The Sacrifice of Service

Thank you.

Thank you to Kurt for such a kind introduction.

And thank you to Kurt and in this church for allowing me to speak here for so many years.

This is actually my 18th year speaking on this occasion.

I don't take it lightly.

It's quite a privilege to represent my fellow veterans and also speak of my faith in Jesus Christ.

So I thank you as the congregation and I thank Kurt and the church.

I uh recently cleaned my office, which was quite an undertaking.

And for those of you that know me, almost my whole family's here, so they know that I'm a very serious neatnik.

My walk-in closet is pristine.

The shirts and pants are all lined up perfectly.

The hangers are all the same and turned the same way.

The other side of the closet, not so much.

So for my office to get out of control was a problem.

You see, I buy too many books.

I had books stacked on the floor.

I clip too many newspaper articles.

I make folders up that I then can't find, but I cleaned it and I put everything in order.

I matched up every kind of note I've had that I've given a talk on for many, many years, not just here, but a lot of other places.

I matched them up with CDs that I had of them.

I even matched them up with some old tape recordings.

That's how far back I went.

I realized my first talk here was in 1999, and I guess I have always been concerned about Americans' attitudes towards those who serve.

And in fact, the title of my first talk in 1999 was The Forgotten Soldier.

And I used a quote from that that I'd found in an old John F.

Kennedy speech that kind of sums up my thinking.

God and the soldier all men adore, in time of trouble and no more.

For when war is over and all things righted, God is neglected and the old soldier slighted.

So that's what I want to talk about today.

I want to talk about God, and I want to talk about the soldier, and I will begin with the soldier and I will end with God.

But I have a cautionary note for you.

Those of you that have been here for many, many years, this will not be one of my usual talks.

I do not have a feel-good veteran story to tell you this year.

This is a challenging talk, both for me and I hope for you, but it's a talk that God has put on my heart, and I feel compelled to deliver.

As you know, Memorial Day is, of course, the day set aside to remember those who have died in the service of our country every year.

I mentioned two young men from this church, Eric Foster and Ryan Meseth.

Their pictures are appearing on the screen.

Both of them were members of this church.

I saw Ryan's mother at a memorial service last week.

I see Eric's father, Bob, all the time around church here.

They were both Army airborne rangers.

Ryan was special forces.

For me, they're the best we have to offer.

They both died serving during the war on terror.

Please remember them this weekend and in your thoughts and prayers.

You know, what I'm really concerned about most is the attitude of Americans, not only towards veterans, but towards those who are serving today and will serve in the future.

And while cleaning out my office, I came across an editorial that I used in a talk many, many years ago.

But when I read it, I thought that could have been written this past week.

The editorial was My Heart on the Line by Frank Schaefer.

Now, I had never heard of Frank Schaefer years ago when I read that.

I didn't do any research on Frank Schaefer.

He described himself in the editorial this way.

He said, I live on the Volvo Driving, higher education, worshipping North Shore of Boston.

I write novels for a living.

I've never served in the military.

He tells how difficult it was sending off his two older children to NYU in Georgetown.

But when his young son John enlisted in the Marine Corps after graduating from a very prestigious private school in the Boston area, he called it unexpected and deeply unsettling.

He didn't relish the prospect of answering the question from other parents.

So where is John going to college?

From those parents that were just itching to say, well, my son or daughter's going to Harvard.

You see, at the private school where his son went, no one else enlisted in the Marines.

At a brunch following graduation, a parent actually said to him, What a shame.

John was such a good student.

Another parent, a professor at a nearby prestigious college, spoke up at a school meeting and suggested the school should carefully evaluate what went wrong that would allow something like this to happen.

Schaefer goes on to say that he feels shame because it took his son joining the Marine Corps to make him take notice of who was defending him.

Well, instead of just reading this old editorial, I did some research this time on Frank Schaefer.

I found, to my surprise and pleasure, that Frank Schaefer was the son of Francis Schaefer.

You might recognize that name.

He was a very prominent evangelical theologian who died in 1984.

He wrote a lot of books, and among them he wrote How Shall We Then Live?

It's a book that I read years ago on how to develop a Christian worldview that has frankly influenced my life and thinking.

But Frank Schaefer, the son, he grew up in what I would call a very privileged environment.

His father was famous.

They lived in Europe.

He went to prestigious private schools.

But Frank Schaefer was a rebel.

He actually described himself as surviving childhood polio and an evangelical upbringing.

He was an artist.

He made low-budget movies, and then he became famous for writing some good novels, which brings me to the point when in 1968 his son John enlisted in the Marine Corps.

Now that was before 9-11 and all that temporary patriotism that flowed from that event.

I would say that Frank Schaefer became obsessed with his son being a Marine.

But I'm not judging Frank Schaefer because it was his son.

But because of his personal notoriety, he knew Hollywood elites, he knew a lot of special people, and the fact that he was a writer, he wrote four books about his son and the Marine Corps.

I read them all.

I wanted to see if my feelings about the attitude towards those who served agreed with him.

They did somewhat.

The first three books really are just documentaries about his son's experience at boot camp and then being deployed to Afghanistan.

And the third book is a collection of letters and emails and correspondence with other Marine Corps families and members.

But the last book is a very critical analysis of who serves, who doesn't, and their attitudes.

And the title of the book, written in 2006, will certainly tell you how Frank Schaefer feels.

The title is AWOL, The Unexpected Absence of America's Upper Classes from Military Service and How It Hurts Our Country.

He and others who write on this subject, they use the term elites a lot.

And I want to explain what that means.

It's not a derogatory term at all.

Elites mean people that have attained much in life: high-income earners, skilled professionals, people with status in the community, people with advanced educational degrees from prestigious colleges, and people from the entertainment industry that you know, or the media, or academia, and certainly career politicians and career bureaucrats.

People that have a voice in the policies of our country.

People that often can and have something to do with deciding where we send young men and women to fight.

People, according to Schaefer, and I do agree, somewhat, that often have very, very little skin in the game, but a very big voice.

They probably have not served themselves for the most part, and their children probably won't either.

Now I could be wrong, and this is only my opinion, but I don't think we'll see a Trump grandchild in the military.

I don't think we'll see an Obama grandchild in the military or a George W.

Bush grandchild or a Clinton grandchild serving in the military ever, and I think that's bad for our democracy.

Fewer and fewer members of Congress have served in the military.

Now, in writing his book, AWOL, Schaefer enlists the unlikely co-author, Kathy Roth Duquette.

She describes herself as growing up in an upper middle class neighborhood of Shaker Heights, Ohio, where she said a high-achieving Jewish child could grow to be anything she wanted to be.

She went to college at Brim Mawr and she became an activist.

She was arrested for demonstrating it at certain protests.

She got involved in politics.

She got into the Clinton White House and served in the Defense Department.

She's an attorney with a master's degree from Princeton.

And she clearly describes herself as an elite.

But then she married a career Marine Corps officer, and her life changed dramatically.

She said she came to see the narrowness of the us versus them view of the military that she and her friends had had in the past.

She and Frank Schaefer wrote this book, and I'm quoting them, because they think there is a glaring disconnect between the all-volunteer military and the rest of us.

And as the gap between the cultural elite and the military rank and file widens, our country faces a dangerous lack of understanding between those in power and those who defend our way of life.

Now, I have always held the military in high regard.

I think you know that.

I make jokes about the Navy, but I hold them in high regard, just slightly below the Army.

But hi.

I served a very, very long time ago, but you know, it is still the absolute best experience of my life.

People thank me for my service, but I'm thankful that I got to serve.

It was a privilege, it was a pleasure to serve my country.

I met wonderful, dedicated, intelligent, brave people in the military, and I had the very best experience leadership-wise that I've ever had in my life as a young officer.

And contrary to what some people might think, the military today is fairly well educated.

Today's military personnel are more likely than comparable age groups in the civilian population to have graduated from high school, and military officers are substantially better educated than their contemporaries in the civilian world.

More than 80% of all officers have a bachelor's degree.

I don't think I knew an officer above the rank of major that didn't have a graduate degree or more.

I don't want to overwhelm you with the books I've read, but I am trying to not to impress you, but to just to make sure you understand I made a concerted effort to really analyze this subject to see if my feelings were supported by others.

From Frank Schaefer's book, written in 2006, to John Wright's book, Those Who Have Borne the Battle, written in 2012, to finally a very current book edited by our current Secretary of Defense, James Mattis, Warriors and Citizens.

All of that and my own experiences left me with the feeling that there's a clear gap between those who serve and those who don't, and especially our the cultural elite of our country.

Now, I'm not naive.

Our population is growing, and the military isn't, so it's it's only logical that less and less people serve as a percentage.

Less than 1% now serve in the military.

And I think we do try to do many good things for military personnel and veterans.

You know, there's special events all the time at professional athletic events.

There are special discounts at stores and restaurants.

Military people are allowed to board early in airplanes if they're in uniform.

We send uh cards to wounded warriors.

As a church, we send cards.

I just asked you to send cards to people that are serving.

And all of those things are good things.

But with the ever-widening gap, I think there is a danger that our gratitude has grown a mile wide, but only an inch deep.

You see, all the things that I cited are good.

They should all continue.

But I say an inch deep because of some of my own experiences and the stories that are recounted in the books that I just listed that dig beneath the surface and tell some stories that I find unsettling.

Frank Schaefer tells the story of a young Marine recruiter.

He actually names him.

He served here in Pittsburgh.

And he went to what he called a well-to-do suburb to visit with the parents of a high school student who had told him he was interested in joining the Marine Corps Reserve.

When he arrived at the home, there were two American flags displayed in the yard.

The mother who greeted him at the door had an American flag T-shirt on.

You see, she was expecting him.

And then she said this.

Military service really isn't for our kind of people.

In James Wright's book, Those Who Have Born the Battle, he recounts a story told to him by Dr.

Colling Getz, who was waiting at Reagan International Airport for a flight home to Florida.

When the airline announced that the flight was full, and they were asking some volunteers to surrender their seats with compensation to allow a family that had just picked up the body of their son at Dover Air Force Base.

He was killed.

He was a Marine, killed in Afghanistan.

They wanted to take him home.

His body was already on the plane.

Dr.

Getz describes she and two others immediately volunteered to give up their seats, but the family needed six seats.

And she describes the family as they stood by, dignified and quiet, for 20 minutes, repeated announcements, but no one came forward to give up their seat.

Finally, the airline representative got on the PA system.

His voice was cracking, and he said, This young man gave up his life for our country.

Can't any of you give up your seat so his family can take him home?

After several more very awkward moments.

Three more people volunteered.

So it made me think, you know, you can board early if you're in uniform or in a casket.

Otherwise, don't disturb the travelers.

From the same book, Wright recounts from a Washington Post article describing the 63 seconds of warm applause that commenced when injured veterans from Walter Reed Hospital were introduced to the Washington Nationals game.

But then the reporter paid attention.

He saw that no one approached the wounded people during the game to speak to them.

He noticed that no one spoke to them after the game.

He noticed that no one spoke to them as they made their way in their wheelchairs and walking back to their bus to go back to the hospital.

The writer of the article says emotional displays of gratitude, the thank yous for your service, followed by what he called on certain distance and silence are far too common for veterans.

Last night, I went home to watch the pirate game.

And as I turned it on, I noticed that the Pirates and the Mets all had completely new uniforms on, very fancy camouflage hats that I'd never seen, camouflage lettering, camouflage belts, camouflage socks, and even custom-made camouflage shoes.

The Mets did too.

And then I watched another game, and all of them had that uniform on, and so I can only assume that the Major League Baseball decided to put camouflage uniforms on every player for this weekend to honor veterans.

And I said to my wife, I don't feel very honored by that.

I don't understand that actually.

I wonder how much it cost.

I think it cost a fortune.

I think they should have put that money into a scholarship fund to provide scholarships for the children of men and women who've been killed in combat.

You see, that's why I think sometimes, although we're sincere, our sincerity is a mile wide, but only an inch deep.

And it's certainly not that we don't care as a nation.

I know we do.

I know so many of you do.

So many of you have told me you do.

The George W.

Bush Presidential Center actually estimates that there are 45,000 organizations that serve the needs of veterans.

That's a good thing.

But what about those serving now and in the future?

Rosa Brooks was writing a chapter in the book I cited, Warriors and Citizens, which takes a very, very comprehensive view of the gap between the military and Americans in general, but especially our cultural elite.

She says this most Americans know roughly as much about the military as they know about the surface of the moon.

And it's not that we don't care.

I know so many people say they support the military.

It's just that we don't know.

We don't have a clue who is in the military, what it does, what it costs those who serve and their families, or what our current U.S.

military policies cost us as a nation or democracy, and I'll repeat that.

What our current U.S.

military policies cost us as a nation and a democracy.

She quotes former Defense Secretary Robert Gates as saying, for a growing number of Americans, service in the military, no matter how laudatory, has become something for other people to do.

Not my child.

With 2.3 million people serving, that's a small number.

I understand that.

That's a very small number considering our population of 324 million.

2.3 million, that's reserves, National Guard, active duty.

I understand.

I'm not surprised that we don't know someone that serves.

As a friend of mine reminded me recently, he said, well, there are 11 million illegal immigrants in the country, so you're more likely to know an illegal immigrant than you are to know someone that defends you.

Military personnel serve, believe it or not, in 150 different countries.

We're conducting combat operations in at least Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, and Somalia, and I suggest probably some we don't know.

We invaded Afghanistan in 2001.

Iraq in 2003, and we are still there.

We've been involved in Somalia since at least 1993, if you remember Black Hawk Down.

There's still no real central government there, but we are.

The Navy SEAL was killed in Somalia this very month.

Now, I consider myself a very well-informed citizen.

That's not bragging.

I'm old, I've got plenty of time on my hands, I read a lot, I follow the news, I look behind the news to make sure it's not fake.

I uh I pay attention to those kinds of things because I like those kinds of things.

But believe it or not, as well disinformed as I think I am, I have absolutely no idea what our end game is in any of those countries that I just named.

But we continue to send young Americans off to die and fight in those very countries.

And that responsibility falls squarely on the shoulders of the elite in our country that shape those policies, the elected, the appointed, the other powerful people who make those decisions.

To go to war without ever declaring war or without allowing our young men and women to even win a war.

Hollywood elites have too much influence.

Activists, professors, media elites with virtually no skin in the game whatsoever have an inordinate amount of influence in that arena.

Now I understand why people would not want to serve in the military.

I understand that completely.

I didn't make the military a career myself.

The military isn't for everyone, and the military doesn't want everyone.

But I don't understand how elites such as those at Frank Schaefer's son's school or the woman in the suburbs of Pittsburgh could possibly think that she or he and their children are too good to serve.

So I'm challenging you today to become better informed about where and why we send young Americans, why the leadership, elite of our country, send young Americans off to fight and possibly die.

You need to ask some of them what their final strategy is, because they don't have one.

But as citizens, we need to demand that they have one.

You know, what's important, not serving, is so important as knowing what it takes to serve, what it costs those people to serve, what it costs their families.

You know, if you see someone in uniform or a veteran, if you're in an airport, if you're in a theater, if you're in a restaurant, and you want to say thank you for your service, I suggest that you do more.

Ask them some questions.

Put some human contact into it.

Ask them where they've been.

Ask them where they've been deployed.

Ask them how they're doing.

Ask them where they're going next.

Even ask them if they have a family.

And if you're bold enough, get their name and tell them you're going to pray for them.

And then write their name down and pray for them.

Now, if you're talking to some special operations guy, he probably will choke you out in the middle of that conversation because he's not allowed to tell you.

But be bold anyway and try it.

Because these are just humans like you, and they'd like to hear something from you.

Let me shift now to what I call the good news in this talk.

You know, uh, service to country and service to God have have parallels.

They do.

Deciding to take up your cross and follow Jesus is far, far more important for your eternal life than serving your country.

But you know what?

Both can be life-changing and both can be life-threatening.

But the good news is that we don't have to worry about God's strategy, do we?

It is clear from the beginning, in Genesis through the entire Bible, that God sent his son to earth to die for our sins on a cross.

And that if we believe him, if we accept that as our Savior, then our eternal destiny is already decided.

You don't have to worry about the next election.

You don't have to worry about some policy change from the Defense Department.

But you do, you do have to make the decision to follow Jesus first.

In line with that, I have always been fascinated with the call of the disciples by Jesus.

I've always loved the imagery of Jesus walking along the Sea of Galilee, calling out to his future disciples and their response.

How willingly they they followed this unknown, itinerant preacher from Nazareth.

It's written this way in the book of Matthew, fourth chapter, beginning in the 18th verse.

As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew.

They were casting nets into the lake, for they were fishermen.

Come, follow me, Jesus said, and I will make you fishers of men.

At once they left their nets and followed him.

Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James, son of Zebedee, and his brother John.

They were in a boat with their father Zebedee.

They were preparing their nets.

Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat.

They left their father and they followed him.

And then in the book of Luke, chapter 9, beginning in the 23rd verse, Jesus warns them, saying, If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

Luke 9 · chapter mention

For whoever wants to save his life will lose it.

But whoever loses his life for me will save it.

But they continue to follow him anyway.

You know, I wonder, I often wonder, what did the friends and family of the disciples think of them following this unknown son of a carpenter from Nazareth?

I wonder if they said, what a shame.

Peter was a good fisherman.

He made a good living.

And then when the tax collector, Matthew, followed Jesus, I'm sure his friend said, I can't believe he gave up that lucrative income to follow this man.

Then in the book of John, Jesus warns the disciples of the danger of following him.

In the 15th chapter, beginning in the 18th verse, he specifically warns the disciples, saying, If the world hates you, keep in mind it hated me first.

You see, he's warning them of the path ahead, that it will be difficult.

In fact, in Luke 9, beginning with the first verse, he sent them off on this journey with these words.

These words remind me of a warning order that you would be sent off on a patrol in the military.

When Jesus had called the twelve together, he gives them power and authority to drive out all demons, to cure diseases.

And he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.

And then he told them, take nothing for the journey, no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra tunic.

You see, the disciples are Jesus' foot soldiers.

They're being sent off on a mission to spread the gospel.

A journey that will not be easy and at times will be dangerous.

And then after his death on a cross, the disciples went back to Jerusalem to wait to receive the Holy Spirit.

And as we learn in the book of Acts, they begin to preach and teach and heal among the people.

And what happens?

They're persecuted.

By whom?

The religious elite and the government elite of the day.

But their numbers grew anyway.

It was an unstoppable moment.

If it's not easy to volunteer for the military and even look down sometimes upon by others, it's not easy in the secular world to stand up boldly for your faith, is it, in the public arena.

Or at work, around your social friends.

Or even at times with your own family, it's a challenge to speak of your faith.

You see, the gospel message is at times no more welcome in our fallen world than a Marine Corps recruiter in a wealthy neighborhood.

But the gospel message is the one message that we can truly trust.

It will never change.

It never has changed.

God will never change.

And so while I've challenged you today to become better informed citizens, I'm praying today that you know the gospel message.

And if you know it, I pray that you proclaim it proudly to others.

We're called to do that.

And if you don't know it or if you don't believe it, then I pray that you will explore who this person, Jesus, is.

Come back here.

And hear the messages that are taught, week after week, that explain what a relationship with a living God can do for you and mean for you in your life.

Because I promise you, as so many of you know, that message is life-changing.

Let's pray.

Dear Heavenly Father, on this Memorial Day weekend, we we lift up to you the men and women who have served throughout the years and those who are currently serving our country.

Bless their families who await their return and give comfort and support as only you can to those who have lost loved ones.

I pray that this country will never turn its eyes from you.

You know, while we proudly speak of ourselves as a country standing for freedom and life and liberty, keep us mindful that freedom, life, liberty, and all the good things in life come from you.

They don't come from governments and men.

And finally, thank you for your son Jesus Christ, whose sacrifice on a cross grants us eternal life.

And we pray this all in the name of your son.

Amen.