Brethren, of the forty-something Memorial Day’s I’ve lived throughout my life, this one is unlike any other. The reason is because I’m here in the Outremer, helping to carry out the fight against the murderous horde that killed 3,000 Americans on September 11, 2001, and tens of thousands elsewhere. Though the camp’s management has gone overboard to instill in it a festive environment – with patriotic decorations in the dining facility, a delicious cake decorated as a US flag, BBQs and stuff – the mood remains poignant. That’s because the mood was set at this morning’s ceremony, where we all formed and before the monument dedicated to our fallen comrades, we rendered the honors and respect due to them. During the ceremony, the command staff laid a wreath before the monument, taps was played, and guns fired in tribute. The names of all members of our task force who rendered the last measure of devotion were read, men from all armed services and from our coalition partners. Then the benediction, and we left.
Where do we get these men – and men embraces women unless otherwise indicated in the text – that they’ll pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty? How was it that a man from Kentucky, or Tennessee, or Texas; and others from Afghanistan, France, Canada, Australia, showed their love for others by dying for them? The answer lies in the mystery God himself, who forces no one to believe in Him but blesses those who die so that others may choose freely to love Him, or hate Him. Because God honors the sacrifice of those who die to protect human dignity, those who don’t debase it by lowly acts of hatred and murder to restrain that freedom. It is because we are made in His image that many from amongst us give their lives for the sake of others.
Right now, to me all the other wars and conflicts in the world are far away. I can only focus on this one. Today I had the opportunity to honor these heroes right on the land they consecrated with their blood.
…But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not 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.
I’ve been blessed by being here today. May the Lord bless us all on this Memorial Day, AD 2011.