It’s Memorial Day weekend.
In thinking about church and preaching, I always try to do something significant about remembering, sacrifice, and love.
For many in today’s culture, Memorial Day has lost its meaning. It is too little about remembering and memorials. It is too much about the first long weekend of summer and going to the lake or the mountains for recreation.
When I was in high school, Memorial Day meant the high school band had to march in the parade even though school had been out a week or more. (We knew about community service before the phrase was coined.) For whatever reason, the holiday, the parade, the march to the cemetery, the “taps”, the prayers and addresses–all of these parts of the occasion seemed somber to a teenager. Someone had made a sacrifice for me, and I would get a Selective Service number when I turned 18.
Remembering is a source of hope. If we do not know hope, we aren’t interested in thinking about the past, the present, or the future.
Hope is renewed in thinking about the past, especially about the actions and work of God.
Hope is sustained in a careful awareness of the future.
Hope for the future is made certain–the things seen in the past and present secure the unseen future. Thus hope and faith connect. Faith has as its foundation hope. Things seen guarantee things not seen.
Dear Father, may we worship today with gladness, yet with seriousness. As we remember the past, may we be especially grateful for the sacrifice of Jesus which gives us hope for tomorrow and forever. In Jesus’ name, Amen.