Veterans Day

The 11^th hour of the 11^th day of the 11^th month: that’s when the armistice ending World War I took effect, ending the brutal fighting—trench warfare, chemical weapons. The horrors of the fighting were endured only because of the promise that this would be the war to end all wars. And so, November 11 became “Armistice Day” in the United States. 

And that’s what it remained until the mid-1950’s when it was renamed “Veterans Day”—a day to honor all veterans who have served in the armed forces of the United States. For the sad reality was that World War I was not the war that ended all wars. We continued to produce new veterans, who not only served in the armed forces, but who were sent to new wars, making all sorts of sacrifices to serve the country.

Even today, our country continues to create new veterans—not as many as we once did. And the truth is that very few of us have any personal, family connection to the armed forces. But there are women and men these days, serving, some of them at war, making sacrifices—both them and their families. “Thank you for your service,” we say these days, and it’s good to say it, I suppose. And yet, it seems to me that we need to do more than say that. We need to understand our obligation to support those veterans and their families when they come home. And we need to continue to uphold the hope of the 11^th hour of the 11^th day of the 11^th month—armstice—the end of the war to end all wars.

--Pastor Don Steele