Gracious God,
On this Memorial Day weekend we remember and give thanks to those who, in
difficult and trying times, have sacrificed life and limb in service to an ideal
they valued more highly than their own lives. They practiced that love that gives itself for
another—for loved ones and neighbors and friends, and for strangers they would
never know.
While we give thanks for them, help us remember that we cannot honor their memory unless we care for—and provide for, the families they have left behind. Remind us that we do not honor their sacrifice unless we insure their wounded comrades—those who have returned from war broken and hurting, are not left behind but receive the medical and emotional care they need and deserve. Forgive us, Loving God, for all the times we demand sacrifice from these young men and women and then begrudge the cost helping them find health and healing on their return.
While we give thanks for them, help us remember that we cannot honor their memory unless we care for—and provide for, the families they have left behind. Remind us that we do not honor their sacrifice unless we insure their wounded comrades—those who have returned from war broken and hurting, are not left behind but receive the medical and emotional care they need and deserve. Forgive us, Loving God, for all the times we demand sacrifice from these young men and women and then begrudge the cost helping them find health and healing on their return.
And today make us watchful caretakers of the liberty for which they paid so dear a price. May we be slow to relinquish these freedoms in exchange for the illusion of security. Above all, may we truly honor their sacrifice by forsaking our own greed for material gain, our lust for power and control, our readiness to go to war, our willingness to kill and destroy.
O Lord, Jesus taught us to pray that your kingdom would come among us today and that your will would be done among us today. And so we pray for the day when the rulers of the world will value the lives of our sons and daughters more highly than they value their position and reputation. We pray for the day when we will love the children of our enemies as much as we love our own. We pray for the day when war and violence will not be seen as a nation’s first or best or only course of action.
Loving God, grant to us who are followers of the Prince of Peace a hunger, a yearning for peace in our world in this time. Instill in us a love like his—a deep love for Creation, an enduring love for our own land and an abiding love for all our neighbors.
And as we today honor our sons and daughters who have given so much we pray that you will make us worthy of their sacrifice.
O God, make us worthy. Amen