-welcome to NewSong on Memorial Day, or Race Day, whatever your fancy.
-so today I want to talk about memorials and some we have as Christians. I know most of these you’ll have heard of, but I want to just take a second and take a moment, take time out while I’m talking, and think about what these mean to you.
-and we’re going to go way back. A couple of thousand years.
1. JEWISH MEMORIALS
-I want us to go back a bit to think about how God’s people handled memorials. I think they have kind of an inside track since they live entrenched in god’s laws and kind of get a little bit of how He thinks.
-so for this I want us to look at a section in history, a time we all know probably some pieces of the story. After Moses died Joshua was left in charge to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land. They had finished wandering in the desert for forty years and now they were going to go in and get the land god had given them.
-and I know we all know some of these stories, probably the most famous is Joshua and the Battle of Jericho, there’s even kids’ songs about it. We know the end, God instructs Joshua to walk around the wall for seven days, seven times on the seventh day, then they all yell and what? The wall comes tumbling down and there is much rejoicing for the nation of Israel.
-and most people know the first part of the story. Before they attack Joshua sends some spies to Jericho, they end up staying with Rahab who hides them in return for a promise that they will let her and her family live.
-but there’s a big problem with this wonderful plan of attack that happens in the middle. After the spies get back, they tell Joshua let’s go for it. So now Joshua has to transport about 1.5 million people from the edge of the desert to Jericho for this march. The problem: the Jordan River is in the way. A large, rushing river and you have to get one and a half million people across it. Not easy. But what did God do the last time there was a river in the way?
-so Joshua talks to God about this and God says to do the same thing, kind of. This time the Israelites have the Ark of the Covenant (think Indiana Jones, which came out with a new movie this weekend, just putting it out there if you’re bored tonight). So Joshua has the priests carry the Ark to the middle of the river and hold it there until all the people pass. As the priests step to the water, the water miraculously stops at some point way up river and the water stops flowing, again like before.
-we should also mention the Bible says this was during harvest season when the river was flooded, so we’re not just stopping a big river here, God’s stopping a big river that’s higher than normal, and when the priests get to the water’s edge, it simply stops flowing.
-a huge miracle, over a million people cross on slightly muddy ground to start the conquest of a new land. So what do the people do? We pick it up in Joshua 4.
**Josh. 4:1-9 -> 1When the whole nation was finally across, God spoke to Joshua: 2“Select twelve men from the people, a man from each tribe, 3and tell them, ‘From right here, the middle of the Jordan where the feet of the priests are standing firm, take twelve stones. Carry them across with you and set them down in the place where you camp tonight.’ ” 4Joshua called out the twelve men whom he selected from the People of Israel, one man from each tribe. 5Joshua directed them, “Cross to the middle of the Jordan and take your place in front of the Chest of God, your God. Each of you heft a stone to your shoulder, a stone for each of the tribes of the People of Israel, 6so you’ll have something later to mark the occasion. When your children ask you, ‘What are these stones to you?’ 7you’ll say, ‘The flow of the Jordan was stopped in front of the Chest of the Covenant of God as it crossed the Jordan—stopped in its tracks. These stones are a permanent memorial for the People of Israel.’ ” 8The People of Israel did exactly as Joshua commanded: They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan—a stone for each of the twelve tribes, just as God had instructed Joshua—carried them across with them to the camp, and set them down there. 9Joshua set up the twelve stones taken from the middle of the Jordan that had marked the place where the priests who carried the Chest of the Covenant had stood. They are still there today. (MSG)
-here’s the interesting part I want you to think about, and keep in mind for today. What would we have done? We would have built something. We would have gotten resources and spent money and made something beautiful, some sort of chapel or wall with a list of everyone who crossed, something like that.
-Jewish culture is different. The important part of the memorial is not how beautiful it is. The important part is that it contains something of the event, that it is a true memorial of what happened.
-here, they took rocks from the river. Rocks from deep inside that people would never have seen, rocks that were a part of what God did. They wanted something of the miracle to remember.
-by the way, this still happens today. I’ve had friends go to Israel and one guy I knew really well, something he found fascinating were the cars at the side of the road. Now, I know this isn’t like here, we have cars abandoned at the side of the road all over, people leave them there because they don’t work, this is a little different.
-Roger told me about cars sitting there, rusting, many in pieces, just sitting on the side of the road. He asked the driver what it was all about and the driver explained, they are left over for the six days war. Back in 1948, sixty years ago last week, Israel fought to get their land back again like they did in our passage with Joshua. And like our passage, the people have memorials to this event. When the fighting was going on, cars were caught in the middle. What the Jewish people have done is leave the cars that were caught in the war where they lay on the side of the road as a memorial to all who pass by of how God granted Israel their land back.
-you see, to them, the memorial is not as important as the actual event. That’s why I’m asking the question today, what’s more important. To the Jewish people, their memorials hold a piece of the event in it. These cars are left from the war, rocks from a river crossed, even Passover, the reason for the unleaven bread was the Jewish people left Egypt in such a hurry the bread was not able to rise as it should have, so every year they eat bread without yeast, bread that hasn’t risen to remember what happened that day they left Egypt.
-and we still do this today.
2. SOME OF OUR MEMORIALS
-take a look at some of our Christian memorials, like the two biggies:
BAPTISM
-a memorial we do of us dying with Christ and rising again with Him, being made new.
**Ro. 6:3-4 -> 3Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into union with Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4Therefore, through baptism we were buried with Him into His death so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father’s glory, we too may live an entirely new life. (ISV)
-it’s something we take part in to remind us that Jesus died, and just as He died, we want our old selves to die and we want to be made new in Him.
-this is a public memorial that we are made new in Christ Jesus. It’s something we do, but what does almost everyone get with their baptism? Some sort of certificate, I have pictures of me getting baptized, something to remember the memorial! Something to remind me that I made that public display of where I stand with Jesus.
-think about it for a minute. When you see someone baptized, do you still see someone becoming new? Do you see someone in essence killing their old selves so Jesus can give them new life?
-and it’s a memorial we’re all asked to do.
-a crowd of people asked Peter what they need to do to become children of God. His answer:
**Acts. 2:38 -> 38Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (NLT)
-hey, we’re not just told to do it, in the Great Commission at the end of Matthew we’re told to go out and baptize others too!
-but let’s look at it for a second in the context of our message today. What is more important, who is getting baptized or how they are getting baptized? Don’t just give me the churchy answer, if you were someone outside looking in, what would you say?
-I’ve seen a lot more people argue about dunking and sprinkling than if someone really is ready to be baptized. Frankly, I think we worry about how a lot more than the person, because a person baptized is another notch in our church growth chart.
-I one time had a kid who came to my youth group, but his parents went to another church, and the leaders of the church were upset trying to figure out where he would be baptized because which church would count him on their roll that year.
-really, what’s more important? Have we lost a sense of the purpose of the memorial?
COMMUNION
-and our other biggie, communion.
-a memorial we take every month, sometimes more depending on what services you attend during the week, a memorial to Christ’s death on the cross for you and I.
**I Cor. 11:23-26 -> 23The teaching I gave you is the same teaching I received from the Lord: On the night when the Lord Jesus was handed over to be killed, He took bread 24and gave thanks for it. Then He broke the bread and said, “This is My body; it is for you. Do this to remember Me.” 25In the same way, after they ate, Jesus took the cup. He said, “This cup is the new agreement that is sealed with the blood of My death. When you drink this, do it to remember Me.” 26Every time you eat this bread and drink this cup you are telling others about the Lord’s death until He comes. (NCV) -is communion still a huge memorial of the amazing sacrifice that Christ died for you? Is it simply a way of remembering it’s the first Sunday of the month?
-here’s another one that I wonder if we spend too much time talking about how its done instead of why it’s done. Do you dip the bread in the wine or have the bread and wine separate? Should you even use wine or should it be Welch’s grape juice? Even here in our own church I’ve heard more talk about the proper way of dismissing people in an orderly fashion to receive communion than if they are ready or should receive communion. When we were in the sanctuary we had to put a map up on the screen with what we decided.
-have we put too much on the memorial than what we’remembering? Look at how those verses end, every time we take communion we are telling others about the Lord’s death. Are we actually telling people about the Lord’s death?
-and those are just the big memorials we hold as Christians, our two major sacraments to use a big church word. What about the songs we sing for worship, the cross, a symbol of what Jesus did for us and how prevalent it should be, little ichthus fish on our cars, are they the memorial they should be or do they just look cool, and the many, many more we hold dear in our faith. Do we remember what the memorial stands for, or do we hold the memorial more dear?
-the is a inherent danger when we make the memorial more important than what we are remembering. We become in danger of forgetting.
3. THE DANGER OF FORGETTING
-if we spend too much time focusing on the memorial, we forget what the memorial is for.
-a few weeks ago we talked about the Sh’ma and how important that is to the Jewish faith, how those verses were used to remind us and help us teach our children that the Lord is God alone and how we are to serve Him with all our heart, mind and strength.
-and to do this, people were told to write it on their doorframes, write it on their foreheads, put it in places so they will see it every day, all the time.
-how long do you think it was before someone went from scratching the verse into their doorposts to fine woodworking, to having the most beautiful, ornate doorposts in town?
-there’s a guy I used to hike with, Bill, and I miss Bill because he was one of those people who had a huge appreciation for Jewish culture. I remember him saying one day he was upset because he was trying to get a doorframe from someone before they sold their house, someone with an amazing carving of the Sh’ma in their doorframe. Tell me, and I love Bill, but do you think he was focused on the words of the memorial, of who God is, or the memorial itself?
-that goes back to one reason I love Jewish memorials, they take what’s there and leave something from the event as a memorial. It’s not meant to be fancy, it’s meant to be remembered.
-even now we have a fight over a memorial in our own country, the one for 9/11. It’s been seven years, it’s still not done. Families are upset about how it looks. Contractors have made bids on who will finish it.
-now I’ve seen the plans and it really does look beautiful, and it’s nice how the names of all the people who were lost will be forever remembered, but seven years and still nothing?
-let me ask you as a person walking by, which would move you more and ignite more passion and emotion in you in a memorial, the nice shiny marble or girders and rubble actually left behind from that day? What became more important, remembering the event, or the memorial we are building for the event?
-that’s part of why I like the Pearl Harbor memorial, and would still love to see it in person, partially because it’s in Hawaii. 9/11 was the highest death toll of an attack on American soil. Pearl Harbor is number two, and that memorial is not something big and fancy. It’s a small deck, looks like a bridge, where you can walk out and look down into the clear water and see the Arizona right beneath you, the ship that held all those men who died. The memorial isn’t so much what was built, it’s the ship.
-we have to remember to focus on what the memorial was meant to focus on. Even tomorrow, Memorial Day, does it still mean a time to remember soldiers, even those who are not our own, as the first ladies did back in 1863, or does it now mean a long weekend and a picnic?
-and are we in danger of doing that here in the church? Do we remember what the cross stands for or worry about which church has the biggest one on their roof? Is there still some gravity in our communion that draws people in who know nothing about Christ but see the memorial and are pointed to Him?
-I don’t know where you are with Jesus, but He wants to be more than a memorial for you. He wants to be the reason for those memorials, He wants to be a part of your life! And our memorials point to Him so everyone can see that.
-one more story:
-The Taj Mahal is one of the most beautiful and costly tombs ever built, but there is something fascinating about its beginnings. In 1629, when the favorite wife of Indian ruler Shah Jahan died, he ordered that a magnificent tomb be built as a memorial to her. The shah placed his wife’s casket in the middle of a parcel of land, and construction of the temple literally began around it. But several years into the venture, the Shah’s grief for his wife gave way to a passion for the project. One day while he was surveying the sight, he reportedly stumbled over a wooden box, and he had some workers throw it out. It was months before he realized that his wife’s casket had been destroyed. The original purpose for the memorial became lost in the details of construction. (Dr. James Dobson, Coming Home, Timeless Wisdom for Families, (Tyndale House Publishers, Wheaton; 1998), p. 122.)
-don’t lose sight of what you are supposed to be remembering. Especially when it comes to some difference of opinion on how to remember someone or something, how to remember what Christ did for us, ask what’s more important, the memorial or that we remember. As we live our lives and become living memorials for Christ, should we focus on how we live or why we live?
