n e w c h u r c h l i f e : m ay / j u n e 2 0 1 5
The rim of gold means
a border of good. Our
military services can
be thought of in the
same way; they form
a rim of gold, a border
around this nation.
Men and women ought to do good to their
country from a love for it, according to its
needs, some of which are natural and some
spiritual. Natural needs relate to civil life and
order, and spiritual needs to spiritual life and
order. That one’s country should be loved,
not as one loves himself, but more than
himself, is a law inscribed on the human
heart; from which has come the well-known
principle, which every true man endorses,
that if the country is threatened with ruin
from an enemy or any other source, it is
noble to die for it.
This is said because so great should be one’s
love for it. It should be known that those
who love their country and render good service to it from good will, after death
love the Lord’s kingdom, for then that is their country; and those who love the
Lord’s kingdom love the Lord Himself, because the Lord is the all in all things of His
kingdom. (True Christian Religion 414)
The positive attitude to help our nation, the willingness to do our civic
duty and serve our communities with honesty and integrity, and our desire
to protect all people from harm, constitutes the best attitude for loving our
country. This spiritual attitude forms, as it were, a rim of gold around our
whole life.
In June of last year we marked the 70th anniversary of the invasion of
Normandy, France, in World War II. Many soldiers have given their lives
since that day to preserve our freedom at home. On Memorial Day we take a
moment to honor, remember and thank them.
They gave their lives in places far away from our congregations, but to
name a few: Normandy, El Alamein, Monte Cassino and Okinawa, Dak To in
Vietnam and Chosin Reservoir in Korea. More recently, our men and women
have given their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. Just in these areas of conflict
alone, more than 250,000 men and women became causalities of war.
Many from the New Church served our country in battle, giving the best
of themselves to protect us here at home. Allow me to read from the diary of
one soldier, who was in the U.S. Marines in the Pacific theater. His family has
preserved 126 letters written by him from May 8, 1943, until October 11, 1945.
He saw action in combat in the important military campaigns in Guam and
Okinawa. He was 20 years old. Reading from his diary:
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