Lonsberry: MY MEMORIAL DAY REMARKS TO THE CANASERAGA AMERICAN LEGION

               Today, we talk about something sacred.

 

               We talk about men and woman who have, over two and a half centuries, fought and died for this country. They have worn its uniform and borne its burdens and bequeathed its glory.

 

               They have purchased for us, at the cost of their lives, our independence, our freedom, our place in the world. The greatest nation was bought at the highest price. They won for us a prize they did not live to enjoy.

 

               How do we understand that, much less appropriately honor it?

 

               Comprehension has traditionally come in the context of faith. As a predominantly Christian nation, we have seen in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ the pattern of our own servicemen and women. The men of the Union Army marched off to the Civil War singing of Jesus, “as He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free.”

 

               The scripture often quoted at the funerals of fallen American heroes – “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” – is Jesus speaking about himself, and holding himself up as an example for others to follow. The verse before it – “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.” – not only gives a divine context to the selfless sacrifice of our heroes, but explains their motive.

 

               They died for us, because they loved us.

 

               Gary Beikirch, a Medal of Honor recipient from Rochester, often said, “The soldier doesn’t fight because he hates what’s in front of him; he fights because he loves what’s behind him.” His family, his homeland, his people.

 

               Across the centuries and around the globe, American fighting men and women have taken up arms and confronted our enemies because they loved this country and its people, because they loved you, because they loved freedom – even the freedom of strangers.

 

               And as hard as it is to comprehend, they loved us even more than life itself.

 

               And they showed that when they raised their arm to the square, in the presence of the American flag, and swore to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies.

 

               They made a promise, and they kept it.

 

               Now, how do we honor that?

 

               President Lincoln answered that question in November of 1863. Standing at the dedication of a national cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, he said that he and the others there couldn’t really dedicate that ground. He said that it had already been dedicated by the men who fought there. “Rather,” he said, 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, 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 would suggest that what was true then, is true now.

 

Those who have fought and died have done their duty. The question for us is, will we do ours?

 

               Will we, in our lives and in our ways, be committed to an ever-new birth of freedom, and are we dedicated to the proposition that government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth?

 

               Now, how we do that or what that means, might be different for different people. We may not vote the same, we may not pray the same, we may not look the same, but our duty, our sacred obligation, is the same – to defend liberty, to uphold our Constitution, to make sure these noble men and women have not died in vain.

 

               That sacred duty is the same for all of us.

 

               It is a thing to which our lives must be dedicated.

 

               And it is a sacred duty. If, as the Declaration of Independence states, we our endowed by our Creator with freedom – that liberty is a gift from God – then the defense of freedom is God’s work, and God helps his own.

 

               My faith tells me that Jason Dunham, Zach Smith, Devin Snyder and the 2.8 million other soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen who have died in our service still live. And my heart tells me that they still care.

 

               Their love for this country and this people continues. They are the great army of the other side, and they stand like saints and angels all around us, still in the defense of America’s God-given liberty. As the prophet Elisha said, “Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.”

 

               They that be with us are the great spirits gone on ahead, the heroes we honor today.

 

               The “Marines’ Hymn” jests that if the Army and the Navy ever get to heaven, they will find the streets guarded by United States Marines. I guess we’ll find out if that’s true when we get there. But until then, I’m going to believe that the Marines, and all who have perished in the service of the United States, are still on duty here, unseen, but unfailing in their faithful watch over the United States of America.

 

               They still serve. What remains to be seen, is if we will serve with them.

 

               God bless those who have passed, God bless their families here below, and God bless us to be worthy of their sacred sacrifice.