Memorial Day unofficially began in 1866 as a tribute to the fallen soldiers of the Civil War. Following that most bloody of conflicts there was a desire across the country to honor those who paid the ultimate sacrifice by decorating their graves and sharing their stories. While 1866 is considered the start of organized tributes, one year earlier a group of formerly enslaved people in Charleston, South Carolina, gathered to pay tribute to their liberators just a short month after the surrender of the Confederacy at Appomattox Courthouse. The desire to show gratitude was strong. By 1890 every state held its own Decoration Day on the last day of May with the express purpose of remembering the fallen heroes of this horrific war. As time and conflict moved on, however, the holiday was expanded to include fallen soldiers of all wars. In 1971 the day was renamed Memorial Day and became an official federal holiday.
I personally don’t have ancestors to honor on this sacred day of remembrance. In fact, the last direct-line ancestor I can find who died in combat died in the Battle of Dunbar in 1650. Before that there was one in the Battle of Pinkie in 1547 and a few in the Saxon wars pre-1066. There was one ancestor who died in the religious wars of the reformation by being martyred and then dumped in Lake Zurich, but I don’t think that counts. Several died of dysentery from wars they personally began, but again, I’m not counting those. Through the years I’ve had ancestors in the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Mexican American War (with the Mormon Battalion), and the Civil War (the Ohio regiment). Distant cousins multiple times removed fought in World Wars I and II, my father was in the Army for the Cold War, and my brother was in the Air National Guard. Soldiers a-plenty, but fortunately they survived. For me, Memorial Day isn’t a time to honor fallen military family members, but to honor the collective American family of fallen soldiers.
I am so thankful for those who were willing to pay the ultimate price for my freedom and my rights. Christ said that there was no greater gift that could be given than that of giving up one’s life for someone else. How grateful we should all be for those who died to preserve our lives and our freedoms.
In fact, remembering these heroes is, as Abraham Lincoln said, “altogether fitting and proper.” Lincoln continued, however, to admonish the listeners that it was up to the living to finish the work that those who died had “so nobly advanced.”
How do we do that? How do we “finish the work?”
I believe that the best way to honor those who died in the defense of freedom is for us, to continue the fight for increased freedom and justice for all. What are we doing to advance the cause of liberty for all of God’s children? What are we doing to help our communities, states, nation, and world be better?
Last night I saw, again, the musical Les Miserables. It is the story of those willing to lay down their lives to bless the lives of those powerless to fight for themselves. It is the story of a repentant thief, Jean Valjean, who sacrifices the comforts and security of his daily life in order to raise the child of a woman, who desired only to care for her young daughter, but in so doing was harmed by Valjean’s own careless and casual actions (though the real harm was perpetrated by someone inclined to bully and then by a society that allowed the victimization of the weak). It’s a story of those on the outskirts of society who are marginalized and downtrodden due to injustices inherent in their system. It’s a story of grasping greed by those willing to manipulate one and all. It’s the story of a religious man willing to give up his most valuable worldly goods in order to help someone he didn’t know who was in terrible need. It is a story of young wealthy men fighting, and dying, in an attempt to right the wrongs of an unjust political and societal system.
In one of my favorite moments of the show these stirring words ring out:
Do you hear the people sing?
Singing the song of angry men?
It is the music of the people
Who will not be slaves again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes!
Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Beyond the barricade
Is there a world you long to see?
Then join in the fight
That will give you the right to be free!
Do you hear the people sing?
Singing the song of angry men?
It is the music of the people
Who will not be slaves again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes!
Will you give all you can give
So that our banner may advance?
Some will fall and some will live
Will you stand up and take your chance?
The blood of the martyrs
Will water the meadows of France!
Do you hear the people sing?
Singing the song of angry men?
It is the music of the people
Who will not be slaves again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes
(In an interesting sidenote, this song has been banned in China as it has become a rallying song for freedom in Hong Kong.)
Do we hear the people sing? Are we listening and do we hear?
Walt Whitman said, “I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear…” Do we hear the songs of those around us? The varied carols from varied voices? The songs might be full of joy or they might be sad; they might be songs of triumph or songs of pain and injustice. Are we hearing them?
This weekend is the one hundredth anniversary of the Tulsa Massacre in which more than 300 people were killed in a horrific racially induced slaughter. Lives were destroyed, livelihoods were ruined, homes were burnt, and for decades the tragedy of that event went unmarked and unnoticed by those outside of the African American community. Do we hear the people sing of their anguish and are we willing to join in their fight for greater justice? A Jewish synagogue, this one in Los Angeles, was vandalized last night. Do we hear our Jewish neighbors sing? Are we speaking out about the evils of antisemitism? Recently there has been a spate of violent crimes against Asian Americans. Are we hearing their song, calling for help? This week there was a mass shooting in San Jose, California. Are we hearing the song of the victims and those who are afraid? Do we hear the songs of those in marginalized groups? Are we willing to protect their rights, along with our own?
The list of those who are in need of our care is large. What are we doing to help? Many have laid down their lives that we might enjoy the freedoms articulated in the Bill of Rights, but for too many Americans those aspirational ideals haven’t been achieved. Are we working with all our might to continue the work for which some gave their lives instead of focusing on our own comforts and our own happiness alone? Are we striving to listen and to right wrongs, or are we anxiously defending our own position?
Victor Hugo said, in his book Les Miserables, that “to love another person is to see the face of God.” At the end of the play, as the reformed Jean Valjean lays dying, he is surrounded by love from people on both sides of the veil. His adopted daughter and her new husband are there. So too is the woman who died trying to support her daughter, the Bishop who loved Valjean enough – merely as a child of God – to give him all of his valuable silver so that he could have a fresh beginning, a young girl who was part of the poor that the young men were fighting for and who had given up her own life to help someone she loved, and finally there were the men who died on the barricade in defense of the “wretched of the earth.” In this setting, in a room surrounded by those who had been willing to demonstrate the purest love there is a reprise of the earlier question, Do You Hear the People Sing.
Do you hear the people sing?
Lost in the valley of the night
It is the music of a people
Who are climbing to the lightFor the wretched of the earth
There is a flame that never dies
Even the darkest night will end
And the sun will rise.They will live again in freedom
In the garden of the Lord
We will walk behind the plowshare
We will put away the sword
The chain will be broken
And all men will have their reward!Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Somewhere beyond the barricade
Is there a world you long to see?Do you hear the people sing?
Say, do you hear the distant drums?
It is the future that we bring
When tomorrow comes!Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Somewhere beyond the barricade
Is there a world you long to see?Do you hear the people sing
Say, do you hear the distant drums?
It is the future that we bring
When tomorrow comes!
This reprise reminds us of the glorious day that awaits all of those who give up their lives for others. What beautiful imagery!
This is Memorial Day. It is a time to remember those who have given their all. It is also a time to become dedicate ourselves to finishing the work they began. Do you hear the people sing? Will you listen? Will you join in the crusade to fight for the world that we all long to see? This Memorial Day, let us all listen to Abraham Lincoln and “be dedicated…to the unfinished work which they who fought…have thus far so nobly advanced.” Let us, as he entreated, “be… 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.”
Look to God and Live... Joyfully! 