One of the great affirmations of the Christian Church is that God Makes His Will Known to Us! Luke 24:13-35
We are now in the Easter Season of the Church calendar and thus we read a number of wonderful stories about the appearances of Jesus after the Resurrection:
In the Upper Room, with the doors locked, Jesus appears and says: "Shalom”. To Peter at breakfast, beside the Sea of Galilee, he asks, "Do you love me?" To Paul on the Road to Damascus he asks: "Why do you persecute me". And in today’s scripture he appears to two weary travelers on the road to Emmaus, and makes himself known at a meal in "the breaking of Bread".
Christ makes himself known to us to this very day in a number of different ways:
At the Holy Meal of Communion, as he does this morning.
In the Written Word, through the teachings and stories of the Holy Bible.
In the personal Experiences of daily living.
The Methodist Church has historically recognized that God communicates to us making himself known to us, through what is called the Theological Quadrilateral. This is a $10.00 theological word that points to the importance of Church Tradition, Personal Experience, Human Reason and Holy Scripture. Through these ordinary ways, God is known.
For example, as we read the Bible, God's ways become clear.
When a person is caught in a mistake of stealing, of lying, of committing adultery; a response of "I just didn't know, it seemed okay" is not an adequate defense. The truth is, the Bible makes basic principals known to us and although there is a separation of Church and State in this country, our nation as an institution was crafted on Biblical principals. It is truly one nation, "Under God".
Thus ultimately you don't break the law, you are broken by the law; that is, "the Law of God." Immanuel Kant once wrote: "Two things impress me with unending awe, the starry heavens and the moral law."
So in God's written
word, the Bible, God's moral law is made known.
What is it about "Thou
shall not steal" you don't understand?
What
is it about "Thou shall not bear false witness, you don't understand?
What is it about "Do unto others as you desire they do unto you", that
you don't understand?"
What is it about "Do all things to build up rather than tear down", that
you don't understand?
What is it about "Love God first and love your neighbor as yourself,"
that you don't understand?
What is it about "You shall not covenant your neighbor's wife", that you
don't understand?
What is it about God's Universal love you don't understand?
The Bible teaches clearly that although we are fallen creatures, that by the grace of God we can change and by the power of God, we can be raised from the grave yard of our own mistakes. Human reason unlocks mysteries in many fields of knowledge.
Sometimes God makes himself known to us in the works of fiction.
In John Grisham's newest book, The Last Juror, the writer illustrates in his unique suspenseful manner, the practical challenges of Brown vs. Board of Education for a small county seat town in Mississippi.
The reading of Russian authors is always a challenge for me because of the length of the novels and the hard to pronounce Russian names. But if you can wade through the material, the novels are powerful.
In Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment there is a powerful story of a murderer named Raskolnikov and the sickly prostitute, named Sonya. Raskolnikov has been on the run, looking constantly over his shoulder, afraid he will be caught and prosecuted for his crime. Sonya is filled with guilt for the things she has done to earn a living.
The two of them end up in Sonya's apartment one night, and Raskoinidov's glance falls on a Bible. He asks her to read from it and she reads the story of Jesus' raising of Lazarus. And then the author, Dostoevsky observes: "And the candle burned low as a harlot and an assassin sat under the spell of immortal words, words that said that if a man is dead, he shall live again”---words that said to a harlot and an assassin, "You can be changed. You can be cleansed. You can once again be strong and beautiful. You can be reborn in your souls."
The Bible tells us that no matter how bad you become, no matter how you defame your life, no matter how you destroy your body, no matter how you stain your soul, no matter how you cheat and lie and become as trash in your own sight and in the sight of God, you can be healed!
The Bible tells us that in every one of us, there is some evil, some unworthiness, some pettiness, and some ungodliness. You may be young and strong now, you may be powerful and wealthy now in spite of your compromise with God's law, and you may think you can overcome it, but you cannot. When you compromise God's written and revealed word, it will eat away at you insidiously across the years until someday your life collapses and falls apart. And it is then that God will come to you yet again and make himself known.
In the 6th Century before the birth of Christ, during the "Babylonian Captivity," Ezekiel walked in a grave yard and asked God: "Can these old dry bones live again?" He was asking if the fallen nation of Israel could ever be a nation again. And before his very eyes, in his meditation and imagination, the bones took on flesh and blood, "foot bone connected to the leg bone, leg bone connected to the knee bone, knee bone connected to the hip bone,” and God breathed life into the new national body of Israel.
That's the word of God! Fallen creatures can live again. Lazarus who died was resuscitated. Jesus who was killed on a Roman Cross was raised again. Weary travelers meet on the Emmaus Road. That's God's Word from his Written Word as he has clearly made himself and his ways known to you and to all human beings.
Hallmark once printed on one of their cards, “God couldn’t be Everywhere, So He made Mothers”. Many of us have felt God’s omni-presence in our Mothers and thus this statement captures well what many feel deeply. God’s touch often has a feminine feel to it. I think that is one of the strongest reasons, the Roman Catholic Church has held on tenaciously to their relationship to Mary, the Mother of God. The mother of Jesus is one whom we can approach knowing that we will be welcomed with open arms. We might not know about the powerful judge of the universe, but we do know about the loving mother. So, God couldn’t be Everywhere, So He made Mothers.
The ultimate theological truth is however that God in fact can be everywhere as he is Spirit and thus is never limited by geography. The Psalmist understood this truth as he asked? “Where shall I go from thy Spirit? How can I flee from thy presence? If I ascend to heaven, thou art there! If I make my bed in Hell, thou art there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there thy hand shall lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.”
We may feel his presence more in the sanctuary, but God is present as well on the battlefield. He is in our silent prayers and in the noise of the busy streets. He is with the just and the unjust. He will make himself known to our friends and to our enemies. Jesus said: “I will never leave you alone.” And God fulfilled this promise when the Holy Spirit, God present with us, came after his Resurrection. That’s what Incarnation means, God became flesh and blood and dwelt among us.
In Revelation 21st chapter, the author writes: “Behold the dwelling of God is with human beings. He will dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himself will be with them. And he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, for behold the former things have passed away.”
In fact in the coming of the Holy Spirit, the entire cosmology of the world changed as God became one of us. In us, among us, with us, beside us, above us. Few of us can understand this mystery, but all of us can appreciate It and experience it.
In the l960’s, there was a philosopher who taught in the graduate school at Emory University, one of our Methodist Schools. He wrote an obscure book of God’s Incarnation. God’s Present among us And he entitled the book “God is Dead”. It was a pretty astute, esoteric work of philosophy which affirmed the mystery of God’s Omi-presence. In a world of the modern era of the 1960’s, the transcent God who is above and far removed from the world is no more, he proclaimed. The mystery we use to call God is today, the author maintained, is among us. He is here, He is there, He is everywhere. Time magazine picked up on the fact that this fellow was a teacher in a Church University and plastered the front page of their magazine with the title: “God is Dead”. People all over the nation, asked: “What are we teaching the next generation? The accusation sort of took on a life of its on and ministers preached against this atheistic, pagan teaching in one of our Methodist Schools. Churches wrote resolutions to our l964 General Conference and it was demanded that Emory fire this pagan. Emory didn’t fire him but defended him on the bases of “Academic Freedom”. How can we restrict the mind of man and continue to discover new truth? The University Trustees asked. Since Academic Freedom has unlocked one mystery after another and so the University stood by their policy and by Dr. Tom Altezer. Alterzer’s book, an academic work would never have sold more than a few thousand copies, but instead because of all of the adverse publicity, it sold millions of copies. Alterzer didn’t say anything to defend himself, but counted his Royalty Money as it rolled in.
The funny thing about it all is that the Church has attempted to hang others over the years who turned out to be saints. Not that I am saying that Tom Alterzer was a Saint, but I am saying today that he was partially correct about his understanding of God. Incarnation means here and now, flesh and blood, God with us! Right now. In us. Beside us. Behind us. In front of us. Among us. Wasn’t that the Christmas message: Immanuel? Wasn’t that the Easter message: He is not here in a graveyard. Truth will often slip up on you and surprise you.
The truth is the God we worship is not limited to the Church property and thus kept on a short chain. He is not limited to Sunday morning, to those who know how to pray. No, God is present wherever his people live. Wherever they are hurting. Wherever they are crying. Wherever they are oppressed. He may be called upon by different names than those familiar to you, but God is there. He is in our pews and in our pulpit. He is beside us and behind us. He is within us. And it is often times that he speaks to us with a feminine voice. He touches us with a tender touch.
We give thanks that God reveals himself through others who are with us in this life journey. We give thanks especially that God has been visibly present in the life of our mothers.
What God is for us, so often our mothers are for us.
They are our security. Our fortress. They are our rock: “Rock of Ages, Cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee.
Our mothers see potential in us: Years ago Rose Kennedy said: "Whenever I held a newborn baby in my arms, I used to think that what I said and did could have an influence not only on the child I was holding, but on all whom that child met; and not just for a day, or a month, or a year, but for all eternity." The stream of influence of a mother flows through generational lines and touches the lives of people who are unaware of the source of that influence. Winston Churchill said: "My mother shone for me like the Evening Star."
John and Charles Wesley were only two of the 19 children of Susanna Wesley. She taught them the alphabet and how to pray. She prayed for them every day and once a week spent a focused hour with each child. Thursday morning was John’s hour and he asked her after he left for Oxford College that she would keep his hour and pray for him and she did, so far as we know until the day she died. Susanna is regarded as the “Mother of Methodism.” Today through a worldwide movement, she has a 110 million member Wesleyan Church.
There was a women who was born in Ireland in 1734 whose name is Barbara Ruckle Heck. She was converted at a Methodist revival and committed her life to Christ when she was 18. She was to marry a man by the name of Paul Heck when she was 26 and came to the new world. Barbara Ruckle Heck was the lady who encouraged Phillip Embury to organize a Methodist church in New York and thus began the Wesleyan Movement in America. Barbara is regarded as the “Mother of New World Methodism.” Which today has some 9 million children who are called “United Methodist”.
While there is no statistical data on this, of which I am aware, it seems that maternal influence is deeper, more permanent on the child. Maybe it is because they are the one’s who spend most of the time with us. Maybe it is because they are the one we go to in our time of trouble. Maybe it is because they are not the one’s usually who walk out on the family. Mothers understand what a child does not say. Our children call us frequently. When they call and there is something to kid me about or a success to share then they will tell me, but I always know if it is something serious on their mind because they will say: "Let me talk to Mama."
This past Monday, a child was killed in Atlanta Georgia. A live-in boyfriend had laid a .38 caliber pistol on a bedside table and later in the day the five year old son of the mother of the family found it and started playing with it. He aimed it at his eight year old brother and pulled the trigger. The Atlanta Constitution on Tuesday quoted a policeman who said the last words of the child before he died was “Mama”.
I know that we who are human are like clay pots. Fragile and easily broken. We know who we are male or female. But ours is an awesome task, like that of the Creator of the Universe. But when we have done all we can do, God takes back over because he unlike our parents, is not limited. He is ever present.
That’s the meaning of the 21st chapter of Revelation: “Behold the dwelling of God is with human beings. He will dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himself will be with them. And he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, for behold the former things have passed away.”
We pray for our mothers, who have given us life and love, that we may show them reverence and love,
For mothers who have lost a child through death, that their faith may give hope, and that their family and friends will support and console them.
For women, through without children of their own, have nurtured and cared for us.
For mothers, who have been unable to be a source of strength, who have not responded to their children and have not sustained their families,
Loving God, as a mother gives life and nourishment to her children, so you watch over your church. Bless these women who are in this your house that they may be strengthened as Christian mothers. Let the example of their faith and love shine forth. Grant that we, their sons and daughters, may honor them always with a spirit of profound respect. Through Christ our Lord we pray.
Planning ahead is a Biblical principal and a smart way to live. Stephen Covey suggested that one of the “Habits of Highly Effective People” is that we live with the end in mind. We begin with a clear vision of where we are going.
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells a parable of the construction worker and the king going to war. Said he: “When you desire to build a tower, you first sit down and count the cost to see if you have enough to complete it. And, if you are going to war, you first sit down and take counsel whether you will be able, with ten thousand, to meet an enemy who comes against you with twenty thousand.” You plan ahead by taking into account all of the known possibilities. You count the cost before you spend the money. Got it?
Many a construction project has been started and never completed because the unexpected was not expected. For years we saw the empty, uncompleted cement pilings on Perdido Key, of abandoned dreams of condo high rises. We have watched the aging sign of the “Seville Diner Coming Soon” begin to fade. I thought for a while I was going to have to have a new sign made concerning the upcoming construction of “Wesley Haven Villas” assisted living facility across the street, plan for the unexpected.
Through tear smeared vision, I viewed the 58,000 Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. We have now seen over 700 American soldiers come home dead from Iraq. Perhaps those of you who are younger will come up with a better way for diverse people to relate to one another in a complicated world.
The problem is obvious in your personal lives, in business relationships – you have to plan ahead!
Jesus planned ahead for the time of his approaching death. Jesus said, “A little while longer and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you will live also. At that day you will know that I am in my father and you in me and I in you. He who has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me. And, he who loves me, will be loved by my father and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” “I must go away, but He will come to you.” Here he spoke of a mystery. It was the mystery which was fulfilled in the coming of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a translation of the Greek word “parakletos,” which has a wide range of meanings that are reflected in its many translations, “helper, advocate, comforter, counselor, friend.” All of these adjectives are descriptive of God’s enabling grace. Comforter, counselor, helper, teacher, friend, advocate. Lucy, in Charlie Brown’s cartoon, says, “A friend is someone who will stick up for you, even when you are not around.” The R&R Group is a repair and renewal group of men who help do things all around the church. They can do anything. For years I have thought that Martin Thompson can fix anything. As a matter of fact, I suggested to Martin that we have to put on his tombstone: “Here lies the remains of Martin Thompson, who could fix anything, almost.”
The Holy Spirit would not come to the world, but would come to the community of faith to believers. Among many reasons to be a part of the church is the fact that Jesus identifies the coming of the helper, the counselor, the comforter, teacher to the community of faith. And Jesus says: “He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all the things that I said to you.” Jesus knew he would die but in dying the Spirit would come, which would not be limited by geography or by clock or by calendar.
Often in the Bible you see this conditional statement: “If you will do this, I will do this.” God’s love is unconditional, but his blessings are conditional.
I Chronicle… “If my people who are called by my name, will repent of their sin and turn from their evil ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive them their sins…and will restore their nation.”
John 14:15… “If you love me, you will keep the commandments, and I will give to you the Counselor to be with you forever.”
John 14:23… “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”
There is a law of consequences, which is present in human life and is reflective in God’s word.
Here in John 14 we discover a sure promise, but also an implied threat. If you don’t do these things, God will not fulfill his promise. If you don’t repent of your sin, God will not forgive. If you do not keep the commandments, God will not come to you. If you are not humble, you will not inherit the earth. If you do not seek righteousness…there is a law of cause and effect operative in your relationship to God. It is the same law which is operative in the world.
To those of you who are soon to be high school graduates, remember this law of consequences. Many of you have made your plans now for college, and if you want to come back home from college a failure, let me tell you a sure fire way to accomplish it: “Don’t study, don’t go to class, and don’t take notes about what the teacher says will be on tests. Drink a lot of beer, don’t miss any parties, stay out late and sleep, especially during class. Do this and we will see you about January. If on the other hand you would like to do well in college (listen, college is not a measure of intelligence, it is a measure of discipline) and you desire to make your parents proud and you want to have a good future, then go to class, take notes, get some friends who don’t drink, do your best…well, I think you get the drift of this.
Let me remind you to be acutely aware of the law of cause and effect, and thus plan ahead. Jesus planned ahead and so must we. Jesus planned ahead and upon his death, sent the Holy Spirit to be for those who keep his teachings—helper, counselor, comforter, friend.
The vision of God for humanity is unity, family, love, Peace. These are descriptive adjectives of God’s plan for His Creation. We know this from the Biblical revelation, the stories of Jesus, and from what we long for in the depth of our heart.
In the O.T. there is the story of the Garden of Eden where man and God and nature were in fellowship with one another. Unity/Oneness was experienced in its sublime beauty, until there came disobedience and man was then expelled from the garden. Unity was broken and soon the children of Adam and Eve were at war with each other.
In the story of the Tower of Babel, we are told of the confusion and division of the peoples of the earth as God, in response to their attempt to make a name for themselves and build a tower to the heavens, scattered the people and created linguistic havoc. It was the story of a lost unity.
But in the New Testament, there is found the story of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came after Jesus’ resurrection, and restored the oneness of all humanity. We are told that “the people in Jerusalem for the Passover spoke in different languages, because they came from different places, but when the Holy Spirit came, they understood as one language.” It was the restoration of the brokenness of humanity. Whereas in the Tower of Babel mankind was divided, in Pentecost mankind became one again. The Bible was to teach the early Church through the letters of the Apostle Paul: “God was in Christ, reconciling us unto himself.” So Pentecost is the story of a lost unity regained. The concluding book in the N.T. is “The Revelation of John,” which is the unveiling of a coming “New Heaven and a new Earth.” Here is the fulfillment of the vision of unity.
We know through the stories of Jesus, that he spent meditative time alone, praying, thinking, being; longing for unity among his disciples and with God the creator. We have on two occasions the words of Jesus’ prayers, and they are precious to the church:
“Our father, who art in heaven, thy Kingdom come on earth, as it is in heaven.”
And then in the scripture read this morning: “I pray that they may all be one.”
Here in Jesus’ voiced, recorded prayers, we learn of his hope for unity for all.
Unity, it is God’s hope, Brokenness, it is humanity’s reality.
Reconciliation is God’s work. Disharmony is the work of man.
Today we confess with tears in our eyes and a lonely agony in our heart, that we live in a broken world, while Jesus still prays for oneness. The vision is before us, the brokenness is with us.
Human history can be told by the woes of our brokenness. The names have changed, but the theme is the same. The Philistines and the Hebrews, the Romans and Jews, the French and the English, the American colonists and the soldiers of the British Empire, the Rebels and the Yankees. Wouldn’t it have been awful to have lived in the 1860’s in this nation when families were separated and divided in the War Between the States? One nation, under God, it was an illusion.
Well, a hundred years later, it had not improved. Those of us who were alive in the l960’s will remember that it was an age of hope and frustration. There was a new young President who created the Peace Corps in hopes for one world without war. But then came his assassination, the assassination of his brother, the Attorney General, and Martin Luther King, the black Baptist Minister who was the leader of the nonviolent efforts to promote civil rights for his people. Like a puff of smoke, gone were these men of hope and with them the longings for a better tomorrow for those of us who were just beginning our life of service for this vision of oneness. We begin to live with the pain of disappointment and disillusionment to adjust to a broken world and all but lost sight of God’s vision.
After 58,000 young American soldiers were lost we called it quits in Vietnam and left with little dignity. And today, although the Cold War has ended, we are no better. We went into Iraq to destroy nuclear weapons and to protect the human rights of the citizens of a brutal dictator whose prisons were torture houses, and now the story is being told of what we have done. As a nation, we who see ourselves as representatives of human rights have allowed the violation of basic human dignity. This is no small issue and it is no time for foolishness.
We have elected our political leaders to be statesmen, to work toward the vision of the oneness of all humanity, and they play partisan politics like it is a game of monopoly. Business leaders have stored away millions of dollars while their employees have seen their retirement funds dissipate into thin air. Unless we are blinded by our own greed, we see the story of our brokenness written large in the headlines of every paper.
This week I was in Washington, DC and visited with John Cochran of ABC News in their world headquarters building. These journalists communicate instantaneously with one another. Cochran has on his desk a little black box which broadcasts the unedited voices of their journalists reporting in constantly. Outside the building, the sirens of John Kerry’ convoy sounded as he left a fund raising event at the Mayflower hotel. I looked out the window to watch them pass while over the black box, came a voice of a journalist reporting, “Kerry is leaving the Mayflower after having raised $300,000 from a small group of supporters, more to come.” And this was followed by a reporter in Gaza, Middle East, saying, “28 Palestinians are reported dead, 9 of them children, American Helicopters involved, more to come.”
Yes, there is “more to come” about our brokenness, our disharmony, disunity, our dysfunctional world; while Jesus still prays that we might be One.
There are many who still divide people between “us and them”, “Muslim and Christian”, “liberal and conservatives” and it causes us all to be as suspicious as ever of those who do not dress or talk as we talk as we do. Don’t let the negative voices divide us, for Jesus still prays: “Thy Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. Make us one.”
In the '60’s Jane and our oldest daughter, and our yet to be born daughter, lived in Atlanta in a small community of substandard married student housing. We didn’t know it was substandard as it was a place for us to live and the roof kept the rain out, most of the time. It was an interesting experience as there were, in this little community nestled in the shadow of Emory’s towering hospitals, students and their families from all over the world. There was a family from India, Korea, Ethiopia, Germany and South America and South Alabama—all foreign countries to one another. Although the adults were challenged to speak a common language, we got by, but the children did great with absolutely no problem. They would play together using their own individual languages and out of the noise of their gibberish, occasionally, you would here the cry: “Batman!” Batman would come to the rescue. They were good to swap out the magic hood and cape so that everyone had their opportunity to be the masked Savior and Destroyer of Evil.
But one day something happened that changed everything. Somebody bit somebody else. No one quite knew who did what first, some said it was the German who bit the Indian, others the South Alabamian bit the Ethiopian, and someone said the Korean bit the Chilean. Who knows, all I know is that it was an epidemic of biting children and the next thing I knew, one of the adults had bitten one of the children to show them how it felt. Well, that’s when I got into it with both jaws, saying, “This has got to stop!"
God must feel much the same way about his creatures. Here we are biting and butting, hurting and hoarding and He desires unity among us. That was His vision in the Garden of Eden and that was the final vision in the “Revelation of John” and that is the content of the prayers of Jesus. He wants adversaries and friends to dwell together in peace, the lion and the lamb to dwell together in safety. Remember: Unity/Peace/Love—that’s the vision.
So let us, dear friends, begin to live in such a way that the coming end will become a present reality.
Let us first “Do unto others as we desire they do unto us.”
Let us pray for the unity of the church and all the peoples of the earth.
Let us stop biting one another. Stop pushing and shoving, hurting and hoarding and find new creative and helpful ways to bring about the envisioned end.
Start today, find a little something you can do and make real the vision.
Jesus needs our help here. Well maybe not really. His vision and God’s plans will prevail and history will make this clear. But Jesus needs our help if we are to participate in this coming vision.
This Sunday provides a unique opportunity of the convergence of a Church calendar date in which we remember, “The Day of Pentecost” – the first coming of the Holy Spirit, God present with us now and forever; and a national “Memorial Day” in which we remember those who have sacrificed their lives for freedom’s causes in the 228 years of our nation’s history. It is a memorable weekend.
It was early morning in Washington, DC, and my last day in what I regard as one of the most beautiful capitols of any nation in the whole world, and I have been privileged to see a lot of them. Of course, I am prejudiced and admit it and am proud of it. It was early dawn and the sun was just beginning to rise behind the stately Capitol building. I jogged from the Lincoln Memorial, past the Vietnam Wall, and the soldiers from the Korean conflict, and the long, beautiful reflective pool, and then entered the sparkling marble façade of the new World War II Memorial. Yesterday there were 800,000 Americans crowded on the Washington Mall to dedicate the memorial. I knew for sure I didn’t want to be crunched in that crowd, so since it was open, I wanted to see and experience it in the lonely, quiet hours of the early morning. I made my way into what became for a moment, Holy Ground. I guess in some way all ground is Holy, but this for a fleeting moment became sacred territory. Except for two other joggers in the distance and a couple of security guards patrolling the area, I was alone. But, I was not alone.
The stately structure divides itself between the Pacific/Asian era and the Atlantic/European era of the conflict in which we alone lost 400,000 soldiers. You could hear the sound of the rushing waters of the fountains, but then I was startled as I stood before row after row of 4,000 empty golden stars depicting those who had died in the war. Each star represented 100 individuals who had died in the war. Here the water was still and there came a quiet hush in which either my mind shut out the noise of the waking city and the rushing waters of multiple fountains, or else the world stood still as I stood before this wall of remembrance and honored 400,000 men and women who gave their lives in the middle of this past century. I found myself crying as my eyes panned the empty stars and came to rest in the still water. Some of you lost parents, relatives and friends in World War II. Four hundred thousand never ever returned to their families. And not only that, we lost not only them, but the children who were never born to them. It is now estimated that there were a total of fifty million persons who perished from the face of the earth in World War II. They died on the ships on the high seas, in fiery planes above the earth, in the ovens of Germany, on the streets of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in Belgium, Italy, Germany, England, and on the shores of the Coral Islands of the Far East. Fifty million people, plus their never to be born children.
I don’t know how long I stood there, mesmerized really. But then the noise of the city came back into my consciousness and I became aware that an old man sat on the cold marble across the way watching me or just gazing, as I was, at the empty stars and the still water. I wanted to go ask him his story but it was early morning and if he or I either one had wanted to talk we would have come to the memorial when the crowds arrived. Still, I wondered what his story was. He appeared to have been about eighteen years of age in 1944. I waved to him and he waved back, then we both walked off a different way, alone, but not really by ourselves.
Tom Brokaw in his book, The Greatest Generation that Ever Lived, captures something of the spirit of those individuals, who are now elderly, who came of age during the Great Depression and the Second World War. He writes that they were men and women whose everyday lives of duty, honor, achievement and courage, gave us the world we have today.
God the Holy Spirit is ever with us. That is what the day of Pentecost is all about. God came to the first disciples as he comes to the disciples of today. He came to Peter, and James and John, just as he comes to us today, in spirit and in truth. He is ever with us to comfort, teach, counsel, encourage and affirm. God the Holy Spirit here now and forever.
So that day on the Washington Mall, walking away from another beautiful monument that awakens living memories of victories achieved and stories of heroism and sacrifice, God walked with me, but there was also the living presence of those who have gone before us. Jesus once said, “Greater love hath no man than this but that he lay down his life for his friends.” The voices of 400,000 soldiers spoke to me out of their silence. No, even when we walk alone, there is the companionship of God and unseen companions who are ever with us.
Summary: On that morning on the Washington Mall in the World War II Memorial, as I walked away from that marvelous moment at dawn and from that lone and lonely old man, I turned around for one last look only to see that he had also turned around to see me. I wondered if he could see all the unseen people who walked beside me and could he see my God who has never deserted me. And you know what I’ll bet? I’ll bet that that old man wondered if that young fellow, me, could see the unseen people who walked with him and his God, who was his Holy friend and companion, who had never left him alone and never would.