We Remember
2 Peter 1:12-15
12 So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. 13 I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, 14 because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. 15 And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.[1]
There are certain foundational truths in our lives that are learned by memory alone. How about those multiplication tables? At a point they become automatic for us. We don’t think to find the answer, it’s just there. You don’t work to understand multiplication tables. You merely commit them to memory. I suppose a person could add but that becomes slow and cumbersome. Multiplication is really a faster way to add. Our ability to do this depends on our willingness to hearse and rehearse these tables until they are instant in our recall.
One of the difficulties that we encounter is that people are adverse to repetition. They get bored. They want something new. And so they never really learn anything. Sooner or later their lack of knowledge becomes evident and they find themselves incapable of solving life’s puzzles and problems.
Peter writes in our scripture today, “I will always remind you even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have.”
This morning we are doing just that. We are arresting our routines to reinsert a reminder. We are stopping to review, to rehearse something that we can never allow ourselves to forget. We are doing this to honor our surviving veterans and those who died in our interests. Certainly this is worthy of our attention today. Also, in this process, we become better for it because it is a character building event when we look beyond ourselves to give thanks, to pay our respects and to give focused attention.
Character is the result of our willingness to live by a consistently by a code of some sort. Character is developed as we make consistent choices to do what is right over what is desirable, convenient. It is a commitment to honesty that will sometimes reveal my personal flaws and weaknesses. A person of character will do what is right over what is easy. They will live with the consequences of their decisions and actions rather than to try to be deceptive. A person of character will live a much fuller existence on this planet than a successful person who has compromised themselves for gain, whether they are rich or poor, well known or unknown.
As we observe this day, we are not expecting that you could possibly connect with these folks at an emotional level. I cannot possibly connect emotionally with the soldier who has fought on behalf of his or her country.
16 We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. [2] 2 Peter 1:16
There is no possible substitute for the eyewitness account. To see personally for yourself is ultimately impacting
Donnie tells me that in the military, they are beginning to speak something that they never have spoken before. Our WW2 veterans are becoming harder to find. Time is passing and those who had first hand experience are fewer and fewer. John lost his dear wife Blanche this past year. Blanche was a veteran as well. No one who sits here today can possibly feel what these folks feel on Remembrance Day.
A lack of emotion does not reduce the significance of what we do here today. In some ways it makes it that much more special because it is for us an exercise in character. We become somehow better for what we do.
I can remember some of the early lessons that were consistently reinforced in my life. They were those things that became a part of my internal fabric. They became natural to me. They were repeatedly reinforced by my parents and other significant adults. The same sort of thing that Peter speaks of when he writes:
“And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.”
One was to say “please” and “thank-you”.
1. The Attitude of Gratitude
This is the expression of a character trait, the attitude of gratitude. Every time that we mouth these words, we are internalizing this attitude. We are expressing something, rehearsing something that gives us a better perspective on life. Those words are automatic with me. They taught me to be both polite and grateful. At times they are mindless. Regardless of how mindless they may be at times, they never lose their significance. We all immediately notice their absence.
It’s hard to learn those words and miss their meaning. I think that one of the most wonderful traits that a person can have engrained in their lives is this attitude of gratitude or thankfulness.
Please says, “I’d really like this and I know that I am not entitled to it.”
“Thank-you” expresses appreciation for what has been given and blesses the giver. Normally we love to give to people who are truly appreciative and we avoid giving to people who are not appreciative. The failure to appreciate what has been given takes away the motivation to bless another person. A sense of entitlement is a terrible thing. I have the right to this or that. When a person is crying for their rights, they will forever fight for the bare minimum. They will never inspire generosity from another.
Are you thankful today for your station in life? Perhaps we all should be. Perhaps we should be able to thank God and others for our circumstance even though it may not be all that you wish it was.
I trust that on this day, we realize that we enjoy a way of life that others have sacrificed their very existence for. Many of our young soldiers never knew marriage. They never had children. They never lived long enough to know the aches and pains of old age. When you think of it, it is indeed a privilege that many never have. By comparison, I would think that those who died on foreign battlefields would have loved to live long enough to face adversity in peaceful existence. I am thankful today to those who have sacrificed so that I could experience the pleasures and the pains in the panorama of daily life and existence.
The battlefield that took our veterans overseas claimed many of their young lives. Those who sit with us today were as prepared to die as those who did. In the prime of their lives with every vivid dream that their modern counterparts have, they laid their hopes on the line. They had no clear vision of the future. Some of them are grandparents and great grandparents. They have lived to know family that they could never have imagined in those years. I believe that it is fitting today to remind us of what we know. Today is a day to be thankful to God and to these dear folks for their commitment to a generation of strangers.
2. The Expression of Respect
The next was the expression of respect. One of the impressive things to me about our city is the way that we pay our respects. As I have been involved in funerals I am always impacted when I see a policeman stop traffic at an intersection, get out of the car, stand at attention and salute as the procession passes. Our city is a busy one and people are in a hurry but somewhere we have cultivated this practice and it speaks loudly of who we are as a people. To stop what we are doing regardless of how much of a hurry we may be in and express respect like this. I’ve never seen it before.
My father always told me that I should dismount my bicycle if a funeral procession was coming by and stand still and respectfully wait for it to pass. I remember one day seeing the hearse coming and in my haste to get off the bicycle, I toppled into some bushes in the ditch. I cut my arm badly but I remained concealed in the ditch until the road was clear. I emerged a bloody mess. My dad wouldn’t have expected me to do this but it was unstoppable and automatic.
I was also told that I should respect my elders and call them Mr., Mrs., Miss, Sir or Ma’am. It took me years to stop calling my father-in-law, Dr. Burbury. He didn’t want to be called by his title but I respected the man. I could never have called an adult by their first name when I was a younger man. I’m glad that I memorized that lesson. It has served me well in life and continues to do the same.
The Bible is full of admonition to respect others.
13 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, 14 or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. 15 For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. 16 Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. 17 Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king. 18 Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. 19 For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God. 20 But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. 21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. 22 “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.”a 23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. 25 For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. [3] 1 Peter 2:13-25
3. The Gift of Focused Attention
Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a jagged scar, a certain look in the eye. Others may carry the evidence inside them: a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg--or perhaps another sort of inner steel: the soul's ally forged in the refinery of adversity. Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept our country safe wear no badge or emblem. You can't tell a vet just by looking.
What is a vet?
He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Afghanistan sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn't run out of fuel.
He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th parallel.
She--or he--is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.
He is the POW who went away one person and came back another--or didn't come back at all.
He is the drill instructor that has never seen combat--but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account rednecks, city boys/girls, and gang members into Marines, and teaching them to watch each other's backs.
He is the parade-riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.
He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass him by.
He is the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb Of The Unknowns, whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor die unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean's sunless deep.
He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket--palsied now and aggravatingly slow--who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and who wishes all day long that his wife were still alive to hold him when the nightmares come.
He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being, a person who offered some of his life's most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs.
So remember, each time you see someone who has served our country, just lean over and say, "Thank you." That's all most people need, and in most cases, it will mean more than any medals they could have been awarded or were awarded.
Two little words that mean a lot: "THANK YOU."
It is the soldier,
not the reporter,
who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the soldier,
not the poet,
who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the soldier,
not the lawyer,
who has given us the right to a fair trial.
It is the soldier,
not the politician,
who has given us the right to vote.
It is the soldier,
not the campus organizer,
who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
We are here to pay our respects. This was another of those lessons learned by constant repetition and reinforcement. When someone spoke I was to listen. I needed to fix my attention on them, let them say their piece and then respond. It was rude to try to do anything else while another person was talking. There was nothing noble about multi-tasking. I was taught that the most important person in the world is the one that I am talking to at any given moment. I haven’t always done this well. There are times when I am distracted by something or someone while I am trying to give attention to another person. I know what it feels like to try to talk to someone who is in a hurry. It makes me feel unimportant and devalued. When I sense that someone is in a hurry or that they have somewhere else that they need to be, then I am affected.
You know, it’s very difficult to get to know people who are always in a hurry. Can you imagine how God feels? He keeps the universe in order, hears the prayers of his people and longs for our fixed attention. We behave as though we are the ones who have the more important matters to attend to. To give focused attention, one must stop their activity and pay attention.
7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. 8 Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret—it leads only to evil.
9 For evil men will be cut off, but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land. [4] Psalm 37:7-9
10 “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.” [5] Psalm 46:10
One of the most irreverent things about our generation is that we just won’t stop. We go 24/7. There’s no “off” switch, no pause button. We watched the video this morning “A Pittance of Time”. We have a minute of silence because 2 minutes is too long. It is extremely uncomfortable for us.
You cannot hear God unless you’ll stop what you are doing and listen, give Him your attention. This is one of the lost disciplines of faith.
And today we pay our respects. We give our focused attention to our living veterans and the living memory of those who laid their lives down in what the Bible calls the greatest act of love.
12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. [6] John 15:12-14
You can’t teach a person who won’t pay attention. I remember an old Imperials song that that said God sometimes has to knock us down to make us look up. “I was looking up to the bottom when it finally dawned on me.”
The Reformers used the Latin phrase, “Coram Deo” to indicate their determination to pay attention to God. It meant to them, “We live in the face of God.”
The hymn writer said, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”
Is life overwhelming to you today. Be still. Pat attention. Get in God’s face. Give Him your focused attention. Jesus said:
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”[7] Matthew 11:28-30
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[1] The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984. Zondervan: Grand Rapids
[2] The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984. Zondervan: Grand Rapids
a Isaiah 53:9
[3] The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984. Zondervan: Grand Rapids
[4] The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984. Zondervan: Grand Rapids
[5] The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984. Zondervan: Grand Rapids
[6] The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984. Zondervan: Grand Rapids
[7] The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984. Zondervan: Grand Rapids
