Religion: A Pastor Ponders

The Battles of February

by Pastor William Jenkins

February 26, 2005

As we bid goodbye to February, there are two dates I call to mind.

On Feb. 23, 1836, the siege of the Alamo began when Col. Travis refused to strike the colors flying over the mission. Thirteen days later the Alamo fell and left an imprint on the soul of Texas.

It was in February, 109 years later, that another battle was being fought. On Feb. 19, 1945, on an island only eight miles square in the North Pacific, 30,000 U. S. Marines stormed ashore on the beaches of Iwo Jima. After four days of intense fighting and heavy casualties, they had secured the high ground and established a beachhead from which the island could be conquered.

One of the most famous photographs ever taken shows the U.S. Marines raising the American flag on Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima, Feb. 23, 1945. That photograph was the inspiration for the Iwo Jima monument outside Arlington Cemetery in Washington D.C. (The man in the back of the group raising the flag was Ira Hayes. Johnny Cash sang a ballad about him.) The Alamo and Iwo Jima are small pieces of real estate invested with a much larger significance.

As we move into March and make our way towards Holy Week, I am reminded of another small piece of real estate which covers about three acres. Rising forty to fifty feet above the terrain it can be seen from every direction.

One side of the hill is rounded on the top and bears a certain likeness to a human skull. In the Aramaic language it is called “Golgotha”, in Latin, it is “Calvary”. For Christians this lone, gray hill outside Jerusalem is a precious piece of real estate.

One Friday, long ago, Jesus of Nazareth marched up that hill with a determination more intense than Teddy Roosevelt’s charge up San Juan Hill. Underneath a brazen sky, two kingdoms clashed. In the midst of the fray one might hear Jesus saying,

I take this hill for the cause of my Father in heaven!
I plant this cross in the name of His eternal kingdom!
I establish this beachhead of redemption in a fallen world!

Visit the Alamo or recall that picture of the Stars and Stripes being raised on Iwo Jima and you will remember the price that is paid as the cost of freedom.

Drive by a Christian church and notice the cross lifted high. What comes to mind?
Just pondering in February.

League City United Methodist Church is located at 1411 Main Street (FM 518), one block east of Interstate 45. For information, call the church offices at 281-332-1557 or visit the website at

HYPERLINK - http://www.lcumc.org