Memorial Day 2019 Prayer

Yesterday, I was happy to share the invocation prayer as well as the benediction for the Centerville Memorial Day Service. Our guest speaker was Captain Matt Hebert, who commands the Naval Medical Research Unit at Wright Patterson Air Force Base here in our community. Music was provided by the  Centerville community band and community choir, as well as a bagpiper who played Amazing Grace. Local Scouts led us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Here's the invocation prayer I offered:

Gracious God and Father, we cherish the freedoms we enjoy in America. For more than 240 years, these freedoms have been, in large part, secured and established by the ultimate sacrifice paid by members of our armed forces: the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard. Today, we gather to remember and give thanks for these honored dead. But we also ask that You would empower us to honor them on more than Mondays in May. Grant that, with gratitude to the fallen, our entire lives will be lived as  grateful citizens who cherish, not only our freedoms, but also the example of service and sacrifice we honor today. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen

We also prayed for a member of the Honor Guard who fainted early in the program. Because the Honor Guard was composed of not only veterans, but first responders, the gentleman received quick medical attention.

Among the notable guests present was a 101-year-old veteran of the Army Air Force. Another World War II veteran made a point of introducing himself to me after the program, saying, "I'm a Lutheran too." He seemed proud that a representative of the Lutheran community was taking part in this commemoration of the fallen.

Last year's speaker, another World War II veteran and a retired Wright State University philosophy professor, sat behind me. A member of our congregation was a volunteer for the event and several of our members were there to honor, commemorate, and pray.

I always enjoy this event.

[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]

Memorial Day Prayer

This prayer was shared today as the invocation for Centerville, Ohio's annual Memorial Day Ceremony.

Lord of the nations, we gather today to remember and to honor the military personnel of the United States who have given their lives to protect this nation from all enemies of our freedom, foreign and domestic.  

We thank You that by their sacrifice, they have preserved and entrusted to us a constitutional democracy which has, for nearly two-and-a-half centuries, been the envy and aspirational model of people all over the world.  

We pray that we would honor their memories with more than just our words, songs, prayers, and salutes today, honoring them every day by being committed, informed citizens and caring neighbors. May our lives memorialize our honored dead through a steadfast commitment to being the nation that seeks “liberty and justice for all.”  

In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen

[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]

Memorial Day Prayers, Blessings, and Charges

Today's Centerville Memorial Day Service was a meaningful remembrance of those American service members who gave their lives for our country.

Colonel Bradley McDonald, Installation and 88th Air Base Wing Commander at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, challenged us all to remember, revere, and respond to the sacrifices made by members of the armed forces.

Mayor Brooks Compton also spoke movingly about the significance of the day.

Local high school students sang, read a self-written essay, and presented the moving The America We Love, written by former President Barack Obama.

The Centerville Community Band played Goin' Home, as well as Beautiful Savior and the National Anthem.

Local boy and girl scouts led us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Greg Martin piped Amazing Grace and Tom Voss played Taps.

I shared the Invocation and the Benediction for today's gathering. Both are presented below.

We gather in the name of God the Father, God the Son, Jesus Christ, and God the Holy Spirit. Amen 

Father, we come together today to remember those Americans who have given their lives in the cause of freedom. We thank You for their sacrifice and we pray that we, the living, will be worthy of the great cost that they have expended for us. As they were diligent in doing their duty for America, help us to do our duty: to understand the founding principles of this unique and special land--freedom ensured by mutual accountability--and to keep them in mind when we speak and vote and form our opinions; to be informed as citizens; to be good neighbors who understand that, while we may sometimes disagree, we and our fellow citizens all love America. As we remember and celebrate the sacrifices of the fallen, fill us with new resolve to be Americans: committed to our neighbor’s freedom, fighting for others’ well-being as the fallen have done for us, seeking to extend the blessings of the great American constitutional experiment to all of our citizens, and maintaining this unique and blessed land for future generations. Help us in these ways to honor those we remember today. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen

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It was the height of the Vietnam War and I was in high school. Several of my classmates would go on to fight in that war. An admiral came to speak at an assembly. It was a time when people were saying, "My country, right or wrong." But the admiral said that he didn't subscribe to that view. Instead, he believed, "My country: When right to keep it right, when wrong to make it right." In honor of those who have fallen, we can do no less than to seek, with God's help, to take a similar approach. 

And now, the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord look upon you with favor and give you peace. Amen

[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]

From Centerville's Memorial Day Ceremonies Last Monday

These two photos were sent to me by the city of Centerville. I was honored to deliver the Invocation during the city's 2016 Memorial Day ceremonies. The event was a meaningful way to remember those who have fallen while in the military service of the United States.

The invocation prayer I offered is here.

[Blogger Mark Daniels is the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church, Centerville, Ohio.]

Memorial Day Prayer

This is the prayer offered as an Invocation at the Memorial Day Services held at Stubbs Park in Centerville, Ohio, earlier today.

Father in heaven, on this day of remembrance, we offer thanks for those who have given their lives in military service to our country. You know how easily we forget the good done to us in our lives and how readily we trivialize days like Memorial Day. We get caught up with things like ball games, picnics, and holiday sales, and soon the true reason this day has been set aside is forgotten. Help us, God, to never forget, to always remember, that the promise of America has been secured by the sacrifices of people like those we memorialize today. Grant that, in remembrance of fallen heroes, we will live lives that bring You, that bring them, and that bring our country, honor. In Jesus’ name. Amen

[Blogger Mark Daniels is the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church, Centerville, Ohio.]

A Memorial Day Prayer

Written by my friend and colleague, Pastor Glen VanderKloot.

Dear Heavenly Father,
As we remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom, we think of how they have followed in the footsteps of your son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Please hold our service men and women in your strong arms. Cover them with your sheltering grace and presence as they stand in the gap for our protection.

We also remember the families of our troops, and ask for your unique blessings to fill their homes and your peace, provision and strength to fill their lives.

May the members of our armed forces be filled with courage to face each day and may they trust in the Lord's mighty power to accomplish each task. Let our military brothers and sisters feel our love and support.

In the name of Jesus.

Amen.

Memorial Day thoughts...

from two years ago.

This Memorial Day...

remembering those who gave "the last full measure of devotion."

Memorial Day: Choked Up with Gratitude

It happened again yesterday, as my wife and I traveled to Columbus to celebrate the high school graduation of our nephew, Jameson. As has been the custom for most of our married life, my wife was behind the wheel and I read to her. Our selections are usually histories or biographies.

Not always. When our kids were young, I read all seven volumes of The Chronicles of Narnia during a family trip to and from Walt Disney World. And one year, I read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.

I remember that when reading the seventh of the Narnian books, The Last Battle, the most sublime writing I have ever read, I had to stop more than once. I was overcome with emotion by the beauty of Lewis' description of the "new Narnia," a fictional representation of the "new heaven and the new earth" all believers in Jesus Christ will one day experience.

And there were times when I read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever that I had to stop: first, from laughing so hard at the antics of the Herdmann kids and then, from getting misty over their understanding of what Christmas is really about.

Through the years, there have been books that have often caused me to choke up and stop to regain my composure. They're the onese that describe or allude to the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944, when the largest amphibious force in history began the liberation of Europe from the tyranny of Nazism. It happened to me the first time when I read Stephen Ambrose's biography of Dwight Eisehnower and later, while reading Ambrose's book Citizen Soldier.

Every time I think of those young soldiers and paratroopers assaulting the beaches of Normandy, facing almost certain death--similar in some ways to the Union soldiers depicted in the Civil War epic, Glory--I get weepy. Gratitude wells up inside of me and I have to compose myself.

As I say, it happened again yesterday. During our recent road trips, I've been reading Andrea Mitchell's fine memoir, Talking Back. Yesterday, I came to Mitchell's narrative of Ronald Reagan's moving tribute to those who lost their lives on D-Day, June 6, 1944. It was, writes Mitchell, one of the few times in her journalistic career when she had allowed herself to take off the necessary lens of reportorial observer in order to feel the event she was covering. I wasn't expecting to be so moved by what she wrote:

The summer of 1984 marked the fortieth anniversary of the Normandy invasion and my first trip to cover the commemoration of D-Day. With American and Allied veterans gathered on a promontory over Omaha Beach, Ronald Reagan delivered one of the most poetic and powerful speeches of his presidency, written by his elegiac speechwriter, Peggy Noonan. As Reagan described the daunting feat of the Army Rangers who had climbed the cliffs in a hail of gunfire, he gazed at the aging veterans assembled in front of him and said, "These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc." The words were largely Peggy's, but in Reagan's unique way, he gave them life. In that one speech re-created the past, celebrated the present, and memorialized the achievements of the D-Day veterans for all future time.

It hit me again as I read that passage. I had to stop. "That gets me every time," I told my wife.

Whatever your feelings about the current war in Iraq or any of the wars our nation has fought since World War II, the necessity of which almost nobody I've known has ever questioned, every military person in our country's conflicts has done so from a sense of duty to us. This Memorial Day, be thankful for such people.

[You might also want to read this.]

What's Memorial Day About Again?

Some thoughts I presented on that subject last year here.

Summer Blogging Cutback

Memorial Day is the traditional beginning of the summer season and I've made a decision about my Summer, 2007, this morning, following several weeks of consideration. I'm going to cut back on my blogging over the next several months. My Sunday messages and an occasional newspaper column will appear. But that's it. I have a busy summer ahead and I want to focus on other things.

Thank you to everyone who makes this blog a regular part of your days.

And speaking of Memorial Day, be sure to take some time this weekend to remember all who have sacrificed their lives for our freedom.

God bless.

So, What's Memorial Day About Again?

Writes Colbert I. King in today's Washington Post:

This cannot be what Maj. Gen. John A. Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, had in mind when he officially proclaimed Memorial Day on May 5, 1868. His thought, as best I can tell, was to set aside a day to honor the war dead. The true meaning of Memorial Day, however, has been overcome by door-buster sales, backyard cookouts and the opportunity to get a little extra sleep.

It's sad to note that this is what all of our holidays (a word that originally meant, holy days), sacred and secular, have become.

• Christmas has become a money-making machine.
• Easter is still a marginally-good enough holiday for some retailers to pitch clothing sales in anticipation of its arrival each year.
• Thanksgiving brings big sales to grocers.
• Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, Veterans Day, Presidents Day, Labor Day, and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Birthday all give boosts to the travel and leisure industries.

But it's rare that any of us--and I include myself in this indictment--do anything even remotely related to what the holidays are supposed to be about.

On Presidents Day, George Washington, the greatest political leader in history, is turned into a buffoon with wooden teeth, for example.

And far more significantly, retailers with little regard for Jesus Christ turn the birth and resurrection of the Savior of the world into revenue streams.

I'm not disdaining people making money. Even when Jesus overturned the tables of the moneychangers in the temple, He wasn't condemning people making a living. He was condemning people who were so consumed with making money that they effectively extorted it from the pious. He was condemning wretched excess. “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” He said.

Specific to Memorial Day, one has to ask if soldiers gave their lives at Trenton and Gettysburg so that Wal Mart could sell more radial tires.

Or if Marines hoisted the flag at Iwo Jima and sailors endured the Battle of Midway so that Best Buy could unload more computers.

It's time for some brave and visionary business leader to say, "Because we dare to profit from holidays like Memorial Day...and Christmas, Labor Day, and other holidays, we're going to apply a percentage of what we usually devote to advertising for sales geared to these days--say, 10%--to ad campaigns that will explain their true meanings."

The principle businesses should adopt, I think, is: If we make money from it, we need to respect what it's really about. In the creation of these special ad campaigns about civic holidays, business leaders could consult with historians. For religious ones, theologians from the traditions on which the businesses are trading should be tapped for information.

If this course of action were undertaken in anticipation of next Memorial Day, for example, maybe people, including me, would start to realize that it's more than just a day off.

[Thanks to Jan at TheViewfromHer and Charlie at ThinkChristian for linking to this post!]

[Thanks also to Allens on the Net for linking here.]