34

May 25, 2008

Memorial Day Sunday

Rev. Dave R. Garwick

We all know that this is Memorial Day weekend.  It's the official beginning of summer and it has something to do with remembering people who died.  But beyond that many of us are not exactly sure what it is.  We have come to use Memorial Day to honor all veterans who have passed away.  These days, about 1,000 veterans from World War II pass away every single day.

Technically, though, Memorial Day is for those who died in service to their country from the Civil War on.

Tomorrow at 9AM we first gather at Christ Lutheran Cemetery which is the final encampment of over thirty veterans who served in World Wars I and II, Korea, and Vietnam.  Though Civil War veterans are buried in Lewis Cemetery on the west edge of town, none is found here and there is no record of any such veterans in the history of the congregation.  No veteran in this cemetery was killed in action.

However, three members of this congregation have been killed in action.  They are buried in three different places.  Don Nelson was a merchant marine who was killed in the West Indies in 1943.  His body was reburied at Lewis (Armstrong) Cemetery in 1949.  Sidney Swanson, confirmed in 1937, was an airman in World War II.  In 1944, he was shot down over Europe, where his body remains.  Bob Holan, confirmed in 1962, was killed in action in 1969 as a 1st Lieutenant with the 25th Infantry Division in South Vietnam.  He was the 706th Minnesotan to die in that conflict.  The flagpole at church was dedicated in his memory and he is buried at Ft. Snelling National Cemetery.

My war hero has always been my dad:  his Eisenhower campaign jacket always hangs in my office.  He was not killed in action.  He was a nineteen year old infantry staff sergeant who fought his way through the Battle of the Bulge and the liberation of Dachau.  This is the SS insignia he took off one of the Gestapo guards he "encountered".  Up close.  He kept this as a reminder of what he had to do that he was never proud to have done.  Ever.

So I think he had mixed feelings when I was commissioned as an artillery officer during my generation's war.  But I must have inherited his attitude, because I remember praying that if I ever had to go into combat, I would die before I ever had to kill someone.  Then I could die a hero with a clean conscience.

On Memorial day we honor the dying and ignore the killing of war.  And every Sunday we worship One who also died to enemy soldiers...but without killing them.  I don't know any sane and mature combat veterans who feel good about the killing part of war.  While he was on earth, my dad never had peace about what he had gone through.  Now I pray that he DOES have peace.  That old soldier wanted peace on earth more than anybody I have ever known.

And when it is not war that robe the innocent of peace, it is cyclones in Myanmar and earthquakes in China where our overseas translators were among millions made homeless.  For days, Terry and Sarah Wardlaw and their three little kids had to live outside in a small car.  Thank God they are all safe.  Our latest information is that they may have been able to go back into their apartment building.

But millions cannot.  Entire cities have been totally destroyed and tens of thousands have been killed.  Do you know that there are Christians there right now who have read the same Gospel Lesson that WE just read, where Jesus said, "Do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' ...your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."

I wonder what THAT Gospel Lesson sounds like to them THIS morning.  I wonder if some wonder how God will actually come through on THAT promise.  On Thursday, God gave me a clue as to how He might make this happen.  On Thursday I received an envelop in the mail - an envelop with no return address.  I opened it and out fell five one hundred dollar bills.  And this anonymous note:  "For your family in China."

The way it was signed was simply, "Dona nobis pacem" - Latin for "Give us peace."

Give us peace.  Let it begin with us.  Remember when the apostles asked Jesus how He was going to feed the multitudes?  Remember His answer: "YOU feed them."  So with that in mind, on this Memorial Day weekend, I'm going to pass just ONE offering plate around.  This one plate will hold two things:  the $500 from that anonymous saint and finally, YOUR investment to be sent to the Wardlaws...that they and those they serve may have a little peace on earth.

While we do this, we will sing Hymn #774 in the blue hymnbook:  "Dona Nobis Pacem".  We will sing it over and over again until that one offering plate returns full.