Memorial Day Prayer

Today was Memorial Day in the U.S.   This is a day when we remember those who have died in military service to the country.   In my experience there is a tendency for patriotism and religion to get intermingled and even confused on days like this (and July 4th).  Our pastor, Scott Wilson-Parsons, gave a prayer in the service yesterday that, in my opinion, honors both patriotism and God, and does not confuse the two.  Portions of it are copied here with Scott’s permission.

“On this memorial day, O God, we remember.  We pray that we may never forget, but always remember before God that in your sight, war is evil and that to all who experience it, war is brutal and cold.
Let us pray for leaders who send the young to war, that their judgment be sound and their motives be pure.
Let us pray for soldiers who lay down their lives for others, that the love which inspires their sacrifice may be fulfilled in the love of Christ.
Let us pray for soldiers who have been maimed or brutalized by war that our love for them may make their scars of no consequence and make their brutality yield to the tenderness of returning love.
Let us pray for those of us who are left behind, that we may live on in the strength of the love that we knew.
And, O God, let us pray for those who suffer most from war, that the homeless, the orphaned, the hungry and the innocent may help us to turn from warlike ways to accept God’s gift of peace.

Father, help us never to forget that war is a human invention created by our failure to find our peace in you..
Help us to honor its dead and to pray for its victims who live on, help us to pray always for peace…
As your gathered church today, we pray for peace, we pray for our leaders, we pray for our enemies.

Help us, O God as we struggle.  Help us to be your church.  Amen.”