Holding the Tension Together

Memorial Day always arrives carrying tension between gratitude and grief.  On one hand, we’re grateful for those who gave everything for our country. On the other hand, we grieve what that sacrifice actually cost.
This Sunday we’re also celebrating Pentecost. And I think these two holy days have a lot to say to each other.
As followers of Jesus, we know a little something about that kind of sacrificial love. Jesus didn’t walk onto a literal battlefield, but he showed us exactly what it means to pour your life out for other people. He did it by washing feet, by showing up for the outcasts, and by breathing love all the way to the cross.
When we talk about Pentecost, we’re celebrating the gift of the Holy Spirit, who empowers and sends us out into the mission field. We’re grateful for the power the Spirit gives us to go out and do the work of Jesus, but we also have to admit it can be a little scary to realize what that work actually asks of us. To empty ourselves, just like he did.

It’s pretty wild to think that the same breath that moved over the world at the very beginning is the same breath that moves through us today. A breath that finds us in our own messy, wounded lives and pushes us back out the door, not as soldiers but as healers and peacemakers.
Although it’s rare these two holy days fall on the same weekend, I think it’s a perfect reminder that our freedom isn’t just a gift for us to keep. It’s an invitation to show up for each other to love our neighbors, welcome the strangers, and help lift people up when they’re struggling.

Maybe the best way we can honor those who gave their lives is by giving our own lives away—not in some massive, movie-style sacrifice, but in the small, everyday ways we show mercy and kindness.

“Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.””    (John 20:21-23)