The Day There Are No Veterans (Audio)

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Growing up in Texas, you learn one constant: You learn what heroism means. From the age I can remember, I knew the story of the Battle of the Alamo better than I knew any US historical moment. I learned that heroism involved 182 men and a one woman, giving their lives for what they believed in. I learned, at very young age, you must stand up for what you believe in, even if it costs you your life. My understanding of heroism is engrained with a deep understanding of self-sacrifice. Therefore, I must admit to you, I am having a pastoral theological crisis this morning. I am a citizen of two very different worlds, and this morning I am caught between them. It is with irony that I stand in this pulpit with a Christian flag on my left and American flag on my right, as I am a citizen of both. I wish to honor those in our midst, who serve, and be true to our text this morning.

You see, I am deeply grateful for everyone who has served in our military and those who serve in our protective services. I am deeply grateful for their selfless actions of service and this is very personal for me. I grew up in a family with a strong military background as well as marrying into a family with a stronger military background. My great-great uncle serve in World War I, my Granddad was a Lt. Colonel in the United States Air Force during Vietnam, my uncle served in the United States Navy E6 1^st Class Petty Officer Airborne Rescue, my grandfather-in-law served in the United States Marine Corps, two of my uncle-in-laws served, one in the Army Reserves for six years as an E4 Specialist and another for twenty years as a Chief Warrant Officer in the United States Marine Corps,  and my first father-in-law served as a Sergeant in the Army Reserves and the National Guard. He also served as Deputy Sherriff until his death in the line of duty on December 4, 2000.

My family’s history as it relates to the military is a major influence on my life. I admire my uncle because he was a real life GI Joe and I think a part of me wanted to be just like him. In our government class, on my 18^th birthday, I gladly signed my selective service paper and when the Navy recruiters called, I gladly answered, agreeing to meet with them. My plan A, after graduation from high school, was to go to college, earn my degree and then join the US Marshal Service (if the Marshal Service didn’t work out, I would become a Texas Ranger). I had researched the Marshal Service and knew part of the requirement included previous law enforcement service or military service. I agreed to meet with the Navy recruiter because I figured I could go to college, let the Navy pay for it, serve my five years, and then I would be able to become the next Wyatt Earp or future Raylan Givens, chasing down wanted fugitives. My dad and I were even working on getting a Presidential recommendation, from President Bill Clinton, to the Annapolis Naval Academy. My plan A was in motion until the recruiter said something stupid to me and I flipped him off, storming out, saying, “I’ll prove you wrong.”

 “In the days to come,” the prophet speaks, “the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations stream to it. Many peoples shall come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. Oh house of Jacob, come let us walk in the light of the Lord!” (Isaiah 4:1-5 NRSV).

The prophet tells us there will be a day when the people will say to one another, “Let us go up to the mountain of the Lord.” Why? Why are the making the pilgrimage to the top of the mountain of the Lord? Why? The people urge us to come so that God may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” This is not the only time this appears in our holy scriptures, the prophet Joel inverts the words, “swords into plowshares” to “plowshares into swords” as piece of satire, meaning those who dare to take arms against the Lord are foolish to do so. The prophet Micah copies Isaiah word for word in Micah 4:1-3.

What is the path of God? What are his ways? “Simple,” Micah says, “He has told you, people, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” The pathways of the Lord is a path in which we are lead to the day there are no more veterans; because God’s children have learned the pathways of the Lord.

One of our family stories is about my great-great uncle, Hardy Daugherty. Hardy was born in 1884 and served in World War I as the Color Sergeant for the 18^th Infantry division, serving under General Black Jack Pershing. The family story goes: Hardy carried the flag into one of the famous battles, most likely the Battle of Blanc Mont Ridge, earning every major military award short of the Medal of Honor. I have been told his picture hangs in the halls of West Point.

Hardy returned home from the Great War, the War to End All Wars, and went on with life. From 1919 until 1942, Hardy saw the struggles of America after the Great War. He saw the height of the roaring 1920s and depression of the 1930s. He was listening to the radio when he heard Franklin Roosevelt tell the American people the only thing they had to fear was fear itself. He heard him speak of the attack on Pearl Harbor, drawing America in its second world war. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, he decided to reenlist and serve his country once again.

In 1942, at the young age of 58, Hardy received a letter from the United States Army informing him, he was disqualified to serve because of his age. He was too old to serve in this Second Great War, so he does what most old war dogs do. The WWI decorated, flag bearing, Sergeant of the 18^th Infantry took the letter, his shotgun, and at the edge of the family farm by a pond, he placed the shotgun in his mouth and took his life. He was told, by the country he faithfully served, he was simply too old to go into war once more and since that is all he knew, one of my family’s most famous members now rests in a grave in the small Arkansas town he was named for.

We go to the house of the Lord because it is there we hear the Lord speak. It is there we learn of the day there will be no more veterans. The Lord will teach us his ways, he will instruct us in his paths. In that holy place we will recover our true self, our sense of belonging, our sense of understanding, our rightness, and will learn this together. In those instructions we will learn to turn our tools for war into tools for life, our swords will be beaten into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks. We will know “Peace on earth and peace to the people” is not just a Christmas slogan or the wish of a pageant contestant. On that day we will hear God say, “You have heard it said, ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’, but I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also. You have heard it said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven.”

It is at the house of the Lord, we will learn true security does not come in the form of 526.6 billion dollar defense budgets, but the sole life giving security of the God of Jacob. It is there, we will learn how to walk in the light of God, to be as Christ said, Light in a dark world, and we will beat our swords into plowshares, our spears into pruning hooks. And we will learn war no more. On that day, Isaiah says, is the day there will be no more veterans.

We are a people trapped between two realities: the reality of the breaking in of the Kingdom of God, ushered in by Jesus, and the reality of a broken world trapped in a corrupt system of power struggles in which war is the ace in the hole. War is a reality we must learn to deal with, a reality in which those who serve in our military are not the ones who decide when, where, or with whom we go to war. Those decisions are left to kings, presidents, congress, senate, and prime ministers, whom hold their meetings with diplomats, laying their cards out on the table, “Give us what we want, do as we say, or go to war.”

War is, at times, necessary and inevitable in our broken world. In our harsh reality we know we are a people who have depended on military strength for security. Another reality of war is that it is the result of the failure of the leaders of nations to maintain peace with one another. Another reality of war is that it is not nations’ leaders who actually go to war but the sons and daughters of the citizens of those nations. Isaiah, on the other hand, holds to vision in which the day of the Lord is the day when there are no more veterans, for we have become God’s people, and we got into his temple, his mountain, are instructed in his ways, and his ways do not lead us to the desert of Afghanistan but to our fields where we beat our guns into plowshares, and our bombs into pruning hooks.

For Isaiah, he believed his reality could come true in his lifetime. He believed a day would come when there would be no more veterans, and it is a day that has come true in Christ, and a day that will be fully realized when he returns to fully usher in the kingdom of heaven. We have been shown how to walk in the light of the Lord. Isaiah did not believe in crusades nor does his vision instruct pacifism. His vision, one brought to reality by Christ, is a vision of just peacemaking. It is a vision that calls for people to acknowledge their part in the creation of conflict and their part in patterns of injustice. Peacemaking involves concern for democracy, for human rights, and for religious liberty, just and sustainable worldwide economic development; and it is not confined to what governments can do, but what our God can do.

Our God is not confined to our worldview of politics and war. He is not confined to our human limits. It is within his power to transform his people, his children, into instruments of his peace. The God who raised Christ from the dead, holds within him the power for his people to beat their guns into plowshares and their bombs into pruning hooks, and we will learn war no more. On that day, we the people of God will say, “Come, let us go up the trail to the house of the God of Bruington, so that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of King and Queen shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from that Baptist church. The Lord shall judge between the nations, and shall mediate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. Oh house of Bruington, come let us walk in the light of the Lord!”

On that day there where be no more veterans. Until that day we honor those who were lost, those physically and mentally scarred by our wars, parents whose children are buried on foreign soil or in watery tombs, children who will grow up with a memorial for a father or mother, spouses who will raise them on their own, and for all innocent casualties of war. And until that day we will stand in our fields and beat our bombs into plowshares, our guns into pruning hooks, and we will learn war no more. Until that day let us work to become a people of the kingdom of heaven, until the day there are no more veterans.