Katie is virtually done with school, just marking time until graduation next Sunday, and Art’s been on a trip to Amsterdam, so evenings at home have been rather quiet this week.  Katie and I decided early in the week to go back and watch “Band of Brothers” – the incredible HBO presentation produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg that follows the lives of the members of Easy Company of the 101st Airborne from their initial training at Camp Toccoa in Georgia in 1942 to their jump into Normandy on D-Day to their part in the Battle of the Bulge and Bastogne, through to the end of the war.  It’s a very, very gripping documentary because it is based on hours and hours of interviews with survivors of Easy Company. 

Later in the week, Katie and I turned on the Oprah Winfrey Show – not something we are accustomed to doing on a weekday afternoon but we became absolutely riveted by the program.  Oprah was hosting Elie Weisel, author of the book “Night” – that speaks of his experiences in a concentration camp as a young Jewish boy during World War II.  Oprah had invited high school seniors across the country to read the book “Night” and to write an essay about what the Holocaust means to them all these years later.  Out of 50,000 essays that were submitted, 50 essays were selected and those students were flown to Chicago to meet Mr. Weisel, and to tell some of their own stories.

One essay winner was a young girl from Rwanda.  She spoke emotionally and eloquently about the genocide that took place in her country, and of her separation from her grandparents, parents, and siblings.  Miraculously, she made her way to this country, not speaking a word of English, and now prepares to graduate from high school at the top of her class.  She wondered how it was even possible in a world that said, “Never again” after the Holocaust of World War II that genocide (or the planned and systematic extermination of a national, cultural, religious, or ethnic group) continues.  We wonder too. 

And now it’s Memorial Day weekend, which is not really about a having a three day holiday weekend, but about Memorial Day itself, meant to be a time in which Americans remember the sacrifice made by millions of Americans who lost their lives in service to their country.  There are people in our congregation for whom Memorial Day is a particular day of reflection.  I know of one member of our congregation who participated in FDR’s funeral; I know of more who are veterans of Korea, Vietnam, and the Gulf War.  For those in our congregation who are veterans of war, Memorial Day is a day to remember friends who died.  For some in our congregation, Memorial Day is a day to remember family members who have died.

There is not a veteran anywhere who would tell you that war is a good and noble thing.  There’s not a veteran anywhere who would NOT tell you that war ought to be avoided at all costs, because the cost is always too much in terms of human life.

And in so many ways, all we can do is to continue to go back to the Bible – as so many others in centuries past have done so – to the true and honest story of God’s desires and intentions for human beings.  What does God desire?  We hear it over and over again in the stories and history and poetry and prophecies and parables of the Bible: God desires that human beings live together with one another in peace and in harmony with him and with each other, and that all are treated with respect and dignity.  That is and always has been God’s dream for human beings.  Jesus summed it up so beautifully and simply when he said we’re to love God and we’re to love each other in the same way. 

I know of no other way to make God’s dream come true than to strive to be peacemakers day by day.  And the one truly powerful tool we have at our disposal is daily prayer.  In our prayers, day by day, we seek first to be at peace with ourselves, knowing that we are cherished and loved by God for who we are, warts and all.  In continues with our pledging to love all who we come into contact with day by day; our family members, friends, colleagues and co-workers; our neighbors and those we meet in the course of the day.  It continues still further with praying for the people of the world; all the people of the world.

On Sundays, as we come together to worship God together, we read from the Bible, remembering together the stories of how God interacts with his people; calling them to wholeness and fullness of life, calling them to live together caring for one another. 

On Sundays, we say what we believe about God in the creeds and confess the ways in which we have failed to live with one another as God intends.  And then, forgiven and absolved of our failings, we tell the story again of how God comes to be with us as Son and Spirit; so that we might know the way forward and be strengthened by the spirit of God within.  And then, on Sundays, we receive the sacrament of communion; the pledge that through bread and wine Jesus still comes to be with us.

Prayer, scripture, and weekly worship – this is the framework given to us by God so that we might live in peace with God, with ourselves, and with one another. 
And even as we go out the door on Sunday mornings, we’re sent to begin again as we hear “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.”

Elie Weisel said that “The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference.”  He also said that “peace is not a gift from God; it’s a gift we give each other.”  For us, daily prayer and weekly worship are the best ways to align ourselves with the love and will of God.  Only out of a daily and constant connection to God can we serve as instruments of his peace – in our homes and families, in our neighborhoods, as citizens in the political process in our country, and throughout the world.

St. Francis of Assisi, living in a past era of war and violence, is remembered for a prayer that all these centuries later still speaks to us and to the world we live in:
“Lord, make us instruments of your peace.  Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.”

We best honor the millions who have died in wars in this century and in centuries past, by pledging to be peacemakers.  We best honor God, who loves all human beings, by loving and serving others remembering that all of us are created in the image of God.

There was a song from the sixties; I remember singing it with the glee club in high school.  You’ll probably remember it too: “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.”  Make it be so.

Amen.