11/11/2025
I didn’t realize until just the day before I was to wear my camouflage stole while preaching and leading worship on the Sunday before Veterans Day, that my sermon had a deeper meaning for me. I am a retired Episcopal Priest and one-time Army Chaplain CPT USAR (1990-1996) serving as the Interim Rector while at Christ Church, Elizabeth City NC. The stole, a garment that looks like a long scarf and serves as a mark of my priestly office, was a gift from a soldier that he crafted from a parachute. Needless to say, this is a most precious possession.
When I preach, I create a sermon theme that most often reflects something within the assigned scriptures as I am aware of the happenings in the world as I seek to listen deeply to God. You might say that my sermon is a moment when I invite others to engage what springs from my private time with the most Holy.
Here’s how I began my sermon:
On the 11th day of the 11th month, at the 11th hour of 1918, the guns fell silent, finally, in the fields of France and the other war-torn parts of what were called the Great War, the war to end all wars, or what sadly became World War I. And from that was the remembrance called Armistice Day, because that is when the armistice went into effect. And if you look in your bulletin, I put a piece of graphic in there which has poppies in it because they spoke to that, and there are crosses, but the crosses are sadly there in the field of Normandy, where again fighting occurred to push back against utter evil. And as we approach Veterans Day, which is the 11th day of the 11th month this year, it seemed appropriate to find a way to have a touchstone to be remembering that and what guides us.
And so, as this sermon unfolded for me as the week began, I wrote these words, and I shared them pretty much with you during the week. This sermon wonders, as we approach Veterans Day, how the words of the Apostle Paul that he wrote to the Thessalonians inspired those who find themselves in harm's way defending what President Franklin Delano Roosevelt spoke of during World War II as freedom of speech, of worship, from want, from fear. And in my mind, I was connecting those words as what somebody who might have been on a boat approaching the beaches of Normandy, not unlike what you might have seen in the beginning of the film Saving Private Ryan, and what would have been giving them strength as followers of Jesus, hearing from Paul in Thessalonica.
But we heard these words, for this purpose he called you through our proclamation of good news, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions you were taught by us, either by word, mouth, or our letter. And so, I was musing at that earlier point of the week, what would it have been like for somebody to have been saying, this is why I'm here.
Here's how I expressed what I didn’t realize about my coming trip to the Normandy beaches as my sermon unfolded:
Freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, freedom from fear. And I'm at a point right now where a word hit me, I think it was yesterday, and why it was important for me to share what's going on with me, is that the word pilgrimage dawned on me. More than a bucket list for me to go to Normandy…What is it to remember? And a pilgrimage is what it is to go to a place to get deeply connected to something that is a truth beyond knowing.
I plan to put on my stole as I move among the crosses and the stars of David that mark the graves of the Normandy cemetery with a deep sense of gratitude for those who gave their lives for values such as providing the freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. I pray for the strength to live fully into their legacy.
You can find the complete sermon (print and video) on my website WCTcoach.com.
