No Greater Love

Photo by Lance Reis on Unsplash

Memorial Day

"No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends."

This is what we celebrate in America today. We mourn, yes we mourn. We remember, as best we can because we need to remember what it means to be loved so greatly. But in the end, it is not the dying that is the focus of the day. It is the love displayed in their lives that there was something greater than their lives, something that they would give their life for. That something was US.

St. Paul says that we should always regard the other as more important than ourselves. This means we would die so that others might live. Everyone who signs up for the military vows to defend the constitution, and though the oath of enlistment does not say so, it is clearly understood that this defense will include the sacrifice of one's own life if necessary.

Far too few people in our world today understand what it means to take an oath like this. Individuals stand proudly in a me-first stance, and many might even profess that this is the American way - fight for whatever I can get for myself. The nearly 1.5 million Americans who have given their lives in defense of our country and of us would shout something very different from their graves.

We have Hollywood images of great bravery and valiant soldiers, and there are many, but there are also those who died with great fear in their hearts, who entered battles longing for their own families - but they did it anyway and held to their sacred oath. They did not to this for our supposed freedom to do whatever we like, whatever suits us. They did it because they were not only defending freedom, but they were also showing us what it looked like.

In their freedom, they chose to take an oath. To elevate others - not just a couple of select people whom they loved and valued - but all others. When they did this, they began a journey to become exemplars - not by how perfect they would be, but by what would guide every part of their life: love for others. As Christians, this is exactly what we are called to do. Take an oath to love others more than ourselves.

In the early church this love meant loving and caring for the eternal souls of all around them and being willing to die rather than deny the very source of eternal life. We honor these great men and women with the title of saint.

When we honor the men and women who serve on this day, we honor the dead for sure, but we also honor all who have taken the oath to place others before themselves. They did this for one nation under God, and their oath ends with the words: so help me God. The very best way that we can honor them is not with parades or flags or picnics. It is by making our own oath to put others ahead of ourselves. When we do this, we follow their example and will finally make our country all that they fought for it to be. When we do this to preserve the eternal life of others, we also finally make our church all that Christ died to make it.