Memorial Day 2021 - Why Should We Remember?
Message Description
Orchard Hill Church Butler's Director of Women’s Ministry and Ministry Development, Kay Warheit, shares an appreciation for those who have given their lives in service to our country and to their communities.
Message Transcript
Pretty emotional morning. Well, that's the Memorial Day weekend. When I was growing up, it was a Monday, and now it's Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday. And we like to have this time of year. For kids, it's the end of the school year and the beginning of summer. And hopefully, you'll be able to, in this cold weather, enjoy some time, and again, to honor or remember those who have served. And if you have no one, hopefully, you're sitting by someone who's stood, and you'll be able to thank them.
In my family, we had many. I had uncles, my own dad, but my granddad Nelson served in World War I when he was about 18 or 19 years old. We can't imagine that he left a farm in Shenango, PA with no television and no telephone. There was no way for his family to know if they would ever see him again. I know it's the same today, but we do have some communication.
I have a postcard that my grandfather sent home from World War I. It would have been a hundred-year-old postcard and they weren't allowed to say too much. All he said was, "Dear Dad, I'm well and hope you are. This is one of the places we went through." And this is the Argonne Forest in France. And if you've ever watched Downton Abbey or Sergeant York, the movie, you would see that this was called a trench war. They literally dug trenches, lived, ate, breathed, and fought from those trenches.
He came back. Obviously, he had children, my mom, but we never talked about it. We never talked about the war. He had this picture that he hung in one of the spare bedrooms. And after he passed away, we found several metals that he had received. But unfortunately, I know nothing. My grandfather was very appropriately named. His first name was capital D-e, capital W-i-t-t, DeWitt. He had a very dark wit, and my grandfather would oftentimes be quoted or get in trouble for some of the things he said.
At his funeral, the pastor quoted Mark Twain and said, "I never met a man I didn't like." And my sisters and I looked at each other and thought, "This pastor does not know our grandfather." And then the pastor said, "Unfortunately, we cannot say that about Mr. Nelson." When my grandfather liked you, he really liked you. If he didn't like you, he made it known. He was a good provider. He worked for Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad and he was also a safety man in one of the mines. If someone was injured, he was the one who took care of them.
I was thinking a lot about memory and thinking about Memorial, remembering, going back in time, and thinking, joining with those who have served. And the scripture that came to my mind or I saw was Psalm 111:4, "He has caused his wonders to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and compassionate. He has caused his wonders to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and compassionate."
You think about a memory. Why do we have a memory? Well, it would be terrible if we had to get up every morning and try and figure out how to do things, where to go, or how to drive. We build on our memory, just like we teach kids the alphabet song, and then they learn the letters. They put them together, and they build their vocabulary. And we are able to read books, anything from architecture to how to bake cookies. Our world builds on our memory.
And then I thought about the ability that God has given us with memory through our senses. Think about all the things you remember through your senses. I remember my grandma's kitchen when I smell lilacs because she had a lilac bush right outside her kitchen window. And in the spring, when the window was open, the breeze would blow. I could smell those lilacs. And it makes me think of grandma's kitchen. Children, babies, a campfire, I was thinking of school paste, or a school, or a library. We have memories when we have the fragrance of our childhood.
What about hearing? If we hear a song, a lullaby, rock and roll, a drumbeat, it takes us back immediately to that time. We build our memories on the sense of touch. We remember when someone hugged us, or we remember when we had a handshake. Or when you're at the ocean, you know you're at the ocean, the feel of the humid air.
God gave us senses. He gave us his wonders to be remembered because the Lord is gracious and compassionate. The Bible has the word remember many times. It starts in the book of Genesis. When God flooded the earth, he told Noah and his family, "I will set the rainbow in the sky as a reminder that I promise you never again, will I flood the earth and destroy mankind." And then the Jewish nation, when they were held as slaves in Egypt, they cried out to God. After several plagues, the final plague was that God told them to take the first-born lamb, take the blood and smear it over the doorpost. And if they did that in faith, the angel of death would pass over. This was Egyptians in the Jewish nation as well. God told them, "I want you to remember this time." Certain phase of the moon, certain foods, and words, the senses, and remember, "I am the one who brought you out of slavery. I am the one who freed you."
And then in the New Testament, right before he was crucified, Jesus made sure he celebrated that Passover. I should say observed that Passover. It was the certain phase of the moon, and certain foods with family. And there were words to be spoken. And little did they know that the very next day in his crucifixion, he would become the pass over lamb. Under his blood of sacrifice, we are brought out of slavery. We are brought out of our sins.
Then in Exodus, we see the 10 commandments. God wants us to remember. Why, to stifle our lives? To make our lives terrible? No, the 10 commandments are there for us to remember what life is about. Put God first. Do not worship idols. Don't take his name in vain. And the fourth one is remembering the Sabbath to keep it holy. Remember a time just as you are doing now to take and set apart. Remember where the past week or month God was faithful. He was a provider; God gave you wisdom. Or he was there, but you were not. And you asked God a day of rest to let his Holy Spirit, worship him, just as we did this morning, to lift him up to be reminded he is the God in charge.
He has caused his wonders to be remembered. Why? Because we serve a Holy Spirit who is gracious and compassionate. Now we all have times in our lives when we have awe moments, and they are magnified. And for our grandson, when he was three and a half, we took him to the Phipps Conservatory for the first time. If you've never been there, it is an amazing greenhouse. There are rooms with themes. There might be a fruit and nut coffee, and all kinds of exotic plants. There's a jungle. There's a cacti room. And I'm impressed when I say that, instead of cactuses, it's a cacti room. There are themes throughout the year. It is amazing to go there.
Well, we went in December with our three-and-a-half-year-old grandson. It was extremely cold, that kind of cold where the snow crunches under your feet and you could hardly breathe. We got in, we got our tickets, and then we entered the conservatory. And our three-year-old grandson's senses were on high alert. There was green, and there was the fresh smell of plants growing. There was music and flowers. I think there was even a bird singing. He said, "Grandma, are we outside?" And I said, "No, we're inside." I watched him. He was in awe of the difference. And he said again, "Grandma, are we outside?" I said, "No, look up. There's a glass ceiling. We're in a green house." It was so much fun to see his senses and to see him come alive in a new experience.
Well, I had a similar experience back in the nineties when my family and I first attended Discovering Orchard Hill class. We heard, and Joe Feick came in the background, in 1987, there was a group of seven families who met in the upper room at St. Stephen's Church in Sewickley. They met there in prayer. It was a specific reason because they felt God calling them to share the same gospel in a fresh new way, new sound, new sight, and a new field to the worship. They wanted the next generation to hear the words of the gospel, the truth, in a brand-new way.
After meeting for nine months, that same group comprised of about 40 with children and adults met on the back porch of the farmhouse down at the bottom of the hill of the Wexford campus. And they had a worship service. And through time, nine months later, they were able to build a chapel. But what really blew me away, my sense of awe was when they said that out of those families, there were those who took out a second mortgage on their homes in faith, in trust, that God was calling an order to have the money, the finances to build this new church.
I grew up, and we had no money. So, I had a very healthy fear of debt. To take out a mortgage was fearful for me. A second mortgage - driving home I was like my grandson. I said to my husband, "They took out a second mortgage, not even knowing if they would ever get paid back." And about 20 minutes later I said, "A second mortgage, what kind of faith is that? Who are these people that started this Orchard Hill Church in faith?"
About nine years later, they built the campus on top of the hill with renovations and additions, and a church in the Strip District. And then three going on four years ago now, a church in Butler where I serve. And the church in Butler, in faith, they found a school and they shared a gymnasium. So, all the equipment was stored in a pod in the parking lot or across the school playground, which was rough and had potholes. So, every Sunday morning they would clean out the area for worship, which was the gym. Clean out the room for Kidzburgh, and then haul the equipment, the tech equipment, the chairs, the Kidzburgh, the toys, and the hospitality equipment every morning. And then the prayer was, "How long God?" Not like the Jewish nation, 40 years, but it was about 40 months in waiting. "How long God?"
And then we found a church to share. We shared a room, walls had to be torn down, painted, rewiring. There were staff members. There were volunteers. There were members of the board and servant leaders who faithfully came to Butler, looking in empty car dealerships, old, abandoned warehouses, looking in empty grocery stores, a racquetball club, empty property, maybe to build, and then finally a church. We outgrew the place where we were. We had to share a parking lot. We outgrew the services we went to too. We outgrew the fellowship hall, and we had to go somewhere else. All this searching of those faithful, believing that God was calling a new church, Orchard Hill, to share the gospel in a fresh new way.
Finally, there was a church and they said, "We think we want to sell our building to you. It's over a hundred years old." We were ready to move and to buy, and then they changed their mind. "Why God? Why? We thought this was what you wanted." He has caused his wonders to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and compassionate.
The pandemic hit, we weren't meeting. We didn't have a mortgage to pay during that time. And about halfway through that pandemic, the church came back and said, "We decided we'll sell to you." God has provided. Instead of three doors, we now have seven doors that we need to lock. Instead of 70 chairs, we have 140 with a lot more room. Instead of sharing a parking lot, we have a parking lot for volunteers and plenty of space for visitors. Instead of sharing a fellowship hall, we have a full gym, and we have our own restaurant size kitchen. And instead of six waste baskets, we have 23 to empty. But who's counting?
He has caused his wonders to be remembered. So, what are we to remember and why? A dear friend graciously gave me a book by Tim Keller, Hope in Times of Fear. Now, think about a time when you received shocking news, maybe a death, or maybe we remember 9/11. Where were you? What were you doing? Who told you? What was the weather like? What did you do next? We remember details when we hear shocking news. Our senses are on high alert.
In Tim Keller's book, Hope in Times of Fear, he talks about, we talk about the cross. If you've never considered the cross, consider what was done, and that Passover sacrifice that when we come to the cross, Christ has forgiven. How many times do you go to church or how many times or ways you pray, it is done through Him?
And then we talk about Easter morning. We celebrate Easter because He's risen. But how often do we think about the resurrection? Now, remember there was no denying the tomb was empty. Those soldiers were bribed to say somebody took the body. They never found the body. There's no denying, but what about afterward? What about the resurrection?
Tim Keller says the resurrected Jesus is recorded as appearing in Judea and Galilee, which are about 125 miles apart. Now, remember, these are two people who were shocked to see him. The details are recorded. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John in I Corinthians. Jesus appeared in town and in the countryside, indoors and outdoors, in the morning and in the evening. "By prior appointment, tell the disciples I will meet them." And without prior appointment, just coming through a wall. Close and distant by a lake, to groups of men and to groups of women, to individuals, and to groups of up to 500, sitting, which was implied, standing, walking, eating, and always talking. In other words, he was not a ghost. He was the fully resurrected Christ. Many, Tim Keller says, are explicitly close encounters involving conversation. And he says, "It's hard to imagine a pattern of appearances in the gospels and early Christian letters without there having been multiple individuals who claim to have seen Jesus risen from the dead."
Tim Keller describes our time on earth as the already, but not yet. We live in on earth at a time when Christ has already appeared. We have the savior and it's like that Phipps Conservatory. We enter a new life, a fresh new life, but there is a glass ceiling. We can only know so much in trust and in faith in the gospel that God's wonders will still go on. We will still see His love, His grace, His forgiveness, His compassion, and His favor. We live in the already, but not yet.
What are we to remember? Well, we remember those who served in the military to make sure that we are free to speak the name of Jesus in public. We still can go to church in this country. We are grateful for those who have served or who are serving. We are to remember those who served to make sure the gospel is still shared. Whether it is women having a bake sale to provide money, or men spending time, men and women searching for places to hold a church, to build a church, or to rejuvenate a church that was built years ago, we are to remember. And we are to remember that our God is still alive through the Holy Spirit. Our God is not dead. In the Christian faith, we serve a living God, and it is through the Holy Spirit that we can know Him and not have Him distant, but close up and personal as He was to those after He was resurrected.
Let's pray. Father, we do thank you that you are a living God. God help us never to forget that. We thank you for those who serve to keep our freedom so that we can speak the name of Jesus. We thank you, Lord, for those who serve to keep the church alive, whether they volunteer on Sundays, or they meet with those to carry on the business of the church. Guide us, Lord, to be faithful to this generation so that we prepare your house, your world, this country for the next generation. Help us not to think only of ourselves. We thank you, God, that one thing you do forget, you remember our sins no more when we come to you, and we praise you that you are that kind of loving, compassionate God. It's in Christ's name, pray. Amen. Don't forget your postcard and have a blessed, cold weekend.
