My sister, Clara, has started a neat blog, which she calls, My Meme Mania. It is the home of “I did It – Monday.” I am participating in that, and you might want to check it out on her blog.

Today is Memorial Day. Our pastor left for vacation last week, and I was asked to preach yesterday. I did it.

The message was taken from Ecclesiastes Chapter Three. For one of the points, I told the story of two of my 5th great grandfathers.

On my father’s side, 5th g-gpa John was a farmer that had moved to Vermont from Connecticut. When the call came, he left his family and joined the continental army. He followed General Washington to a place in Pennsylvania called Valley Forge. And there he died.

On my mother’s side, 5th g-gpa Christian was a Mennonite bishop. Mennonites are pacifists, which means they will not take up arms and join in conflict. The church held that members should submit to human government, and for them that meant the British king. The call came to their community for men to join the continental army. Rev. Christian suggested that the revolutionary government in Philadelphia was attempting to form the third republic in human history. For that reason, he openly expressed the opinion that church members should pay the tax that was levied on men who refused conscription.

Church leaders were impressed with the bishop’s audacious suggestion. They ordered him to immediately cease preaching in his church. On further consideration, he was excommunicated. After his death, he was refused burial in the church grave yard. He was interred in the family burial plot of a friend, who was my 4th g-gpa.

Of course. there was much more. This is enough for now.

I hope you have had a good Memorial Day weekend, and that you took time to remember those who have served our country.