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Ecclesiastes 3:
1-12
May 30, 2010
ARLINGTON CEMETERY REMEMBRANCES:
This morning as we gather here for this Memorial Day Sunday, to honor those who have come before us, I would have us visit some of the great heroes who have been laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery. Not that such heroes cannot be found in countless other cemeteries as well, but with Memorial Day being a national holiday, this imaginary journey to Arlington Cemetery gives us the opportunity to contemplate and give thanks for this country in which we live and to give thanks for those who sacrificed even life itself that we might be the country we are today. Even more than placing a flag on their graves, we honor them best of all by remembering their lives, by reaffirming the principles by which they lived and by listening more carefully to the voices of wisdom and the voices of conscience that they exemplify. Our scripture lesson for this morning is the familiar passage from the Book of Ecclesiastes where it says, “a time for war and a time for peace.” Sadly, the “time for war” always for every generation seems much longer than the “time for peace” – as if the hands of the clock somehow got stuck. If we as a nation and we as a world community are ever going to make that wonderful transition from a “time for war” to a “time for peace” then it’s imperative that we remember those buried at Arlington Cemetery and elsewhere and listen to the lessons in life they have given us. So, let’s begin with one who is buried in Section 7, grave number 8198. Among all the thousands who are buried at Arlington National Cemetery, we all would have our own selection of heroes, and the five that I have chosen for today may or may not be representative and may or may not be the ones you would select, but maybe my selections will lead you to make your own. Even if he had nothing else to recommend him, the fact that the person buried in grave number 8198 was severely criticized by Senator Joe McCarthy back in the 1950’s, that might be enough to make him a hero in my book. As much as anyone else, Senator Joe McCarthy epitomized what Samuel Johnson meant when he said that “patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel,” and if it is true that one is “known by one’s enemies” then the person buried in grave number 8198 is worthy of our praise. George Marshall was born in 1880 in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. This man who went on to become a five star general may have been castigated by Senator McCarthy, but he received high praise from Winston Churchill who said that General Marshall was the “architect for victory” during World War II. After graduating from the Virginia Military Institute in 1901, he went on to a long and distinguished career in the U.S. Army, serving in both World War I and World War II. But of course the thing for which he is best remembered is the work and the leadership he exemplified as Secretary of State from 1947 to 1949; for it’s one thing to win the war, but it’s even more important to win the peace. If Churchill was right in calling General Marshall the “architect of victory”, it would also be correct to call him the “architect of peace.” After World War II, with Europe in shambles, with so many suffering from poverty and starvation, unemployment and desperation, this was – as it always is – fertile ground for insurrection, or as Bill Coffin used to say, “you cannot have a revolution without revolting circumstances”; terrorist organizations would never come to power without the hopelessness brought on by poverty and desperation. Likewise, back in the 1950’s, many of the European democracies were in jeopardy of being exploited by those following the drumbeat of such tyrants as Joseph Stalin and others to the East. The “Marshal Plan”, as it came to be called, and for which General Marshall received the Nobel Peace Prize was in my estimation not only the prudent thing to do but also the right thing to do. The Marshall plan was not only wise from a pragmatic perspective but also it was compassionate, and it’s the kind and compassionate and generous face of this country for which most of us are very, very proud. It was again Winston Churchill who spoke of him, saying: He is a great American but he is far more than that. In war he was as wise and understanding in counsel as he was resolute in action. In peace he was the architect who planned the restoration of our battered European economy and at the same time laboured tirelessly to establish a system of Western defense. He has always fought victoriously against defeatism, discouragement and dissolution. Succeeding generations must not be allowed to forget his achievements and his example. At his funeral procession at Arlington Cemetery in October of 1959, I love how the U.S. Army Band played, “Faith of our Fathers”, and so in honor of General George C. Marshall, I selected that as one of our hymns for this morning, and suffice to say, in all of our struggles and conflict today we can learn from one who knew not only how to win the war but also how to win the peace. The next person I would honor was actually present at George Marshall’s funeral and in fact had been one of General Marshall’s wise appointments during the war – General Omar Bradley. I have selected Omar Bradley in part as a way of honoring my father who served in the United States Army for about 7 years, first in World War II and then in the Korean War. When I was growing up, my father kept a book about Omar Bradley in a prominent place and often spoke very highly of this man’s wisdom and leadership. Born in 1893 in Randolph County, Missouri, Omar Bradley would also go on to become a 5 star General, a graduate of West Point, serving in both World War I and World War II. Because of his fairness and gentle consideration toward the ordinary soldiers, General Bradley became known affectionately as the “soldier’s general”, and it’s reported that he never gave an order without also saying, “please.” This world today, so lacking in civility, could learn something from the wisdom of this “soldier’s general.” Omar Bradley came from strong but very humble roots. His father was a school teacher who died when Omar was only 9. Omar was an outstanding athlete and student, and it was actually his Sunday School teacher in Missouri who suggested that he apply to West Point. And maybe it was from that same Sunday School teacher that Omar Bradley would learn that war, at times, may be a necessary evil, but that we all need to be advocates and ambassadors for peace. As a teenager, I remember reading in my father’s book about how this wise old General, this man who had served his country so courageously during a time of war, also yearned that someday we would come to know a time of peace, saying as he did, so prophetically: Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living… The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience… We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount. Wars can be prevented just as surely as they can be provoked, and we who fail to prevent them, must share the guilt for the dead. On this Memorial Day, we need to heed the wisdom of one who understood that the best way to honor those who have died in war is to redouble our efforts as students and ambassadors of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and to build a world where war is not only unnecessary but also unthinkable. He was buried in Arlington Cemetery in 1981. Now, if you would go from General George Marshall and General Omar Bradley’s graves to section 36, Lot 1431, grid BB-40 you would find the name of a Sergeant who was born in 1925 and died in 1963. It says, “World War II” on his gravestone, and so deductive reasoning being what it is, one could very easily come to the conclusion that this soldier, dying in 1963 as he did, perhaps died from wounds that he received during the war, the Korean War or maybe the early days of the Vietnam War. Indeed, we know that this man served in Normandy, but unlike so many others who served so valiantly during that time, this man, buried in Lot 1431 survived the war and was honorably discharged, but ultimately he would come to lose his life in a very different field of battle. Someone once said, only somewhat facetiously, that the army and college athletics did more for true racial integration than anything else, and I think there is an element of truth to that claim. When African American soldiers fought side by side with White soldiers during World War II, we can imagine how difficult, how painful, how totally impossible it was for them to go back to the old dispensation, to come back to a country where Jim Crow was still in power, where “separate and unequal” were still the order of the day, where Black people had to ride on the back of the bus, where even homecoming soldiers who had given their all on Omaha Beach and Iwo Jima and had somehow survived the Battan death march in the Philippines now had to eat in the kitchen and drink from separate water fountains as if they were somehow less than human. Where before the war, they might have been willing to “go along to get along”, as we say; now, having served in the same fox holes as their White brothers, there was no going back to that old dispensation. And so, on this Memorial Day Sunday, I would have us honor one who was buried at Arlington Cemetery with full military honors in 1963 at the tender of age of only 38. Medgar Evers was shot in the back, assassinated by a member of the Ku Klux Klan. More and more, Medgar Evers was becoming a leader, a “sergeant” in a very different field of battle – the non-violent struggle for Civil Rights. Through his leadership, the Civil Rights Movement established boycotts against those businesses that practiced discrimination. Indeed, he created a boycott sign that would be used at gas stations, a sign that said, “Don’t Buy Gas Where You Can’t Use The Restroom.” In his active leadership in the Civil Rights movement, Sergeant Medgar Evers incurred the wrath of the Ku Klux Klan, especially when he tried to integrate the University of Mississippi Law School. On this Memorial Day we need to pay tribute not only for those who fought in foreign wars, but also we need to honor those here at home, all those who struggle for that day when can be true to our vision of being a place where there is liberty and justice for all, and so I hope that the example of Medgar Evers might remind us of that sacred mission. And I am pleased and grateful that the United States Navy has announced that a cargo ship will be named in his honor. In these Memorial Day remembrances, we would be severely remiss if we didn’t mention someone who represents all the non-combatants, all the nurses and doctors who have served their country in time of war. Buried in Arlington Cemetery, there’s woman by the name of Juliet Opie Hopkins who was injured in the Civil War battle known as “The Battle of Seven Pines.” She was shot in the leg twice while trying to rescue those wounded on the battlefield. As far as I’m concerned, she was on the wrong side of the war, working as she did as a nurse for the confederate army. Nevertheless, I’ve included her because I think it’s always important to acknowledge the humanity of the “other”; it’s always far too easy to demonize and dehumanize those on the other side of the war. In the case of Juliet Opie Hopkins, we may disagree with the side she was on, but out on the battlefield she exemplified extraordinary humanity. The “weapons” she used were clean bandages, a gentle touch and a kindly countenance. Despite her painful wounds, she continued on with her work as a nurse, and she provided extraordinary personal care for her patients. For soldiers who had lost the use of their hands and their arms, for those blinded on the battlefield, this kindly nurse would sit down with them and on their behalf she would write letters home to their families. For those who requested them, she would provide them with books, and for those who died, she would send locks of their hair back home to their families. In every war, there are doctors and nurses who live every day with triage, those who at great risk to themselves, venture out into the trenches and the fox holes and the frontlines to “rescue the perishing and to care for the dying.” In praising Juliet Opie Hopkins, someone said of her that she had “the sweetest smile that ever lit up a human face.” We also know that she died in poverty, having contributed all of her wealth to the cause of the Confederacy, and while I do not agree at all with her politics, her misdirected loyalties, in my estimation, I think it’s important that we recognize that within us all, there are both noble and ignoble characteristics. Humanity and Inhumanity reside within us all. Indeed, within us all, there is something of a “civil war” going on between our eternal and our temporal identities, but in Juliet Opie Hopkins we have one whose true identity was to be found out on the battlefield, with those who were wounded, and for these she came to known with great love as “The Angel of the South.” I very much appreciate that this former enemy of the United States was buried in Arlington National Cemetery in 1890 with full military honors, an order no doubt in keeping with Abraham Lincoln’s injunction, “With malice toward none; with charity for all, let us bind up our nation’s wounds.” And I’ve included Juliet Hopkins in our Arlington Cemetery Remembrances, for in binding up the wounds of a soldier, she has demonstrated the work that we all need to do in “binding up the wounds of our nation”, restoring the unity of our country, and to do that we need to rely not so much on bandages and splints but rather on forgiveness and reconciliation, so that we too can be Angels of the South and Angels of the North. Finally, I hope you have anticipated that our next stop in our Arlington Cemetery Remembrances will at a tomb on which there is no name and no dates, “The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.” During these Memorial Day commemorations, we need to remember not only the famous names but also all the countless number of soldiers who lived and died trying to serve their country. So many of them, too many of them, are remembered only by their families; many of them having died in obscurity and anonymity. For some of them, their bodies were never found. From Valley Forge to Shiloh to the trenches of Flanders Field to the Battle of the Pacific to the rugged mountains of Korea to the Tet Offensive in Vietnam to the more recent wars in the Middle East… in all these places there are ordinary men and women who have died trying to do their best, and so I for one am glad that there is a place at Arlington Cemetery to honor these ordinary men and women, “the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.” They serve even now as a painful reminder that we are far, far too often stuck in that “Time of War” and their loss and their sacrifice should remind us that we have more work that needs to be done, that we need to pray and to work for that time when we will finally be able to say, “yes, there was a time for war; but now, there is a time for peace.” Sadly, that time seems to be a long, long time in coming, but on this Memorial Day, I would have us give thanks for such courageous souls as George Marshall and Omar Bradley and Medgar Evers and Juliet Opie Hopkins and all those represented in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. In remembrance of them, the faith and the courage that they exemplified, perhaps we can honor them by doing all that we can to turn the hands of the clock from a “Time for War” to a “Time for Peace.” We owe it to them, and we owe it to our children, and most of all, we owe it to God. Amen.
David W. Good Old Lyme, Connecticut
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