Monday, May 26, 2025, is Memorial Day.  It is the 160^th year celebration of this holiday. Memorial Day began on May 1, 1865, in Charleston, SC, as a way to honor those who had died in the war to preserve the Union.  A group of recently freed enslaved people and others found graves where 257 bodies of unnamed Union soldiers from the war were buried. The graves were in disrepair and disregard, near the Hampton Park Race Course (beside the current Citadel). In gratitude for their sacrifice in helping to preserve the Union and bring an end to slavery, they cleaned the graveyard, placed flowers on the graves, and held services of prayer and thanksgiving for those who now lie in the earth. Over 10,000 people attended.

Since that time, we have honored those who have died in our seemingly never-ending wars. A service at the National Cemetery in Florence will be on Monday at 10 a.m. There will be other services throughout the country. I  encourage you to go to one. Each year, I attend the service here. It is very moving, and I am grateful to God for all who have given themselves to preserve the Union.

Several years ago, I ran into Will Malambri, then pastor at Central UMC, at the service. He was there with his son. After the service, we talked about the previous day’s worship at our churches and bemoaned the small attendance. (It’s usually one of the lowest-attended days in the church year.) Will said he started to stand up at the beginning and say, “I’d like to welcome all of you who do not have a house at the beach, the lake, the mountains, or the river!” We both laughed because it’s true. We started this holiday to thank God for those who gave their life for us, making it public and large, something to show our gratitude as a community and nation, not just as individuals. But slowly, like most holidays in America, it has become just another day off, and a day to have special sales.

I encourage you to make it different this year. Offer God praise, lift up in prayer those who are grieving, pray for the leaders of our country and of the world that they will soon decide to follow Jesus, the Prince of Peace, rather than Mars, the god of war. 

And Monday, find a cemetery and look for a grave with a small American flag on it. Go and stand beside the grave and offer a prayer. You may not have known that person, but we all owe him or her more than we can repay.

And please, pray for the day to come when we will not have to pray these prayers anymore.