(This was presented at part of a Memorial Day event in 2002.)
Today we stand before the flag of our Nation... Old Glory... the Stars and Stripes. We stand before the Banner of Freedom. Around the world, for the last 228 years this flag has flown on battlefield after battlefield. The staff on which it flies has pierced the blood stained dirt of places like Boston, Iwo Jima, Baghdad, France, Germany, Korea and Vietnam. It has been unfurled by sailors upon ships great and small; ships like the Constitution (I am a grandson of one of the Constitution’s Commanders: Captain Edward Preble), the Arizona, the Eisenhower, the PT 109 and the Spikefish. It has been placed atop towers marking airfields and landing strips carved by Seabees in the middle of jungles and upon the tiniest of islands in the midst of the largest of seas. And everywhere these colors fly, whether that be in boardrooms or on battlefields; whether it be in classrooms or cathedrals, its meaning cannot be hidden, stifled, or silenced. Its symbolism cannot be overlooked or ignored. And the price that has been paid to keep it flying yet today cannot be diminished and should never be forgotten. That is why we gather here today: to remember the price. To remember those who have paid with their blood the ultimate cost for freedom.
There have been and continue to be today men who would find a villain in freedom. They are willing to kill innocent unarmed men, women and children whose only crime is that they are free. Kings and dictators, tyrants and terrorists hate freedom. Why? Because they alone want to control what belongs to God: the destiny of men. They want to receive the adoration and the glory that belongs to God and God alone. So, in the face of tyranny and terror, upon both soil and sea, this flag declares that all men are created by God with certain unalienable rights: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
If I may, please permit me to combine statements from President John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address, January 20, 1961 and George W. Bush’s address to a joint session of Congress, September 20, 2001: “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear and burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty. We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail.”
Let those of us gathered here today never forget the price it will take for our nation to keep these promises. The price for freedom always has been and continues to be the lives of young men and women of one generation that are willing to secure liberty for the next. Those who dare question whether freedom is worth price don’t deserve it. Those not grateful today - those that refuse to humbly bow their heads in respectful memory of those who have died to secure freedom for yet another day - they may tomorrow discover that liberty is gone and has been replaced with godless tyranny. God forbid it. And may God forgive the politician who forsakes the gray haired lady liberty for the temptations offered by the youthful siren of political correctness. May he come to recognize that freedom’s price is far too great than to be sold for a vote. Let that politician be grateful that his political cowardliness and disloyalty not be treated as it might be in other nations of the world.
Let the Muslim and the Buddhist and even the Atheist know that it was Christian men that produced the Constitution and the Bill of Rights that protects them and provides them with opportunity today. Let those who would come to the Land of the Free to obtain an education or to enjoy the profits of business know that it was from the Christian Scriptures, the Christian faith and prayer to the God of the Christian Bible that the principals of Liberty were birthed. And it is only by the same means that those principals will be preserved. Let each and everyone that enjoys freedom be willing at the very least to honor and remember those who have for freedom died and at the most be willing to do the same if it be necessary to do so. Let us join with those whose names affirm our Declaration of Independence, who wrote with quill and ink for all to read, “with a firm reliance on Divine Providence we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, & our sacred Honor.”
The great American Patriot, Patrick Henry stood before the congregation assembled at St. John’s Church on March 23, 1775 and declared, “Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! - I know not what course others may take; but as for me,” then with both arms extended toward heaven, and his whole countenance framed with conviction, he with boldness continued, “give me liberty or give me death.”
The wreath that we this day place beneath the banner of Freedom is but a fragrant symbol of our solemn recognition of the sacrifice of death that has been paid by those who have fallen on the battlefields and oceans of war and who did not come home. Their painful struggle, their death, and the tears of their families are not this day in vain. We remember them. And we are grateful.
Just as surely as Christ Jesus died for our Spiritual Freedom, so too will there come a day when war will be no more. From the Prophet Isaiah we are told, “He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. - Isaiah 2:4” As Christians we long for that day. Until then, as Americans, we must be willing to secure freedom by strength and to remember those whose strength is gone.
Today we stand before the flag of our Nation... Old Glory... the Stars and Stripes. We stand before the Banner of Freedom. Around the world, for the last 228 years this flag has flown on battlefield after battlefield. The staff on which it flies has pierced the blood stained dirt of places like Boston, Iwo Jima, Baghdad, France, Germany, Korea and Vietnam. It has been unfurled by sailors upon ships great and small; ships like the Constitution (I am a grandson of one of the Constitution’s Commanders: Captain Edward Preble), the Arizona, the Eisenhower, the PT 109 and the Spikefish. It has been placed atop towers marking airfields and landing strips carved by Seabees in the middle of jungles and upon the tiniest of islands in the midst of the largest of seas. And everywhere these colors fly, whether that be in boardrooms or on battlefields; whether it be in classrooms or cathedrals, its meaning cannot be hidden, stifled, or silenced. Its symbolism cannot be overlooked or ignored. And the price that has been paid to keep it flying yet today cannot be diminished and should never be forgotten. That is why we gather here today: to remember the price. To remember those who have paid with their blood the ultimate cost for freedom.
There have been and continue to be today men who would find a villain in freedom. They are willing to kill innocent unarmed men, women and children whose only crime is that they are free. Kings and dictators, tyrants and terrorists hate freedom. Why? Because they alone want to control what belongs to God: the destiny of men. They want to receive the adoration and the glory that belongs to God and God alone. So, in the face of tyranny and terror, upon both soil and sea, this flag declares that all men are created by God with certain unalienable rights: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
If I may, please permit me to combine statements from President John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address, January 20, 1961 and George W. Bush’s address to a joint session of Congress, September 20, 2001: “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear and burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty. We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail.”
Let those of us gathered here today never forget the price it will take for our nation to keep these promises. The price for freedom always has been and continues to be the lives of young men and women of one generation that are willing to secure liberty for the next. Those who dare question whether freedom is worth price don’t deserve it. Those not grateful today - those that refuse to humbly bow their heads in respectful memory of those who have died to secure freedom for yet another day - they may tomorrow discover that liberty is gone and has been replaced with godless tyranny. God forbid it. And may God forgive the politician who forsakes the gray haired lady liberty for the temptations offered by the youthful siren of political correctness. May he come to recognize that freedom’s price is far too great than to be sold for a vote. Let that politician be grateful that his political cowardliness and disloyalty not be treated as it might be in other nations of the world.
Let the Muslim and the Buddhist and even the Atheist know that it was Christian men that produced the Constitution and the Bill of Rights that protects them and provides them with opportunity today. Let those who would come to the Land of the Free to obtain an education or to enjoy the profits of business know that it was from the Christian Scriptures, the Christian faith and prayer to the God of the Christian Bible that the principals of Liberty were birthed. And it is only by the same means that those principals will be preserved. Let each and everyone that enjoys freedom be willing at the very least to honor and remember those who have for freedom died and at the most be willing to do the same if it be necessary to do so. Let us join with those whose names affirm our Declaration of Independence, who wrote with quill and ink for all to read, “with a firm reliance on Divine Providence we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, & our sacred Honor.”
The great American Patriot, Patrick Henry stood before the congregation assembled at St. John’s Church on March 23, 1775 and declared, “Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! - I know not what course others may take; but as for me,” then with both arms extended toward heaven, and his whole countenance framed with conviction, he with boldness continued, “give me liberty or give me death.”
The wreath that we this day place beneath the banner of Freedom is but a fragrant symbol of our solemn recognition of the sacrifice of death that has been paid by those who have fallen on the battlefields and oceans of war and who did not come home. Their painful struggle, their death, and the tears of their families are not this day in vain. We remember them. And we are grateful.
Just as surely as Christ Jesus died for our Spiritual Freedom, so too will there come a day when war will be no more. From the Prophet Isaiah we are told, “He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. - Isaiah 2:4” As Christians we long for that day. Until then, as Americans, we must be willing to secure freedom by strength and to remember those whose strength is gone.
Thank you pastor. I really appreciate what you have said here. Really somethilng to think about EVERYDAY!! Sam
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