Memorial Day

So here we are on Memorial day. We have said the pledge of allegiance, we have talked about honoring those who gave their life for our country, we think about heroes and sacrifice. So I wanted to ask this question, how do you honor a hero. I guess before you can even ask that question you need to ask what is a hero.

Memorial day is set aside to honor those who died serving their country. I am fortunate enough not to know many of those. I did however serve with a lot of wartime veterans. I served during a time of war and I served in that war. It was not a war like world war 2 or Vietnam but it was a war. I think I can tell you something about those who serve and those who fight our wars.

The men I knew never thought of themselves as heroes. They never really thought of themselves as special. They were there for a thousand different reasons. Family tradition, to serve their country, to get their college paid for, just to get away from home, to see the world or almost any other reason you could think of. They complained about the food, the bed, the work and the officers, along with almost everything else. They griped and cussed and drank and did their jobs to various degrees from excellent to scumbag. Everyone was different, but there was a way that we all seemed to be the same.

We had shipboard rivalries and people we didn’t like, we fussed and argued, but like a family there were times we all came together. When the bullets would fly or the missiles were in the air everything changed. When it came time to stand up and fight you knew that you could count on every man there to stand shoulder to shoulder with you and do their part. It was our job, it was what we were trained for, it was why we were there. We might go a thousand different directions when we hit port, but let a silkworm missile be fired over or bow or let a machine gun be directed at our ship and we all came together in a single instant. The men I knew stood firm and stood tall and did their job. I don’t know if any of them would ever be seen as heroes to america but they were my shipmates, and to me that meant more than being a hero. It meant we were there to stand together, to serve together, to protect each other and to stand against all enemies foreign or domestic. I know many of those who served and I found out that parades often embarrass them and medals don’t usually impress them. If you want to honor them, I think that the best way to do that is to honor what they stood for, honor the things they gave honor to and respect the things they respected. Love our country and our freedoms and protect them both with everything you’ve got. That is how to honor a fallen veteran.

I want to honor everyone who served today, especially those who never came home. But I want to honor another group as well. I will always remember the fallen, I will always give respect to anyone who puts on a uniform and stands a post. I want to honor those who serve and I intend to do so this weekend and every year to come. But today is Sunday and as much as I love my country and love those who server her I have a greater love. The love of God and his family.

So since it is Sunday and we are in church I want to use this time to bring up another kind of memorial. I also want to honor those who served God, the ones who put themselves out there and served God with their time and their lives. Let me read you a passage about a great biblical hero and how he was honored by those who knew him

Judges 2:7–11 NASB95

The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, who had seen all the great work of the Lord which He had done for Israel. Then Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of one hundred and ten. And they buried him in the territory of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. All that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel. Then the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals,

Did you catch that, Joshua followed God and he did it so well and made such an impression on those around him that as long as he lived the entire nation honored him by serving God, not only that but after Joshua died the entire nation continued to serve God as long as any of the people who had lived with Joshua and fought with Joshua and served with Joshua lived. He mad such and impression that people followed him all of his life and all of their life even after he was gone. But once Joshua was gone and those who served with him and lived with him were gone the rest of the people abandoned God. I think one of the best ways we can maintain our faith and our faithfulness is to remember those who were faithful before us and around us, remember the heroes of the faith that have had a part in our lives and in making us who we are. So I want you to join me in that right now.

I have told you about my grandfather and grandmother. Bryant Stalling was to me a great example of what a christian man should be, Cecil Stallings showed me what a Christian woman should be, I watched a Christian marriage long before I was a Christian myself. They were heroes of the faith and I honor their memory.

I have never told you about Chuck Baldwin, before I was saved or even interested in church or God I met a man who taught revelation and even though I didn’t know anything about the subject I could tell that he cared and that he put time and effort into it. I knew that he met a young policeman who felt called to preach so he gave up a piece of land and a building he owned to start a church and he helped that man and that church the best that he could, he was a hero of the faith and I honor him.

The most praying man I ever met was Earnest Vance. One day I came into berthing and we were on water rations. Fresh water on a ship was made by evaporators that worked by heating water into steam and causing it to evaporate and flow into another container to cool so that all the salt and minerals were left behind making fresh water. We had three of them and we needed two to make enough water, it seemed like they were always breaking down. When one broke down we went on restricted water and when two broke down we went on water rationing. Laundry stopped, showers were limited to 60 seconds of water once each weak with a man standing outside the shower with a stopwatch. You would get 10 seconds to get wet, then you would stand in the shower with no water running and soap down your body and wash your hair then you would get 50 seconds to rinse and if you didn’t get all the soap out, well you could try again next week. Two evaps were down and I walked up on Earnest Vance asking God for clean underwear. Now Ernie was weird, he was a nerdy kid who provably never had many friends. I had been in his house and met his wife, she was weird too. She looked like a 60’s flower child and when I went to their apartment they had salvaged furniture such as a wire spool used for a table and mismatched chairs. I saw some picture son his fridge that looked like a small child had colored them and I said I didn’t know you had kids, he said I don’t my wife did those. Ernie was weird, his wife was weird, but he taught me that God loves us and God cares about what we care about, that nothing is too small for God, Ernie was a hero of the faith in my life and I honor him for that.

Another man in my work group was Rich Paxton, he was my boss. I have talked to him a few times in the last few years and he is a broken man. He is divorced, he has fallen, he says he has pretty much stopped going to church and has pulled away from God. On the night before my 25th birthday he sat with me from 10 pm to 2 am and talked about God. He led me to Christ that night and took me to his church when we got back. Today he is a broken man and I pray that he gets restored, but when I needed him, when there was no one else. On a big grey boat thousands of miles from home in the middle of a war, Rich was there for me. He led me Christ, he was there at my baptism, he introduced me to the first church I ever joined. Although he has fallen now, I honor him as a hero in my life and a contributor to the faith I hold dear today.

I moved on from their and was sent to shore duty and I met Lester Curtis. He was a former seminary professor and the pastor of the church where I was licensed to preach. He was very intelligent and a very committed man of God. He was also the first pastor I ever heard cuss. I used to sit and talk to him for hours in his office and one day I was coming around the corner and he was upset or disgusted about something and he he said the S word. You could have knocked me over with a feather. I waited for the lighting strike. Pastors can’t cuss, pastors aren’t like ordinary people, how could that happen. Lester was my mentor and my guide. He taught me a lot, maybe one of the greatest lessons he taught me was that pastors are people too, they make mistakes and they fail and they are forgiven, and that is OK. Lester was a hero in my life and a wonderful man of God, I honor him and respect him greatly.

I left the military and headed home. There was a pastor there who wanted to go to Mexico as a missionary. He had a small church and wanted me to come and spend some time with him and then he would go to mexico and I would take over the church. That was the plan. It went terribly. He did and said some things I just couldn’t believe. It went so badly a group of people asked me to either throw him out or start a new church. My first church, my first church split. I hated it. I decided to leave. We left the church and I wasn’t sure I wanted to be a pastor anymore, in fact I wasn’t sure I even wanted to go to church anymore. A pastor named Robby was very kind and patent with me. He wanted to sponsor me and get me started in a church but I just wasn’t ready. He shared with me about his failing and his struggles in his family and with a wayward daughter. He loved me when I didn’t love myself. He taught me about forgiveness and healing. He was a hero of the faith and I honor him and love him.

Another pastor I served with as named Jim Dunn. We saw almost everything differently. We clashed a lot. He forced me to see somethings about myself i didn’t want to see and he taught me a lot I couldn’t have learned by staying comfortable and staying with people who thought and acted like me. I came to love Jim and he grew me as a person, as a pastor and as a christian. I am still impressed by what he accomplished, he was a hero of the faith and I honor him.

The best way I can honor those who came before me is not with a parade or even a gift. The best way to honor them is to make sure that their efforts paid off. To believe in what they believed in and work toward their goals. To honor them by using what they did and what they taught me to serve the same God they served. To make their lessons count and to multiply their efforts. I honor them by imitating them, I honor them the same way I honor our countries heroes, by doing everything I can, making every effort to make sure that none of their effort was wasted. I honor them by carrying on their work, by multiplying their efforts, by loving what they loved and respecting what they respected.

By the way, that’s how you honor those who have gone before yous as well. You want to honor the people who poured into your life, pour your life into what they loved. Whether you are a patriot honoring fallen heroes by loving our country and our freedom, a Christian honoring those who poured their time and effort and faith into you and made you who you are by continuing the work they began, by continuing to grow in faith and love and by sharing that love and faith just like they shared it with you, or whether you are a graduate starting a new phase in life and honoring everyone who poured into your life to get you there by using their lessons and their efforts to become the best person you can be and putting yourself in a position to pour yourself into others that will come along behind you.

Hone those to whom honor is due. Honor them by loving the things they loved and not letting their efforts or their sacrifice die with you.