FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ATLANTA, GEORGIA

Sermon by Dr. George Bryant Wirth

Memorial Day Weekend

May 25, 2008

TRY TO REMEMBER

Scripture: Deuteronomy 6:4-25

INTRODUCTION

When “The Fantastiks” opened in New York City in May of 1960, few people knew that it would become the longest running Broadway show in history. Written by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, “The Fantastiks” was performed 17,162 times over the course of 42 years until it closed in January of 2002.

During my college days in Chapel Hill, I worked as the box office manager for the Caroline Playmakers, and as was the case in New York, when we put on “The Fantastiks” in our university theater, it was the most popular production ever. And I will never forget listening, over and over again from the back row, to the opening ballad that became so well known, entitled “Try to Remember”:

“Try to remember the kind of September

When life was slow and oh so mellow,

Try to remember the kind of September

When grass was green and grain so yellow,

Try to remember the kind of September

When you were a young and callow fellow

Try to remember and if you remember

Then follow (follow) follow (follow) follow

Try to remember when life was so tender

That no one wept except the willow,

Try to remember when life was so tender

That dreams were kept beside your pillow,

Try to remember when life was so tender

That love was an ember about to billow

Try to remember and if you remember

Then follow (follow) follow (follow) follow

Deep in December, it’s nice to remember,

Although you know the snow will follow,

Deep in December, it’s nice to remember

Without a hurt the heart is hollow;

Deep in December, it’s nice to remember

The fire of September that made us mellow,

Deep in December, our hearts will remember –

Then follow, follow, follow …

That lyrical song invited the audience to follow along with the actors into the past, remembering both the bitter and the sweet experiences of days and years gone by.

So it is on the Memorial Day weekend. And if you are willing to take a journey with me in this sermon, I’d like for us to try to remember on the one hand our forbears in the faith who laid the foundations of the Judeo-Christian Tradition, and on the other, those men and women who have given their lives in service to this country and for the cause of freedom.

I

Now at the outset, let me say that in one way or another, it’s important for all of us to try to remember names.

A young couple was invited to dinner one night by their next door neighbors, who were older, pushing ninety, had been married almost seventy years and obviously had a good thing going.

Impressed by the way the elderly husband addressed his wife with such endearing terms as honey, my love, darling, sweetheart, pumpkin and other affectionate nicknames, the young couple, while the older wife was off in the kitchen, whispered to the husband, “We think it’s wonderful that, after all these years of marriage, you still refer to your wife in such a loving manner.” The old husband shook his head and said “To tell you the truth, I forgot her real name five years ago.”

You see, some of us have a hard time remembering, especially when it comes to names. Eighteen years ago in May of 1990, when I first stood in this pulpit as your pastor, I had tried in advance to memorize all the names in the church photo directory.

I thought I was making progress and having some degree of success until one woman, a long-time member who had heard that I was supposedly “good at names,” came up to me after worship a few weeks later and exclaimed “Ok preacher – who am I?” I looked her in the eye and answered, “You are a child of God. Now tell me your name, and I will remember you forever.” She did, and so did I until the day she died several years ago.

It is important to remember names, which is exactly what happened long ago when Moses stood before the people of Israel, looking out over the Jordan Valley as they prepared to enter the Promised Land of Canaan. Moses wanted all of them to remember the names of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who had founded their community of faith many generations before. And above all else, he wanted those ancient people to remember the name of the Lord:

Take care that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. The Lord your God you shall fear; Him you shall serve, and by His name alone you shall swear (Deut. 6:12-13).

Historians tell us that the Exodus which Moses led out of Egypt can probably be dated sometime around 1250 B.C. The Egyptian pharaohs from the line of King Tutankhamen in the 18^th Dynasty had produced Ramses I and Ramses II, the latter of which was more than likely on the throne when Moses came to the palace and declared in God’s name, “Let my people go.” And as many of you know, the “Tutankhamen and Great Pharaohs” exhibition will be coming to the Carlos Museum this November – I hope we can get a large group from our church to go.

Hearing about King Tut coming to Atlanta reminded me of a guide who was escorting a tour group through the British Museum in London to see a similar exhibition. The guide pointed to one Sarcophagus and said “That Egyptian mummy in front of you is over five thousand years old. In fact, it is possible that Moses saw it with his own eyes.” One of the tourists replied “Moses saw it? When was Moses ever in London?”

Well, obviously he never was, and here’s the point: it is important for us to know the names of the people and time frames of the events in the Bible from long ago, because that history has shaped our Judeo-Christian Tradition of believing in and worshipping one God and following Him.

Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachel and Leah from whom came the twelve tribes of Israel that finally found their way back to the Promised Land with Moses and Joshua – those are not only names to remember from the Bible – they were people who sought to know and to follow God’s will and God’s way, and their stories are still alive with us today.

How is that so? When we trace the line through the twelve tribes of Israel to Jesus and His twelve disciples, we’ll remember that the Christian Church, which dates its birth in the first century A.D., comes out of that ancient Hebrew Tradition. So we are connected to them, and the admonition of Moses to those people long ago still speaks to us all these years later:

Take care that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. The Lord your God you shall fear; Him you shall serve, and by His name alone you shall swear.

Do not forget the name of the Lord said Moses. And as we remember all the men and women of faith who have gone before us, that long line, the cloud of witnesses, Moses’ words come echoing, echoing, echoing down through the centuries to our time and place, right here, right now in the United States of America.

II

This nation was born in the context of our Judeo-Christian Tradition, and while we are learning to live in this modern era with a number of other religions, we are still and I pray that we always will be “One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

God knows we have a long way to go before those words come true for everyone in this land. But if we believe that the words “In God We Trust” are more than a mere slogan on our currency, then the Lord has promised to guide us and provide us with what we need to follow Him and to become a shining light of peace, hope and reconciliation among all the nations of this world.

That was the vision our Founders had in mind when they launched this Republic in the 18^th century. And if we ever forget or lose sight of that vision, we could wind up on a collision course which would radically change our destiny.

Think of Great Britain in the late 19^th century, when they ruled the seas, and as their sphere of influence called “The British Empire” extended across one fourth of the world’s land and included about a fourth of the world’s people (From The World Book Encyclopedia, “Great Britain,” by Raymond Grew and Boswell Taylor).

In 1897, Rudyard Kipling, one of England’s best loved authors, was commissioned to write a poem celebrating the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. But what he wrote, entitled “Recessional,” both baffled and angered many of his fellow citizens who criticized him for being unpatriotic. Listen to the words of the first two stanzas which were printed on the cover of our Chimes newsletter this past week:

Recessional

“God of our fathers, known of old,

Lord of our far-flung battle line,

Beneath whose mighty hand we hold

Dominion over palm and pine;

Lord God of hosts, be with us yet,

Lest we forget – lest we forget!

The tumult and the shouting dies,

The captains and the kings depart;

Still stands thine ancient sacrifice,

An humble and a contrite heart;

Lord God of hosts, be with us yet,

Lest we forget – lest we forget!”

But it was the third stanza that got Kipling into trouble with his fellow citizens. Listen:

“Far-call’d our navies melt away,

On dune and headland sinks the fires,

Lo, all our pomp of yesterday

Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!

Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,

Lest we forget – lest we forget!”

What Kipling was trying to say back then to the people of Great Britain still needs to be heard in America today. We are the only super power left on this planet, and we have the opportunity, and I believe the God-given responsibility, to use our influence and resources to help and to heal and to offer hope to the nations of this world.

But today, we are struggling with the war in Iraq and almost everyone I know wants the fighting to stop and to bring our troops safely home. The dilemma is what we will leave behind – either chaos and civil war or a government that can take control and help the Iraqi people find the peace they so desperately need.

I have been careful from this pulpit not to criticize or idolize any of our leaders, or to demonize our enemies, or to take sides in the political conflict that divides our nation because I have mixed emotions about this war, like many of you, and I do not know the answer as to what we should do.

But I do know that as people of faith, we can and we must continue to pray every day for reconciliation and peace in that war-torn region, and for our military men and women who are there in harm’s way. We cannot and we must not forget them, including those connected to this congregation whose names are printed every Sunday in our bulletin.

Dr. Will Willimon, former chaplain of Duke University who’s now a Methodist bishop in Alabama, tells about traveling with his family in the south of England when their car broke down nearby a small village. While waiting for repairs, Willimon wandered around the town and found a cemetery next to a church. Over in the corner, there was a low brick wall enclosing fifty graves. The grass had nearly choked the plot, but a large granite slab, set in the wall, bore these words: “WE SHALL NEVER FORGET YOUR SACRIFICE”

They were the graves of fifty young men from New Zealand, all about 17-25 years of age. Willimon wonder “Who were these men, and why did they die in the little English village, so far from home?”

Willimon says “There was no clue at the church yard, so I went to the town’s museum and inquired there. The attendant told me ‘Strange you should ask. I have no idea, but given a few days, I could surely find out.’

I was not going to be there that long, so I asked a couple of other people in town. No one knew. I surmise they were soldiers stationed there during World War I, perhaps victims of the flu epidemic in 1918.

But no one knew. The impressive inscription in granite was not true. Their sacrifice had been forgotten. No one remembered them.” (From a sermon “He Has Been Raised” by Dr. Will Willimon, Preaching Magazine, March-April, 1997)

CONCLUSION

My friends, on this Memorial Day weekend, let us resolve that will never happen to the men and women of this nation who have given their lives for the cause of freedom. And as we continue to pray for peace, especially in the Middle East, let us remember all those who are in harms way today, including Capt. Jamison Bowman, ABE3 Gregory Bridges, Sgt. Isaiah Bridges, and Lt. Col. Douglas G. Douds, Spec. Bradley Jobe, MG Sgt. Kenneth Lee, 2^nd Lt. Alexandria Miller, Capt. Gabriel Rulewigz and 1^st Sgt. Antonio G. Whitfield, listed in our bulletin, and home now from Iraq, thank God, and married just yesterday in Michigan, 1^st Lt. John Warren Robey.

I flew to Princeton last weekend. I missed you in worship. But coming back on the airplane, as we landed at Hartsfield-Jackson, the pilot over the intercom recognized the soldiers who were on that flight with us. I was sitting right in front of one of them when we stood up to get our things to go, and I introduced myself to him and gave him my card. He said, “I am 1^st Lieutenant Gilliam from Virginia Beach.” I said, “We are praying for you, not only in Atlanta but all across this country.” And he said, “Thank you sir, thank you sir.” Getting off that plane I saw a sign that I had never seen before. Have you seen it? It says “Thank You Troops! Operation Never Forgotten.org”

“Lord God of hosts, be with us yet,

Lest we forget – lest we forget.”

So let us stand together in a moment of silence as we remember them and honor them and pray for them today – name, by name, by name, by name.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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