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"Changed"
Many of you no doubt remember the film Schindler’s List, about a German businessman’s heroic decision to save as many Jews from the death camps as he possibly could. This epilogue at the end of the film, features the real-life survivors of the holocaust who call themselves Schindler’s Jews, those who had been saved from the German atrocities by Schindler’s generosity. (Final scene from Schindler’s list shown here—the real-life Schindler Jews coming with the actors to lay stones on Oskar Schindler’s grave) On the anniversary of the death of a loved one, it is tradition for Jewish families to return to the grave, to place a stone on it. You see, for God’s people, from the days of Jacob, stones have been a way to remember. Jacob poured oil over the stone he had laid his head on when he dreamed of heaven’s stairway, so that he could remember and name this place as sacred space. Covenants were made and remembered by a heap of stones on the ground where the agreement was made. Stones were set up as altars, again to create sacred space, a reminder that something holy happened here. So Schindler’s Jews came along with the actors who portrayed them in the movie to place stones that they might mark sacred space, and to remember Schindler’s self sacrifice, his relentless work to save people from the savage brutality others human beings were inflicting upon them. They place the stones, and they remember. They lay them down, and the memories flood their minds. Memorial Day began as a way to remember those who lost lives while serving in our nation’s armed forces in the civil war, and then the Spanish American war, and World War I. Since then, the veterans of every American War are remembered in cemeteries across the United States to commemorate those who have died not only in combat, but long after serving their nation. We also observe Memorial Day as a day to honor all of our loved ones who have passed away, decorating their graves with flowers. We go to the graves of those we loved, those who loved us, and we lay flowers at the....what is it called? Head STONE--a rock upon which we have carved their names lest we forget. And we place flowers so to remember. As we do, we tell stories, help those who are too young to remember know about the persons with the names carved in rock, we tell them how we knew them, how special they were to us. And we remember how they lived their lives--the lessons they passed on to us. The example they were for us. What part of them it is that continues to live and grow in us. Memorial Day, and memorials in particular are not for the dead. They are for the living. Calling us to remember the dead and then, calling us to live our lives in honor of the values and character of our loved ones. A young mother told me once: “As I lay flowers, I remember, and then I start thinking about blessing my children in the same ways as I was blessed.” In other words, we live toward the memorials we make. We live toward the memorials we make. Until we too, rest from our labors, in the steady arms of God. When we die, we hope also to leave behind those who will place something down, and remember us. We lay down markers, and we remember. Just as we will one day be remembered by those who lay down markers with our names. Let it be said of all of us, that we lived to the cross. The ultimate memorial, to the one who lived his life for each of us. For all of us. Who gave that life, that we may all live. I keep a file in my computer where I store illustrations, stories, bits and pieces that might come in handy for a sermon sometime down the road. This particular story was lost for awhile, un-retrieved from an older computer when I transferred files from it to a new computer several years ago. I found it again by accident. Or perhaps, it wasn’t an accident. The problem is, I no longer know where the story came from. Someone anonymous to me wrote these words: “My father died last week after fighting lung cancer for five months and having been hospitalized with pneumonia for a week. When he entered the hospital the previous Wednesday, he took the doctors' advice to be put on a ventilator just to give his body a rest from the constant struggle for breath. Their hope was that his energy could then be spent fighting the infection, and that he could come off the ventilator in a few days. Early in his stay there I noticed a sticker on the ventilator tube: "Change on Saturday." It seemed somehow impersonal, as if he, not just the tube, were a piece of equipment to be manipulated. The staff changed the tubes as directed on Saturday. It wasn't until the next Wednesday, the day we were to follow Dad's wishes and turn off what had by then become a life support system, that I noticed the new sticker: "Change on Wednesday." Now the sticker wasn't about equipment at all, but about a precious life of a faithful child of God. I remembered the words from 1st Corinthians, "We will not all die, but we will all be changed..." From the moment I saw that sticker on Wednesday morning, it has been hard for me to imagine my father "dead." I see him changed, transformed, brought into wholeness and health and perfect love and glory by the power of Christ. I believe the REAL truth is that he is changed into new life, just as he was changed by the power of Christ in his earthly life.
Indeed, we shall all be changed. Hear these words from the final vision of John: “And God himself will be with them; He will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away." And the one who was seated on the throne said, "See, I am making all things new." Let us pray: We remember our loved ones, no longer with us, but “made new” in the resurrection of Christ. We give thanks for them, and praise God for the gift of their lives among us. Give us courage to live the lives of the Saints, strong in faith to our end. Then, precious Lord, return each of us to your glorious presence in your time. This in Jesus we pray, the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. Amen.
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