(Slide 1) The song we have just heard serves to remind us that service, whether of faith, family, or country, is very, very costly. This is a weekend in which we are reminded that freedom is not free, it is a very expensive thing.
This is also a weekend that is more important than the opening of the summer driving season. It is a weekend in which wives and sweethearts (and some husbands as well); mothers and fathers and children, too, are aware of both old and painful memories of a telegram and newer and fresher ones of a knock at the door.
(Slide 2) Video clip ‘72_for_freedom’ from sermonspice.com is played here.
Yesterday, I felt strongly led to change the main text for today’s thoughts and so we will not be looking at Matthew 22:15-22. Instead, we will be reading portions of a very important chapter that speaks directly to the value and importance of remembering and memorializing those who have gone before us and sacrificed their lives for our faith, and as we so importantly remember this weekend, our nation. It is a chapter that reminds us of the importance of sacrifice for a noble and important cause.
Our text is portions of Hebrews 11, referred to as the ‘Faith Chapter’ because it recounts the cost of faith in the establishment of what we now call Christianity. We begin our reading with verses 1 through 3. (I am reading out of the New Living Translation).
(Slide 3) ‘What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see. God gave his approval to people in days of old because of their faith.
By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen.’
Faith is a vital aspect of life. I would go further to suggest that it is an even critical aspect of life.
All of us have to have a measure of faith to get up in the morning and walk out the door to work, school, the store, a neighbor, and other places. (If we did not, we would never leave the house!)
This morning, we have to have faith that the pews upon which we sit are going to hold us up. We had faith that our cars would start (even at $3.99/gallon!) and that they would get us safely here.
We really cannot live without faith at a certain level. Faith implies a trust in something or someone. It also implies a reliance on and a conviction in something or someone.
The opposite of faith is mistrust and disbelief. In its more extreme form it is paranoia in which a deep and overwhelming fear is present.
The writer of our text speaks of ‘confident assurance’ and ‘the evidence of things not seen.’ We have faith in many such things, some of them abstract instead of concrete, such as ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’
This idea has given shape to our nation over the centuries. It has motivated people to take the actions of public service, elected office, and military service. It has required of them sacrifice, including the ultimate sacrifice, their own lives. As I think about our faith in ideals such as ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’ I think about a line from the movie Gettysburg in which Robert E. Lee says to his second-in-command, James Longstreet, ‘they do not die for us’ by which he meant he and Longstreet.
Those who have served and died in far away places such as Verdun, the Ardennes Forest, Pearl Harbor, Tawara, ‘Pork Chop Hill,’ DaNang, and Baghdad, have died not for their leaders, they have died for us – their families, friends, and even for those with whom they politically disagreed.
Those who rushed into the twin towers on that fateful and tragic September morning, did not die for us, they died for those they were trying to save and rescue. Those that were recently remembered right here in our city a few weeks ago who died serving our communities and state in the line of duty, died so that we might be free and safe.
They believed in this nation. Many believed in God. They believed in this great American experiment. They had faith, they had a ‘confident assurance’ that this radical ideal of democracy would work. And it has, hasn’t it! (Not perfectly, but it has worked.)
In the New Testament, we read Jesus’ words about building a house on the sand and building a house on a rock. We spent the past two months looking at some important building blocks that need our lives need to be built on.
It also says in the New Testament, 1 Corinthians 3:11 to be exact, ‘For no one can lay any other foundation than the one we already have—Jesus Christ.’ At rock bottom in our lives, I very clearly believe this morning that only as we build our lives and our faith on and in Jesus Christ, we will live the way we were created to live – personally and as a nation.
People have died in defense of this faith. Some have been burned alive. Others were tortured and then murdered.
Some have been arrested and isolated in terrible prison conditions for years at a time. Some have been discredited and mocked and kept at a distance.
Some have lived in this country and suffered for their faith. Others have lived in places where religious and political freedom was an unrealized reality.
The first group of people I have referred to this morning are called patriots. The second group I would call prophets.
There are some common characteristics and I think that we are called to be both. Now this may not mean we will go to a battlefield or a foreign country. But it does mean a commitment to our nation and our faith as we serve where God calls us.
In his book, Leading With A Limp, Dan Allender, wrote a chapter entitled, ‘Three Leaders You Can’t Do Without.’ The three, according to him, are a prophet, a priest, and a king.
This morning, I would add a fourth, a patriot, to that list.
(Slide 4) According the entry at thefreedictionary.com a patriot is ‘a person who loves his or her country and passionately supports its interests.’ Do you know anyone who fits that definition? Look around you this morning are there any patriots in view? I see quite a few patriots present this morning.
(Slide 5) A prophet, according the same website is, first, a person supposedly chosen by God to pass on His message. Second, a person who predicts the future: a prophet of doom. And third, a prophet is defined ‘as a spokesman for, or advocate of, some cause.’
Now look around again, do you see any prophets? I see some prophets this morning and they are defined by the third entry of this definition. They are spokespersons for God by the very nature of how they live for Him in their daily lives.
These definitions would suggest that there is overlap of the roles and functions of patriots and prophets. And I would also suggest this morning that each one of us are both patriots and prophets: lovers and advocates of God and country.
Let’s return for moment to Hebrews 11 as I read selected portions which appear on screen:
(Slide 6) ‘It was by faith that Abel brought a more acceptable offering to God than Cain did.’ Verse 4
(Slide 7) It was by faith that Enoch was taken up to heaven without dying—“suddenly he disappeared because God took him.” Verse 5
(Slide 8) It was by faith that Noah built an ark to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him about something that had never happened before. Verse 7
(Slide 9) It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. Verse 8
(Slide 10) All of these people we have mentioned received God’s approval because of their faith… Verse 39
There is more to the list that just those we have mentioned. But those named in this chapter were lovers of God and His Kingdom and purposes. They, by the way they lived, imperfectly and with faith, were also prophets because they were often called upon and required to be God’s spokesperson.
I would not call them patriots because their ultimately loyalty was to God and not to a specific country. But they demonstrated a loyalty and a love that should and must challenge us today to do the same.
In saying all of this I am making two points this morning.
(Slide 11) We need and must be good patriots. To me one of the most sacred places on earth is the ballot box and as we all know by now, this is a Presidential election year. We need to vote and it is one of the best ways to be a patriot. We cannot afford to be distant and uninvolved in our community in this vital way.
Christianity has thrived and done much good and great work under the cover of democracy. Now the two are not the same thing because our ultimate loyalty to God as His people must come first. But our system of government has allowed us to create a missions movement that has enabled Christianity to spread across the globe as Jesus said it must.
(Slide 12) We must also be good and humble prophets. We must say, by our lives and not just by our words, ‘thus saith the Lord.’
Prophets are truth tellers and so must we be, even when it is hard and costly.
Just because we love this country does not mean we should not or cannot call it to account on its moral and spiritual health. I believe that our nation is in need of God’s movement and transformation in our hearts and souls because we have morally decayed and we are far from God. We need to
Further more just because we love this country does not mean that we cannot disagree with our government’s policies. (I for one, think that our current educational policies are leaving ‘children behind.’ We need to stop looking a test scores as a soul measure of a student’s educational progress. We to help our teachers help our kids l-e-a-r-n to be learners and good and moral citizens.)
So what does all of this have to do with Memorial Day?
This day and weekend is a time in which one important act of loyalty and advocacy is that of remembering (and honoring) those who have served us over the years on far and distance fields, air, and water to keep us free. Jesus Himself said, ‘the greatest love is shown when people lay down their lives for their friends.’
That is what patriots and prophets do, they love. They love with their words and they love with their actions of sacrifice.
And today we remember those who have expressed that love through self-sacrifice and we say ‘thank you.’
As I conclude this sermon, I would ask you to reverently stand for this next video clip and for the concluding hymn.
(Slide 13) sermonspice.com clip, ‘133_taps.’
Sources:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/patriot
http://www.thefreedictionay.com/prophet
