Memorial Day Speech (2006)
This speech was delivered this Memorial Day as part of our town's celebration.
Brothers and Sisters, Comrades in Arms:
We have come to this place to celebrate the lives and deaths of those who loved their nation more than they loved themselves. We have come to remind ourselves of what is required in order to keep what God has granted us – a free nation.
Many have laid down their lives in answer to their nation’s call. Many others have responded to that call and survived. We call them all heroes. We call them heroes for their willingness to enter into the struggle – not for their victorious campaigns. For is not the soldier who dies delaying an enemy’s onslaught a hero regardless of having been overrun? I say yes!
It is the love we celebrate. It is the sacrifice over which we wonderingly rejoice. It is the willingness to serve regardless of the consequences that make a person truly a hero.
We have faced numerous enemies yet remain standing; have bowed yet are unbroken; have been bloodied yet are unconquered. We are proud of our country and its heritage of freedom.
But there is still a lesson to be learned from history. The people of China were also a great and powerful nation. They too had their wars. They were an old and wise civilization when our ancestors still huddled in stone huts. They built the Great Wall, a structure so formidable that it can be seen from space with the naked eye. Its sole purpose was to defend them from their enemies. The wall was expensive. It cost an unfathomable amount in money, time and lives. But in the first one hundred years of the Great Wall’s existence, it was penetrated successfully three times. It was never undermined. Not once was it breached. Not once was it climbed. The Great Wall fell when its gatekeepers accepted a bribe. In all their efforts to construct their defense, the Chinese forgot the most essential thing. They forgot that the gate is only as strong as its keeper’s integrity. They forgot that the rifle is only as good as the person firing it.
Our nation’s greatest threat today is not that of terrorists. It is not the many nations who hate us. The enemy is already within the camp. Our nation is beset by those who would undermine our people’s character. It is being attacked by those who would urge us to accept a materialistic, atheistic and animalistic lifestyle dedicated to the pursuit of our basest pleasures. We are assaulted by those who would have us believe that our credit is more important than our character; that our desires should come before our duty; that our personal advancement is more important than our service.
I call you to arms, brothers and sisters. But just as the veterans of each successive war used better and better weapons, I place in your hands today more potent and subtle weapons. Use your minds to examine what you are being told. Use your voices to speak out influentially. Use your opportunities to vote wisely. Use your consciences to measure and maintain the integrity of our people. Listen to your hearts to determine the need of your fellow man and use your time to meet those needs. Our nation’s hope lies in these things I have mentioned: critical thought, free speech, a voting population, integrity and service - these are the bulwarks of any nation.
Let us not forget that our Creator looks on. He is weighing our nation in the balance and his standard is not our wealth; it is not our power; it is not in the number of nations that we have bent to our will. He has told us what will tip the balance. “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, and to love kindness and mercy, and to humble yourself and walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8)
We stand today a free people precisely because our forefathers steeled their hearts to pursue justice, to love kindness and mercy and to humble themselves under the mighty hand of their God. Let us do justice to their memories by pledging “our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honors” to the service of God and man. Only then will be able to bestow the same blessing that our fallen comrades have bestowed upon us – freedom.
Brothers and Sisters, Comrades in Arms:
We have come to this place to celebrate the lives and deaths of those who loved their nation more than they loved themselves. We have come to remind ourselves of what is required in order to keep what God has granted us – a free nation.
Many have laid down their lives in answer to their nation’s call. Many others have responded to that call and survived. We call them all heroes. We call them heroes for their willingness to enter into the struggle – not for their victorious campaigns. For is not the soldier who dies delaying an enemy’s onslaught a hero regardless of having been overrun? I say yes!
It is the love we celebrate. It is the sacrifice over which we wonderingly rejoice. It is the willingness to serve regardless of the consequences that make a person truly a hero.
We have faced numerous enemies yet remain standing; have bowed yet are unbroken; have been bloodied yet are unconquered. We are proud of our country and its heritage of freedom.
But there is still a lesson to be learned from history. The people of China were also a great and powerful nation. They too had their wars. They were an old and wise civilization when our ancestors still huddled in stone huts. They built the Great Wall, a structure so formidable that it can be seen from space with the naked eye. Its sole purpose was to defend them from their enemies. The wall was expensive. It cost an unfathomable amount in money, time and lives. But in the first one hundred years of the Great Wall’s existence, it was penetrated successfully three times. It was never undermined. Not once was it breached. Not once was it climbed. The Great Wall fell when its gatekeepers accepted a bribe. In all their efforts to construct their defense, the Chinese forgot the most essential thing. They forgot that the gate is only as strong as its keeper’s integrity. They forgot that the rifle is only as good as the person firing it.
Our nation’s greatest threat today is not that of terrorists. It is not the many nations who hate us. The enemy is already within the camp. Our nation is beset by those who would undermine our people’s character. It is being attacked by those who would urge us to accept a materialistic, atheistic and animalistic lifestyle dedicated to the pursuit of our basest pleasures. We are assaulted by those who would have us believe that our credit is more important than our character; that our desires should come before our duty; that our personal advancement is more important than our service.
I call you to arms, brothers and sisters. But just as the veterans of each successive war used better and better weapons, I place in your hands today more potent and subtle weapons. Use your minds to examine what you are being told. Use your voices to speak out influentially. Use your opportunities to vote wisely. Use your consciences to measure and maintain the integrity of our people. Listen to your hearts to determine the need of your fellow man and use your time to meet those needs. Our nation’s hope lies in these things I have mentioned: critical thought, free speech, a voting population, integrity and service - these are the bulwarks of any nation.
Let us not forget that our Creator looks on. He is weighing our nation in the balance and his standard is not our wealth; it is not our power; it is not in the number of nations that we have bent to our will. He has told us what will tip the balance. “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, and to love kindness and mercy, and to humble yourself and walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8)
We stand today a free people precisely because our forefathers steeled their hearts to pursue justice, to love kindness and mercy and to humble themselves under the mighty hand of their God. Let us do justice to their memories by pledging “our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honors” to the service of God and man. Only then will be able to bestow the same blessing that our fallen comrades have bestowed upon us – freedom.
posted by Pastor Pauley | 10:03 AM
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