I’ve been thinking about parades lately. Two things bring parades to mind. First, this time of year anyone living within a few blocks of Parker Junior High will have heard the marching band out practicing in the mornings. Playing a patriotic medley and marching around the neighborhood preparing for the Homewood Memorial Day parade.
In addition to being Memorial Day, on the church calendar tomorrow is the first of the spring Rogation Days. We don’t talk too much about the Rogation Days anymore, but the one thing the church does on the Rogation Days is have parades, or processions, as we call them in the church.
Memorial Day is a holiday that has accumulated a very mixed assortment of traditions and associations over the years. In the same way I hear people lament the loss of Christ in the Christmas holiday, I hear a lament for the loss of Memorial in the Memorial Day holiday.
But amid the mattress sales and beer-soaked barbecues, there are parades. Memorial Day parades. And I think those parades, at their best, speak to the true meaning of Memorial Day. In general, parades have the potential to fill some very positive roles. They build community and form identity and they perpetuate or teach that identity and community to succeeding generations.
Memorial Day parades have the potential to be tainted by partisan politics or a sort of national triumphalism. But overall, especially the smaller, local parades remind us that we are a community with some sort of connection and care for one another. This assortment of individuals who watch and march is a community, drawn together by the parade itself. And the content of a parade says something about what we as a community value… in this case, the freedom and opportunities that this country offers and our respect for those who have fought to defend those freedoms and opportunities. Memorial Day parades bring us together as a community and they proclaim and teach our respect for those who serve.
As my own offering to help keep the Memorial in Memorial Day and Memorial Day parades, I want to read a portion of a poem. It’s funny that I should quote poems two Sundays in a row. I’m really not much of a reader or student of poetry. This one is by Robert Service. Unlike George Herbert, whom I quoted last week, I don’t think anyone would claim that Robert Service is one of the greatest poets in the English language. But he’s one of the poets who actually made a living at it and his verses are memorable in their own way. He lived from 1874 – 1958. Originally British, he lived much of his adult life in western Canada and is sometimes informally called the “Bard of the Yukon.” This poem is March of the Dead. Written, I think, with reference to the Boer Wars, it’s images are relevant to any war.
The cruel war was over -- oh, the triumph was so sweet!
We watched the troops returning, through our tears;
There was triumph, triumph, triumph down the scarlet glittering street,
And you scarce could hear the music for the cheers.
And you scarce could see the house-tops for the flags that flew between;
The bells were pealing madly to the sky;
And everyone was shouting for the Soldiers of the Queen,
And the glory of an age was passing by.
And then there came a shadow, swift and sudden, dark and drear;
The bells were silent, not an echo stirred.
The flags were drooping sullenly, the men forgot to cheer;
We waited, and we never spoke a word.
The sky grew darker, darker, till from out the gloomy rack
There came a voice that checked the heart with dread:
"Tear down, tear down your bunting now, and hang up sable black;
They are coming -- it's the Army of the Dead."
They were coming, they were coming, gaunt and ghastly, sad and slow;
They were coming, all the crimson wrecks of pride;
With faces seared, and cheeks red smeared, and haunting eyes of woe,
And clotted holes the khaki couldn't hide….
"We're the men who paid the blood-price. Shall the grave be all our gain?
You owe us. Long and heavy is the score.
Then cheer us for our glory now, and cheer us for our pain,
And cheer us as ye never cheered before."
In addition to being Memorial Day, tomorrow is the first of the Rogation Days. It just happens to fall on Memorial Day this year. Like everything else in the church calendar, the Rogation Days are late this year. They are always the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before Ascension Day. Not unlike Memorial Day, the Rogation Days have accreted traditions and associations over the years. But they have always included parades/processions. The Rogation Days supplanted pagan traditions that sought divine protection for the fields at the time of the spring plantings. So there were processions around the fields. Later, in England, Rogation Day processions were associated with the beating of the bounds, a parade/procession around the geographic perimeter of the parish.
Focusing particularly on the English tradition, think about the role of the procession. The parish gathered as a community, affirming that their parish affiliation bound them together in community. They marched the boundaries of the parish. This is who we are; our identity is defined by these boundaries. Part of the procession was directly intended to teach the parish boundaries to the young, passing along the nature of their identity. And they prayed as they processed. The content of the parade said everything about who they were and what they valued. Prayer.
We have a couple of parades here very Sunday. The entering procession and the exiting procession. The entering procession symbolizes the fact that we gather from different places and different activities to come together here as the people of this parish.
And once gathered by that parade, what we do says a lot about our identity. We sing and pray. We are people of praise and prayer. This morning we sang “All Things Bright and Beautiful.” We are people who see God’s presence in all of creation, who give thanks to God for all things bright and beautiful.
In our prayers we also give thanks for those people who have fought and died for freedom. And we pray that we may be people who serve God by using our freedoms faithfully.
And we are a people, having been drawn together, who gather around a table, the Lord’s Table to share the gift of his living presence with one another.
Finally, there is another parade, as we march back out into the world to love and serve the Lord.
