Ten years ago, today Susan and I were driving from Richmond, Virginia to Virginia Beach, Virginia on a ten-day vacation. We had spent a couple of days in Richmond with friends and toured several areas of Richmond including the Civil War battlefield of Petersburg.
One of the most moving moments for me was when Mark asked if I would take a picture of something for him. I agreed and we drove to a cemetery, called Popular Grove, filled with the graves of Union soldiers who had died in the fighting around Richmond. (Overhead 1)
It was officially designated of national importance around 1866 and when we arrived, there were rows and rows of burial plots each with an American flag placed next to the simple white gravestones. I believe that it was Mark’s great great-uncle who was buried there. He died in combat not long before Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House.
From that place we traveled very much back into the 20th century on Memorial Day with a visit to the Naval Base at Norfolk. It was trip that we would had missed had it not being raining on Sunday as we drove to Virginia Beach and I had not bought a copy of the Norfolk newspaper to deal with the rainy day and discovered that it was open house on the base the next day!
Several ships would be open that day, including the USS George Washington, a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier. (Overhead 2) I got excited! ”We’re going there tomorrow,” I said to Susan.
It was a great time! This is Susan on the flight deck with the USS Eisenhower (Overhead 3) behind her and I am next to what is called the Fresnel Lens (Overhead 4) that is used to guide the aircraft safely onto the carrier deck during landing.
I did some remembering that day and that week because of the visit to the battlefields, the cemetery, and a modern aircraft carrier. I am grateful to God for the freedoms and privileges I have in this country, I thank the Lord for those who serve our nation, and I remember with gratitude and sadness, those who have died in war on our behalf and on behalf of those who have been enslaved by terror and hate.
Will you stand with me for a moment and let us remember those who have fallen. (‘Taps’ is played.)
For some this Memorial Day is very hard. The earth in the cemetery is still freshly turned. The flowers are still fresh. The grief and anguish is very raw and hard. Words spoken to them perhaps bring some comfort but we weep and mourn with them as they grieve the loss of sons, daughters, wives, and husbands in places called Baghdad, Kirkuk, and Kabul.
This Memorial Day is not pleasant for all people.
While is it is painful to remember it is also good to remember. While we never memorialize our faith, we must remember those who made the faith come alive to us.
Let us also give thanks to the Lord for those who service to the Lord made a difference in our lives. We praise God for them. Amen? Amen!
This is also a time of year when we remember the past as our kids and their friends graduate from high school, college, or trade school. Have you seen the Chase Visa card commercial where the father looks at his newly married daughter and sees a little girl? Oh, how the emotions come to the surface.
We acknowledge this day those who are entering a new chapter in their lives. We have mixed emotions about their changes and we have an understandable anxiety of “letting go.”
Our text for this morning, part of one of the Bible’s most important chapters, is really a chapter for Memorial Day. It is a remembrance about faith and those whose faith and trust in God through Jesus Christ has influenced both the original audience of Hebrews 11 and those who have read and heard Hebrews 11 down through the centuries.
One thing that we do when a funeral takes place is the committal service. It usually takes place at the gravesite.
It is a usually short service, less than two minutes. Yet it does something important for us. It helps us to remember that from God and the earth our souls and bodies have come and that it is back to earth that our bodies go and into the hands of God, our souls go for God to decide what is next based on what has happened in this life.
The committal is also important in the process of ‘letting go.’ Now by ‘letting go’ I do not mean the act or decision of forgetting the person as a way of burying our pain and grief. That is an unhealthy thing to do.
‘Letting go’ is an act of moving forward by celebrating and giving thanks to God for the lives of those who are no longer with us. ‘Letting go’ is part of our responsibility to live in such a manner that honors the memory of those who have died.
This sermon is also the introduction of our next series, “God is in the Small Stuff of Families.” It is a series that is designed to help us see things from God’s perspective and invite Him in to the small stuff, the details, of life.
This morning’s title, “God is in the Memories of Families,” is an affirmation of remembering and thanking God for the memories of families about family. The title of the series and sermon comes from Bruce Bickel and Stan Jantz’s book “God is in the Small Stuff for Your Family.” Over the next four weeks, we will be reminded of ways that God is in family life that maybe we have dismissed because it was considered unimportant or overwhelming.
Our text for this morning contains some things that some would call ‘disturbing,’ ‘troubling,’ and ‘simply inappropriate’ for a sermon. Why? Because it reminds us that walking with God has consequences to it that we don’t want to think about just as war has consequences we have trouble digesting.
By faith, these people overthrew kingdoms, ruled with justice, and received what God had promised them. They shut the mouths of lions, quenched the flames of fire, and escaped death by the edge of the sword. Their weakness was turned to strength. They became strong in battle and put whole armies to flight.
But others trusted God and were tortured, preferring to die rather than turn from God and be free. They placed their hope in the resurrection to a better life. Some were mocked, and their backs were cut open with whips. Others were chained in dungeons. Some died by stoning, and some were sawed in half; others were killed with the sword. Some went about in skins of sheep and goats, hungry and oppressed and mistreated. They were too good for this world. They wandered over deserts and mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground.”
In doing what is right and good, in standing against evil and the dark forces of Satan, there is a price to be paid. Just think of Good Friday.
Those that are named and unnamed in this chapter had to ‘let go.’ They let go of possessions. They let go of relationships. They let go of wealth. The let go of everything that hindered their relationship with the Lord. They paid the price but they gained a great reward.
‘Letting go’ is hard. Staying ‘let go’ is harder. This is especially true in families this time of year with graduations and weddings.
No longer is ‘our little girl’ at home playing with dolls or tying up the phone lines for hours. No longer is ‘our little boy’ tearing through the house at high speed chasing imaginary villains, or worse, their younger siblings. That chapter in life is done, never to be relived, in except in our memories.
However, there are new chapters to be write and enjoy. I like what Bruce and Stan have to say about the empty-nest part of life.
Any night can be “date night” for the two of you. You don’t have to worry about the car being gone when you want to use it.
A quiet evening together watching the logs burn in the fireplace is not going to be interrupted by a bunch of teenagers tromping through the house to graze in the refrigerator.
You can doze off watching television in the family room without fear that your kids will sabotage you by sticking chocolate raisins up your nostrils while you sleep.
You can be amorous in the living room. (By the way, a sign up sheet for your kids to eat at our home, appeared after last week’s sermon, and just about every night was taken.)
To ‘let go’ Bruce and Stan go on to say, “Means shifting from instruction to influence… [It means]… you aren’t kicking them out; you have raised them up… You are no longer swatting them on the bottom; you’re patting them on the back…You aren’t losing a child, you’re gaining a bathroom.”
God is the memories of our families – the good, the bad, and the ugly. Do not! I repeat, ‘Do not’ forget that God is around your children who now live elsewhere. He is right there with them.
For those who have turned their back on the Lord, He has not turned His back on them. For those who are ill or grieving or going through a time of unemployment, God knows all about it.
For just as He walked with those who, for His sake, faced terror and pain in their lives for doing so, God is nearby all of our children no matter what their spiritual status is. Never forget that!
Each week I get an inspirational e-mail from a ministry organization called New Church Specialties. They put on the seminar that I attended last fall in Indianapolis. The April 23 (2005) one really spoke to me.
Its title was “God Is Always Doing More Underneath Than We Can See On the Surface!
The verse was Acts 16:14 that introduces us to Lydia a seller of purple who would become one of the new converts in the ancient city of Philippi. This is what is said about her, “One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message."
The devotional writer opens the meditation with this question, “Have you ever thought about this: If Lydia was from the city of Thyatira, what in the world was she doing in Philippi?” He goes on to suggest that it was God’s influence at work in her move to Philippi and to never forget that God is at work under the surface!
The same holds true for those we ‘let go’ of who are still alive. Though they may be far away geographically and far away spiritually, we ‘let them go’ into the hands of God, keep the lines of communication open, and keep praying.
Our memories of the past do not have to be overshadowed by the present choices made. God is still at work in the world and that includes those that are leaving our homes to assume their rightful and necessary place in life as adults.
These are things that we are reminded of during holidays like this. We are reminded of family, faith, friends, and county. We are reminded of service and sacrifice.
Nevertheless, let us not forget the truth of what our text tells us this morning, “service to God has a price, but it has a great reward as well.” Therefore, while we celebrate the freedoms and life that we enjoy as Americans, we need to remember that our ultimately freedom and life comes from Jesus Christ, who died that everyone, everywhere might be free!
Remember that! Amen.
Sources:
God is in the Small Stuff for your Marriage by Bruce and Stan. © 2000 by Promise Press
God is in the Small Stuff for your Family by Bruce and Stan © 1999 by Promise Press.
