Veterans Day

Last year, in England, I had a particularly difficult Sunday right about now. Remembrance Sunday. The day when all of the UK remembers and honors their war dead. I had managed to get through the first year fairly unscathed. We had done our two minutes of silence in church, I preached vaguely about peace, and I was done with it. Last year didn't go so smoothly. (You can read the post here. Scroll down to the bottom.) I remember feeling quite angry and unfaithful and upset after the event. Interestingly enough, the stewards at that church remarked on an evaluation that, in regards to worship, 'I seemed to have difficulty with some of the peculiarly English services.' They didn't get it. It wasn't about the Englishness of it and my non-English nationality. Instead, it had to do with God's house being used as a place to glorify war and God being identified with a particular nation (we sang the national anthem).

This year, I tried to be sneaky. No one had mentioned to me any particular expectations or traditions of this congregation with regards to Veterans' Day. I thought I had escaped! My hope was to ignore it and then plead ignorance after the fact. Didn't work.

Toward the end of the service, during the offering, I received a note--'Sarah, don't forget today is Veterans' Day!' Oy. I mouthed to the person that I had hoped to ignore it. They didn't seem offended by the idea, but I figured I ought to say something. We finished the offering and all we had left was the last hymn. We were even going to get done early! So I decided to address the issue.

I was honest with them. I told them I had hoped to ignore the holiday and I told them why. I explained my discomfort with merging God and country, faith and nation. Thankfully, we had addressed some of this in Bible study, so I could allude to that experience for credibility. But then I went on to say that often, the only place veterans receive any recognition is in church. I finished off by acknowledging that anytime someone sacrifices for the sake of another, it is a holy action. (At this point, I wondered what I was saying and where in the world I could be going with this little speech!) I reminded them that for all the sacrifice that the veterans had done for us, the ultimate sacrifice was that of Jesus, coming to earth for us, dying on the cross for us. That's our ultimate loyalty. So then after a bit more (can't remember what all I said), I asked the veterans in the congregation to stand and be recognized. There were probably 7 or 8 who stood. They were applauded, I said a prayer giving thanks to God for their example of how to sacrifice for what we believe in, we sang the last hymn and ended the service.

Needless to say, I was a bit nervous giving this little homily 1) off the cuff; and 2) I didn't think it would be a very popular stance to take. Turned out not so bad. Several folks agreed with me afterwards! One veteran said he had been in war and there was nothing Godly about it. Another man (non veteran) said he didn't like to sing 'My Country 'Tis of Thee' in church. At lunch, another veteran said he didn't particularly enjoy being reminded of the atrocities he experienced, that it had taken him over 50 years to feel forgiven for what he had done and did not want to remember some of the things he had been asked to do. When he told me that, it felt like a very holy moment and I was honored that he shared with me.

So I learned two very valuable lessons yesterday. 1) Be honest. Don't be afraid of the reaction, just tell the truth. 2) Don't sell the congregation short. I made assumptions about these folks and turned out to be quite wrong.

I was very humbled yesterday. Thanks be to God.