LiMember - Memory, Nation, & Confession

Children’s Sermon

Globe - All continents used to be together. May not be any place on Earth left where the original inhabitants still reside in the same place. Sweden and my ancestors…still some folks living there.

Scripture

Matthew 11:7-10 - When John’s disciples left, Jesus asked the crowds about John, “What did you expect to see when you traveled to the desert to see John? A reed shaken by the wind? What was it? A man dressed up in fancy clothing? No, people dressed like that live in royal palaces. What then? A prophet? You bet! Far more than a prophet. Malachi wrote about John when he wrote, ‘I’m sending my prophet before you, to prepare the way.’ I assure you nobody is greater than John. Yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than him.”

Engage

Growing up, for me, the subject of the American Indians was always a bit strange. I went to Bluejacket Elementary, an Indian name, in Shawnee (an Indian name) Kansas. I think Hocker Grove, my middle school, had some roots in Indian culture as well. My high school mascot was the Indians. I can remember making all kinds of Indian crafts in elementary school. My maternal grandmother had some kind of partly Indian heritage, I think, and the family still has some artifacts. I can say with certainty that much of the land around us still carries reminders of who stewarded it previously. I can also say that the stories I learned growing up were scrubbed and sentimentalized. So, when I read a book on the trail of tears (the horrific and often violent driving of the Cherokee nation from their land) later in life, it was shocking to say the least. Definitely a nasty, but often untold, part of our collective national history.

I have lived numerous places where Indian tribes used to be stewards, even here. We left many of the names but not the stewardship of the land. National history in any nation is complicated. Families are sometimes very tied to land (particularly farms, ranches, localities, etc), but nations are virtually ALWAYS tied to land. A nation without a land doesn’t stay a nation for very long. We’ll look more at land next week.

Just a generation or two ago, most people in America were much more tied to their Irish, or German, or Swedish, or Latin American, or Czechoslovakian heritages, or to whatever other heritages they came from. New immigrants often bind together in this way as well…But after a generation or two, those allegiances often fade away, and they’re just Americans. There are exceptions, of course, but most people simply move along. Languages are lost, stories are lost, histories are lost.

Encounter

In addition to land, a nation also depends on loyalty. When challenges to loyalty arise, the response is to defend and to sacrifice out of loyalty. War is usually the result of conflicts between or within nations. And war usually has a relationship to land.

National memories scrubbed produce sentiment and obscure sincerity.

Patriotism depends on collective memory which naturally focuses on wars & struggles that are often scrubbed. God’s call to remember is to remember faithfully, honestly, truthfully, while also moving forward in the reality that has resulted.

There is an annual WW2 celebration in Reading, Pennsylvania every year. One year the star veteran attendee was Paul Tibbets, pilot of the Enola Gay…which dropped the Hydrogen Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Now, I’ll preface this by saying that I think dropping the H Bomb was justified and saved far more lives than it cost. Furthermore, the Japanese leaders and citizens were warned plenty in advance of the bombs falling. The leadership of the Japanese war machine were pure evil and had to be stopped. Regardless, here is Paul at this festival signing autographs. Autographs…Hmm. It seems such a setting runs a high risk of being a sentimentalized memory. What is not acknowledged in the celebration? That 100K people were incinerated when that bomb fell, despite the warnings. Paul, and the US Military, literally unleashed a big glimpse of hell that day…and later in Nagasaki. Even though I see it as a just action, as do most Americans, is it something to be celebrated? Perhaps it had to be done but we grieve deeply that truth. Missing in the celebration was any acknowledgement of what that bomb did, or any prayerful remembrance of those who died. Very few, if any, of the people who were killed that day were responsible at all for the satanic leadership of their country / military. More likely, those incinerated were either ignorant or were the poor and oppressed…who had no means to escape.

The nation of Israel is formed out of slavery…they take the scenic view to their homeland, given to them by God. Their land becomes VERY important to them. And, like any other nation, loyalty is held in high regard among Israelis even today. Israeli military recruits are taken to Masada, the sight of a city horrifically besieged by the Romans in 73 to 74 CE, and swear their allegiance to the nation there…in hopes that something like Masada never happens again. And, as many of you know, many of the conflicts and wars in the Middle East are centered on Land…particularly Jerusalem, Gaza, and the like. The national memory of Israel is very important to its citizens. Israel had to drive out inhabitants, too, but it was the will of God, and thereby best for all, that the Israelites take possession. It’s probably the same for America but that doesn’t mean we forget true history.

This brings our Scripture today to the forefront. Right before this Scripture, Jesus has been, very plainly, telling his listeners about the cost of discipleship. He says, for one, that he’s sending them out as sheep amongst wolves. Then some disciples of John come and question whether Jesus really is the Messiah. Yes, Jesus says, look at the evidence (quoting Isaiah). Then our text for today.

Back when I preached a series on John the Baptist, one of the themes I lifted up was that John was a novelty item for a number of folks who went out to see him. It was fashionable, perhaps, to go and see this crazy guy and be baptized, etc. It’s clear that many people went out to see John, but few actually SAW John. What kinds of things did John tell his crowds? You might remember, the first thing Matthew records him saying is, “Change your hearts and lives!” He told them the Kingdom of God was coming. Then, as most anyone remembers, he called the Jewish politicians of his time a brood of vipers, or sons of vipers.

Was what John said patriotic? To those who so wanted to overthrow the Romans? No! Did John remember Israel’s history? Yes, he did, but more faithfully than the leaders of his day. John knew, as Jesus did, that Israel was not living up to its purpose. It had ignored the prophets…even killing some of them. He and Jesus end up dead too. John and Jesus knew that if properly remembered, the history of Israel would’ve brought the Israelites to repentance rather than to revolution against the Romans. John even tells the crowd that trees who don’t produce good fruit will be chopped down! They come out to see John…but they don’t really see him because they aren’t properly remembering the history of their nation.

National memories scrubbed produce sentiment and obscure sincerity.

We have a tendency, and the evil one encourages us, to remember only what’s appropriate to produce the appropriate sentiment. The common thinking of John/Jesus’s day likely ran something like this....WE are the chosen people, chosen by the one true God. This land is our land. We should be reigning over it. We need to retake it. What are they missing? Their own sins have resulted in God allowing their present circumstances. They’re missing that God gave them the land with the explicit purpose that they would bless the world. John Wesley once said that God had curiously made America free from Britain. I’d say God did so for the explicit purpose that America would bless the world…by shining a beacon of freedom dependent upon God.

Empower

Remembering properly is not easy…it takes reflection, sincerity, therapy, and worship of God, Jesus through the Holy Spirit. We have to REMEMBER our radical dependence on God! It also takes time. It’s a long game. I came across an article about a Japanese WW2 Veteran, Takeshi Maeda. (FIRST PICTURE) It was written by Jennifer Popowycz at the National WW2 Museum in New Orleans. Takeshi had to abandon his dream of following in his fathers footsteps to be an architect to join the military…He was strongly compelled to do so by several military commanders. Since he had no choice but to join the military, he decided he ought to be a pilot. He was one of 200 selected from 7K to train as a pilot. After finishing his training, he was assigned to the carrier Kaga, which provided the first wave of bombers at Pearl Harbor. On December 7, 1941, his plane carried a torpedo designed to travel through shallow water to its target. Maeda remembers hearing Glenn Miller’s “Sunrise Serenade” being broadcast on his airplane radio to US forces in Hawaii…this told him the attack was indeed a surprise. Maeda released his torpedo, which then struck the USS West Virginia. Approximately 9 torpedoes hit the ship…sinking it. Five out of the 12 planes launched from his ship were shot down. He was not.

Then, in August 1945, Maeda was selected to join the ranks of the Kamikaze pilots (explain) special attack forces. Maeda began to question his commanders. He couldn’t believe his commanders would waste all his training, and his life, in a single mission. His Kamakaze flight was scheduled for August 16, 1945. Fortunately for him, the Japanese surrendered on August 14, 1945, after the atomic bombs I mentioned earlier. Maeda believes the use of atomic weapons by the US resulted in more Japanese lives saved than were lost. After the war, Maeda’s reflections on the war continued to evolve. He became involved in reconciliation efforts, spending 12 years working to develop relationships between Japanese and American veterans of Pearl Harbor. In 1991, he gave a speech in Hawaii that ended with the words, “Pearl Harbor - never again.” LORD, MAY IT BE SO! In 2006, Maeda helped perform a handshake reconciliation service with a survivor of the USS West Virginia. That man was John Rauschkolb, a Navy signalman, who stood on the West Virginia’s port side as the ship was pummeled with torpedoes and bombs. John swam under burning fuel to escape bullets fired at him from a Japanese fighter airplane. At the ceremony, John said, “I’ve never held anything against them. They were doing their job. I was doing my job. We were military. They were taking orders. I was taking orders.” Maeda, Rauschkolb, and others even made friendships with former enemies that lasted the remainder of their lives. (PICTURES)

National memories scrubbed produce sentiment and obscure sincerity. These men know that. They remember accurately. They weren’t weighed down by invalid guilt. What had happened had happened. Instead, they allowed their remembering to transform them into better human beings. They played the long game…and won.

Pray