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FOR WHOM IS THE MEMORIAL
May 30, 2022
A Time Of Meditation
This is a day when traditionally we remember the cost of civil freedom and war lifting up in prayer those whose lives were given in service to our nation. On this day, in the year 2022, however, there are losses ffresh upon our hearts and minds and souls. It is ironic at best that their lives were taken by the very freedom we proclaim as a people whose history is tangled inseparable in gun violence. The use of arms to become and be the people of the United States of America goes back as far as those first days when white, European, visitors and colonizers murdered peoples and robbed them of their land and resources in the name of patriotidsm. And, throughout the years until this day, the right to bear arms and the use of such to maintain a status quo of injustice and systemic evil, has laid waste to countless lives. The events of Uvelda, Texas, in this past week are but an indication that our nation bears the original sin, not only of racism, misogyny, gender exclusion, and capitalist consumerism, but also the idolatry of guns that are sacrificed daily of the altar we claim to be law, order, and the protection of our civil rights. It is a day to mourn the loss of those who have suffered for such vain and selfish acts that are heinous in character and an atrocity in morality. May God have mercy on those in loss and grief, on those who are national and local leaders of governance, and on us all.
We gather on a somber holiday.
We remember with sadness those we have loved and lost.
Let us not glorify the conflicts and violence that tear our loved ones from us.
Let us, rather, give glory to God, who calls us to use our freedom peaceably.
Our God is a God of all nations and peoples.
May our worship of God unite rather than divide.
Spirit of Life
whom we have called by many names
in thanksgiving and in anguish—
Bless the poets and those who mourn
Send peace for the soldiers who did not make the wars
but whose lives were consumed by them
Let strong trees grow above graves far from home
Breathe through the arms of their branches
The earth will swallow your tears while the dead sing
"No more, never again, remember me."
For the wounded ones, and those who received them back,
let there be someone ready when the memories come
when the scars pull and the buried metal moves
and forgiveness for those of us who were not there
for our ignorance.
And in us, veterans in a forest of a thousand fallen promises,
let new leaves of protest grow on our stumps.
Give us courage to answer the cry of humanity's pain
And with our bare hands, out of full hearts,
with all our intelligence
let us create the peace.
—By Barbara J Pescan
“Little Coffins”
The Rev. Carol Hallman, Pastor +
First United Church of Christ
207 West Horah St. Salisbury, NC 28144
May 27, 2022
little coffins
holding tiny bodies
ashes to ashes
dust to dust
another child dead
another life
taken in the land
of the free
and the home
of the brave
they strike us
the hardest
little ones
murdered
as they were
learning to read
and write
to name the Presidents
laughing as they
played tag on the playground
excited about
summer vacation
there are other
coffins though
there in Texas
and in Buffalo
Colorado, Florida
back to Sandy Hook
from schools to churches
to shopping malls
a wide swath of
death
all dying
on the altar
of gun violence
each time
thoughts and prayers
offered
never a solution
sought
a way found
a path lit
which could lead
to prevention
in the land of the free
we cannot even
talk about guns
or laws about guns
or mental health
or seek the answers
to the “why” these
things happen
no, here we just
wait for the
furor to die
down and next
time…
because—as surely as
the sun rises—
there will be
a next time
again
we will offer
thoughts and prayers
then we will
forget
unless, except if we
are among those
standing by
those coffins
tears flowing
hearts broken
among
the grieving
life will never
be the same
—thanks to Maren C. Tirabassi for posting on her blog (https://giftsinopenhands.wordpress.com)
Spirit of Life,
We enter into this season of Memorial Day surrounded by such a cloud of witnesses.
We remember, first of all, the women and men who are currently serving in the armed forces and we pray for their safe return.
We also acknowledge that there are women and men who will not return,
as we grieve their passing in the daily paper.
We pause to honor their service and their sacrifice.
(Silence for a time)
We also pause this hour to give thanks for all the women and men who have served in the nation's armed services.
Those who have not served cannot fully imagine the experience of war, but we do know war's aftermath and the toll that it can take on the human heart.
This day remembers and acknowledges loss and so do we remember those whom we have loved and lost.
We hold their names and their faces in our mind's eye.
We recall the gifts they gave to us through the strength of their being, the depth of their love, the courage of their dying, and the fullness of their living.
In the Holy Quiet of this hour, their names surround us and they live with us in blessed memory.
May we remain together in silence, as a tribute to all that they have meant to us.
(Silence for a time)
Amen.
—By Wayne B Arnason (https://www.uua.org/worship/words/meditation/5639.shtml)
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