Memories & Reconciliation

Joshua 4: 4-9

2 Timothy 1: 3-7

Matthew 26: 6-13

Memories and Reconciliation

"Fourscore 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."  (1863, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Abraham Lincoln)

Over 620,000 American men, and some women, lost their lives in military service during the Civil War. More than 400,000 more were wounded and survived, many left with permanent disabling injuries.  At Gettysburg alone over 7000 were killed in the three days of battle, and another 27,000 wounded, many of whom would later die of their wounds.

Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation's service. Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11, and was first observed on 30 May 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of both Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. There is also evidence that organized women's groups in the South were decorating graves before the end of the Civil War: a hymn published in 1867, "Kneel Where Our Loves are Sleeping" by Nella L. Sweet carried the dedication "To The Ladies of the South who are Decorating the Graves of the Confederate Dead.”

Although Waterloo N.Y. was officially declared the birthplace of Memorial Day by President Lyndon Johnson in May 1966, it's difficult to prove conclusively the origins of the day. It is more likely that it had many separate beginnings; each of those towns and every planned or spontaneous gathering of people to honor the war dead in the 1860's tapped into the general human need to honor our dead, each contributed honorably to the growing movement that culminated in Gen Logan giving his official proclamation in 1868.

There are many stories as to its actual beginnings, with over two dozen cities and towns laying claim to being the birthplace of Memorial Day. It is not important who was the very first, what is important is that Memorial Day was established. Memorial Day is not about division. It is about reconciliation; it is about coming together to honor those who gave their all.

At the end of the Civil War, when Robert E. Lee and his Army of Virginia tried to escape from Richmond and head south, ragged, starving, exhausted, and finally cut off by Grant and forced to surrender, there were many Confederate soldiers and officers who wanted to disperse into the forests and fight a guerrilla war. Had Robert E. Lee given the word they would have done so, and we might be a continent of many nation states, still fighting among each other. Certainly the war would have gone on for many years longer. But Lee would not hear of it. Instead he told his men to lay down their arms, go home, and become good citizens of the United States.

Had Ulysses S. Grant been a General seeking vengeance and the spoils of war, had Abraham Lincoln been a President that wanted to punish the defeated states, we would be a nation totally divided to this day. Guerrilla warfare surely would have gone on. Instead Grant with the approval of Lincoln, allowed the Confederate soldiers to go home with their horses, and with food rations, to be full citizens of the United States.   Lee, Lincoln, and Grant knew the only way to peace and healing, and future prosperity was through reconciliation.

After the war was over, and Lee was home, post-war southerners still viewed him as an idol and a hero. Because of his status, Lee had the ability to influence the actions and beliefs of many southerners. On one Sunday morning in Richmond, Lee exercised this power to show his acceptance of the Union victory and the need for the country to unify.

On this particular Sunday morning, Lee attended St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Richmond, V.A. The church service progressed as usual until it was time for communion. When the call to communion was made, an unknown black man rose from his pew in the back of the church and made the long walk down the aisle to the front of the church where he proceeded to kneel at the communion rail.

The members of the church were shocked by this act and remained seated, unsure of what to do. Then, Robert E. Lee rose from his pew. He strode down the center aisle and knelt down next to black man, and the two received communion together. After this act, the rest of the congregation followed suit and took communion.  Reconciliation.

General Sherman’s march to the sea through Georgia took only a month. His 100,000 man army devastated everything in its path, ruining towns and farms alike. But when the war ended. Sherman raised money and went back to Georgia where he worked to help rebuild the towns he had destroyed.  Reconciliation.

If ever there were a time since the Civil War that this nation of ours needs to remember that all men and women are created equal it is now. If ever there were a time since the Civil War that we need to remember the sacrifices men and women have made for the sake of unity for this nation, it is now. If ever there were a time since the Civil War that this nation, and we its people, need reconciliation, it is now. None of the soldiers we honor this Memorial Day for the sacrifice of their lives in the service of this country would want the divisiveness and hatred and violence that has become too much of a norm—divisiveness for the sake of just being divisive, and too often over petty issues when we need unity of purpose, and vision far beyond the next election, and beyond the next generation.

We owe the best of ourselves to a time we will never know, but will unalterably shape.  Our founding fathers disagreed about many things, often greatly and heatedly, but they were civil and they shared a vision, and around that vision they reached accord and then each man pledged his life and fortune to do all he could to see that vision become reality. They gave the best of themselves to us. Since then men and women have died to keep that vision alive and growing. It too often seems our memories are short, and instead of civility we have meanness of spirit.

Jesus in the upper room on that last night with his followers broke the bread and lifted the cup and said, “Do this in remembrance of me”.  He was not just speaking of the act of Communion. He was saying, remember all that I have taught you, all that I have shown you. Communion is to refresh our memories of why he lived, and why he died on the cross, so we might be reconciled with God.   Memorial Day is to refresh our memories as well, and gives us a chance to reconcile with our past, with each other, and with God.  

Lest we forget.