Memorial Day 2016

Joshua 4:8-9 (ESV)

8 And the people of Israel did just as Joshua commanded and took up twelve stones out of the midst of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, just as the Lord told Joshua. And they carried them over with them to the place where they lodged and laid them down there. 9 And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the covenant had stood; and they are there to this day.

                               

Today, thousands of American flags dot Arlington National Cemetery—one for each grave marker. Red, white and blue dominate the green landscape.

Memorial Day is a day to remember those who’ve died serving in the U.S. military. Civil War veteran General John A. Logan called in 1868 for Americans to decorate the graves of those who fell during the “War Between the States;” the holiday has grown in scope since then and now commemorates the fallen from each of America’s wars.

Though Memorial Day is an American holiday, nations across the world have their own traditions for remembering the sacrifices of their soldiers. There’s something uniquely powerful about communal remembrance—gathering together as a family or nation to reflect on significant people and events of the past. It’s no surprise that memorial celebrations—military and otherwise—are common to many cultures throughout history, including the people of the Bible.

We see a famous example of a memorial celebration in our Bible verse today. God commanded the Israelite leader Joshua to set up a memorial to mark the event of the Ark of the Covenant crossing the Jordan River, to remind future generations of what had happened there:

In this case, God wanted the Israelites to remember his deliverance. The stone memorial served as a physical reminder of a shaping event in their history. Sometimes the memorial took the form not of a physical monument, but a shared activity, as in the case of the Israelite’s commemoration of their escape from Egypt.

Christians observe their own memorial celebrations; most notably in the “breaking of bread” that recalls Christ’s sacrifice.

Reminders, bitter or sweet, are important to our culture and our history. They remind us where we’ve come from, and whose work got us to where we are.

It’s important that we remember who we are and where we’ve come from. Americans make a point of remembering on Memorial Day. And as Christians, every day is a good day to remember, reflect on, and give thanks for what the Lord has done for us.

Dear Lord, we are thankful for those that have given their life so that we can enjoy our freedom.  Thank You also for laying down Your life so that we may live with You eternally. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

Happy Mother's Day!

Proverbs 23:25 (ESV)

Let your father and mother be glad;

    let her who bore you rejoice.

Sunday is a big day in the life of mothers. In fact, our country has celebrated Mother’s Day on the second Sunday in May ever since President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed it as a national holiday in 1914.

But that’s just part of the story about how one of our nation’s most coveted days began. Strangely, the rest of the story has been forgotten, given way I guess to all the commercialism that Mother’s Day now carries with it. Its founder would turn over in her grave if she could see how we celebrate Mother’s Day in 2001.

Actually, the whole notion of honoring our mothers began long before 1914. Julia Ward Howe first proposed the idea in 1872. Howe, who wrote Battle Hymn of the Republic, saw Mother’s Day as being dedicated to peace. She wanted to use Mother’s Day to help heal the scars that had resulted from the Civil War.

But it wasn’t Julia Ward Howe who is recognized for the Mother’s Day holiday that we now enjoy. It was a Philadelphia woman by the name of Anna Jarvis who is universally credited with founding the holiday.

The year was 1908, just a little more than two years since Jarvis had lost her own mother. Still grieving and struggling for some way to honor her mother, Jarvis held a ceremony in Grafton, West Virginia. She was so moved by what she experienced that she embarked on a national campaign to have our country honor the many contributions that mothers make. In 1910, West Virginia became the first state to celebrate Mother’s Day and a year later, most of the country’s other states officially set aside the day as well. The momentum was obviously too great for President Wilson to refuse Jarvis’ quest to honor her own mother by designating a day each year for all of us to honor our mothers.

But what you probably don’t know is that Anna Jarvis spent the rest of her life trying to undo what she had done. Enraged by the commercialization that an entrepreneurial America developed for Mother’s Day, Jarvis filed a lawsuit in 1923 to stop a Mother’s Day festival. She was later arrested for disturbing the peace when she learned that a war mother’s convention was selling white carnations—Jarvis’ symbol for mothers—to raise money. “This is not what I intended,” Jarvis said. “I wanted it to be a day of sentiment, not profit!”

Well history wasn’t very kind to Anna Jarvis. She had obviously started something that she couldn’t stop. She died at 84, never a mother herself, a woman of strange irony. In fact, she spent the most of the fortune her own mother left her to fight a holiday she created to honor her. Just before her death, Jarvis told a reporter she regretted she had ever started Mother’s Day. What’s equally ironic is she made that comment from her room in nursing home, a room that had been filled with cards every Mother’s Day honoring her for what she had done.

Jarvis was right. Mother’s Day is way too commercial. This Sunday morning look your mom in the eyes or call her and tell her how much you love her, and how grateful you are for all that she had done for you.

Dear Lord, we thank You for our moms. Have then each feel special and honored this Mother’s Day. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.