Memorial Day

Memorial Day is coming up.  We'll have some kids over for food and fun Sunday night.  There will be a cookout Monday.  I'm not sure what else will happen, bu I am sure Laura will tell me what I am doing at some point.

Thinking about the sermon this week, I got stuck on how best to describe a memorial to the kids.  I know we will honor our fallen soldiers.  But what is a memorial.  Is it the ceremony/service, the ritual, the monument, the holiday ...

Wikipedia, the source of all wisdom, defines memorial as "an object which serves as a focus for memory of something, usually a person (who has died) or an event."  Further, it speaks of grave markers, headstones, monuments, fountains and parks.  There is no mention of ceremony or celebration.  At least not in the first few paragraphs.  I didn't look up Memorial Day.  I'm sure it has a well documented history.

"An object which serves as a focus for memory..."

I think I can work with that.  Unfortunately, I think what normally happens is the memorial becomes "an object which serves as a focus for the object."  Many of us have an understanding of what Memorial Day is all about.  But do we really think about those we are "memorializing."  Is our focus on the fallen or on the barbecue and beach.  Is it about the memory or the day off of work or school.  Is it just a day to seek our own comfort, entertainment and enjoyment or to remember those who died so that others could be free.

I think this year, our Memorial Day service will be centered on the memory of the ultimate sacrifice and the one who died so that others could be free.  And the object which will serve as a focus for memory will be Communion/Eucharist/The Lord's Supper.  Not the crucifixion, but redemption - the New Covenant that is in His blood.  We will take the body and blood and "proclaim the Lord's death," remembering what He has done.

And when our children ask us, "What does this mean?", we can tell them of the memory the object represents and of the Great Love the Father has lavished on us.