Invocation
Almighty God,
You loved mankind into being
and you bless us now with each precious moment of life.
Our hearts are grateful for your loving faithfulness.
Grateful, too, are we for the millions of loving acts
that blossom from human hearts around us every day.
On this Memorial Day
help us to remember, with deepest gratitude and awe,
the extraordinary men and women who, out of love, gave their lives
to protect our beloved country and preserve our liberty. We wish to thank them for their courage, their sacrifice and their commitment. We want to thank them for putting on the uniform and traveling halfway around the world to protect our freedom. We now thank them for keeping us safe and making us proud. Keep these fallen heroes in your loving care.
On this Memorial Day we stop and pay, with sincere conviction, our respects for these who died protecting and preserving the freedoms we enjoy, for we owe these honored dead more than we can ever repay.
As we remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for the freedoms we enjoy every day, we think of how they have followed in the footsteps of your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Help us to be ever mindful also of the wounded heroes in our midst
who, with heroic hearts, risked their lives that we might prosper and that our children’s futures be secured. Please hold our servicemen and women in your strong arms. Cover them with your sheltering grace and your presence as they stand in the gap for our protection.
We also remember the families of our troops. We ask for your unique blessings to fill their homes, and we pray your peace, provision, and power will fill their lives.
May the members of our armed forces be supplied with courage to face each day and may they trust in Your mighty power to accomplish each task. Let our military brothers and sisters feel our love and support.
In the name of Jesus, Amen.
Benediction
Almighty God,
On this Memorial Day, let us remember with sincere respect those who paid the price for our freedoms. Allow us to keep in sacred remembrance those who died serving their country. Never let them be forgotten.
On this Memorial Day, the one day out of the year set aside for We the People, as a nation, to get together to remember and reflect, let us maintain and decorate the graves of the fallen. Let us, then, gather around their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above them with the choicest flowers of spring-time; let us raise above them the dear old flag they saved from dishonor; let us in this solemn presence renew our pledges to aid and assist those whom they have left among us a sacred charge upon a nation's gratitude, the soldier's and sailor's widow and orphan.
On this Memorial Day, let us remember our rich history and heritage of freedom. From the Minute Men who were out-manned and out-gunned by the British on Lexington Green and later that day at Concord Bridge, to General Washington and his ill clad men enduring the harsh winter at Valley Forge, to the rocket’s red glare over Fort McHenry in the War of 1812, to the blood soaked fields around Gettysburg where brother fought against brother, to the Doughboys in the trenches facing sniper fire and mustard gas in WWI, to the scores of Sailors who died at Pearl Harbor, to the Soldiers who stormed the beaches of Normandy, to the Airmen who went on bombing raids over Tokyo, to the Marines who fought on the shores of Iwo Jima, on the frigid hills of Korea, the jungles of Vietnam, the deserts of Iraq, and the rugged mountains of Afghanistan —these Patriots secured our liberty at a high price.
On this Memorial Day, we are the land of the free because of the brave. On this solemn day, we honor those who serve and have served in our military. We give you praise and glory for the blessings you have bestowed upon us as a nation. We give you praise and glory for the sacrifices of our men and women who proudly represent us and defend our freedoms even to their last breath. As Jesus Himself once said, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Freedom is truly a gift from you, O great and glorious God.
On this Memorial Day, when I think of these true patriots and their patience under adversity, of their courage under fire, and of their modesty in victory, I am filled with an emotion of admiration I cannot put into words. He belongs to history as furnishing one of the greatest examples of successful patriotism. He belongs to posterity as the instructor of future generations in the principles of liberty and freedom. He belongs to the present, to us, by his virtues and by his achievements. We are here today to honor these heroic dead.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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