Veteran's Day fell on Sunday this year.  One member of our Church
thought that was a brilliant opportunity to celebrate the service of
our members.  He began to ask around for vets and collect pictures.

   On Sunday morning there was a poster board set up just outside the
sanctuary with pictures of our veterans from their time in service. 
Some of them were pictures of very young-looking men, taking their
first official military photo.  Crisp uniforms.  Shiny emblems.  Fresh
haircuts, and childlike fear in their eyes.  You could only imagine
what it was like to put on a uniform in 1940 and eighteen years old,
with the rise of the Third Reich to face; or what it was like for them
to kiss their mothers and get on a bus to go to war knowing that
American forces were losing around 1,600 Soldiers every day.

   One picture was of a B-24 bomber squad of one of our members.  Those
are the guys who loaded up planes ("planes" should really be in
quotation marks--they were more like steel boxes with wings) with all
they could carry of bombs and gas, fly from England to Germany through
anti-aircraft flak, drop their bombs and turn around for home with just
enough gas to hopefully coast in to an open runway back at base.  That
is, if the Nazi fighter planes didn't catch up with them.  He was a
turret gunner.

   It was something to see these now elderly men in the prime of their
youth.  And it was something to see that they spent the prime of their
youth making huge sacrifices to serve others.  I have officiated many
funerals in my years of ministry, and at least half of them have been
veterans of the large-scale wars of the 20th century.  I am always
moved to see the military pictures come out and hear stories of heroics
and valor; stories you just didn't know about these old fellas!  What a
joy it was on Sunday to get to share some of those stories before these
men were promoted to heaven.

   Of course, some of the pictures were more recent.  Our generation has
its own ever-growing coalition of veterans.

   The poster was an opportunity for Christian fellowship in our Church. 
People gathered around it, and for the first time in a long time, the
younger members and the older members had something to talk about. 
Something to celebrate together, and relate about.  Something that
broke down barriers and opened doors of conversation, caring, mutual
love, and gratitude for selfless sacrifice.

   Paul wrote the Corinthians and reminded him of what was probably an old
adage:  "Bad company ruins good morals." (1 Cor 15:33).  Of course, the
opposite is also the case.  In Christian fellowship we are built up by
one another and we benefit from the virtue that surrounds us.

   In my work at the university, I study a leader of the Church from the
Fourth Century named Basil of Caesarea.  One thing he wrote is that we
are effected by our surroundings.  Just like how the color of your
shirt reflects up on your chin, or strong colors in the room reflect on
your face, the Holy Spirit illumines us Christians to reflect the glory
of the Lord. (On the Holy Spirit).  I felt that in Church this week.  I
was happy to be in the body of believers, to be in the company of the
Holy Spirit illumining us all in the glory of the Lord; and to be
around these great saints of God who reflect His glory so magnficently;
so humbly and often so quietly, but this Sunday, brightly!  And I had
the pleasure of sharing a bit of that glow.