I'm just sayin...: Easter Recap

Know Your Medal of Honor Recipients:

Sergeant Michael B. Ellis (US Army) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on October 5, 1918 near Exermont, France. His citation reads:

During the entire day's engagement he operated far in advance of the first wave of his company, voluntarily undertaking most dangerous missions and single-handedly attacking and reducing machinegun nests. Flanking one emplacement, he killed 2 of the enemy with rifle fire and captured 17 others. Later he single-handedly advanced under heavy fire and captured 27 prisoners, including 2 officers and 6 machineguns, which had been holding up the advance of the company. The captured officers indicated the locations of 4 other machineguns, and he in turn captured these, together with their crews, at all times showing marked heroism and fearlessness.

First Sergeant William Ellis (US Army) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on January 14, 1865 in Arkansas. His citation reads:

Remained at his post after receiving three wounds, and only retired, by his commanding officer's orders, after being wounded the fourth time.

Captain Thomas F. Ellsworth (US Army) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on November 30, 1864 at Honey Hill, South Carolina. His citation reads:

Under a heavy fire carried his wounded commanding officer from the field.

I decided not to talk about this last week because I knew the pictures from Easter Sunday wouldn’t be up on here until this week… So while most of you may have already forgotten about Easter Sunday, I will give you a quick re-cap of mine. A somewhat new tradition in our family is to have a sunrise service at the lake. This involves us going to sit under a big tree down by the lake to listen to Sonny preach a sermon. Before you ask… no, Sonny did not attend (let alone graduate) from Seminary school. He did, however, play four years of baseball under Coach Tom Hatley at James Island High School who, as I’m sure you know from reading this blog, is one of those great “old school” coaches who thinks drinking water during practice is a sign of weakness. I speak from experience when I tell you that nothing strengthens a relationship with God quite like playing baseball for Coach Hatley. Haha.

Anyway, it must be noted on here that I am not what you could call a fan of sunrise services. The ground is usually wet with dew and it’s cold. Wet and cold doesn’t make Greg happy. I did ask Mom (at least I think it was Mom who I asked) why it is we had to have the service at sunrise. She said it was because Mary went to the tomb to visit Jesus at sunrise (at which time she found he had risen). I don’t know if that’s really why we do it, but if it is… I don’t think I’m speaking out of turn here when I say that getting up at sunrise to hear Sonny speak ain’t the same as getting up at sunrise to go visit Jesus. Though, knowing how my parents think of Sonny, I could see how this might be lost on them. To that point, I had The Wife keep Daniel and Susie in our room while Mary Ruth went with me down to the service. I spent too much money on medical bills last year to risk them getting sick just to hear Uncle Sonny preach (no offense, but he ain’t Billy Graham).

The service started with the children singing. The video below doesn’t really do it justice… most of them were still waking up. They sounded great the night before. Having the children sing was a new wrinkle added this year. Sonny then gave his sermon and while I have pointed out that he is not Jesus or Billy Graham, he still did a good job. To be fair, Sonny does preach when needed in his church… so he has some experience behind a pulpit. The good thing about Sonny is he knows his role. He sees his role (as preacher) as being like a leadoff hitter. He’s there to set the plate, if you will. After that he leaves it up to The Son, The Holy Spirit and The Father to do the rest. I also have to credit him for doing something different each Easter. In the past he has played different characters from the crucifixion. This year, he just got up there and did a little preaching. By the way, I don’t say he did a good job just because he referenced something I said on here in his sermon… he did a good job regardless of that. I will, however, say he gave the best Easter Sermon ever because he referenced something I said on here. And I think that’s something other preachers could learn from.

Picture Tuesday