Don't Forget to Remember!
Sermon, May 28, 2000 (Memorial Day Sunday)
Texts: Deuteronomy 11:26-28; I John 5:1-6
While there is some question about the origins of Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, there seems to be no doubt that one of the very first was celebrated in the South. In January 1866, women in Columbus, Georgia issued a public call for the graves of Confederate soldiers to be "decorated," covered with wreaths and garlands of flowers; and Decoration Day was observed that spring. Two years later, in 1868, commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, General John A. Logan, ordered the 30th of May be set aside as a "Memorial Day" for the purpose of honoring the dead of the Civil War...unfortunately, though, many saw this as one more instance of the victor North's at-times ungracious actions toward the losing South, as another instance of the North's "rubbing the South's nose in it," so to speak...for General Logan's original order specifically called people to honor those who gave their lives to "save the Union" and "help put down the Rebellion" and "break the chains of the tyrant," thereby implying exclusion from honor the many virtuous, valiant and courageous Confederates who gave their lives for what they sincerely believed to be, among other things, an honorable defense of home and hearth from the invader. Over time, though, this divisive contentiousness seems to have abated somewhat, and the day evolved into what we now commemorate: a national day of remembrance for all who have given their life in battle for their country. General Logan's original command designating this as on official holiday said, "Let no vandalism of avarice or neglect, no ravages of time, testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten, as a people, the cost of a free and undivided republic ... let us raise above them [the deceased veterans] the dear old flag they saved from dishonor."
Webster's Dictionary describes the word MEMORIAL as "something that keeps remembrance alive". Our nation celebrates Memorial Day tomorrow, but you know, every Sunday we celebrate a kind of Memorial Day. We gather each and every Sunday to remind ourselves of the cost of a "free and undivided" family of God, we gather to remember and honor the Divine Warrior who gave his life so that we might enjoy the glorious liberty of the children of God; however, the One who died to secure our freedom was in the grave only three days. We gather to worship, yes, but we also gather to remember Him, to call His words to mind again, to remind ourselves of His grace, to remind ourselves of the goodness of God. Let me hereby announce that the Memorial Day observances of the family of God will continue each and every Sunday throughout the summer, here and wherever you may travel! To slightly amend the command of General Logan: "Let no vandalism of avarice or neglect, no ravages of time ... let no summer vacation plans, or hot sanctuaries, or the other various excuses used by New Englanders for neglecting worship in the summer... testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten, as a people, the cost of freedom and unity for the people of God!"
I've noted this before, and I am pretty certain I'm right on this, that the most frequent command given in the Scriptures, especially in the Old Testament, is "Remember." "Remember the Sabbath Day. Remember the name of the Lord thy God. Remember Me among the nations. Remember the commandments of the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of bondage. Remember the wondrous things He has done, His miracles, the judgements he pronounced. Remember the word that I said unto you. Do this in remembrance of me. Remember. Remember. Remember." Again, we gather to worship, yes, but we also gather to remember...to call to mind again.... Jesus Christ, to remind ourselves of His grace, to remind ourselves of the tremendous cost of our freedom, to remember the goodness of God, and to hear His direction anew for how to live the blessed life. As Samuel Johnson once said, "Men need more often to be reminded rather than informed." We gather each week to be reminded that, no matter what contradictory messages may be drumming us day by day and hour by hour from the culture in which we live, that real blessing is found in the presence of God...that the good life, the blessed life, is found in obedience to the One who died to set us free.
You may have heard the story about the Presbyterian pastor and the Roman Catholic priest who went to the racetrack. They were betting on the races, and the pastor noticed that before every time the priest would bet, he would excuse himself, take his prayer book, go over to the horse he was betting on, and pray the blessing. The Presbyterian pastor noticed that very time the Catholic priest did that the horse would win, and the priest was raking in literally hundreds of dollars! Meanwhile, the Presbyterian minister was losing just about all his bets, and was fast running out of money. So the Presbyterian minister said to the Roman Catholic priest, "Would you mind, Father, if I borrowed that prayer book just for a moment?" The priest replied, "Sure, be my guest!" So the Presbyterian minister took the prayer book and went over to the horse he was going to bet on for the next race. He read the blessing over that horse, came back, returned the book to the priest, and sat back cocky and confident and waited for his horse to win. Imagine his horror and surprise when that horse charged out of the gate, raced about ten yards, collapsed, fell flat on its face, and died right in the middle of the track! The Roman Catholic priest shook his head and said, "See, this is the problem with you Presbyterians. You do not know the difference between a blessing and last rites!"
It's a bit of a stretch, but there's a sermon illustration in there somewhere! There really are many who don't know the difference between a blessing and last rites in life. We don't understand the blessed life. Too many people believe that when the Bible calls us to obedience, it is pronouncing "last rites" on the joy of life, that obedience to God is somehow death to the good life, the fun life, that obedience to God is onerous, it is dreary, it is dull, it is depressing, that it'll suck the life out of you. And we spend so much time in this world, we start to think that the blessed life is the good life, the life of riches, the life you have when you have everything you want, the life when you're secure, when everything you ever dreamed of comes your way, and we say with our culture, "Now that's the blessed life. When our horse wins, we're blessed." The trouble is, our horse can never win enough. We can never seem to acquire enough. We can never seem to be secure enough. Like taxes, our worries and concerns seem to increase exponentially with our acquisitions. We just never have everything we want, because woven into the very warp and woof of our created being is that we can always contemplate something better that what exists in the here and now of our lives. Always.
It was the French philosopher Pascal who wrote (and I paraphrase) that Man is the grand paradox of all the creatures of this world. Man is at one and the same time capable of being the most miserable creature in this world and the creature capable of the greatest grandeur. Man is the creature capable of the greatest grandeur, because with the power of his intellect and skill he has the capacity of creativity, and with that capacity he can and does vastly improve his condition and his environment. However, he can never seem to improve it enough, he can never be fully satisfied. It is this same capacity to think and reason and contemplate that makes man the most miserable creature. He can anticipate all the dreadful things that can go wrong in his life, and he always has the capacity to contemplate a better life than he is now able to enjoy. To put it more plainly, men and women are plagued with the awareness that there is always something wrong, there is always something not "good enough." Life is plagued by the "if only's..."If only I had a different job. If only I had a different spouse. If only this loved one hadn't died. If only I made five or ten thousand dollars more a year. If only I hadn't invested so much in NASDAQ stocks. If only I had done this, if only I had done that, if only this didn't happen, if only that did happen ... then life would be better. But the reality is that dissatisfaction, restlessness, "angst" (as the Germans call it) is always, always, always part of the human condition. I think all of us know this in our heart of hearts. That is the way it will always be...this side of eternity. I believe the main reason we constantly yearn for perfection, for things to be just so, is that this world is not our home. Our origin is in a holy and perfect God, and we are destined for holiness and perfection, and we just aren't there yet!
With all that said, the Bible does promise a measure of satisfaction, of the full life, of the really good life. Virtually every human being wants the answer to the question: How do I make life work? How do I find the good life? In the Beatitudes, Jesus says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." I believe the spirit of our Lord's words is better captured in the New English Bible translation: -- "How blest are those who know their need of God; the kingdom of heaven is theirs." Jesus intimates, "The beginning of the blessed life, the beginning to understanding how to make life work, is recognizing your real need, and your deepest need is spiritual." The beginning of the really good life is recognizing and acknowledging our spiritual need, our need of God, our need of Jesus Christ. That is the BEGINNING, the STARTING POINT, of the blessed life. And friends, this pastor believes it can't be said enough, that we discover the enjoyment and fulfillment of blessing as we go beyond that starting point and go on in obedience to God. The really good life, the rich life, the blessed life comes from knowing God, and Jesus Himself promises that as we obey God, as we live as God would have us live, we come to know Him better and better. As we obey him, we experience more and more of His presence, His blessing, His utter reality in the midst of our lives. To come back to our hapless Presbyterian minister and the Catholic prayer book: Too many people believe that, when Moses and Jesus and John and others in Scripture call us to divine obedience, they are pronouncing "last rites" of a sorts rather than conveying the way to real blessing and enjoyment...that obedience to God is somehow death to the good life, the fun life, that obedience to God is onerous, dreary, dull, joyless, that it'll suck the life out of you. NO! As Moses reiterated time and again throughout Deuteronomy, but particularly in the final chapters, God's words really are LIFE itself! They are our very life; they are the way of blessing.
Bear with the redundancy, but listen again to the words of Moses and John from our Scripture lessons: Deuteronomy 11: 26-28 -- "See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse -- the blessing if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today; the curse if you disobey the commands of the LORD your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known." 1 John 5: 1-6 --. This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.".(emphases mine...slc)
Hear also the words of Jesus from the Gospel of John: "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in His love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. .... If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
Please join us each Sunday this summer as we continue our weekly commemorations of Memorial Day for the family of God...and if you can't join us, find a service of worship where you are traveling...in order to have the weekly reminder of the grace of God in Jesus Christ, and the weekly reminder that blessing is found in the presence of God; that the blessed life, the really good life this side of eternity, is found in obedience to the God who loves us.