REMEMBERING PEOPLE (Memorial Day 2007) Deuteronomy 4:5-14
I heard a story about a city fellow who was visiting relatives on a farm and the farmer gave a whistle and his dog herded the cattle into the corral, and then latched the gate with her paw. "Wow, that’s some dog. What’s her name?" The forgetful farmer thought a minute, and then asked, "What do you call that red flower that smells good and has thorns on the stem?" "A rose?" "That’s it!" The farmer turned to his wife. "Hey Rose, what do we call this dog?"
This is Memorial Weekend and we come here today to remember. There are times when we can we be quite forgetful. What is your worst happening of forgetfulness? Did you ever get in your car, reach for your keys and didn’t have them? Or you couldn’t remember your own phone number? Or the names of some of your children?!
In our scripture today, at the end of his life, Moses gathered the people together to help them remember all they had been through together and to remind tem not to forget. In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses encourages the people 17 times to remember. And he promises them that they will be a great nation and a great people if they will only remember and not forget.
We do all forget, but among the worst forgetfulness is to forget the people who have given us so much in our lives. To forget the people who have given us the opportunity to live our lives, to possess such great freedom, to be able to reach for our dreams. We live in a very self-centered society. It’s every man, woman and child for themselves. And yet, we are still surrounded by heroes who have sacrificed so much so that we could have open doors in front of us. Memorial Weekend for many of us has become simply a long weekend for fun. But Memorial Day was started over one hundred years ago in order to remember those who gave their lives in war for their nation. For me, I like to remember all those people who have made sacrifices, who have given themselves away so that we might have better lives.
Most of us are not so good at remembering what we should remember so we need this day each year to remind us. But any and every day can be an opportunity to remember. The upcoming graduation can be a time to remember for some of you. Let me ask you this day, “What and who should you remember?” Graduates, who will you remember as you finish this part of your life and prepare to begin a new chapter. Who are the teachers, parents, coaches who gave so much to you so that you could be at this place in your life today, standing in front of an open door to the future? Who are your friends who have meant so much to you through the years? Many of them you will never see again. Will you remember? And for all of us here, who do we need to remember? Who gave of themselves so that your life could be better? We all have those people in our lives. For just a moment with me, turn back in the chapters of your life and see who is standing there. Remember those faces. None of us stands alone, but all of us stand on the shoulders of people who have gone before us. Remember those people. We can do more, be more because they have given us the boost we need. Remember those lives. We have to make this conscience effort to remember because it is so easy to forget. In the busyness of our lives, we can become absent minded.
Albert Einstein was well known for his absent minded ways. One day at Princeton University where Einstein lived and worked, the telephone rang in the office of the Dean of the Graduate School. The voice at the other end inquired: "Could you will tell me where Dr. Einstein lives." The secretary replied that she could not do this, since Dr. Einstein wished to have his privacy respected. The voice on the telephone dropped to a near whisper: "Please do not tell anybody, but this is Dr. Einstein. I have forgotten how to get home."
We laugh at such absent minded professors, but in many ways, we all tend to forget our way home, back to where we came from, back to our roots as a people and a nation. We forget all that has gone before us and we are less because of that forgetfulness. But God’s Spirit calls us to remember.
Today is also Pentecost Sunday. Our altar clothes are changed to red for the coming of the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is also about remembering. Remembering is so vitally important that Jesus specifically sent the Holy Spirit, he said, to remind his disciples of all He had said and done. You see, without their memories of Jesus, the disciples could not have gone forward in their mission. A good memory of the past is needed to make the most of your future. Many people do not understand that fact. History is often one of the least favorite subjects in school. And many of us rarely reflect deeply about our past. But without your memories of people in your past, you will be made less in your future. Without some deep thought of what has come before, people and nations tend to repeat many of the same mistakes. Oh, we always think that this time will be different. But we so easily fall back into our same old mistakes. We end up in the same kind of bad relationships. The new job turns out to have the same problems as the old job. We have the same old arguments in our families. Even our entire nation will tend to repeat the same old mistakes, find ourselves in the same crises and the same wars. So how do we break the cycle? How do we really move progressively forward? We break the cycle and we find new life when we first remember. It is when we remember the past that we are better prepared to move into the future. This Memorial Day is a great time to remember. To think deeply about where you have come from in your life, what you have learned, what you want for your future. As a nation, we will become a better society as we remember the great gifts from our past. Gifts that were purchased for us at a great great price.
Jeff Greenfield is a news correspondent for ABC News and has attended the same Memorial Day observance in his small Connecticut community for the last 15 years. He writes: "At 10 a.m., the parade begins moving down Main Street. It is a small parade: two vintage cars, bearing the region’s oldest war veterans; other men and women who served in the military; the Town Band; the Scouts; the fire trucks. We fall in line behind the fire trucks, and follow the parade to the cemetery. There’s a hymn, and a prayer, followed by a Scout who reads the Gettysburg Address, haltingly, shyly. Then come the names of the men from this town that died in the World Wars, in Korea, in Vietnam. A minister recites the 23rd Psalm, a bugler plays taps, the flag is raised from half-staff, and we all walk the few steps back to the Village Center. It is as artless, as unaffected a ceremony as can be imagined. There are no speech writers, no TV cameras. But by the end of it, all of us are in tears.