Declare his glory among the nations *
and his wonders among all peoples. (Psalm 96:3)
Tomorrow is Memorial Day, a day off for many when we have time to be with family and friends. A day of cookouts if the weather permits, perhaps even spending time on the water, or taking long hikes in God’s beauty. But it is most importantly a day for us to remember those men and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice—laying down their lives for their friends. On Memorial Day we honor those men and women who have died while serving in the military so that we might as citizens enjoy particular rights and liberties.
And one way, I believe that we can best honor those who have died is to recognize their brothers and sisters–living veterans who continue to struggle with their experience overseas and the hardship of reentering “normal” life. We should remember and pray for those who have served and now carry “spiritual wounds” in their hearts and minds. They have in a different way given their lives. Certainly their lives have been greatly altered. Memorial Day is a day to reflect on how we can walk with them so they can grow new lives and find peace.
In the Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts, the Rev. Chris Carlysle and Alison Brauner work side by side with many veterans who live in western Massachusetts. “Building Bridges Veterans Initiative” seeks to help veterans find community and reconciliation. Often the very society these soldiers fought to protect offers no clear place for them once they return from their military service. This is a shameful truth of our country.
Bishop Douglas Fisher offers stunning statistics that one out of four people who are homeless are veterans. That among our former service men and women 14% are unable to find work. And too many of them struggle with both physical and emotional injuries from their combat experience that can in time take their lives. And there are those injuries that can best be described as an “affliction of the soul.” Dr. Jonathan Shay calls them “moral injury.” “Distinct from a specific mental health condition, like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, these wounds arise to speak in a very broad way, from the way a combatant’s actions in war seem to violate and thus undermine the most deeply held moral beliefs.”[1]Soldiers returning from repeated deployments, fighting in counterinsurgency wars America has fought in Iraq and Afghanistan have left soldiers uniquely vulnerable to deep spiritual wounds.
Rob who is a wounded veteran from Iraq, shares that when he entered the military, “they remake you from who were were into a military person. Being in the military is a very different lifestyle that those who are civilians cannot understand. It is in some ways like being a foreigner in a strange land; it is a different language, a different culture. And when you leave the military, no one helps you reenter your former life. You are just sent out on your own and that can be really tough.” [2]
Alison Brauner, the assistant director of Building Bridges, said that there is a great need to connect civilians with veterans to learn about the obstacles they face reintegrating into society after service. In order for veterans to receive the proper assistance, the community as a whole needs to participate. Brauner said. “Our world doesn’t operate under military norms.” “Transitioning from military service and trying to function at a level that civilian society requires can be extremely difficult without a safe place to discuss some of the traumatic things they have witnessed.”[3]
Our reading today from Luke’s Gospel tells the story of a centurion who seeks out Jesus for healing. Centurions show up frequently in the Gospels and in Acts. This is not surprising, since Centurions were a part of daily life in Judea and Galilee because of the Roman occupation during the first century. What is surprising is that they are frequently shown to be people who see Jesus’s power and respond to his kingdom message with a recognition of his identity and sometimes with faith. The centurion is a Gentile, perhaps in service to Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee, or to Pontius Pilate, governor of Judea, headquartered in Caesarea. Though he has much authority as the leader of the men under his command, he recognizes Jesus’ authority as being greater.
First century hearers of this story would have been astonished that Jesus favored this Centurion who they saw as their oppressor. But Jesus always looks beyond what society expects. He sees this man’s heart and finds great faith. In fact, both Luke (Luke 7:9) and Matthew (Matthew 8:19 use the Greek word thaumazo (thou-mad-zo), which we translate “marveled” or amazed” to describe Jesus’ response to the centurion’s faith.
Luke’s story reminds us of the fragility and vulnerability of people that we too often mischaracterize as being so courageous and hardened that they do not need our attention and care. It is often only when disturbing stories of the lack of health care and economic hardships of our military men and women fall on our doorstep, that we wake up to the reality that our soldiers need our compassion as much or more when they return to civilian life as they did when they were preparing to leave for military service. Just like us, people who serve in our military have families they worry about and for which they are responsible. They have households to provide for and economic concerns. They have moral struggles and anxiety, and they have questions about their service. These needs do not go away when they are deployed and they do not abate when these soldiers return from months away in combat.
In an article written by Samuel G Freedman for the New York Times, pastor, scholar and theologian Rita Nakashima Brock is highlighted as one who has made it her life’s work to tend to “the spiritual wounds of warriors.”[4] It was while standing in a drizzly rain on a Saturday afternoon in September, 2005, waiting for instructions at a vast Washington rally against the Iraq war that the Rev. Brock confronted the needs of returning soldiers and their families. The protest march, numbered more than 100,000. When an organizer placed Ms. Brock near the end of the procession, she noticed something that felt instantly wrong. Around her she saw many other clergy members, as well as war veterans and Gold Star Mothers. In that moment of painful clarity, Ms. Brock’s life and ministry was redirected.
While she has not given up on her prayer and dreams for war to end, she has found her spiritual and professional mission among the soldiers, helping them find healing and wholeness as together they seek answers to the condition called “moral injury.” Moral injury occurs as a result of a loss of confidence in the ability to make the moral judgements that were formerly held sacrosanct, with any certainty. As one young soldier, Michael Yandell, a student at Brite Divinity School who worked on a bomb disposal team during the Iraq war says, “It’s not that you lose your ability to tell right from wrong, but things don’t seem so clear any more. For me, it’s whether or not what I did, did any good.” The Rev. Brock adds, “If you’re praying that your company gets out or that your best friend isn’t shot, and it doesn’t turn out that way, it can collapse your whole moral system. It feels like God abandoned you.”
As the daughter of a World War II veteran who served time as a prisoner of war, the Rev. Brock’s concern for veterans and her knowledge of their suffering has long, deep roots. She seeks to help veterans face what they have done in time of war, but also helps them move beyond the shame and isolation they too often face. She says that what is essential is that communities participate alongside veterans in helping them regain entry into the civilian world. “We have a responsibility to help restore the people who’ve fought, to return them to their communities.”
The Centurion, despite his stature as a soldier in the Roman army, feels that he is unworthy to receive healing from Jesus. So he sends Jewish elders to petition for him and attest to his standing as a worthy man. When Jesus agrees to follow the elders to the Centurion’s home, again he sends his friends to tell Jesus not to “trouble himself.” That he is not worthy of Jesus going to such lengths to help him. The Centurion understands authority. He sees ultimate authority in Jesus and so says all you need to do is speak and my servant will be healed. Jesus finds this faith, “amazing” and proclaims that nowhere in all of Israel has he seen such faith.
On this Memorial Day, as we remember the sacrifices of too many of our best sons and daughters to war, let us honor them by reaching out through awareness, gratitude, service and prayer to those who live with the heavy burden of their service in the military– both in their time abroad in action and when they return home, struggling with physical and moral wounds. And let us on this Memorial Day continue to pray and live so that peace may one day be the way of the world.
President Obama, during his recent visit to Hiroshima where war’s atrocities made a resounding presence in 1945, called for “humanity to change its mind set about war.” He said, “We must have the courage to escape the logic of fear and pursue a world without (nuclear weapons). The world was forever changed here, but today the children of this city will go through their day in peace,” Mr. Obama said. “What a precious thing that is. It is worth protecting, and then extending to every child. That is a future we can choose, a future in which Hiroshima and Nagasaki are known not as the dawn of atomic warfare but as the start of our own moral awakening.” Joe Davis, speaking for the Veterans of Foreign Wars affirmed that a world without conflict is a vision we all should share.”[5]
Let us pray:
As we pause to lift our hearts and minds in prayer, let us be mindful of those who have laid down their lives in service to our country. O God, we ask your strength, that we might dedicate ourselves to perfecting your kingdom of peace and justice among nations. Let us give thanks for the many blessings of freedom we possess, purchased at the cost of many lives and sacrifices. Fill us with courage to complete our tasks and in no way break faith with the fallen. We commend those who have died to your mercy and ask that you give them eternal rest. This we ask and pray in your name. Amen
[1] Jonathan Shay. Achilles in Vietnam: Combat trauma and the undoing of character. New York: Scribner, 1994).
[2] http://www.buildingbridgeswma.com
[3] http://www.buildingbridgeswma.com
[4] Samuel G. Freedman. “Tending to Veterans’ Afflictions of the Soul”. On Religion. http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/01/12/us/12religion.html?referer)
[5] Gardiner Harris. “At Hiroshima Memorial, Obama says Nuclear Arms Require ‘Moral Revolution.’ New York Times, May 27, 2016. http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/05/28/world/asia/obama-hiroshima-japan.html?emc=edit_na_20160527&nlid=26286965&ref=cta&_r=0&referer=