Saint James UCC of Hamburg, NY

Numbers 15:37-40; John 14:15-26

Preached by Rev. Robert Matlack
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Tomorrow is Memorial Day. In some ways it's become just another holiday. Communities around Western New York and indeed around the nation will be having parades. People will be having parties and celebrating, and all of that will be going on without the people involved necessarily remembering what Memorial Day is really all about, or why we even have a holiday called Memorial Day - except that it's more or less the official beginning of the summer season.

There are some people who try very hard to remind us what Memorial Day is all about. The Veterans who sell us red poppies and march in the parades, the people who give speeches, those who recite the litany of the ones who died.... In all of these ways and more people will try to remind us about Memorial Day.

The very first Memorial was observed back in 1866, after the Civil War, a war which had literally torn our nation apart, a war in which hundreds of thousands of young men had lost their lives, and a war in which neighbor turned against neighbor, brother against brother. Memorial Day was established to honor the dead of the Civil War, both North and South. Since then it has come to include remembering the lives lost in all wars. For many people Memorial Day has also become a day to remember family members who have died. Countless people will travel to cemeteries this weekend to decorate the graves of their loved ones with flowers, as a tribute to the love they still share.

Memorial Day is a time of remembering. We remember the example and the sacrifice of others so that we can give thanks as we better appreciate what they have helped to give us. We remember so that we can learn from the past, and hopefully not make the same mistakes again.

Remembering is something that is important, for in remembering the past we find guidance for how we are to live today. Not that we keep on reliving the past, but rather that we learn from it and grow from it, as we both remember and celebrate the faith and commitment of those who have gone before us.

In the book of Numbers we find Moses and the Israelite people being instructed to make tassels to wear on the corners of their garments. These tassels are to be reminders of God's commands, and even more importantly reminders that they are a people who belong to God.

Reminders like that can be both important and very helpful. We use them today. Look at the crosses in the front of our sanctuary, and think about all the people who wear a cross - or perhaps some other symbol. These are reminders of who we are, reminders that speak both to us and to the people around us.

It's too easy in the midst of living our lives to get caught up in what is happening right now - in the things that we're doing, the choices that we make, and the problems that confront us. We get caught up in all of those things and we start to lose track of what is really important. The tassels were an effort to help the Israelite people remember.

We need those reminders in our lives as well. Christians in every generation have needed to remember who they are and who they belong to as they work at living faithfully.

Jesus knew that as He talked with His disciples about the promise of the Holy Spirit. He was trying to prepare them for the upheaval that they would face with His death on the cross. Suddenly, instead of being followers, they would be cast in the role of leaders. They would not have Jesus right there to lean on anymore. Instead, people would be looking to lean on them. Jesus knew how woefully inadequate was their readiness for this new role, but he also knew that somehow God would make it work.

The presence of God's Spirit was the key, for that spirit would bring them the presence of Christ when He could no longer be with them in body. The Spirit would be with them and in them, would teach them and guide them, and would help them to remember all that Jesus had taught them. It was the Spirit who would get them through when their strength and faith were not enough.

How true that is for us today as well. At times it seems like we are inadequately prepared for things we must face. How will we endure? Will our faith be strong enough? Where will we find hope and renewal, guidance and counsel? The answer of course is God's Spirit, the spirit that is with us and in us. For we are not made or expected to go on by ourselves. Through the presence of the spirit, God walks with us always, and as Jesus reminds us, both continues to teach us and also helps us to remember all that Jesus has taught us.

It is the spirit who helps us to remember what is important. It is the spirit who offers us those things that we really need to help us in the living of this day.

A great preacher by the name of Spurgeon once preached what in his own judgment was one of the poorest sermons that he had ever preached. He stammered and floundered, and when he got through, he felt that this sermon had been a complete failure. He was so humiliated that when he got home he fell on his knees and prayed, "Lord, God, Thou canst do something with nothing. Bless that poor sermon." And all through that week he prayed that same prayer.

The memory of that sermon inspired him, and he was determined that the next Sunday he would redeem himself by preaching a great sermon. Sure enough, the next Sunday the sermon went off flawlessly. At the close of the service, people in the congregation crowded around him and covered him with praise. Spurgeon went home very pleased with himself and his efforts, and that night he slept peacefully.

But the next day, he said to himself, "I'll watch the results of these two sermons." What were they? From that one that had seemed to be an utter failure, he was able to trace forty one conversions, forty one people whose lives were profoundly changed. And from the magnificent sermon, the one that he was so pleased with and that the congregation reacted so well to, he was unable to discover a single life that was changed. Spurgeon's conclusion was that God's Spirit had used one sermon and did not use the other.

As a preacher I have found the same thing to be true. Some weeks I will feel like the sermon was flat and uninspired, and almost inevitably that will be the time that I hear from someone that that sermon was exactly what they needed, that it made a real difference in their life at a very critical time. Other times, when I feel like the sermon went flawlessly and was some of my best work, I might see no signs at all that it made a real difference in anyone's life.

Now that's not only true of preaching, its' true of all of our endeavors in life. God's Spirit can take our humblest efforts and work through them to make great and wonderful things happen. At the same time, without the work of the spirit, our greatest achievements are empty and shallow and uninspired.

God's Spirit has come to be with us, to remind us of the important things that Jesus taught, and to help us remember that we are a people who belong to God. Whether the symbol of that belonging is a tassel on our cloaks, a cross around our neck, or the spirit working within us, we are a people who belong to God. That is real and true and fundamentally important to our lives. For when we lose sight of that, we also lose sight of who we really are.

This weekend, let us take time to remember. Let us remember the sacrifices that so many have made and continue to make for this country, and how these sacrifices have helped to preserve our freedom. Let us remember our loved ones who have died, the examples of faith and of love that they set for us, and indeed all that they gave to us over the years. And most importantly, let us remember who we are, for we are a people who belong to God.

Thanks be to God!

Amen.