This is the address I gave at the VFW 2010 Memorial Day observance at Grand View Cemetery in Montrose, Colorado
Heroes One and All
Memorial Day, May 31, 2010
I’m deeply grateful and honored to address you today on this Memorial Day 2010. Those of you who are veterans are heroes one and all. Certainly those who died paying the ultimate sacrifice are heroes. To date in Iraq 4400 American heroes have died. In Afghanistan on May 28 US Military deaths reached the grim 1000 mark. These men and women died to preserve the freedom we now enjoy today. We have freedom to gather as here in honor of the fallen and we have freedom to protest the war. These 5400 Americans died for all our freedoms.
I am deeply grateful for our country and for you our veterans. Without you I would not be here today. The Bible describes freedom as a precious commodity. Another person died for our freedom. His name is Jesus Christ. 2000 years ago he died on a Roman instrument of torture called the cross to set us free from our sin. In Galatians 5:1 the Apostle Paul reminded them “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. For the Galatians, that yoke was the burden of circumcision that some Jewish Christians were trying to force on the fledgling believers. People who believe in Jesus, according to Paul, do so by faith and not by works such as circumcision. Yet there are forces in our world today that would force their yoke of religion on us. Our soldiers are valiantly fighting the Taliban, Al Qaeda, militant Islam and terrorism to preserve our freedoms. It is a war without boundaries or front lines. It is an enemy that takes the innocent and preserves the guilty.
Paul asks in Gal. 5:7 You were running a good race. Who cut in on you? Of course it was those who wanted to yoke them with the slavery of their ideas. Likewise our soldiers are running a good race consistently and morally and are not allowing anyone to cut in on them.
Later in Gal. 5:14-15 You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. 14 The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” So we do not have freedom to sin. We are free to love our neighbors as ourselves. We see that freedom expressed few verses later in a list commonly referred to as the fruit of the spirit. So we have freedom to practice the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Against such things there is not law. (Gal. 5:22-23) However, the same forces in the world today that would strip our freedom would make these virtues illegal.
So we have a choice. We can live in freedom or live in slavery. Personally I prefer freedom because of what Jesus and our fallen heroes have done for us. Jesus said in John 8:32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” He said that to Jews who believed in him. True freedom is found in the truth of Jesus Christ. It is the true freedom I am preaching to you today. That truth is found in Jesus the freedom fighter and the freedom giver.
Our servicemen and women are our heroes and Jesus is the ultimate hero. Be grateful for our freedoms and most importantly be grateful for the freedom from sin Jesus gives. So today, thank a vet and thank God for our fallen heroes, one and all.
