Memorial Day

Today is the seventh and last Sunday of Easter season. It is also the only Sunday in what used to be called Ascensiontide, the ten days on the church calendar between Ascension Day and Pentecost. This past Thursday was Ascension Day; next Sunday is Pentecost. If you missed church on Ascension Day today is your chance for some remedial work on the meaning of Jesus’ Ascension. What was it like for the disciples once Jesus was exalted into God’s heavenly kingdom? What is it like for us, who live now in this time after Jesus’ Ascension?

This year this also happens to be Memorial Day weekend. Memorial Day has never been a significant holiday on my radar screen. We didn’t have any family traditions associated with the day. I have never paid it much attention.

It seems to me that Memorial Day is a holiday that people make into what they want it to be. It has lots of different emphases and people choose and create their own meaning. For different people Memorial Day has quite different meanings. For some it is all about family and cookouts. For others, it is the beginning of summer freedom. Even if you have a few days of school left, by Memorial Day you know you are in the home stretch. Family and summer are both good things to celebrate. Memorial Day is also a day to remember the faithful departed. All of the faithful departed. And, of course, for many people this is a holiday to honor military veterans, both living and dead.

This isn’t usually a significant holiday for me, but for some reason this year, I find I am thinking of my father. He died ten years ago and is buried in Mt. Hope cemetery in Big Horn Wyoming. Mt. Hope cemetery is a small, dry, scraggly patch of land in the shadow of the Big Horn Mountains. A wrought iron gate says that it was established in 1885 in Wyoming Territory.

A sign by the entrance reads, in part, "Mount Hope Cemetery (MHC) is regarded as a ‘Territorial Pioneer’ cemetery and as such, is not meticulously [which is misspelled] maintained. We will mow the grass at least twice per year…. The cemetery has a limited flow of well water and water may not be available during years of drought."

It occurs to me that, although Mount Hope cemetery may not be meticuloulsy maintained or frequently mowed, someone will be there to place a flag by my father’s grave this weekend.

I think he was proud of his military service, although he didn’t talk about it much. He was ROTC in college. Actually calling it "ROTC" only hints at the experience. Maybe one or two of you will know what it means when I say he was in the Corps at Texas A&M.

That was a long time ago. He died ten years ago of lung disease. He did not give his life for his country.

My own reflections this Memorial Day have focused on language. I’ve been thinking about the distinction between giving up your life "for" something, and giving the living of your life "to" something. The question is not what things might be worth dying for, but what things are really, really worth living for. What is worth striving for? To what should we dedicate the passions and activity of our lives? What is God calling us to give our life to?

Sometimes giving your life to an endeavor means at least being willing to give up your life for it, but it’s the giving to that is what’s really important.

At its best, military service is about giving your life to the establishment and preservation of things like freedom and justice. At its best.

As I remember my father, I realize that throughout his adult life he gave his life to practicing and promoting responsible environmental stewardship… cherishing and working to maintain the glorious and beautiful creation we have been given.  Something worth giving your life to.

What is God calling you to give your life to?

After the Ascension, the disciples found themselves at a crisis point. Their lives were no longer about following Jesus. They had to make their own decision about what they would give their lives to. They had to choose to take up the responsibility themselves for sharing Jesus’ message and continuing his ministry. Would they give the living of their lives to proclaiming the joy of the Good News? This is what this morning’s readings are about. In the reading from Acts, Matthias is chosen to join with them in witnessing to the resurrection. They chose to witness. In the reading from John’s Gospel, Jesus prays to the Father on behalf of the disciples. He says, "As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world." Sent into the world to share, to witness to the reconciling love of God made known in Christ.

In this time after Jesus’ ascension, all of us, as Christians, are called to offer our lives to being the Body of Christ. We are to be the voice, the touch, the action of Jesus in our world today. What is your particular role in that endeavor? What is God calling you to offer your life to?

If Memorial Day is a holiday with many meanings, let’s add one more. In addition to whatever you honor or celebrate this day, let’s be mindful of the figures who surround us every Sunday in the windows. They are all people who dedicated their lives to living and proclaiming the Gospel. We are surrounded by their witness every time we gather here and we are invited to join them.

One of the ones back there in the back is St. Augustine of Canterbury. We will celebrate his feast day in the church calendar later this week. He was sent from Rome by Pope Gregory the Great back in the sixth century to bring Christianity to the heathens of the British Isles. When he arrived, he discovered that Christianity had preceded him, but he offered his life to baptizing the faithful and establishing the church in southern England.

Up towards the front is the window for Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky. He is shown with his typewriter. He translated the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer into Mandarin. He offered his life to bringing the Gospel and the church to the people of China.

Anskar was a 9^th century missionary to the Scandinavians. He did not live to see the results of his dedication, but he endured great privation to bring the Good News to Scandinavia. Several generations after his death the seeds he sowed would bear fruit.

These are some of the missionaries. On the other side of the nave the windows commemorate scholars of the church, those who offered the efforts of their lives to understanding and teaching the faith. Richard Hooker articulated a theology for the young Church of England. It is a foundation on which the Episcopal Church still stands. The last window on this side remembers William Temple, another archbishop of Canterbury. He served as Archbishop from 1942-1944. Those years should get your attention. Throughout his life he worked tirelessly for social justice. He gave his life to bringing economic and educational justice to the socially marginalized. Like all Christians must, he struggled deeply with the complex morality of war, but he visited the troops at Normandy. He was the first Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury to go to war.

But he is best known and remembered for his scholarship and teaching. One of his most notable quotes is this: "The church is the only society that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members." The church… that’s us… exists for the benefit of others.

What is God calling you to give your life to?