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Sunday, November 11, 2001
Rev. James A. Todhunter

Each of our patriotic holidays has a particular focus. On Independence Day we celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence. On Memorial Day we remember those members of our military who have died in service to their country. On May 13^th 1938 President Hoover signed the law that brought what was then called Armistice Day into existence. November 11^th was the day that marked the end of World War I, and France and Britain had observed that day since 1920. For Americans this eventually came to be officially called Veterans’ Day and is now observed on November 11^th each year.

The purpose of Veterans’ Day is to remember all United States citizens who have served on active duty in the armed forces. It is a specific opportunity to publicly honor our nineteen million living veterans.

I looked up the meaning of the word veteran. Our English word comes from the Latin, veteranus, which means literally "old soldier." We now use the word to refer to anyone who has served for however long in the military. What do we have to learn today from both the "old soldiers" and the "young soldiers" who are veterans in our midst? I think it is important to reflect upon this, because the values our veterans embody are central to our American values. Two values, among many that could be lifted up, are duty and sacrifice.

First of all the veteran embodies the value of duty. We are told that at the end of his long life, when Winston Churchill heard the word duty uttered, it never failed to bring tears to his eyes. Duty. Duty, not as an onerous obligation, but as an opportunity to be honored. The opposite of duty is perhaps convenience. Or the attitude of "me first." Duty means that there are some things you simply do, irrespective of the personal impact on one’s life. As a Christian and as an American, I believe that one’s highest duty is to conscience. There is no higher duty; not to family, nor to tribe, nor to nation state. But I believe that conscience is informed by many things; by wisdom and learning, by compassion, by humility, by belief in a greater good. To be a citizen of the United States is, it seems to me, to believe in the unique way the Constitution and traditions of the American democracy honor the freedom of human conscience. Freedom of speech is part of the American way of life. In the United States a citizen is not required to serve in the military if he or she can convincingly demonstrate that such service goes against his or her religious conscience. Such people are not unpatriotic. It is unfortunate, it seems to me, that with the new war we are facing, there have been angry editorials attacking pacifists. For it is just such freedom that America stands for.

The United Church of Christ is what we call a Just-Peace Church. That means that we believe there can be no true justice in the world and at home without peace; and, conversely, no true peace unless there is justice. Though I believe that every church, indeed every nation, should create a safe space for the conscientious objector, the vast majority of U.C.C. folk are not pacifists. They believe that there are indeed just causes that may require one to bear arms and fight. A majority of our denomination accept that there is a duty, tragic though it may be, to bear arms. But that willingness must be grounded in a sense of duty to conscience and an understanding of the just cause.

In this context it is important to remember that the veteran is not really a warrior. As Americans we traditionally look to the example of George Washington as the model for the citizen soldier. We normally do not glorify the professional warrior. The American service man or woman is not a paid mercenary. And though we have career soldiers and sailors and airmen and women, constitutionally the military is accountable to elected civilian officials.

Understood this way, the soldier is a defender, not an aggressor. There are those in the world who, by their attitude and behavior, fight to defend not their country or the values of freedom, but fight because they worship the war God. They fight because they believe that war is the natural state of humankind, and peace is just a time between one war and the next. But this is not our American understanding. We fight, not because militarism has its own momentum, but because we believe in the values of conscience, freedom, and democracy. That is why it is important to understand why we must fight in any instance. Duty is not, and cannot ever be, blind obedience to orders. The soldier must always be inspired, intelligently and passionately, to leave his or her normal life in order to defend what is most important.

Which leads me to the value of sacrifice. What do we mean by sacrifice? General Patton, in his own pungent way, pointed out that war is never really about giving one’s life for one’s country. It is about getting that other poor guy, the enemy, to give up his life for his country. War is about the willingness to put one’s life at risk. The sacrifice must be understood as the setting aside of one’s normal life and all that goes with it, to sacrifice precious time with family, work, education, and community, in order to risk one’s life for a greater good, one that includes the safety of one’s own family and community, but embraces all the families and communities of one’s nation, even one’s world. That means the sacrifice of short term and long term dreams. That means the sacrifice of seeing children grow, or spending precious months, even years, far from home, struggling always to stay in touch. That hurts. There is no glory in that. It is just painful. It is a loss. It is a price exacted by a higher duty. The veteran embodies these high values of duty and of sacrifice. And these are not military values exclusively. They are human values. They are what go with being a human being of compassion and conscience. They have nothing do to with mindless or uncritical patriotism.

America has not always done well by its veterans. All too often veterans have felt misunderstood and unappreciated. The nature of America’s wars has varied from the War for Independence to the fratricidal slaughter of the Civil War, to expansionist wars in the Philippines and Mexico, to the naïve hopes of the War to End All Wars, to the grim just cause of the War against fascism, to the inconclusive Korean War, to the Cold War, to the disastrous Vietnam War, to the Gulf War, to today in a war against terrorism that seems so unprecedented. In each of these wars and others, the one common thread is that Americans were called to fight. Service men and women were called to respond to duty and conscience. Sometimes they were welcomed home as heroes. Sometimes they were welcomed home to vilification. Sometimes they were simply ignored and quickly forgotten.

Veterans have felt misunderstood and unappreciated. They have felt wrongly blamed for support of causes they didn’t choose. They have frequently sat silently in pain. Or they have had to fight for benefits they are justly entitled to. Or they have spoken out in anger and hurt and frustration. There is much healing to be done. The phenomenal success of the book The Greatest Generation and the film Saving Private Ryan should show us that there remains a lot of silent suffering and hurt. I don’t think there is anything quite so painful as feeling ignored and unappreciated, and feeling helpless to make others understand what one has gone through. Each person here knows that feeling in ways great and small. To know how bad that feels should make us sensitive to the pain of others and to sincerely want to understand. Veterans’ Day is one simple and direct way to do this.

Whenever one is called to deal in church with an essentially patriotic holiday like Veterans’ Day, we must acknowledge the relationship between God and Country, between Church and State, between religion and patriotism. Christianity can never uncritically endorse what the United States or any nation stands for. We are not a church of civil religion. But at the same time, there can be no doubt, that what America at its best embodies and what the Christian Church stands for are deeply connected. This sanctuary, as does our CCC sanctuary, contains both an American flag and a Christian flag. That doesn’t bother me, because I see what each flag stands for as always in dialogue with the other, sometimes in tension, sometimes at odds, but always somehow connected. That is how I see it at least.

The scriptures this morning clearly express a strong biblical tradition. In Psalm 46 we read: "God makes wars to cease to the end of the earth. God breaks the bow and God shatters the spear. God burns the shields with fire." That is what God wants. God does not want war. Even though the tragic consequences of our human blindness and failure may seem to make war inevitable, that is not what God wants. And in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus simply says, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God."

John Touchton shared a poignant story at our recent staff meeting. Shortly after the bombing of Afghanistan began he spoke with his grandfather, a World War II veteran. What his grandfather expressed to him was tremendous sadness. He said, "John, I had so hoped you and your generation would not have to face war. We thought we were changing the world. That is why we fought. I am so sorry."

All of us, veterans and non-veterans alike, need to acknowledge that war is not only hell, as General Sherman said. War is sorrow. And sorrow requires healing; only the healing God can bring. AMEN.

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