.jpg)
Yesterday marked our national Veterans Day commemoration. I had the opportunity to attend two Veterans Day concerts this week: one on Monday, hosted by the Glynn Academy Choir, and another on Tuesday, hosted by the Glynn Academy Band. Both were lovely concerts, and the Choir concert, in particular, included a program of acknowledgment that was helpful – especially considering the number of young people who were present in the audience and on the stage.
On Monday night, Judge Alex Atwood, a Christ Church member and retired US Marine Corps Reserve Colonel, offered a lovely address as part of the concert. Clearly aware that he was speaking to an audience that included many teenagers and children, he said, “A free society requires people to serve something greater than themselves,” adding later in a conversation with me, “doing it with dignity and honor.” It is a collective truth that we too easily forget as human beings and Americans. It also resonates with recent Gospel readings in our lectionary, which positions our faith in direct relationship to others through the invitation to love.
There are different kinds of love, of course, and different things worthy of our love. The rarely credited theologian Tom Petty in his song, Free Fallin’. The first verse differentiates and subtly groups things we love: “She’s a good girl, loves her mama, loves Jesus, and America, too. She’s a good girl, crazy ‘bout Elvis, loves horses, and her boyfriend too.” I wouldn’t put it past Petty to know the three common types of love that come from separate Greek words: eros, philia, and agape. While the boyfriend might touch on eros, Elvis and a love of horses are a form of philia. Mom, God, and country are all well-positioned as a form of agape. Agape is a love that is, among other things, selfless.
We know it well in our religious life because it’s a hallmark of the faith. For a union like the imperfect union we belong to as Americans to work, we also need some form of agape for one another, some sense of being in this life together, not just for ourselves. As individuals and as a nation, we may fluctuate in our common motivations, but we’re always better when that drives our decision-making. And even then, I think we all realize that our civic lives and duties often boil down to the personal, like when it comes time to step into a ballot box. It’s natural and expected, but some things must transcend us.
At their best, our Armed Forces are reminders and avenues for admiration of, and commitment to, a healthy national identity. The professional military has worked hard to stay apolitical, keeping the focus on service to the Constitution of the United States. Not Congress, or even the Commander in Chief, but the Constitution, written by the people, for the people. I realize that some service members and veterans may not have enlisted to serve out of a sense of civic altruism (some were drafted, and others feel they have no other options), and yet the act of serving tends to provide those who serve with a pride and a commitment to their comrades and their country.
I have not served in any branch of the military but have numerous veterans in my family and among those I know and minister to. I have heard about the sacrifices that come with service. I know the bonds that form when soldiers place their lives in each other’s hands. I also know the burdens that can come with service, even in peacetime. There is no other way to experience military service than as a selfless act and, as we refer to it, service. I try not to forget that the main reason I didn’t serve is really that I didn’t have to – not that I made a conscious choice not to, only that it was not required and I had the freedom not to serve. But if no one did, that choice wouldn’t have been mine, one way or another, so their service was a gift to me, even if I didn’t realize it at the age that I took another path. I certainly know it now.
Whether they intended to or not, every veteran and service member has loved us all, even if they wouldn’t use that term. Jesus says, “No one has greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Every service member, past and present, whether they were ever in combat, has, by nature of their service, been prepared to pay that ultimate price if called upon. That is love, and there’s no way around that.
The best way that we can honor our veterans is to make the most of the gift that they have given us all. To also serve one another, our communities, and the ideals that are greater than we are alone as individuals. If for no other reason than calling ourselves Christians, we are to love and serve one another in every context, including our civic life. We don’t need uniforms to serve something greater than ourselves, but I’m forever grateful to those who have worn them and those who do.
