This is Memorial Day, but the holiday is very different this year. While we still remember the lives of those who died in military service, we also remember lives lost during this pandemic including front line workers. As of today, over 100,000 people have died from COVID-19, and the end of deaths from the virus is nowhere in sight. The grief and loss associated with Memorial Day is certainly heightened this year.
Along with remembering lives lost, both Memorial Day and this pandemic call us to take action to preserve precious lives. The best way to honor those in the military is not to send them into war in the first place. During the Vietnam war, Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke out against the war but in support of the troops. The following words from April 1967 that still ring true today:
I am as deeply concerned about our own troops there as anything else. For it occurs to me that what we are submitting them to in Vietnam is not simply the brutalizing process that goes on in any war where armies face each other and seek to destroy. We are adding cynicism to the process of death, for they must know after a short period there that none of the things we claim to be fighting for are really involved. Before long they must know that their government has sent them into a struggle among Vietnamese, and the more sophisticated surely realize that we are on the side of the wealthy, and the secure, while we create a hell for the poor.
A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, “This way of settling differences is not just.” This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation’s homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.
When it comes to preserving lives in this pandemic, each of us has a part to play. Some work directly on the front lines of battling the virus such as first responders, medical workers, retail workers, and others in essential businesses. Others advocate for those who are disproportionately suffering from the virus because of their race or income level. All of us are called to support our loved ones and all those around us by observing the actions we know can prevent the virus from spreading – wash hands regularly, wear a mask out in public, keep social distance, and sanitize surfaces in our homes and businesses. It is distressing to see reports of those who become impatient or self-focused to the point that they refuse to take these steps out of concern for others. As followers of Jesus, we know that self-sacrificial love is the greatest expression of the essence of God. Such love can take many forms. This Memorial Day is a vivid reminder that following the way of Jesus is not just about remembering and expressing thanks for lives lost in the past but sharing the love of God in the present by considering the needs of others through acts of self-giving love today.
