TRADITIONS – A BAPTISM AND VETERANS DAY

Nine years ago three children were baptized in our church. Our eldest Dear Granddaughter was one of them.

I wrote about the event at the time and the church newsletter was kind enough to publish the article.

It went something like this:

Relatives and friends had eagerly responded to our announcement of the upcoming event [the baptism] and were present with us to witness and share in the proceedings. Sunday morning was the culmination of much preparation. Announcements had been sent out. Lists of things to do had been drawn up. Shopping trips to all sorts of places had been planned and carried out. All things were in their places and in good order.
Well, almost everything.
Sunday morning before church was busy and hectic and exciting.
Folks took turns at the bathrooms and the toaster and the coffee pots.
There was laughter and the helping of each other and the losing and finding of all sorts of things.
And then it was time to go.
Parents and Granddaughter arrived at the church in their vehicle.
Grandparents and Aunt and visiting relatives and sponsors arrived in their vehicles.
One of us found her way to the choir stall.
The rest of us found our way to our pew.
Not all of us were Episcopalians. All of us, however, were family that morning.
Those of us who ‘knew the ropes’ helped those who did not.
There was nervousness. There was laughter. There was seriousness. There was wonder.
And there was beauty. God was present that morning for all of us. You could feel it, as we usually do in our Church of a Sunday morning. But on that day, for us, it was special.
We were privileged that morning to participate in one of the great traditions of our Church.
It occurred to me that this is the sort of thing that makes the world go around.
Traditions such as this one, and others, such as anniversaries and birthdays and holidays of various sorts fill our calendars, if we are fortunate enough to observe them, and give meaning and joy to our lives.
Traditions help us to know who we are and what we have done.
Traditions help us through difficult times and help us to celebrate the good times.
Traditions give us strength.
Traditions suggest that our lives have meaning; that we have inherited a legacy; that we are part of the transition of that legacy.
We may modify and add nuances, but we are in a line of succession.
Traditions remind us, in a most comforting way, that we are not alone.

And so it is with nations.

And here is where I write of Veterans Day; of Armistice Day; Poppy Day; or of Remembrance Day.

I submit that a nation can be thought of as a collective person, for it is conceived and born, often with a certain amount of suffering and joy.

It grows and matures. It wins and loses. It rejoices and it grieves.

Those nations, those people that have traditions; that have a sense of the meaning of what they are doing, are nations that will most willingly bear the burdens which life can and will impose.
The leaders of our families and of our communities and of our nation will most deserve our thanks if they do all that is humanly possible to promote and to preserve the best of our American traditions.

One of those best traditions is to set aside as special the eleventh day of November, known by one of the above four names or simply by the three numbers 11-11-11, signifying the date and time, 11 am on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, 1918, when the fighting of World War One came to an end.

It has become traditional to pause on Veterans Day, perhaps at 11:00 am, for a minute or two, and to think about the millions and millions of Veterans who have risked and sacrificed and who are risking and sacrificing so much for their comrades, for their country, and for us.

It is appropriate to wear a poppy on lapel or blouse if you can find one to signify your awareness of the day.

It is especially appropriate to thank a Veteran if you can identify him or her as you go about your daily affairs, to thank him or her for what they did; for what they are doing; for what they may do in the future.

For what Veterans have done and are doing and will be doing in the future is to provide an essential part of the national power, prestige, and security of our nation, for military power is the sine qua non of national power.
It is not everything, but it is essential.

Veterans Day is an especially good day to thank God for those who have served and who are serving.

And it is an especially good day to pray that God will watch over those now serving and safeguard them while they achieve a just and a lasting peace wherever they are called to duty.

I offer this post as a friendly reminder to myself and to all that we are part of a reality that is bigger than ourselves –that we can both receive and transmit strength if we participate in that reality.

Lest we forget.