I had the privilege of speaking again this year at the Greene Memorial Day ceremonies. Due to rain, we were inside at the high school. Here’s my Memorial Day address for May 27, 2019, and here’s some of the source information on the poppies and McCrae’s poem. (And here’s my message on the same Memorial Day occasion from 2017.)
Good morning, and thank you for being here today. Thank you for taking your time to honor those who have given their lives in service to our nation.
Let me share with you a little more about that poem Lauren just read, “In Flanders Fields.” Doctor John McCrae wrote down the first draft of the poem on May 3, 1915, in the second week of the second battle of Ypres, in the first world war.
McCrae was 43 at that point, and he wrote the poem sitting on the back of a field ambulance, shortly after presiding over the funeral and burial of his friend Lieutenant Alexis Helmer. Lieutenant Helmer was a 22 year old officer in the Canadian Field Artillery, killed by a direct hit from a German shell.
Helmer was just one of some one hundred thousand casualties wounded or killed at the Second Battle of Ypres. This battle was also Germany’s first mass use of poison gas on the Western Front. The results of the battle are listed as “inconclusive.” (battle information source)
By the Fifth Battle of Ypres in 1918, there were around nine hundred thousand casualties. Reflecting on Helmer’s death, and the death of all those who died in the battles of Ypres—and by extension all those who have died in battle whom we remember today—McCrae was struck by the beauty of the red poppies growing in the fields of death.
Despite humanity’s best efforts towards destruction and death, beauty and life were still present in the midst of the rows of crosses marking graves—crosses chosen as grave markers for their testimony to God’s promise to bring life and hope out of death. Helmer was buried under one of those crosses in a row, but the location of his grave has since been lost. For his part, McCrae survived the battle, but died in the war nevertheless, dying from pneumonia on January 28, 1918 at the hospital he commanded.
On the home front, McCrae’s “In Flanders Field” was published in Punch magazine in 1915, and it achieved nearly instant fame, being read at numerous events like this one today. Those who had lost loved ones found comfort in the image of beauty in fields of death.
In 1918, just two days before the armistice ending the war was signed, a University of Georgia professor named Moina Michael read “In Flanders Field” and wrote her own poem in response, “We Shall Keep the Faith.” Let me read it to you:
Oh! you who sleep in Flanders Fields,
Sleep sweet – to rise anew!
We caught the torch you threw
And holding high, we keep the Faith
With All who died.We cherish, too, the poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led;
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies,
But lends a lustre to the red
Of the flower that blooms above the dead
In Flanders Fields.And now the Torch and Poppy Red
We wear in honor of our dead.
Fear not that ye have died for naught;
We’ll teach the lesson that ye wrought
In Flanders Fields.
After the war’s end, Professor Michael began making and selling red silk poppies to raise money to support returning veterans, and she eventually convinced the American Legion to adopt the red poppy as its symbol of remembrance.
Today, of course, poppies are still used as a symbol of remembrance, remembrance of both “The War to End All Wars” and all the wars that followed. We are here today to remember those who have died while answering their nation’s call to service. We are here to grieve with the families of those whose loved ones have been sacrificed. And we are here to remember the price that has been paid for our freedom.
May the memories of those whom we today recall inspire us to take up their mantle of service and complete their mission of seeking justice and defending freedom. May we take up the torch they throw to us–not to perpetuate their violent quarrels with foes as the poem calls for, but having witnessed their sacrifices, instead to work unceasingly for peace, for war to no longer be needed.
In 1526, the reformer Martin Luther was asked by a nobleman whether Christians could serve as soldiers while remaining faithful. In response, he wrote a pamphlet titled, “Whether Soldiers, Too, Can Be Saved.” Let me read you an excerpt. Luther writes:
“When I consider the work of war, punishing the wicked, slaying wrong doers, and causing so much misery, it seems to be a very un-Christian work and directly contrary to Christian love; but when I consider how it protects the good, women and children, homes, property and honor, and sustains and preserves the peace withal, then it appears how precious and divine the work is, and I see that it too cuts off an arm or a leg to save the whole body.
For if the sword did not keep the peace and prevent, riot would needs ruin everything in the world. Therefore such a war is nothing else than a small and brief breach of the peace to prevent a long and limitless breach of the peace, a small misfortune to prevent a great one.”
Even with all its horrible costs, there are times in this broken world when war is necessary. While we do not glorify the violence of war, we give thanks for those who have protected others by serving in the armed forces, and especially today for those who have given their lives for the sake of peace. We give thanks for those who have done what was necessary for good.
The first known Memorial Day events (source) took place in Charleston, South Carolina, on May 1, 1865, less than a month after General Lee’s surrender ended the Civil War. The Washington Race Course and Jockey club had been used as a prison camp for Union soldiers, over 260 of whom died there.
Just weeks after the fall of the Confederacy, a crowd of thousands, most of them newly-freed slaves, staged a parade around the race track. Black Union soldiers marched, and three thousand free black schoolchildren carried bouquets of flowers and sang.
Sometimes, the cause is just and the benefits won by the violence of war are clear. Sometimes, war is necessary for our nation to uphold our ideals of liberty and justice for all. We remember that soldiers fight so others don’t have too. As someone who has never served in the military, I give thanks that others have fought and died on my behalf.
Even as we remember those who have died, we also say thank you to all who have served. Thank you to all the Legion Members who help us remember. Thank you to all those who have used the character you built in the service to continue working for peace and justice by serving you community.
I especially want to give thanks this year for Jim O’Brien, who, although he rarely talked about his time in Vietnam, had the medals and purple heart to testify to the impact of his service in the Army.
As we gather here today on this most solemn civic holiday, we know the price war has and continues to demand, and we long for peace.
We look forward to the day promised by the prophets Isaiah and Micah, when the nations will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, when nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. (Isaiah 2:4, Micah 4:3)
We look forward to the day promised in Revelation, the day when God will wipe every tear away, when death will be no more, when mourning and crying and pain will be no more. (Revelation 21:4)
We look forward to the day when horrors of war will be overcome forever by the beauty of flowers, the promise of peace, and the realization of liberty and justice for all. God bless you.