Centennial

It was 100 years ago today that the United States declared war on Germany and entered the fight alongside the Allies in Europe.  I believe this was the right thing for our nation to do.  But the war and our nation's participation is not something that is to be celebrated.  World War One was first known as the Great War or the War to End All Wars.  It certainly was great, exceeding in scope and destruction all preceding conflicts.  But it was by no means the final, conclusive battle.  More fighting, more conflict was to follow on stages great and small.

Today, a century on, we live in a fallen world that is still affected and shaped by war.  Today, during this Lenten season, we may give thanks for those who have been willing to make sacrifices for freedom and liberty.  But we should also mourn the failures in human relations, the lust for greed and power that all too often distracts and misleads.  We do this remembering that the perverting powers of darkness not only work on the level of states but in individual human hearts, our own included.

We recall today the beginning of a war.  We recall, too, the need for women and men in all times and places to be on guard for those forces, those temptations that would lead us down the road not to glory but to sin and death.

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