White Linen
As the 1stMarine Division hit the beaches on Guadalcanal, two battalions made simultaneous landings less than twenty miles away on the little island of Tulagi. Here the Marines got a taste of the fanatical resistance they would face for the rest of the war. It took three days of bitter fighting to secure the little island.
Lt. Paul Moore was a platoon commander in the Tulagi invasion force. Within just a year he had graduated from Yale, joined the Marine Corps, trained as an infantry officer, and sailed half way around the world to this remote spot. He now found himself in a place that he had never even heard of a few weeks before. It was a challenge just to exist in the jungle with almost constant rain and the sickening stench of decaying vegetation. He was shocked at his first sight of dead Japanese, and affected even more by the sight of wounded and dead fellow Marines. A few days after the island was secured he attended a religious service that left a lasting impression:
Sunday came several days after Tulagi had been secured. It may even have been the third day, when we were still very dirty and still terribly upset by our first experience with death. The whole outfit, those who were not on duty, came down to the cricket field, and the chaplain celebrated mass. The only clean thing on that entire island was the white linen, which he had salvaged to put over the makeshift altar, and perhaps his vestments. I remember having—it sounds sentimental—but a feeling, you know, about the world being broken, sinful, full of horror, terror, filth, but God being still pure. I had a real sense of reassurance.173
Every Episcopal church has an altar guild of church people who voluntarily serve to maintain the altar linens and priestly vestments in an immaculate condition. I will never again take this service lightly after hearing the testimony of this Marine lieutenant on Tulagi. What a glorious mission: to give a hint of God’s purity by this attention to detail in the physical elements of worship. These physical symbols of God’s holiness are just as meaningful in our Sunday church services today as they were on a jungle island in wartime.
Such a high priest meets our need one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens.
—Hebrews 7:26