What Do We Actually Celebrate?

Today is Memorial Day.  

Yesterday as I left Iowa, and drove north toward Wisconsin, I saw American flags lining every street in town. On every single street flags had been planted in the corner of every yard.  Not just little flags, but regular size flags.

Now I grew up in a very patriotic culture. I wasn't even allowed to breath when the National Anthem was played.  World War Two was not too distant in the memory of America people’s minds. Theirs hearts were truly grateful for what those, who served in the armed forces, did to defend the rights of freedom. And the ones who couldn’t join the action, who stay home, did their part to help a nation without a the majority of its young men and women. 

It was a shared experience for all involved.   They all knew what it honestly meant for a nation to "be great."

It made me wonder, as I drove away, what the generations, that have come since, are actually celebrating on this national holiday.

So being me, I began to compare this holiday with another huge celebration, Easter.  A holiday, by the way, celebrated all over the world, not just in America.   

I thought about how it was for Jesus followers, who walked and talked, listened and experienced how it really was to know Jesus first hand.  How it must have been, on that awful Friday, for them — so lost, so full of grief and disbelief.  And yes, disappointment -- they believed Jesus was indestructible.

That event rendered, Jesus’ closest followers, defenseless and completely disoriented. They didn’t know what to do. So they did what they knew best.  They went fishing.  

We can only, just begin to, imagine their joy when Jesus came and met them on the beach.  They witnessed first hand the awe and joy of the biggest event in history; and most certainly their otherwise ordinary lives.  

They experienced what we today can only read about to know. 

I am quite aware how people today celebrate the Easter event.

However, I was born just four years after the end of WWII.  I came into life in the midst of that huge feeling of pride. 

But now this day comes and goes, in my life, without much if any notice.  Even when I was in full-time ministry the only true reason I gave thought to it was because I was expected to give it attention for the sake of the veterans in the congregation.

So my question today is: 

What, how and why do we celebrate something that occurred seventy-five years ago?