Sunday, May 25, 2008

HAVE A BLESSED MEMORIAL DAY



Today in the first service, the Pastor paused to recognize those who served our nation in Military Service. I was proud to stand as the congregation applauded us.

It used to be that it was a proud honor to be recognized as having an ancestor who served in the Continental Army of the Revolution. My mother's body rests in a beautiful cemetary in Missouri. It used to be that the Daughters of the American Revolution (D.A.R.) would place a marker on the graves of their members. It was a nice commemoration of our nation's proud heritage under God.
"By the rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April's breeze unfurled; Here once the embattled farmers stood; And fired the shot heard round the world.

On this green bank, by this soft stream, We place with joy a votive stone, That memory may their deeds redeem, When, like our sires, our sons are gone.

O Thou who made those heroes dare, To die, and leave their children free, -Bid Time and Nature gently spare, The shaft we raised to them and Thee."
The Concord Hymn (edited), by Ralph Waldo Emerson (25 May 1803 – 27 April 1882)

I always looked forward to "Decoration Day" and stopping by Moncrief's Nursery, with my mother and grandmother, to pick up flowers to decorate the family graves in Riverview Cemetary. In the center of the Cemetary there is a statue of a Civil War soldier on a high lilmestone pedastal. It always fascinated me, but I never knew if he was a Yank or a Reb, a Blue or a Gray. He had no distinctive sign or symbol, just a neutral color. The pathos is that he represented brother against brother. But as the anthem says, " . . . when our cause, it is just."
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord: He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword: His truth is marching on.
(Chorus) His truth is marching on.

I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps, They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps; I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps: His day is marching on.
(Chorus) His day is marching on.

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat; He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat: Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet! Our God is marching on.
(Chorus) Our God is marching on.

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me: As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, While God is marching on.
(Chorus) While God is marching on.

He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave, He is Wisdom to the mighty, He is Succour to the brave, So the world shall be His footstool, and the soul of Time His slave, Our God is marching on.
(Chorus) Our God is marching on.
Battle Hymn of the Republic - Julia Ward Howe (
May 27, 1819October 17, 1910)

Our Prayers for our nation and military forces should be strong and with confidence as we approach the throne of grace. We will not forget those who have volunteered to take up arms to protect our way of life - and may it continue to please God for grace to preserve the principles of our heritage and to escape the pollution of godlessness, for it is your cause in which we glory by serving you, Lord Jesus, And we know that what we may not understand will be revealed to us in a different time and place, for you are God, and to you belong glory and dominion forever. Amen.
"No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD." (Isaiah 54:17)