An old story. On this Memorial Day weekend, there is the
one of a young preacher's daughter who was walking with her daddy
in the Narthex of the church to which he had just been called.
She noticed a bronze plaque on the wall and inquired of her
father what it was. He explained that it was a memorial to the
men who had served their country. "What are the years beside
some of the names?" she asked.
"Those are the ones who died in the Service," replied the
minister.
"Which one, Daddy, the first service or the second?"
Memorial Day. Some of us are old enough to remember when it
was called Decoration Day, and, for that matter, when it was
always celebrated on May 30. But, as someone in the paper
pointed out yesterday, it seemed a shame to waste a perfectly
good holiday on a Wednesday, so now it is the last Monday in May
and the unofficial kick-off to summer.
The holiday had its origins in the south with the practice
of putting flowers on the graves of Confederate soldiers. The
rest of the nation picked up on the idea and, after World War I,
it expanded to include those who died in any war or military
action. Today, many Americans use Memorial Day weekend to also
honor family members who have passed away, whether they were
veterans or not. A National Moment of Remembrance officially
takes place at 3 PM, eastern time, tomorrow but that is not
widely noted.
Of course, many people observe the holiday by visiting
cemeteries and memorials. The most attention will come to
Arlington National cemetery where the President annually lays a
wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns and makes a speech.
The most famous cemetery speech was delivered just a bit to
our south and east, outside of Gettysburg. Abraham Lincoln.
November 19, 1863. It was not a Memorial Day speech as such,
rather, it was the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery
that was being completed by the site of one of the bloodiest
engagements fought in the Civil War.
The battle at Gettysburg was a watershed in the struggle.
Southern forces under the command of General Robert E. Lee had
been surprisingly successful in the campaigns up till this point,
but the foolhardy charge into the Pennsylvania countryside was
suicidal and, following the doomed assault, George Pickett, who
had been asked by Lee to reassemble the force, replied that he
had no force to reassemble. Nor did Lee's opposite number, Union
General George Meade, leave Gettysburg with any glory. Though he
had lost as many troops as Lee, he still had plenty left as well
as enough food and ammunition to pursue an enemy that was out of
both and running for its life. For a solid week, despite the
urgings of President Lincoln, Meade let Lee's forces sit at the
edge of the flooded Potomac before finally being able to make
their escape over the river.(1)
Fifty thousand troops, total, were dead, wounded or missing
after Gettysburg. Despite his failure to pursue the
Confederates, Meade said he had no time to "pick up the debris of
the battlefield." That meant that the carcasses of 5,000 horses
and mules plus the barely covered bodies of 8,000 soldiers were
left to decompose under the hot July sun. Something had to be
done. Pennsylvania's governor, Andrew Curtin, appointed a local
banker, 32-year-old David Wills, as his agent on the scene, and
so was begun the work that culminated in the cemetery that
Lincoln's words would make world-famous.
Truth be told, "the Gettysburg Address" was not delivered by
Abraham Lincoln, but by Edward Everett, former Secretary of
State, US Senator, US Representative, Governor of Massachusetts
and president of Harvard University. At that time Everett was
widely considered to be our nation's finest orator, and thus the
invitation to make the address was extended to him. Almost as an
afterthought, Wills and the event committee invited Lincoln to
participate in the ceremony to simply make a few remarks for a
ceremonial "ribbon cutting."
Dr. Everett spoke for two hours, the normal length for such
an oration, and most eloquently, of course. Following a hymn
that had been composed for the occasion, it was Lincoln's turn.
No, despite the mythology, his remarks had not been put together
while on the train up from Washington, and they were not simply
scribbled on the back of an envelope. The speech was carefully
crafted and well thought out, and when considered in the context
of its day, utterly radical.
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought
forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in
Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men
are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil
war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so
conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are
met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come
to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting
place for those who here gave their lives that that
nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper
that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot
consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave
men, living and dead, who struggled here, have
consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or
detract. The world will little note, nor long remember
what we say here, but it can never forget what they did
here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated
here to the unfinished work which they who fought here
have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us
to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before
us that from these honored dead we take increased
devotion to that cause for which they gave the last
full measure of devotion that we here highly resolve
that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this
nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom
and that government of the people, by the people, for
the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Amazing words. Ten sentences, 272 words. "Four score and
seven years ago" was the year 1776 - the American Revolution and
the Declaration of Independence which that said "all men are
created equal." There was no mention of the 1789 Constitution,
which implicitly denied that by recognizing slavery in the
notorious "three-fifths compromise." With these few words,
Lincoln was rewriting the Constitution.
There is some question as to how the remarks were heard by
those 15,000 or more who were gathered that day. We grew up
learning that there was only stunned silence following the
speech, but newspaper reports of the day say the address was
interrupted by applause five different times and then sustained
applause at the conclusion.(2) I wonder if they realized.
"The world will little note, nor long remember what we say
here, but it can never forget what they did here." It is that
sentiment that is being repeated over and over and over again
this weekend as those who have given their lives in defense of
our freedoms are being honored. What is it that makes this
nation, or any nation, worth dying for? We need to stop and
remember.
The ancients understood that. Our lesson from the book of
Joshua is the story of a command to the nation to REMEMBER.
As you Bible scholars know, the book of Joshua tells of
Israel's conquest of Canaan, which appears to climax the long
opening story of the Bible. In Genesis, God promises to give the
land of Canaan to the descendants of Abraham, the people of
Israel. Four hundred years of slavery in Egypt intervened. Then
came Moses and delivery from bondage, but Israel wandered about
in the wilderness long enough for an entire generation to die out
and a new generation to take their place. Near the end of the
book of Numbers, with Moses still in command, the Israelites
conquer the promised land east of the Jordan River and finally
arrive at their new home. The book of Deuteronomy consists of a
long speech by Moses to the nation, including the last major
installment of the law Moses passes on to Israel. At the end of
Deuteronomy, Moses dies.
The book of Joshua continues the story from this point.
First God commissions Joshua. Then, in an orgy of terror,
violence, and mayhem, God takes the land of Canaan west of the
Jordan away from its inhabitants and gives it to Israel under
Joshua's command. Joshua, with the help of the priest Eleazar,
distributes the conquered land to the tribes of Israel. Having
aged, like Moses he bids his people farewell, dies, and is
buried. Thus the book of Joshua explains how under Joshua's
command Canaan was conquered, the Canaanites were slaughtered,
and their lands were expropriated and redistributed to the tribes
of Israel. As one commentator has it, "It forms a triumphant
finale to the Bible's foundational epic of liberation, the savage
goal toward which God's creation of Israel and delivery of Israel
from slavery in Egypt appears to point from the start."(3)
Meanwhile, this instruction to establish a memorial. "So
Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the
Israelites, one from each tribe, and said to them, "Go over
before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the
Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder,
according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve
as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you,
'What do these stones mean?' tell them that the flow of the
Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD.
When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut
off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel
forever."
Remember WHO you are, WHOSE you are, WHERE you came from,
and WHERE you are going. Good advice to Israel, and good advice
to America as well. That was what Abraham Lincoln was doing with
those words that changed the world in 1863.
In 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr., stood on the steps of the
Lincoln Memorial and began his "I Have a Dream" speech,
itself one of the most-recognized pieces of oratory in American
history, with a reference to Lincoln and an allusion to his
words: "Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic
shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation."
But King and the hundreds of thousands who were gathered there
knew that true freedom was still not a reality. But that memory
led to hope. In words that have become as famous to a new
generation of school children as the Gettysburg address was to
us, he said "I have a dream that one day on the red hills of
Georgia, sons of former slaves and sons of former slave owners
will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood...I
have a dream..."
Lincoln had a dream that many of us came to share. "It
is...for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining
before us that from these honored dead we take increased devotion
to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of
devotion that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not
have died in vain..."
Some of that dream has become endangered in our day.
- The dream of a nation of immigrants that "flings wide the
golden door" and welcomes all into the giant melting pot.
- The dream of a nation that takes justice seriously and would
never subvert due process of law, especially as concerns
those who are our enemies.
- The dream of a nation that places the highest possible value
on human rights and would never stoop to torture for any
reason.
- The dream of a nation where citizens are free from
indiscriminate, unwarranted spying by their government.
- The dream of a nation where everyone is seen as deserving
basic health care, regardless of how much money they have.
- The dream of a nation whose lawmakers would never take
bribes in exchange for votes, even bribes disguised as
"contributions."
- The dream of a nation with a government of the people, by
the people and for the people, not simply of, by, and for
the wealthy.
- The dream of a nation that is respected by the world, not
for its great power, but for its greater goodness.
I have a dream today. It is rooted in memory, memory of
another dream, a dream that "this nation, UNDER GOD, shall have a
new birth of FREEDOM...and that government of the people, by the
people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Have a
good Memorial Day.
Amen!
1. Garry Wills, Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words that Remade America, (New York :
Simon & Schuster, 1992), p. 19
2. ibid., p. 261
3. Robert B. Coote, "The Book of Joshua," New Interpreter's Bible: Electronic Edition,
(Nashville : Abingdon, 2000)
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