Memorial Day 2014
Memorial Day 2014
The purpose of Memorial Day is a day primarily to remembering those who have died, first of all those who have died for their country and later it became a time to remember friends and family member who have died before us.
The Bible is full of memorial events and places where believers were instructed to remember certain things. These memorial sites and days and instructions to remember were part the Israelites national history.
As we celebrate Memorial Day, on one hand, we remember those who have died before us, but on the other hand it is a celebration of being alive and having the freedoms we have. We are alive today and have a certain quality of life because others made great sacrifices and died for us and this country. Even though this country is far from being perfect, I’m glad we still have the freedom and right to preach God’s word freely. We have the right to pursue peace, prosperity, and happiness in our communities. We have to right to assemble together in this building without special permission to worship and thank God for Jesus and what He did for us. Some don’t have these freedoms
While many people see this holiday simply as an extra day off from work, a three-day weekend, a time for picnics and camping trips, and or the date to begin planting their garden, we should never forget those who have went before us. It is more than a day off and a time to go camping and such.
This past week President Obama was in NYC at the dedication of a new museum that opened there ground zero. It is called the September 11th Memorial Museum. It stands on the site where the twin towers fell and now houses the largest display of artifacts and videos of what happened on that sad day which is described as a day that America will never forget. It has been called a sacred place and has been filled with things owned by and tributes offered to those that were killed on that day. And there in one section of the building there is a wall of faces, pictures of those who lost their lives, dads, moms, sons, daughters, aunts, uncles, children, firemen, policemen, and others who tried to rescue those in danger that day. It is said that this museum will take its rightful place alongside the field of Gettysburg, the waters of Pearl Harbor, and the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial wall in Washington. There are some things that people should be reminded of so that we do not forget.
Memorial Day started many years ago in the 1800’s, but there are a few different ideas on how it got started. Some say that…. – In April 1863, in Columbus, Mississippi after decorating the graves of her two sons who served during the Civil War as Confederate soldiers, an elderly woman also decorated two mounds at the corner of the cemetery. An observer asked, “What are you doing? Those are the graves of two Union soldiers.”
Her response was, “I know. I also know that somewhere in the North, a mother or a young wife mourns for them as we do for ours.” Some believe this lady and a few others set in motion what became known as Memorial Day.
– Others claim that the custom of placing flowers on the graves of the war dead began a few years later on May 5, 1866 in Waterloo, New York. Waterloo has been recognized by Congress as the official birthplace of Memorial Day.
– But according to Professor David Blight of the Yale University’s History Department, he claims that the first Memorial Day was observed in 1865 by liberated slaves at the historic Washington Race Course (today the location of Hampton Park) in Charleston. The site was a former Confederate prison camp as well as a mass grave site for Union soldiers who died in captivity.
The grateful freed slaves re-interred the dead Union soldiers from the mass grave to individual graves, fenced in the graveyard and built an entry arch declaring it a Union graveyard. This was a daring action for them to take in the South shortly after the North’s victory. On May 30, 1868, the freed slaves returned to the graveyard with flowers they had picked from the countryside and decorated the individual gravesites, thereby creating the first Decoration Day.
Many soldiers have died to protect this land so that we may have a life of freedom and hope for the future. But long before, Jesus died that we might have life to the full, and hope of eternal in heaven.
In the story of the Passover, the blood of a lamb marked the door posts of the Israelites so that the angel of death would ‘passed over’ those households in Egypt marked with that blood. The blood saved their life.
For the Jews, celebrating Passover every year was a memorial celebration where they would take time out to remember how they got their freedom and who gave it to them. When God commanded them celebrate the Passover every year, He was letting them know that this was something they should “Never Forget.” …Because God obviously thought it was important for them to remember who they where, where they came from, who actually saved them, hoping that they would be forever be grateful, and life good lives accordingly.
That whole event, Passover, and the blood that was spilled to save and free them foreshadowed and represented the blood of Jesus Christ, the perfect Lamb of God would spilled for each and everyone of us.
He died to free us from the our captivity which is sin. He was sacrificed so that we might escape our slavery, ruin and death to give us a new life (like those Israelites), but not only here but also with life forever in God’s kingdom.
Our soldiers died for our country’s freedom for our personal freedoms, but Jesus died for so much more, for in John 8:36 Jesus said, “If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” Even if our country is someday overthrown, and you are captured and enslaved as a Christian we will always be free in God’s kingdom. In Luke 12:4-5 Jesus said, “I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more.5 But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.”
When Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper during that Passover meal so long ago, He broke the bread and told His disciples that it would now represent His body and the cup of wine now represented His blood, not the Passover lambs of Moses time. And then He commanded His disciples by saying, , “Do this in remembrance of me.” In other words, “Never Forget.”
So what’s the big deal? Why do we have these memorials? Why are they important?
The most important reason is, they help us to remember…
– They help us to remember the sacrifices that were made for us…
– They help us remember what it cost for our freedom, less we forget or take it for granted.
– A memorial should remind us of the dedication, and love of those who gave their life for us.
– Memorials should also remind us of the bond that we have between us.
– Memorials should also remind us, and teach us, and motivate us to learn from the past, from history and press forward stronger and wiser.
In Hebrews Chapter 11, we have an extended list of those OT characters that lived by faith; from Abel to Enoch and Noah, and Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph to Moses and even Rahab. The writer goes on and continues to write of these men and women of old.
I believe this chapter is a memorial to these men and women of faith. And why is it here? I believe we can see the answer in the following verses in Chapter, Read Hebrews 12:1-3 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”
When we remember those who went before us (including Jesus) and consider their faith, their love, their devotion, it re-kindles a fire in our bones… to become better, to try harder, to whine less, to live the life of faith that we have also been called to…and maybe make some sacrifices of our own to help others! It’s important that WE never forget.
Paul Harvey told a story of an old man who visit an old broken pier on the eastern seacoast of Florida. Every Friday night, until his death in 1973, he would return, walking slowly and slightly stooped with a large bucket of shrimp. The sea gulls would flock to this old man, and he would feed them from his bucket. Many years before, in October 1942, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker was on a mission in a B-17 to deliver an important message to General Douglas MacArthur in New Guinea.
Somewhere over the South Pacific the Flying Fortress became lost beyond the reach of radio. Fuel ran dangerously low, so the men ditched their plane in the ocean. For nearly a month Captain Eddie and his companions would fight the water, weather, and the scorching sun. They spent many sleepless nights recoiling as giant sharks rammed their rafts. But of all their enemies at sea, one proved most formidable: starvation. Eight days out, their rations were long gone or destroyed by the salt water. It would take a miracle to sustain them. And a miracle occurred. Captain Eddie recorded, “Something landed on my head. I knew that it was a sea gull. I don’t know how I knew, I just knew. Everyone else knew too. No one said a word, but peering out from under my hat brim without moving my head, I could see the expression on their faces. They were staring at that gull. The gull meant food . . . if I could catch it.” And the rest, as they say, is history. Captain Eddie caught the gull. Its flesh was eaten. The rest was used for bait to catch fish. The survivors were sustained and their hopes renewed because a lone sea gull, uncharacteristically hundreds of miles from land, offered itself as a sacrifice. He never forgot; and every Friday evening, about sunset, on a lonely stretch along the eastern Florida seacoast, you could see an old man walking . . . white-haired, bushy-eye browed, slightly bent. His bucket was filled with shrimp to feed the gulls, to remember that one, which, on a day long past, gave itself without a struggle.Just as Eddie Rickenbacker never forgot the gull that gave its life, we should never forget the soldiers of our country who gave up their lives. Eddie got a second chance at life, and because many brave men and women have died in the armed services fighting for our country’s freedom, we too have a chance at life – a life of freedom. Both freedom and life never come without a price. The blood of many fine soldiers paid for the freedom that we have today, just as the blood of tiny lambs at Passover paid for the lives of hundreds of thousands of Israelites.
A price has to be paid for freedom and life, and that price is the death of another. Someone, or something, has to die in order that we might have a chance to live.. As we prepare to enter into a day to remember those who died for liberty, it is also fitting to remember the One who died to set us free from spiritual tyranny (someone who died for us because He loved us) Jesus. Every Sunday is to be a memorial day for us as we come to celebrate our life in Christ.
Why? So we will Never Forget. So that we remember how important we are to God and what our salvation actually cost.