Home Children   Young Adults Missions New Faces Photos/Video About Us   Students Teaching Blog PDO

Living Memory – Why Remembrance Matters
May 27, 2007           

            One Heart, One Life video – 3:30

            Next week when we resume our series on poverty, we’re going to give you the chance to begin sponsoring a child in an AIDS-ravaged country.  The sponsorship will be through World Vision and will be $35 a month.  There will be absolutely no pressure and no one watching to see if you do it.  It’s just a chance to take some of what God has blessed you with and bless someone who is in desperate poverty.  Keep that in mind this week.

             Living Memory.  It sounds like a contradiction, but it isn’t.  The dead live on in the afterlife, to be sure, but also in our memory.  And when we stop to think about those who died in service to this country or who died at the hands of our enemies, memory keeps alive the lessons we need to learn as well.

In the spring of 2002, the Tribute in Light was first displayed in Manhattan to remember the people who died on September 11, 2001.  Since 2003 the Tribute in Light has been lit on the yearly anniversary, as a reminder of what was lost.  More than 3,000 people died in the attacks on 9/11 and most of them, of course, died at the WTC.

I can stand and look at memorials for a long time (or sit and view them on my computer screen).  They move me, they draw me into the past and in a small way they put me into the historical situation which they call to mind.  Since this is Memorial Day weekend, we’re going to talk about memorials and memory and why remembrance matters.  Remembering is something we Christians ought to be good at, and I hope to show you that we have a special duty to practice “living memory” – that is, serving God, expressing gratitude, and paying respect – by remembering.

            The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated in 1982 to remember those who died in the war in Vietnam.  The primary part of the memorial is a long black granite wall with the names of the 50,000 Americans who were killed.  When the memorial was being built, it was the center of controversy.  Some said that just as America had failed to respect those who fought the war at the time, now we were building a shameful memorial to its veterans.   They said that every other memorial in DC was white – this one was black; every other memorial reaches up toward the sky; this one goes down into the earth.  And some said (to their shame) that the designer Maya Lin, a Chinese-American in her early 20s at the time, who was born in Dayton Ohio “looked like one of them”.  They said that this memorial would be a disgrace and would be rejected by the American people. 

            They could not have been more wrong.  3 million people visit the wall each year.  Many leave notes, flowers, flags and other personal items near the name of loved ones.  The Vietnam Veterans Memorial became a national wailing wall for a generation, a place of healing, a memorial where people don’t just visit, they take part.  The wall has been so meaningful that it has inspired similar memorials like this one in Rochester, NY where a statue of a soldier steps toward the wall as if leaving this world for eternity.  In addition a moving wall, a portable memorial modeled after the wall in Washington now travels the country, and has drawn millions of visitors over the past 20 years.

            When I was 17 I took a trip with other students to Washington D. C.  What impressed me most was the three great memorials  - the Washington, the Lincoln, and the Jefferson (which my history teacher always called “The Jeffersons” Memorial.)  Of the three, the Lincoln Memorial is my favorite.  It is built to resemble a Greek temple and a giant statue of Abraham Lincoln himself sits inside, godlike, looking straight out to the Capitol Building and, off to his left, the White House, surveying the state of affairs in Washington today.  Inside the memorial on the north wall is carved Lincoln’s second inaugural address; on the south wall the Gettysburg address. Above the statue are these words: "In this Temple, as in the hearts of the people, for whom he saved the Union, the memory of Abraham Lincoln is enshrined forever".

            That makes me wonder what would happen if, like in a bad Star Trek episode aliens landed here thousands of years in the future and found only the Lincoln Memorial to judge our civilization by and said:  “He was the god of commerce; after all here he is on the $5 bill and the penny!”  It makes me wonder too what conservative Christians would say today about remembering an American president by building him his own pagan temple.

            But I didn’t worry about any of that when I first visited the Lincoln Memorial.  It is too big, too awesome for that.  Instead it moved me to meditate on the terrible trial of the civil war and the great man who rose up to lead the nation through that time, and who then called the nation to unite and heal rather than to descend in a cycle of blame and recrimination.  In the ending days of the war, Lincoln in his Second Inaugural Address, laid out this Christ-like vision of the days ahead:  “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations”

            We Christians spend a lot of time recounting our history by discussing the events and teachings of our Scripture.  Today I want to talk about our duty to remember, and it is a duty we have to our country and to our faith as well.  The message is called “Living Memory:  Why Remembrance Matters.” Well why does it matter?  Why is it important enough that I say we have a duty to remember? 

1.  Remembrance keeps us from repeating the sins of the past.

            “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”  George Santayana, writer, philosopher. 

            Much of the OT Scripture is designed to warn God’s people of the sins of the past and their consequences.  In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul reminds us of the judgment the Israelites brought down upon themselves when they failed to go forth and take the land of Canaan.  Paul called the Christians to remember…

            1CO 10:1 For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. (That is, they followed God across the Red Sea as he manifested himself in the form of a pillar of cloud by day ) 2 They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.  (‘Baptized” in a figurative sense; they were full participants in these great miracles).  3 They all ate the same spiritual food  (manna that God sent them from heaven each day) 4 and drank the same spiritual drink (water that God miraculously produced from the rock); for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert.  (Paul is saying that though these people were blessed with signs of God’s presence as no one before, they still disobeyed and paid the consequences, and we need to remember that and keep from repeating that sin ourselves).

            1CO 10:6 Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: "The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry." 8 We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did--and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. 9 We should not test the Lord, as some of them did--and were killed by snakes. 10 And do not grumble, as some of them did--and were killed by the destroying angel.

    1CO 10:11 These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. 12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall! 13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

            That great promise about temptation comes in the context of a negative memorial.  Remember those who had every reason to stand firm, and yet did not.  Do not repeat their mistake but listen to God and trust him.

            There are many memorials to those who died in the Holocaust in the 1940s.  This memorial is in Berlin, and it opened just a few years ago.  It is located within view of the German parliament building as a reminder to those in power to never let such a thing happen again.  Six million Jewish men, women and children were murdered in the Holocaust.

            The same idea inspired this memorial in Tanzania, which is called Memory for the Slaves.  It’s a sculpture by Clara Sornas at the former slave-auction square in Zanzibar.  From the 15^th through the 19^th centuries, generation after generation after generation was stolen from this continent.  Families were torn apart.  Millions died without ever reaching North or South America.  This memorial reminds us of the grim past and says “never forget this, and never repeat it.”  This is one vital function of remembrance – to keep us from repeating the sins of the past.

           
2.  Remembrance gives meaning to the sacrifices of others.

            This is the most important reason for Memorial Day, a holiday which began shortly after the civil war.  It’s a day to remember those who died in military service to this country because by remembering, we give meaning to the sacrifices they made.

            Arlington National Cemetery, just across the river from the Lincoln Memorial, is just such a place, with its white simple stones standing in military rows and columns.  Arlington is a burial place not just for those who died in war, but for veterans.  People go there and remember their sacrifice, and it gives meaning to what they gave up.

            This temporary memorial is called Eyes Wide Open.  Each set of boots and each candle represents an American killed in Iraq over the last three years. No matter how you feel about that conflict I hope you’ll agree that we do need to remember the human cost, to remember those who die there and so give meaning to their sacrifice.

Another such memorial site is  Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines where more than 17,000 people (Americans and Filipinos) are buried, men and women who died in WW2, and where more than 36,000 missing are remembered.  

            None of my friends were killed in WW2 (obviously).  My Grandma, however, lost her baby brother there, a young man barely out of school.  Because she remembers him and has passed on her memories to me, I remember him, and his death has meaning – it’s part of the tapestry of my freedom and yours too.  I don’t know anyone who died in the South Pacific during the war, but every time I see that cemetery in Manila, I remember them and realize that they died for something valuable – our freedom.

            John Stuart Mill said something that captures the spirit of Memorial Day:  “War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.” 
            When we remember those who died in combat or in acts of terror against us, we add meaning to their sacrifice, and that’s true even if their deaths were tragic and senseless.

            This is an artist’s conception of a proposed memorial for the 40 passengers and crew of United Airlines Flight 93 who died on September 11, 2001.  These people fought back against the terrorists who seized their plane and thereby prevented it from hitting another target in Washington (probably the Capitol).  This was a tragedy.  It never should have happened.  They didn’t get to choose their fate, and they were murdered (as were the others who died in the Towers and at the Pentagon).  But all that only shows more clearly our duty to remember them because by remembering we add meaning to their sacrifice, and we acknowledge that these passengers and crew saved us from a much worse fate on 9/11.  Remembrance adds meaning to sacrifice.

In Mark 14, Jesus was invited to a dinner, and as he was reclining at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume…She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.

Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, "Why this waste of perfume? 5 It could have been sold for more than a year's wages and the money given to the poor." And they rebuked her harshly.

            "Leave her alone," said Jesus. "Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 7 The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. 8 She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. 9 I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her."  That loving act meant a lot to Jesus, but might easily have been forgotten.  But Jesus said to remember it and so it was written down, and we do honor to this woman and learn about loving and giving and sacrifice simply by remembering her story 2,000 years later.

            The Communion meal itself is an example of how we add meaning by remembering.  Now the meal and the sacrifice of Christ behind the meal are already rich in meaning.  Christ died for our sins whether we choose to acknowledge it or not.  Yet when we remember, we bring it home, we make it real to ourselves and each other, and hopefully it reminds us not to take sin or grace lightly.  Jesus said “Do this in remembrance of me”.  It isn’t the standard practice among churches to take the Lord’s Supper every Sunday but we do that because we need to remember what our sin cost Him, and to make his sacrifice more meaningful to us. 

3.  Remembrance builds faith in God.

            This is where our focus must turn away from the type of remembrance that anyone can do, to the kind that is particular to people of faith.  By remembering what God has done for us in the past, we strengthen our faith to walk with God in the present and the future. 

            This is one of the main reasons for the historical parts of the OT – to remind the Israelites that they belong to God by his own choosing, and that just as he had delivered them from the Egyptians and from the plagues and just as he had provided for them in the wilderness, he would continue to provide.  He is committed to this relationship with them.  And as heirs to the promises of Scripture through Christ, we can read and remember the events of Scripture and see our own faith strengthened.

            One of the most direct examples of this in Scripture is found in Joshua 4.  That’s just after God stopped the flow of the Jordan River to allow his people to cross…

JOS 4:1 When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua, 2 "Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, 3 and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan from right where the priests stood and to carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight."

    JOS 4:4 So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, 5 and said to them, "Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, 6 to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, `What do these stones mean?' 7 tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever."

            Like God’s rainbow in the clouds after the Flood, and like the Lord’s Supper itself, that pile of rocks was a reminder that our God, who is the same yesterday, today and forever, who has blessed his people in the past (and disciplined them too) will continue to do the same in the future.  He can be counted upon.  Remembrance strengthens our faith in him.

            It’s important to regularly remember God in two ways:  One, remember him in daily reading of the Scriptures.  We read our Bibles (or listen to them) not just to learn his will or get our instructions for the day, but to gradually come to know who God is.  By reading of his interaction with his people, we come to trust him.  Two, by intentionally recounting what he has done for us.  There’s an old song that says “Count your many blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.”  I’m talking about that, but more too.  Recount the times when God specifically took action in your life – you prayed and he answered, or you stepped out on faith in obedience, and he proved himself faithful.  Recount these times in your family, or to a close friend, or in your journal – but remember them and remind yourself and your children what God has done.

            Living memory keeps us from repeating the sins of the past.  It gives meaning to the sacrifice of others.  And living memory builds our faith in God.

            You are here today because of the kindness and grace of God.  The remembrance of his work for you fills his Word and it fills the people in this room.  Now it is time for you to respond to what he has done.

            Have you accepted Christ as your own Savoir and Lord? Do you need to recommit to him?  Is it time for you to join his church in this place? We invite you to come forward and respond to him for what he has done for you…

Comments?