Memorial Sunday

Prayer: Eternal and loving God, we have felt your presence in this place already - you are here, keeping your promise to be with us always. Let us now claim that promise as our own, and trust that you are here through Jesus Christ. As we do, may the words of my mouth, and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable to you, O God, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

When Dottie read Psalm 8, I was reminded once more of how easy it is for us to marvel at the incredible creative power of God. We see that power when we remember beautiful places we have seen. I am not thinking of a building, though they can be magnificent too. Imagine a place. Maybe it’s the rolling hills of Iowa, or the Hocking Valley here in Ohio. Perhaps it is a place where you can actually distinguish shades of snow in Alaska, or where we can hear the roar and foam of the ocean or simply rest in the serenity of the mountains.

God’s grandeur is on full display in Victoria Falls where the water thunders down into the Zambezi River, providing part of the natural border between the Southern African nations of Zambia and Zimbabwe. And I am sure that there is a perfectly good and reasonable scientific reason for the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone, and Yosemite National Parks being carved and shaped as they are - but I also know that they are part of the creative work of God.

For all of those large places, I also know that the most beautiful place in your memory may be the place where you first saw the love of your life, or the room where your first held a beloved child.

We have the opportunity every day to give praise and thanksgiving to God for God’s creative power from sky to sea. And the truest gift of God for us is that we human beings have a central place in God’s world. The Psalm says we are made a little lower than God, according to today’s reading of the Psalm, other translations place us a little lower than angels, giving everyone of us dignity and honor just because God loves us. We may live as if we have no honor and dignity, but that is a decision we make. God has honored us, whether we honor ourselves is another matter altogether.

Knowing that we are created by God, loved by God, honored by God, trusted by God can elicit a response of praise and thanksgiving from us. As we give thanks to God, we find that we can also respond in memory and movement.

Remember that while we have a place in the created order of things, God is sovereign. It is God who has the ultimate authority in our lives. I want us all to be confident, assured people, brimming with positive self-esteem. I want us all to be productive and loyal citizens of our country - who pay our taxes, vote as we are eligible in every election we can, understand that someone whose views and politics are different than mine or yours is nevertheless a citizen too. On this Memorial Day weekend, I want us to be grateful for all that we have, for this good and blessed land, and for every man and woman who has laid their life on the line, or laid down their life for us. But I also want us to remember that in the grand scheme of things, we may be the world’s lone super power, and that gives us some leverage in the world, but God is the ultimate sovereign in the earth and in our lives.

God’s power and authority is passed on to Jesus and through him, we have a share in that power and authority. The authority is given in the last verses of the gospel of Matthew and comes to us as the Great Commission. The Commission is given a few days after the resurrection of Jesus. These words of Jesus are directed to the remaining disciples, Judas is no longer among them, but they are words for every follower of Jesus Christ, there is a word here for us.

As we look back, we can see that we are not so different now than the disciples were then. Look at how the Great Commission was received. The disciples have gone to Galilee to meet Jesus, as he had directed them. Their gathering was an act of faith and expectation. Having received the message that Jesus, who was dead, now lives they believed the message enough to go where Jesus said he would be.

The power of the resurrection is the belief that this one who was dead, God raised up and that he now reigns with God as the Savior of all who believe in him. Those eleven disciples believed that when they went to that mountain in Galilee the risen Christ would be there to meet them. What do we believe?

Do we believe that when we gather here on Sunday morning for worship, the risen Christ meets us here? When we gather here for meetings and for fellowship groups, when our youth and adults provide babysitting and respite for parents working hard to stay sober, when on our behalf people gather to cook and converse at Trinity House, do we expect the risen Christ to be there? I pray that we do, because when we do, we can enter into worship, into our meetings, into service to others with high hopes and great expectations that something holy and wonderful will happen.

When the disciples met Jesus on the mountain, some worshiped him. They were not just singing and clapping, and raising their hands, though all of that is alright, and we could do with a little more of it around here. But the word worship used here means that they prostrated themselves before him. They literally laid down before him. In awe and wonder, they humbled themselves before the power and authority of God.

Yet, even among the eleven, there were doubters. They just were not sure that what they were seeing was true. “OK, it looks like him, we want to worship him, and believe that he has shown up as he said he would, but we don’t know.” The amazing thing is that Jesus looks at both their worship and their doubt, and our worship and our doubt, and knows that sometimes we humans, even though we are created a little lower than angels get confused. We just do not know what to do. We really do not understand, but Jesus continues to trust us with his good news.

In other words, Jesus takes us as we are in the fullness of faith and when our faith’s reserve is low and speaks to us anyway. How does he do it?

He begins by reminding us of what God has given him. Remember who I am. Remember that all authority in earth and heaven is mine. Jesus has the authority to act, to speak, to be as God is. And if authority has been given to him, power can be given to us and so it is. From that statement of God’s trust in him, Jesus acts to show his trust to you and me because we stand now in the place of those original disciples. God has sent him to us, led us to him and joined our faith in him to his love for us to form the church. Remember, Jesus is saying, remember in whose name you are baptized, in whose name you have come to this table, by whose grace you have eternal salvation. Remember who you are in me, that you bear the name Christian. Take all those memories and move.

Move? Where shall we go? “Go into all the world”. Here is a radical command for one whose ministry and mission was first given to Israel. “Go now into the Gentile world, leave no group of people without the opportunity to respond to my ministry and mission”, Jesus says. “Go, baptize, teach, remember.”

Move. Now is an opportune time for the church to tell the story of Jesus Christ and his love and care for all the world. People are looking for spiritual food that satisfies their souls and we have a grand banquet to spread before them. Among the items at the banquet is the good news that we are privileged to live on this planet, in this solar system, in a universe created by God. “Remember the good news and go tell it to the whole world”, Jesus says.

What do we do as we move? We ask because we are not always sure how to go about this task. Hear Jesus as he says, “let me put it this way for you. Do these four things for me.”

Invite people into the good news you know. Become an evangelist, not in the sense of those who would say, follow my particular doctrine or find yourself outside the faith. Evangelism is not about a bunch of rules, though there is a discipline to following Jesus. Evangelism is about inviting people into a relationship with Jesus Christ, and with us. Put yourself among those who know and tell the good news that Jesus Christ has come to help us to turn away from our sin, from those times when we have broken relationship with God and with each other. He does not count our shortcomings against us, but rather is there with us helping us to overcome them. Invite people to share the life of faith you know.

“Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” After we invite people in and help them find a sense of comfort, peace and hope, we can begin to initiate them into the church. We can introduce them to what it means to be part of our household of faith. We can help them decide to join the company of the baptized - in the name of the One who has created, redeemed, and sustained us. Baptism is the act by which our sins are symbolically washed away and our old selves are buried and we emerge cleansed and ready to live new and renewed lives inspired by the Holy Spirit in the majesty of God and the power of Christ. The initiation rite of baptism really begins with the positive answer to two questions.

Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God? And are you willing then to be buried with him in Christian baptism to rise and walk in newness of life?

When we answer yes, we are saying that we are eager to become disciples of his, students of Christ, who are ready for a word of instruction. “Teach them to obey all that I have taught you”, Jesus says. What did Jesus teach? Not only the Great Commission, but the Great Commandment - “you shall love the Lord your God with all your soul, and with all your mind, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22. 37, 39).

What does that mean? It means that Jesus lived and taught some things about how to show love and we are invited to do the same. We can teach by our example as we practice accountability, compassion, and faithfulness. We can teach as we show the world that in this place and in other parts of our lives, we are committed to forgiveness, generosity, and hope. We teach as we advocate for justice, expect excellence from our leadership, and speak for the liberation of people bead down and bound up b y forces that oppress and abuse them. And we teach as we are led by love, lives as servants of Christ, and practice patience and perseverance when change comes too slowly.

We invite, we initiate, we instruct and we internalize our memories of the promises of God through Jesus Christ. And we remember his promise that in all that we experience, the presence of Christ is ours. He has promised to be with us till the end of the world. It is that promise that helps us stand, that leads us forward, that gives us courage, that enables us to all that we need to do. As we stand on the promise of God, we can offer ourselves for faithful service. We can do it not because we are perfect, but because we are prayerful; not because we have all the energy in the world, but because we are eager to do the best we can with what we have. We can do it not because we can manage all the time all by ourselves, but because in our memory and movement we carry the promises of God. Everyone of those promises find their yes in Christ. (II Corinthians 1.20). And the promises of God can be trusted, absolutely.

To God be the glory forever and ever. Amen.