George:
9/11 taught us some important and valuable lessons and understandings about who are heroes in our society and our world.  Our understanding is found in Jesus’ words when he says, “No greater love has anyone than this, that a person lay down their lives for a friend.”  9/11 reminded us in a profound way that we have people in our society that put their lives on the line, who put themselves at risk everyday for our wellbeing. Police Officers, firefighters, rescue workers, are some of those who do this but today, we celebrate veterans, people who gave the gift of the time of their lives to be of service to all of us, their fellow citizens of this country.  They gave a part of their gift of life for something beyond themselves. 

Nancy:
Often the sacrifice that is lifted up is when a soldier is killed and this is indeed the ultimate sacrifice, but there are other sacrifices they make which have a lot to say to us today about how we live our lives. Wednesday night we heard the story of Private Ed Reeves, a soldier in the Korean War. The scars of war are clearly visible on his body. The miracle of his story is not only that he survived, but with God’s help he was able to live a full rich life with a loving wife he met after he was wounded and  who together had 7 children 2 of whom are adopted Korean orphans. His story not only spoke of the scars of war but of God’s redeeming power that brings life out of death and destruction. There are other sacrifices that are not so dramatic. My Dad was career military and he missed important milestones in our lives because he was in field maneuvers or at war.  My parents have four children, he was not present for 3 out of our 4 births. I still have a lovely letter that he wrote me from Viet Nam when he missed my confirmation. I know soldiers at war see horrible things and are sometimes required to do things that leave scars. They have to shoulder that burden all their lives. My dad came home and never really talked about his experiences in Viet Nam. I know other vets who still suffer nightmares and trauma from that war. One man I know loaded body bags onto helicopters and he is still haunted by it.

There are also the sacrifices of the families of the veterans that is important for me because it is personal. They are also people who we honor today, for they, too, give up much. I have never regretted growing up an Army brat. We moved about every 11/2 – 2 years and there were minuses to that but there we pluses too, so I don’t really think of that as a sacrifice. The greatest sacrifice for me came when my father went off to war. I was about 11 or 12 years old and we moved to be close to my mother’s parents. My Dad went to Viet Nam for a year. Shortly after he left, I got sick. I woke up every morning with terrible stomach aches. I remember my mother hauling me off to the Army hospital over and over again. I give her a lot of credit for believing me when I cried and said it hurt, but the doctors would examine me and say they couldn’t find anything wrong. This went on for quite a while, finally one very wise doctor asked my mother what had been going on in our lives. He said, I think I know what it is and he gave me medicine. I took the first dose and for the first time in a long time my stomach ache stopped. He gave me a tranquilizer and told my mother that I missed my father and was so worried about him that my stomach knotted and I could not physically release it without help. My father and mother took it for what it was, a sign of my deep love and care for my dad. It is not just the vets who lay down their lives, but I hope today we can also honor the families who live with the fear, who miss their loved ones, who watch and wait at home.

George:
It is important to remember what people have sacrificed for I hope it is a reminder that what is important and what we have has at times been costly.  And when we remember the cost, it reminds us that we need to stay alert and keep vigil to protect the ideals and freedoms we cherish. But, I must admit that when we started planning this service I was very uncomfortable. I think one of the hardest things for me at the moment is seeing how divided our country seems to be on so many issues, and if you are on the opposite side of another, your patriotism and love of country are called into question.  And sadly, this tactic of divisiveness has now even carried into the church, where, if you do not agree with me, your faith and love of God are demeaned or questioned.  I wish more people would truly heed Paul’s statement in I Cor. 13 where he says, “Love is patient and kind.  Love never insists upon its own way.”  And where Paul says, “Today we all see dimly,” someday we will see clearly, but not always in the present.  Even more, I wish people could see that sometimes people have the same hopes and dreams, the same values and goals, but simply come to different understandings of how they seek to achieve them.  For example, I hope that those who say they support our troops realize that it is much more than simply saying I think they are heroes!  To support our troops may mean we commit to them for an extended period of time, especially if they have experienced combat. I knew someone who had gone to Haiti when we were asked to help with the civil unrest.  When he returned, I was asked to talk with him, for he was wrestling with what he had experienced.  It was hard for him to share what he had witnessed and lived, even with his wife who was also career military.  He said, “Can you imagine watching people who are so needy that they were willing to walk across burning trash, to endure burn blisters on their feet, so they can go through our garbage in hopes of finding some food or something they could sell, or use?  This was life for these people.” He went on, sharing, “I built a relationship with an eleven year old boy, who I could help while I was there.  I could give him some food, or something warm to wear in payment for odd jobs he did for me.  But now that I have left, I know he has no one to look out for him.”  The wife said, “Send him a gift.  Send some food, or a jacket or a pocketknife.”  He got angry and said, “You don’t understand.  If I help him it would be the worse thing I could do for him.  He is small, and all it takes is for a bigger child or a gang to know he has something of value and they will beat him up and take it away.  That’s the frustration. Even though I want to help and do something to make his life a little better, there is not a thing I can do.”  So the question for me is, how do we, as family, friends and concerned citizens, show our support for those who have often faced life in ways we will never see and maybe even understand? Will they have to live alone with what they saw and feel, or will we really support them, even in and especially in their hurt, when they return?

What does it mean to be patriotic and be supportive of our troops? I must admit, I can understand why some people believe that if you say anything negative against a war, you are undermining the moral of the troops and creating distress among their families.  I was in the Army during the Viet Nam War, although I did not have to go to Viet Nam.  Obviously, it was a very unpopular war. What I remember is when I was discharged from the Army and went back to college, I did not tell very many people I had been in the service.  I didn’t say anything, because some how you were made to feel if you were a part of the Military this war was your fault.

Also, when you protest, you are sending a message that is very difficult to hear for the family of the troops.  How do you tell a family member that their child, husband, wife, mother and father died for no reason and expect them to accept this?  You are telling me I have lost the love of a person who was central to my life and their sacrifice was for nothing.  How can you expect that a family can experience the long absence of someone they love and ask them to believe that what they are doing and what they are feeling is for something that doesn’t matter? That your loneliness and anxiety and fear were all for nothing? How can we expect those who have suffered the greatest losses to emotionally accept this?

Nancy:
Yes, I can understand this, but also having watched my father go to war and still having family in the military, I can say with absolute clarity that I support the military and because of this I am very anti-war. There has to be a very good reason for a war and it has to be the absolute last resort for it was my dad who went and could now be my sister who will be sent. I want there to be people who push our government to make sure that war is the absolute last choice. I know that they volunteered for military service and it is part of the job description. They have laid down their lives for they are committed to the ideals that are the foundation of this country and they see them worth defending for themselves and the people they care about.  I want to know that anything we do is for the highest and most important of reasons.  If we see that it is not, I do not want my family or anyone’s family to have to experience what I have.  So I really don’t have a problem understanding how someone can be supportive of the troops and against a war.

One of the concerns George and I have wrestled with is how can we honor the sacrifices of our veterans and their families without glorifying war? I think that Jesus’ words in the Gospel of John help us do this. “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”  We honor the commitment and self-sacrificing service that Jesus modeled and veterans continue to model today.

George:
Listening to PFC Ed Reeves’ story, reminded me of another man who I admire with my whole being, because he has emulated the core of what it means to be a Christian and how a world regains peace.  The man was a pilot on the beach landing craft in the Pacific theater during WWII, a craft like the ones we saw in the movie, Saving Private Ryan.   He experienced similar horrors that were depicted in the movie.  But what I admire most and celebrate is that after these horrendous experiences that remind us why war may be the greatest of all horrors, the response of these 2 men and millions more were ones of compassion.  Mr. Reeves, after all he endured wanted to help rebuild what he protected and he adopt two Korean boys. What an act of caring and compassion,  that my friend and his wife after World War II became missionaries and served in Japan for 32 years.  It is truly the extension of loving your enemies and seeking reconciliation.  That is what is really admirable for me.  We are reminded of the horror of the war, so it is not glorified but also the breadth of the human spirit and that when it stays focused upon God it can exhibit some of the most incredible acts of love and compassion imaginable.  That is what I hope to learn from them, and what I honor.

But for me, the real honoring of our veterans and their sacrifices needs to go even deeper. I remember listening to a Chief of Police telling us about how we, as the church, are a key to the health and wellbeing of our society.  He said, “You have the ability to go where people hurt, to enter into lives in ways no one else can in our society.  You can be proactive in trying to bring healthy ways to the living of lives when you see where brokenness is.  He said, “When we, as the police, are called, it is already too late, for we are called when someone has done something hurtful and destructive to another.  I believe this is a part of what Jesus is trying to tell us about being peacemakers.

Nancy:
Eirene (ear-wren a), the Greek word Jesus used for peace when he said “blessed are the peacemakers” means much more than the absence of violence. It means the same thing as the Hebrew word shalom. I once did a 10 week study on that one word so it is a very big word. It basically means wholeness, well-being, not only material well-being but spiritual and emotional well-being. It includes peace with God and human harmony.^[i] “ Shalom-makers are called the children of God because in making shalom they reflect the same character as God. As Eugene Boring and Fred Craddock point out in their commentary, being “peacemakers does not connote a passive attitude (“peacekeepers), but positive actions for reconciliation, [bringing the big concept of peace] out of conflict and chaos.” ^[ii] Shalom means being proactive in reaching out to the lives of others.  When it is used as a greeting, it means you are wishing another spiritual and physical wholeness and wellbeing.  It means you are wishing them harmony of life.  It also means you are wishing them financial well-being as well.  This is what Jesus is referring to when he calls us to be peacemakers and it is when we are proactive in doing this that we become the children of God. 

George:
Sadly, wars and conflicts happen when we are not able to bring these hopes to fruition in the lives of others.  As someone said, “If you want peace, work for justice.”   It seems to me that if we support our troops and want to make sure they do not have to face needless conflict, we need to be the church concerned about justice.  For those who say that the church should not be concerned about injustice, about unjust laws, about such things as racism, economic injustice, the quality of life for others around the world, they have missed the point Jesus makes here about being his followers.

When troops, just like policemen, are called, it is already too late. I believe we can all agree – war is a horrible experience. War is a failure on everyone’s part – no one wins. The church has been called and been bestowed with a tremendous responsibility and place of honor in our society and world.  We are the people, who work to build the kingdom of God, where there is no more injustice and where love governs all.

When we realize what others have done and are willing to do for our benefit and wellbeing, the question becomes, “What are we willing to do for the ideals they have laid themselves on the line for, what are we willing to do to achieve the real goal of peace?”  What are we willing to give our lives to, to make this world a better, more peaceful, more loving place in which to live?  What is bigger and beyond ourselves that we are willing to take responsibility for and give of ourselves to see it happen? To use Jesus’ words in John: What are you willing to lay down your life for? I believe with my whole being, whether it is my response to Jesus, or my call to honor those who have given of their lives for the high ideals of life, that if I want to truly honor and support them then I must be willing to work for those ideals and goals which they strove for and gave themselves for.

Nancy:
Today we honor those who have given of themselves, this is what we want to remember and celebrate this Veteran’s Day.  It is called Military Service, for us the emphasis today is on service as we recognize those who were willing to give their lives toward an ideal that blesses life for us all.  Surely, we can all agree on this and use the sacrifice of our veterans and their families as an inspiration to now work with all our abilities to make this world a world of peace in its Biblical definition, where we, as the children of God, seek shalom for everyone.  It calls us to a commitment that will stay with us our entire lives, a commitment to serve as peacemakers.

GEORGE & NANCY TOGETHER: Let there be peace, shalom, on earth and let it begin with me. Amen.

Sermon delived jointly by Rev. George Cushman and Rev. Nancy Cushman on November 13, 2005.