Sermons In Time

An Endless Line of Splendor

May 2 5, 1975

Most of us as families will gather in graveyards locally or in some distant place. We will place flowers on graves and talk together as families about people whom we have loved and with whom we have shared life. There will be times when the people who have died this year will come sharply into our focus.

But I was conscious yesterday as I went to the graveyard where my father is buried (and as we placed flowers on his grave, and on the grave of my wife's father, her brother, and other relatives--and as I will go to my mother's family's graves today,) that although this is the place where their bodies are interned and it's a very important and sacred place, this is not the place where my memories are. My memories are somewhere else.

As I think about our gathering together, the placing of the flowers on the grave was very important part of our life; a very important--almost formal kind of act-- . But I couldn't help but remember that this is not where the action really is. This is not where my mind was running during these moments when we were together yesterday. For we, as a people of God, have a different focus than the graveyard.

I would li.ke to lift up three things this morning for us to think about. First of all, as you call to mind the names of the people we have just read, I'm sure there are memories you have of their life in this church or in this community. Maybe they were very close to you. Maybe they said something or did something that was especially important in your life. Or, if not, these persons whose names we have just read, certainly other people who come to mind on memorial day. And as you let that person's face, and the memory of them come into focus, take just a moment this morning and look back across your life-and remember those times together. They may bring tears to your eyes, a lump in your throat, a tightness in your chest--for it may be a longing for days gone by. Or a time when you were a child, or a former time of any kind. Maybe there is a smile on your face as you think of something you did together. Some bit of humor that was typical of that person. Or, maybe there is a feeling of hurt and sorrow and resentment because a part of your life with them was clouded by bad experiences. Maybe you would like to forget about that experience. But as you think about that person, this morning, that memory comes very much into focus.

I would like to affirm this morning, if we can, that the feelings that we have about people we love, or people with whom we have lived, are appropriate kinds of feelings. They are not to be ashamed of. They're not to be hidden, not to be buried where we can't touch them. But rather, they are to be experienced. They're to be shared. Reported t o somebody else. To be a part of our life together, to be free to talk about the feelings that are ours after somebody has died as well as the feelings that we have while they're still living. It's important, as persons, to be able to remember. Without a memory we don't have an identity. A person without a memory has amnesia. To be able to go back across the years and to remember the things that have happened and to recall them to mind is a refreshing experience.

Throughout the Scriptures, time and again the people are called to remember the things that have happened to them. To call to mind what God has done for them, to call to mind the great experiences of the Saints of the Old Testament, to call to mind the formation of the Gospel and to retell the story again and again. We're a people with a strong history. All the history that is written by the church and by the people who are our ancestors is still a part of our experience this morning. All of us can recall stories about how life was formed and how life was shared in years that have gone by These are an important part of our life right now. So let that memory that comes to your mind this morning be a part of your worship, a part of your experience of the presence of God, and give thanks for the ability to be a part of that which has happened.

Again, let us focus just for a moment, on the future, on the hope that we have for tomorrow, for the expectations that are ours just ahead. Maybe as you immediately begin to think about the future your first thoughts are about what's going to happen after this service. You may think about some responsibility that you have yet today or something that you are going to do today--maybe at noon-or throughout the day, that's going to be exciting or fun (that places some kind of demand on your life.)

Maybe since tomorrow is a holiday you'll have some special event planned. I know that in my own life my mother has wanted to go to Missouri, which is home for her. I promised to take her down to our old home country and I'm looking forward with some anticipation and some expectation --Although there will be some things that have been changed. Most of the family who used to live there are in the graveyards and a lot of the people there today are very ill. We need to go see them. So it won't be as jovial and as lighthearted as it once was. None the less, we expect to go and look forward to it.

Throughout the week ahead there's annual conference and other kinds of things that are going to be happening in our lifes. There are things that are happening to you as well. Maybe you are planning what's going to happen through the summer. Or maybe next year, or maybe you're looking forward to the years that lie out beyond that. There is about the human spirit a desire to look forward -to know what's going to happen in the future, to plan ahead. Sometimes the best-laid plans go awry, as the old saying goes. None the less it doesn't keep us from looking forward and planning what's going to happen in the summer, in the fall, next year, on down the road. It's a nice feeling.

Part of who we are as persons this morning; as Christians, is to focus upon the hope that we have in eternal life. God has given to us the promise that life abundant will be ours and life everlasting will be ours. We have a foretaste of that life everlasting in the death and the resurrection of Jesus and in the birth of the church and in the life that we have.

The other night we were at the ball game, which the church played. And one of the young ladies that were there had her new baby. And as she was holding it there, Gloria reached over and took it and said, "You know, I think I'm ready to be a grandmother."

We look forward to the next generation with an expectation that they too, will have life. The Christian affirmation is that the world isn't going to pot, that it isn't going to the dogs, that it isn't just being destroyed, but that God, in His love and His mercy, continues to give His Son for its redemption. And that, as His spirit moves in our midst, something good happens to us. And we look forward to that--day by day. It doesn't mean that there won't be hurts--and there won't be sorrows-there won't be difficulties, but it does mean that as the world unfolds before us, God's presence will be with us.

And so, as a Christian, we look back with a memory about life as it has been and are able to draw forth all the feelings and all the memories of life as it has been. We can look forward into the future. And I pray this morning that for you and me, we will be able to live in this present moment. That today will be the day of salvation; that today will be the day when the presence of God fills our life. The way this happens best is that as we look back in memory, we look back without guilt. We do not lie heavily upon those experiences of the past for which we have regrets and sorrows, and wish they were different

Next Tuesday night I have to speak at the graduation of the High School class here in Hutchinson. The next night I have to speak at Annual Conference on an issue. And, as those two or three things begin to unfold, there gets to be butterflies inside. So, I sit down and prepare for times that are coming. And I hope and pray that I won't be so anxious between now and then that I can't enjoy the moment in which we are now alive.

And so, the invitation as we come to communion this morning is to fulfill our lives as children of God, as persons who are sharing in the life of those who have lived before us, and have an inheritance from them. ----That we would here, in this communion service, again experience the richness and the fullness of God's presence. I suppose the thing that stands out most about this particular service on Memorial day is that we fulfill the hopes and dreams, the unfulfilled promises--if you will--of those who have gone before us, those who died having not received the promise. How? By committing our own lives afresh to the purposes and to the goals which they had and which we have, and which God has for each of our lives this morning.

I couldn't help but think of the sentence in the Gettysburg address where, Abraham Lincoln said, "It is for us, the living rather to be dedicated hereto the unfinished work that they have thus far, so nobly carried on." That's the commandment. To the unfinished tasks, which are, still ours, which always remain before us, that we dedicate our lives this morning.

Let us pray: Let Thy Spirit Oh, Lord, move in our midst that the memory Which we experience of times past be a memory we can share and be refreshed. That the hope which is ours, may close upon us and fill us with joy. Always expecting thy Spirit to unfold life in front of us. Let this moment is dedicated again to the unfinished tasks, which are before us. In the name of Christ Jesus our Lord.

Amen

		This document maintained by melshort@stroxel.com.
		For permission to use material from Mel Short's website:

Accessed [An Endless Line Of Splendor]times since [ 12/31/99]