In my Junior year of Seminary, I took a course on the Book of Revelation. One assignment was to write a sermon using a text from Revelation. I decided to write an imaginary memorial sermon for Frank Buckles, our last WWI vet. Frank Buckles entered into eternal joy last month at the age of 110. He will be interred in Arlington this afternoon. Please take a moment to remember Frank Buckles and all those who served our country faithfully.
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Here is the assignment I completed a few years ago (while I'm tempted to edit it a bit, I left it as is):
We are here today to honor the life of Frank Woodruff Buckles[1]. Frank has had a very full life so far and no one can say he has not done great things with his life. Frank was born Feb. 1, 1901 when McKinley was president, and Frank has seen 19 presidents in office so far. Frank has raised a wonderful daughter Susannah. Frank has been a farmer here in Jefferson Country for many years. He has been involved with ecological efforts to keep the air clean by planting trees. Frank has done so much with his life, but what Frank will be most widely remembered for is being the last American WWI veteran. Today is a momentous day as it marks the passing of an American generation, the generation of American WWI veterans. Frank marks the end of an era for America.
You have read the newspaper articles about Frank. You know Frank, but it is fitting to remember what he will always be remembered for. Frank felt compelled to answer the call to serve his country when America became involved in WWI. He lied about his age in order to join the other troops training and shipping overseas. Being young and wanting to be where the action was, Frank was in a hurry to get to France. He wanted to get to the action, to be able to do something, to have a part in the Great War. Upon hearing that the ambulance service would get him over there quicker, he became a driver and crossed the English Channel. While he did not fight in the trenches, Frank saw so much pain and suffering as he removed the casualties from the trenches and drove them to medical treatment
The reading from Revelation speaks to us today in a powerful way. Its imagery, language and vision provide a rich and very fitting text for us today as we remember Frank and his life’s experiences.
The text talks about people coming through the 'great ordeal'[2] and taking their places in the heavenly courtroom. One cannot hear that phrase without thinking of the name of WWI. It was the Great War, the War to end all Wars. Sadly, that was not the case with WWI. In fact, Frank has lived to see America involved in five wars with the 5th still in progress. Frank will eventually be in a place where he no longer will have to experience wars. Frank will go through his last ordeal as he passes from the earthly plain.
We are told that God will wipe away all their tears, all the ones who have passed through the ‘great ordeal’ will have their tears wiped away. For Frank, this was not merely just WWI, because he saw and experienced many painful experiences while abroad. He traveled all over the world working for White Star and other merchant seamen companies. While working in the Philippines he was taken as a POW when the Japanese attacked. He spent over 3 years in the infamous Los Baños camp. Instead of losing heart, he strove to keep his fellow POWS physically fit by leading them in daily calisthenics and even developed a close relationship with a polio stricken girl. From that experience, he kept his tin cup, the tin cup he ate his meager food out of. The food was not enough to fully sustain him and he was a gaunt 100 lbs when the camp was liberated. The cup has served as a reminder of his time there, a time when he was hungry, but still able to find strength. The cup serves as a reminder of the day when Frank would hunger and thirst no more. A day when the Lamb would be his shepherd leading him to the springs of the water of life just as we listen to what Revelation is saying to us today[3].
The text from Revelation is not meant to be escapist by any means. It provides a comforting vision of how God will care for us. It reminds us that we are all saved because we as Christians have all been sealed and marked as Christ’s own forever through our baptisms.
The hope and comfort of Rev. 7 is that the saints who have gone through the great ordeal are now in a place where there are no tears anymore. The Lamb has conquered all through its death and Jesus has taken away the sting of death, the tears will be wiped away.
We cannot honor Frank today without mentioning his fellow comrades who went before him. These comrades he served with, served next to, and served. The comrades on the other sides of the trench. The comrades he got to know as he escorted the POWs back to Germany. The comrades he shared his life with in the POW camp. What we do know is that Frank will finally be joining the rest of his comrades. Frank desires so much to join his comrades in Arlington. Being the last American WWI veteran, he has been given special permission to join them. After petitioning to be buried with his comrades, Frank will be able to join them. It means so much to him to be able to join them there.
One by one over the years, more WWI veterans have left the Earthly plain. The vision Revelation provides of being welcomed by other saints and given a white robe is a wonderful image for us to reflect on. As with any war, civilians cannot fully understand the magnitude of the experience. They did not see the dead strewn across the battles fields or had to fall asleep in the trenches to the sounds of mortar and gunshots. They did not see the victims of the Mustard gas that was used during WWI. We can only imagine the tears caused by the noxious gases and their tear strewn faces. Yet, we are given an image of the heavenly courtroom in Revelation and we are told that their tears will be wiped away. The tears are but transitory. Once they are wiped away, they will be gone forever.
Frank’s spirit will no longer be with us. He will be joining his comrades who are also buried in Arlington Cemetery and receive the distinctive white gravestone marking his service to America. John visions the saints getting a white robe in heaven, and Frank will have an image of one here on Earth, as his white gravestone will remind us, because it is white because of the blood, tears, and sweat he shed as a soldier in the fields of France. His physical body will rest here, but as Revelation reminds us, he will be joining the rest of those ‘who have come out of the great ordeal’.
Frank as an ambulance driver saw so many young men with wounds and in so much pain, and their faces marked with tears. Many of those men did not make it back home. Frank will now be able to join them in a place where there are no more tears. They have been wiped away because they have come through the great ordeal.
The power of Revelation is that is reminds us that no matter what pain and suffering we have experienced in our earthly life, it is not the ultimate end. Revelation presents an image of what God’s future church is to be like.
So from today on we can remember Frank fondly. We can remind each other of the wonderful things he was able to accomplish despite the great ordeals he endured that could have easily broken a man. He came back from the Philippines, met his wife, started a family, and has been able to live a rich life filled with his families and friends besides him.
While our tears flow today as we remember Frank, we know that God will wipe them away. Just as Frank will be in a place with no tears, we too one day when our Earthly journey has run its course, will be in a place with no tears.
[1] Frank Buckles is still alive, and because of this, I will refer to him in the present and his burial in the future throughout the sermon. He is a member of my home parish and my father went to school with his daughter. In writing a funeral sermon, I choose to write it with using a specific person in mind. This text fits very well with a person who served in WWI and was a civilian POW during WWII. This sermon is to honor Mr. Buckle’s life and would be what I would imagine to preach at the memorial of his earthly life. This sermon is meant to be preached at the church service before the gravesite service at Arlington National Cemetery.
[2] NRS translates ‘great ordeal,’ which picks up on the name of WWI being the Great War better than the NAS and KJV which call it the ‘great tribulation’
[3] This phrase intentionally used to highlight the earlier portions of Revelation, which say ‘listen to what the spirit is saying to the Churches’.
