Just a few still standing

Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust, in sure and certain hope of the resurrection.

As I rise to preach today, there will be a few WWII veterans in the building. For a war that ended 70 years ago that is really saying something about the longetivity of my congregation. Bob turned 90 this week, and saw some of the most violent action in the Pacific as a machine gunner. He still has vivid memories of those war years, as do all who were amazed that they lived through it.

I am a baby boomer, one of the vast multitude of kids born after that war, to parents determined to create a free and better life for their families after all they had seen and done.

I saw Krushchev? pound his shoe on the desk and declare he would bury the west.

I lived through the nuclear threats of Communist Cuba.

I schooled myself under the threat of an Asian war calling my own generation to a hopeless conflict, it changed us all.

I rejoiced over the collapse of the Soviet Union.

I watched the rise of militant Islam.

I am watching the dream of a Soviet union trying to rise from the ashes.

War, what is it good for? My counter culture generation said, absolutely nothing.

An older me sees that some were necessary, all are costly. God bless the memory of our war dead.