"We Will Not Forget"

Sermon preached on Memorial Day 2010

We Will Not Forget

(Ex. 12:21-28)

Introduction:

A.  Our nation will has set aside tomorrow at a time to remember the men and women who have died while in military service.  While its roots came soon after the end of the Civil War, it did not become a national movement until after WWI.  One of the songs often played at the end of a ceremony is Taps.  The traditional words of the first verse are:

Day is done, gone the sun,
From the hills, from the lake, From the skies.
All is well, safely rest,
God is nigh.

B.  Memorials are set up to remind us of things that should be special and fearful that without them they would be forgotten.  We set up grave stones as memorials to honor those gone before us, not because they need them, but so that they won’t be forgotten.  We celebrate birthday and anniversaries as memory days to honor our birth or our marriage.  Memorials are good because we often forget.

C.  Immediately following 9/11 signs went up saying “We will not forget” but here we are almost 9 years later and how much have we as a nation forgot.  Dec. 7, 1941 was declared, “a date that will live in infamy,” but how many Dec. 7ths go by that we forget?

D.  Brethren, forgetfulness is not limited to national memorials.  There are things of a spiritual nature that God did not want his people to forget.  So, to help us, he created memorials and memorial days so that we would not forget.

I.  Danger of Forgetting

A.  There is a danger in forgetting some things.  We tend to have short memories of good and long memories of the bad.  Remember when Joseph was in prison with the baker and the cupbearer?  Gen. 40 tells us about that time and how at the end of three days, as Joseph correctly interpreted their dreams, the baker was killed the cupbearer returned to the kings service.  But before he left, Joseph asked him to remember him before the king.  But the Bible says the cupbearer did not remember Joseph, he forgot him.

B.  When questioned about the coming of the kingdom of God, Jesus said that it would not come with careful observation.  Instead, he reminded his disciples, “Remember Lot’s wife! Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it and whoever loses his life will preserve it.”  The truth is we forget!  So we often need things to help us remember.

C.  I write things down or put them in my phone calendar.  I have to set alarms to go off because I know that I can get so busy doing other things that I can forget an appointment.  Many of you have seen a Jewish outer garment with the long tassels hanging down around the bottom.  Did you know those tassels have meaning?  Listen to Num. 15:37-41.  In the opening reading from Exodus 12, God told Moses that when they enter the Promised Land, they are to set up a day memorial day, a day to remember the deliverance from Egypt at the mighty hand of God.  It would be called Passover, and each year in that new home they are to remember what God did.

D.  Forty years later they came to the Promised Land, led by Joshua.  As God had opened the Red Sea as the children of Israel came up out of Egypt and the Israelites walked through on dry ground, God opened up the Jordan River and again, the children of Israel walked through on dry ground.  Listen to Joshua 4:1-7.

E.  In both cases; the memorial day of Passover and the memorial stones of the Jordan River, God made an interesting point that I want us to think about.  Did you catch in the opening reading and again in the reading from Joshua 4 that God said, “when your children ask you about these things…”

F.  We have made our national Memorial Day into a three day weekend so people can party. Nothing wrong with cooking out, but when we intentionally make it so we can enjoy a three day weekend; we run the risk of forgetting the meaning.  How often do our kids ask about Memorial Day?  Now, turn that into a spiritual experience.  Have we as Christians created the opportunity for our kids to ask us about special aspects of our faith?  Are we building spiritual memorial stones that our children will ask us what they mean?

II.  Spiritual Memorial Stones

A.  The cross of Christ became a memorial for Christians.  We have made this symbol of death a symbol of life.  The cross became the central focus of the gospel story.  Paul said in Gal. 6:14, “May I never boast except in the cross of Christ.”  To the Corinthians, Paul said that which is of first importance is that Christ died for our sins, was buried and was raised on the third day.  The cross became the place where our sins were placed upon God so that through the resurrection we might obtain salvation.  I have no problem with people who have crosses on their walls, on their Bible covers, as earrings or necklaces as long as the cross points us to Christ and we remember what he did.  That cross can be for you what the tassels were for the Jews – a sign to remember.

“In New York harbor stands a lady, With a torch raised to the sky.
And all who see her, know she stands for Liberty for you and I.

I’m so proud to be called an American to be named with the brave and the free. I will honor our flag and our trust in God, And the Statue of Liberty.”

“On lonely Golgotha, stood a cross, With our Lord raised to the sky.
And all who kneel there live forever, As all the saved can testify.

I’m so glad to be called a Christian, To be named with the ransomed and whole.  As the statue liberates the citizen, So the cross liberates the soul.”

Oh the cross is my Statue of Liberty, It was there that my soul was set free; Unashamed I’ll proclaim that a rugged cross Is my Statue of Liberty!
© Words & Music by Neil Enloe

B.  But the cross brings us to the next spiritual memorial stone:  baptism.  Have you thought about the beauty of baptism?  It is not something that is done to join a particular church.  It is not something that is done simply to keep you from going to hell.  Baptism is living memorial.  It is the point in which a person accepts what Jesus did at the cross, recognizes their own sin, and dies to self.

C.  The way Paul put it to the Romans is that as many of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death.  We were buried with him through baptism into his death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the father, we to may live a new life.”  Baptism is a living memorial because we are living the transformed life through the power of the Holy Spirit and the world see us and asks, “what does this baptism mean that so changed you?”

D.  Let me close with one more memorial.  One that we practice every week when we come together as a church.  I want to read to you from 1 Cor. 11:23-26.  Jesus told his disciples to partake of this simply little act of breaking bread and drinking the cup, as a constant reminder of Him.  The Communion brings us back to the cross.  The Communion brings us back to our baptism where we died to sin and were raised to a saved life.  The Communion brings us into a time of fellowship with Christ.  Like our baptism, Communion is a living memorial.  It is a time of reflection and celebration.  It is a time to remember is death and proclaim he is coming back.

Conclusion:

A.  You see, Memorial Day was set up to honor those who died while serving in the military.  But for us as Christians the cross, our baptism and the Lord’s Supper are not simply about death.  They are about life, a new life.  A life that united with God in salvation and blessed by God through the Holy Spirit.

B.  This weekend we honor our fallen countrymen and women, but today we honor the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.  You can honor him by being united with him in baptism.  If you are ready to get rid of your old self of sin and start on a new journey of faith and repentance, then I invite you to come to Jesus as we stand and sing.