Of course, I'm talking that this is "Memorial Day Weekend". First we need to recognize that Memorial Day is a parody of All Saints Day on November 1 within the Christian calendar. On all Saints Day, Christians remember the nameless saints and especially martyrs who have gone before us. We remember those whose faithfulness God has used to pull us into the kingdom of God by the United States that we too might become like them, participating in the eternal kingdom through acts of mercy such as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, not returning evil for evil but overcoming evil with good.

"Memorial Day" instead celebrates the sacrificial economy of the "saints" of the state -- those who have given their lives for the freedom of the citizens of the United States. We are told that these "sacrificial deaths" have been saved us from forces of evil so that we might live. Those killed within wars started by the state therefore take on the role of Jesus Christ, and thus, become "super-saints" in the world around us. Ironically, churches that incorporate Memorial Day recognition into their services replace Jesus with the parody -- remembering "anti-Christs", persons turned from horrible victims of state-sponsored violence to atoning saviors of human life.

Recently I've had friends such as Josh Gubser and Kyle Tau trying to think through atonement, especially substitutionary atonement so prevalent in American evangelical circles. We've gone back to read the supposed origin of this atonement theory, Anselm of Canterbury and discovered that Anselm is very different from those who have represented him. He clearly states that God did not will the Son's death, but that the Son willing took death as a result of his obedience, thus showing loyalty to God the Father over Satan, and thus re-established the rightfull honor of God and the beauty of creation in obedience to God. The Son, for Anselm, saves by his faithfulness to the Father, seen in his death. It is a sacrifice for us because, in being fully human, he undoes the shame of humanity in chosing to obey Satan over God.

Why then does this subsitutionary atonement as given by evangelical? I'm wondering. Some might say that the doctrine of salvation of Memorial Day built upon the substitutionary atonement of Christianity. As Jesus died "for us" so that we might live, the state subtly took the soteriology and applied it to war, the deaths of soldiers, and citizenship. But what if it was the other way around? What if the state soteriology of sacrificial death of its soldiers to sustain the freedom of its citizenship was then applied to Jesus? Thus the parody of salvation that the state and its wars bring then takes the parody right into the center of the life of the church. The church's own life becomes coopted without it even knowing it. This would be a good thing to check out historically.

But, of course, we have to remember the other dangerous facet of the weekend -- as a holiday, we have an extra day to consume, to travel, to engage in recreational activities, to buy -- and sell. Of course, such activities will remove us from our congregations on Sunday morning. The economy, stimulated by the sacrificial deaths of soldiers, becomes powered into the summer season when we all can engage in recreational activities to escape work by buying the best leisure that our money can by. Of course, as a result, church attendance plummets in the summer -- as does congregational giving. Memorial Day "jump starts" such activities by the state, ultimately giving us the type of freedom that the soldiers tied to give us -- freedom from any moral constraints outside our own economic status to pursue our own self-interest. Even if we resist the first temptation of Memorial Day, this second stands much more subtly in coopting our bodies.

What then shall we do? First, mourn. Mourn and lament the mindless, needless death of so many in the world in the 20th and 21st century. Mourn the victims of the genocides, the Holocaust, the WWI gas victims, those from Pearl Harbor, Dresden, Hiroshima. Remember -- not to legitimate the violence, but to see its true costs -- the wages of sin is death.

Second, rest! Sleep, enjoy time with family and friends in simple activities. Don't exhaust yourself with leisure, recreational activities. Read, sleep, pray, read the Scriptures -- be amazed that the state can give many of us a day off so that we might be renewed in our work for the Lord.

Third, worship! Even if you are away from your local congregation, make sure that you gather with believers. If the church has been coopted by Memorial Day activities, repent and mourn. Use the time for a personal lamentation, crying over Jerusalem much like Jesus did. Recognize that we too are implicated in such activities.

I plan to sleep, read (including re-reading Harry Potter), work on my book, watch some TV, spend time with family and friends, and maybe slip out for a second viewing of Episode III so that I can blog on it next week and refer to it in my class on Radical Orthodoxy on the nihilism of the univocity of (non)-Being. But that's another story!