St. Paul's On-the-Hill Episcopal Church

The Rev. Stephen C. Holton, Rector

The Second Sunday after Pentecost; May 25, 2008

The Sunday before Memorial Day

Isaiah 49:8-16

Psalm 131

Matthew 6:24-34

GOD REMEMBERS YOU

Your name, On his breast, Understand others.

Today is a difficult day. For today is the day before Memorial Day, and we have a lot of people to remember today. I have 6 pages of names of the people who have died in the Iraq war and the Afghanistan war. I have made copies of them. I am not sure how to use them, but perhaps if you're so moved you could take home a copy and pray for some each day. Unfortunately it should take some time.

But whether you like the war or not, each of these died in a cause larger than themselves – even if you do not like the cause. And each person was good, and worthy of life, even if you do not like the cause.

So we pray for each one, their family and friends. And perhaps we will have an extended period of silence when we pray for the troops today as we always do; indeed when we pray for all the people, citizens and soldiers, who have died these past 6 years starting on September 11.

God created all of them. God remembers all of them.

We wonder – Lord, how do you remember them? When they went through such pain, how do you remember them? When we have been through such tough times, all of us, how do you remember us?

The children of Israel wondered the same thing, for they had been 70 years in Exile in Babylon when they had lost their whole country to the Babylonians. They said, “The Lord has forsaken me. My Lord has forgotten me.”

“My Lord has forgotten me.” Apparently not. The Lord says he has not. But he sure seems to have been out of the picture for a long time. Yet we learn that he has used the Exile – however human beings started it – for a larger purpose, even though they did not know what it was; and so will use our times for a larger purpose, even though we do not know what it is.

The children of Israel had been in Exile for 70 years. For us, that would be since 1938. A lot has happened since 1938, a lot of suffering and struggle, enough to think the Lord has forgotten us; lots of wars, lots of dead, lots of purposes and good causes.

Has the Lord forgotten us?

But he says, “Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.

On the palms of my hands – right here, where he can see you – about where the nails pierced them.

On the palms of his hands refers, in Deuteronomy, to the place where good Jews were supposed to bind prayers to God, so they will remember to say them, and show their utter devotion to God.

God writes our names on his hands, so he'll remember to say them, and show his utter devotion to us.

He whispers our names and expresses his love – through all these times, good and bad, whether we are in a foxhole or at home, suffering in war or in peace, hopefully for some higher cause.

He whispers our name because he is devoted to us.

He writes it there on the palm of his hand, the way you do when you take someone's name but don't have a piece of paper. You write it on your hand so you'll remember it. 6 pages of names, thousands and millions of pages of names all through creation – so God will remember each one.

These days make us crazy – war or peace. Iraq, Afghanistan, housing foreclosures, skyrocketing gas prices, food prices, cyclones. You can help the cyclone victims through the Episcopal Relief and Development brochure in the bulletin. This is one higher cause you can help with, through your tax rebate. God wants us to help others in some higher cause.

But there are many causes these days and many dangers; and they make us crazy. They make us like a child at his mother's breast – as the Psalm says. But they make us like a child with a temper tantrum. Wailing and crying away and beating our fists.

What do you do when a child has a temper tantrum? You pick them up. They beat you on the chest they are wailing so much. You try to keep them from hurting themselves and you. You certainly don't put them down. You rock them, pat their back, eventually they calm down.

Eventually maybe they go to sleep. You “still (their) soul and make it quiet like a child upon its mother's breast.” Their “soul is quieted within them,” in spite of the war and the mortgage foreclosures.

You rock a while. They wake up again. “You all right now?” you say to them. “Yeah,” they say. You offer to put them down so they can play again. It sounds like a good idea.

You see another little boy or little girl crying. Does your little boy or little girl want to go over and comfort them, you ask? Yes, they say. It seems like a good idea.

Does your little boy or little girl know what they're going through? Yes, just went through it themselves.

Does your little boy or little girl know how to comfort them? Pat them on the back? Maybe rock them a little bit? Yes, seems like a good idea. Worked for them.

Your little boy or little girl has become “a covenant” to the other little boy or girl, a “covenant to the peoples” as Isaiah says.

He or she knows what its like to suffer and knows what it is to be comforted and so wants to pass it on. He or she knows how.

When we promise ourselves to God – in Baptism or Confirmation which is coming up in the fall – we show our understanding that he will always comfort us and everyone when necessary, and that we can turn to him whenever necessary. And having turned to him in that covenant, we experience his comfort. And having experienced that covenant and comfort we can then extend it to others. We know what it feels like, like comfort after craziness.

And we know what the pain feels like too. So we – as God's covenant servants – can extend God's comfort and covenant to all around us, in war or peace, to soldiers or citizens. Maybe they will come into the covenant too and feel that comfort.

God expects this of us. This is the highest cause – to extend that covenant comfort. God knows we can do it. He knows we are not just sponges for comfort. He knows we can be blessers of other people too, comforters of others too.

In the Beatitudes Jesus tells us not to worry about food or shelter. That's provided gratis, to everyone, even if there is not all the food or shelter we would want. So don't worry about it. There's enough for God's standards, which are lower than ours. We do not need as much as we think we do.

What we need to do, what we can do, what God cannot provide, is the physical and emotional comfort we can give to all those around us – to the widows and widowers of war, those in pain or those foreclosed upon.

We can do that.

“Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness” – his relationship, his mercy and justice – share that, for his is the kingdom you live in, these are the gifts you can share with others in pain or anxiety.

“All these things,” the basic food and shelter, “will be given to you as well.” That happens gratis, to everyone.

But the justice, the mercy and peace and gentleness, God needs you for that. Rich or poor, he knows you have the ability to pass on these most precious gifts to all his most precious children. He dotes on all of them. Their names are on his hands. Won't you pass on his comfort this Memorial Day weekend, all this summer?

He has not forgotten them. He has not forgotten you. He has blessed each of us with the gift of not forgetting each other, but of being able to bless each other, with his love.