Every grade school child is familiar with the opening lines of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address:
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
I recently watched Ken Burn's 12-hour documentary The Civil War and was moved by how the depth of tragedy and the height of the human spirit so often collided in the midst of the bloodiest and costliest war in American History. We often look back on historic figures like Lincoln, Davis, Grant, Sherman, Jackson and Lee and see them as nothing more than one-dimensional characters in the great drama of the war. But these were real men with strengths, weaknesses, hopes, fears, families and homes that had been left behind. Single battles of the Civil War claimed more American lives than other wars did in their totality. In fact, the top ten battles of the Civil War ranged in casualties numbering roughly 20,000-50,000 men apiece. In all, over 600,000 Americans died during the Civil War.
It was in the midst of this great tragedy that Lincoln gave his famous address. But his main message was not one of mere sentiment, but one of responsibility; the responsibility that remained with the living.
The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us-that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion-that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain-that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom-and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Our minds turn today to the many brave men and women of our country who continue to place themselves in harms way for the sake of the freedom that we too often take for granted. And though the number of casualties may be low in comparison to the wars of years past, every casualty is a tragedy that should not be overlooked or glossed over. Jesus himself said there is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends.
Freedom is the greatest gift that God has bestowed upon us, and it is the gift that has been fought for by so many brave men and women that we have never even met. As a people of faith, we hope and pray for the day when there will be no war and peace will reign. Until that day, the task that lies before us is to not waste the freedom that has been purchased at so high a cost. On this Memorial Day, let us remember that true freedom is not the ability to do what we want, but the ability to do what we ought. We have a responsibility for greatness. We have a responsibility for living lives worthy of the freedom that has been given us. Let us reflect on this deep calling to make our homes, cities, country and world a better place. And let us take action, so that all those who have shed their blood for us will not have died in vain.
