From Pastor Pat: "So that they may be one" on Memorial Day

(Posted May 25, 2017)
 
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks still bravely singing fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
 
We are the dead: Short days ago,
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved: and now we lie
In Flanders fields!
 
Too few people remember that Memorial Day is all about remembering the men and women who lay down their lives for their country. This beautiful poem by John McCrae was written for the fallen of the First World War. But his words ring true even today, even for all those who have joined the ranks of honored dead since those days.
 
The truth of Flanders Field and other places of final rest is, under the mantle of God’s good earth, all of us are the same. The pretenses of our heritage, our race, the theology we hold, the wealth we did or didn’t have --- none of that matters. We are one.  Jesus was trying to drive that home one more time in the gospel we read this coming Sunday, when he prayed to his Father on our behalf:
“And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one."
 
So that they may be one. Without the pretenses of divisions due to religion, or other people’s rules.  Without the charade of pretending to accept one another, while secretly harboring a sense of superiority over others. Christ calls us to remember that we are but one human race, bound together by the One who created us. Join me this Sunday when we explore the world of love and hate, faith and illusion, and our own path to one-ness. --Pastor Pat Kriss