Video Ill.: We Will Remember (Memorial Day) — Centerline New Media
("The Old Man and the Gulls" from Paul Harvey's The Rest of the Story by Paul Aurandt, 1977, quoted in Heaven Bound Living, Knofel Stanton, Standard, 1989, p. 79-80)
I know I’ve told this story before, but I love the message it gives us.
It is gratitude that prompted an old man to visit an old broken pier on the eastern seacoast of Florida. Every Friday night,
until his death in 1973, he would return, walking slowly and slightly stooped with a large bucket of shrimp. The sea gulls
would flock to this old man, and he would feed them from his bucket. Many years before, in October, 1942, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker was on a mission in a B-17 to deliver an important message to General Douglas MacArthur in New Guinea.
But there was an unexpected detour which would hurl Captain Eddie into the most harrowing adventure of his life.
Somewhere over the South Pacific the Flying Fortress became lost beyond the reach of radio. Fuel ran dangerously low, so the men ditched their plane in the ocean...
For nearly a month Captain Eddie and his companions would fight the water, and the weather, and the scorching sun. They spent many sleepless nights recoiling as giant sharks rammed their rafts. The largest raft was nine by five. The biggest shark...ten feet long.
But of all their enemies at sea, one proved most formidable: starvation. Eight days out, their rations were long gone or destroyed by the salt water. It would take a miracle to sustain them. And a miracle occurred.
In Captain Eddie's own words, "Cherry," that was the B-17 pilot, Captain William Cherry, "read the service that afternoon, and we finished with a prayer for deliverance and a hymn of praise. There was some talk, but it tapered off in the oppressive heat. With my hat pulled down over my eyes to keep out some of the glare, I dozed off."
Now this is still Captain Rickenbacker
talking..."Something landed on my head. I knew that it was a sea gull. I don't know how I knew, I just knew. Everyone else knew too. No one said a word, but peering out from under my hat brim without moving my head, I could see the expression on their faces. They were staring at that gull.
The gull meant food...if I could catch it."
And the rest, as they say, is history. Captain Eddie caught the gull. Its flesh was eaten. Its intestines were used for bait to catch fish. The survivors were sustained and their hopes renewed because a lone sea gull,
uncharacteristically hundreds of miles from land, offered itself as a sacrifice.
You now know that Captain Eddie made it.
And now you also know...that he never forgot. Because every Friday evening, about sunset...on a lonely stretch
along the eastern Florida seacoast...you could see an old man walking...white-haired, bushy-eyebrowed, slightly bent.
His bucket filled with shrimp was to feed the gulls...to remember that one which, on a day long past, gave itself without a struggle...like manna in the wilderness.
On this Sunday before Memorial Day, we remember.
Originally called Decoration Day after the Civil War, Memorial Day has been a day for Americans to remember those who lost their lives in the service of their country.
After the Civil War ended in 1865, the country was in complete disarray. Families and lives were torn apart because of all the fighting and destruction that had occurred. It is believed that Memorial Day began when two Civil War veterans saw a woman and her two children decorate the grave of a fallen soldier with flowers. The two veterans were so moved that they decided to decorate more graves with flowers. In 1868, General John A. Logan, commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, ordered that the 30th day of May be designated for the purpose of decorating graves of the war dead. General James Garfield spoke at the first national observance of Memorial Day on May 30, 1868.
For 100 years after that, Memorial Day was celebrated as a day for remembering those who had lost their lives in wars fought by America. Then in 1968, Memorial Day was officially changed to the last Monday of May. And, that's the way it has been ever since.
We are a forgetful people.
Are You Forgetful?
By Sermon Central
(From a sermon by Gordon Curley, Forgotten, 11/18/2010)
Copied from Sermon Central
I can certainly say that I am a forgetful person. I was relieved recently to find out that I'm not the only one who forgets things. According to researcher Karen Bolla, everyone does at one time or another. These are the six things people most often forget:
• (6). faces 42%
• (5). what was said 49%
• (4). words 53%
• (3). telephone numbers 57%
• (2). where something is 60%
• (1). names 83%
• And if you can’t remember whether you’ve just done something, you join 38 percent of the population.
A physician to patient: "If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a hundred times — I do not treat amnesia cases!"
We so quickly forget, and that’s why we have days like Memorial Day to remember.
That’s why on September 11 each year we have a day dedicated to remember.
That’s why we have President’s Day — to remember.
That’s why in our part of the world, April 16 is a day of remembrance — remembering those who lost their lives at Virginia Tech.
We need things and stuff to spark our memory. We need days to help us remember.
Remembrance.
It is our key to knowledge. Knowledge of who we are, from where we have come.
To remember is why we celebrate. We celebrate wedding anniversaries to remember the love that brought two people together.
We celebrate birthdays to remember how old we are, and how much we have done in our lives.
We celebrate Thanksgiving, to remember to be thankful each year.
We celebrate Christmas to remember that our Lord was born.
We celebrate Easter to remember that our Lord died for our sins, and was raised on that first Easter morning.
Mordecai’s feast of Purim
It was that sense of needing something to help us remember that sparked Mordecai to instruct the Jews to remember what God had just done for them in Persia. Mordecai did not want God’s people then or ever to forget what God had done for them.
It’s interesting that the story of Esther does not end with the celebration of the Jews, but rather Mordecai’s call to remember.
Here’s how it happened in Esther 9:
16 At that same time, all the Jewish people in the king’s empire also met to protect themselves and get rid of their enemies. They killed seventy-five thousand of those who hated them, but they did not take their belongings. 17 This happened on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar. On the fourteenth day they rested and made it a day of joyful feasting.
|| 18 But the Jewish people in Susa met on the thirteenth and fourteenth days of the month of Adar. Then they rested on the fifteenth day and made it a day of joyful feasting.
19 This is why the Jewish people who live in the country and small villages celebrate on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar. It is a day of joyful feasting and a day for exchanging gifts.
|| 20 Mordecai wrote down everything that had happened. Then he sent letters to all the Jewish people in all the empire of King Xerxes, far and near. 21 He told them to celebrate every year on the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar, 22 because that was when the Jewish people got rid of their enemies. They were also to celebrate it as the month their sadness was turned || to joy and their crying for the dead was turned into celebration. He told them to celebrate those days as days of joyful feasting and as a time for giving food to each other and presents to the poor.
23 So the Jewish people agreed to do what Mordecai had written to them, and they agreed to hold the celebration every year. 24 Haman son of || Hammedatha, the Agagite, was the enemy of all the Jewish people. He had made an evil plan against the Jewish people to destroy them, and he had thrown the Pur (that is, the lot) to choose a day to ruin and destroy them. 25 But when the king learned of the evil plan, he sent out written orders that the evil plans Haman had made against the Jewish people would be used against him. And || those orders said that Haman and his sons should be hanged on the platform. 26 So these days were called Purim, which comes from the word “Pur” (the lot). Because of everything written in this letter and what they had seen and what happened to them, 27 the Jewish people set up this custom. They and their descendants and all those who join them are always to celebrate these two days every || year. They should do it in the right way and at the time Mordecai had ordered them in the letter. 28 These two days should be remembered and celebrated from now on in every family, in every state, and in every city. These days of Purim should always be celebrated by the Jewish people, and their descendants should always remember to celebrate them, too. (Esther 9, NCV)
It was very important that God’s people never forget what had happened in Persia.
Yes, they were far from home.
Yes, they had forgotten God in many aspects of their lives.
Yes, some had even tried to forget who they were — to whom they belonged — like Esther and Mordecai.
But they were still God’s people. God still cared for and loved His people. Because of that love, God saved them anyway.
God stepped into the events of the day in such a way that would have been otherwise impossible. God orchestrated the salvation of His people through one who wanted to annihilate the Jews.
God worked, bringing about the salvation of His people.
The Jews, who were a very forgetful people, needed a way to always remember what God was doing, even if they could not see Him working in their lives.
And so, annually, they still celebrate the feast of Purim, usually in March on our calendar.
2. Moses and the Passover
But this isn’t the first time that a feast was established to help the Jews remember God’s salvation.
The feast of the unleavened bread, or the Passover, was the most significant feast in the year for any Jew. It was a remembrance of the great things that God had done for them in Egypt.
You see, the nation of Israel had spent many years enslaved to Egypt. They were brutally treated. They were abused, neglected, overworked, and underpaid.
They cried out to God for help — for God to step in to their lives and save them.
God sees what is going on. He hears the cries of His people, and He raises up Moses to bring about the freedom and salvation of His people.
After much time, Moses approaches Pharaoh several times asking for the freedom of the Israelites, but to no avail. God had sent several different plagues on the Egyptians, each one attacking one of their gods. But Pharaoh never let the people go.
God was angry. Furious. Fed up with the foolishness and hard-heartedness of Pharaoh.
So God sends another plague that would touch Pharaoh deeply. This time, the firstborn of everyone and everything would die.
All of the Egyptians firstborn would die. Their children. Their livestock. All firstborn. But God wanted to show Pharaoh a sign saying He meant business. If the Israelites would put the blood of a lamb on the door frames of their homes, the death angel would passover their homes. Their firstborn would be spared.
And so, after all of this happened, this is what God told Moses to tell the people:
This day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord — a lasting ordinance…. Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt…. And when your children ask you, "What does this ceremony mean to you?" then tell them, "It is the Passover || sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.” Then the people bowed down and worshipped. (Exodus 12:14, 17, 26-28, NIV)
The Passover was a memorial feast, celebrating the death of the firstborn of the Egyptians. It was a celebration of God’s deliverance — how He saved His people from the Egyptians. It was a celebration of the death of the sacrificial lamb, which would save His people.
God wanted His people to never forget. God wanted His people to remember the salvation that was brought to them through the blood of a lamb.
It was a memorial feast established by God.
3. Jesus and the Lord’s Supper
Many years later, at the Passover, Jesus would establish a feast whereby we remember God’s salvation.
In Luke 22, we read about this new feast of remembrance.
7 Then came the Day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover [lamb] must be killed. 8 And He sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat.”
9 So they said to Him, “Where do You want us to prepare?”
10 And He said to them, “Behold, when you have entered the city, a man will meet you carrying a || pitcher of water; follow him into the house which he enters. 11 Then you shall say to the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says to you, “Where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with My disciples?” ’ 12 Then he will show you a large, furnished upper room; there make ready.”
13 So they went and found it just as He had said to them, and they prepared the Passover.
|| 14 When the hour had come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him. 15 Then He said to them, “With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; 16 for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”
17 Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves; || 18 for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
19 And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”
20 Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you. (Luke 22, NKJV)
Jesus wanted His disciples to never forget what He was getting ready to do for them.
And so, after Jesus’ ascension, and the church began in Jerusalem, the disciples continued to remember, each and every Lord’s Day, celebrating the communion when they gathered together. It was a celebration of the salvation that came through Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection.
Conclusion
Lucado, Max. You Were Made for This Moment Bible Study Guide plus Streaming Video (p. 81). HarperChristian Resources. Kindle Edition.
We all suffer from spiritual amnesia. We forget that God can make beauty out of ashes, joy out of mourning, an army out of a valley of dead bones, and rejoicing out of sorrow.
That’s why this morning, God established the feast of Unleavened Bread — the Passover — so that His people would never forget His deliverance from the Egyptians.
That’s why God, through Mordecai, established the feast of Purim — so that His people would never forget His deliverance from the Persians.
That’s why Jesus established the Lord’s Supper — Communion — so that we would never forget God’s deliverance from sin and death. It’s a memorial with which we can remember and be reminded weekly just how powerful our God is — the God of great turnarounds did the amazing turnaround by raising Jesus from the grave.
Maybe you are going through tough times right now in your life.
Look at the story of Esther and Mordecai and remember.
Lucado, Max. You Were Made for This Moment Bible Study Guide plus Streaming Video (p. 85). HarperChristian Resources. Kindle Edition.
Max Lucado writes: The main characters in the book of Esther were strengthened through their trials. Mordecai stood up for what he believed. Esther found courage to approach the king. Both embraced their true identities as God’s chosen people. But these changes were a product of suffering—of literally facing a death sentence. While no one enjoys suffering, some of the greatest changes we undergo in life happen as a result of it. We wouldn’t be as strong, confident, loving, or secure without having gone through a dark and difficult time.
Let this season of struggles be a source of hope, strength, and if needed, change in your life. Remember that the power of God working in scripture is working in our lives today as well. We just have to put our faith and trust in Him and believe.
Do you believe today?
