Our Fall Schedule is getting going! Get your picnics ready for next Sunday September 19th, when we’ll meet after church at Camp UTABA. Kids’ Sunday School and after-church Fellowship snacks are back for now, with Food Pantry on Tuesdays and Bible Study on Wednesdays. Bible Study is moving on to Titus, while Adult Sunday School continues to study Matthew. Welcome to church!
Father in Heaven, Lord, we thank you for our very being today and humbly express our deepest thanks for placing people in our lives who are willing to give all to make us safe as a society. Thank you, God, for the people who protect us whether they be military, police, of fire responders, those who teach, and place knowledge within reach. Nurses and doctors who heal, and the councilors, mentors, and leaders who feel. Servants all, who deal in pain. So often unrecognized, but serve just the same. Father we thank you, and ask your forgiveness when we forget to express our thanks to you, and the people you have sent our way. Amen!
Message: No Greater Love than: To Give of Your Life!
That’s such a hard statement to take in. The breadth of the feelings and thoughts that accompany the ideals of selfless service to the point of giving one’s life for another, is beyond comprehension for many of us. Its easy to get lost in our thoughts when we think back over the last twenty years. A score of time in the recesses of our collective memories, embedded with examples of the finest, from the best among us.
Today, I am honored to be here with my beloved family in God, in the House of the Lord, to pay tribute to all of those who have given their lives for us. On this twentieth anniversary of the 911 attack on the New York City World Trade Center. It is fitting and proper that we would take some time and reflect on what a life of service actually means to us, because it means different things to different people.
I believe most people over 25, can remember where they were on 911 and what they were doing when they heard the news. I was instructing an F-16 Aircraft Familiarization class at Hill AFB. Utah, that day. I had my class out on the aircraft looking at different systems, electrical, hydraulics, landing gear on the plane, and then to the Egress Lab, where I showed the class the Ejection seat. On our Field Trip, we reviewed safety, operations, and maintenance techniques, and then planned on heading back to the schoolhouse for more instruction.
We had already heard that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center, but I thought it important to continue with the class. Within a half an hour, we were informed that a second aircraft had crashed into the other tower, and we headed back to the classroom. As we were walking the distance back to the schoolhouse, we began to noticed everything on base had gone quiet (which almost never happened), and we were the only ones out and about.
Life would never be the same in our country, nor would Hill AFB, ever be that easy again to walk around or up to parked aircraft. The innocence we lost is now rightly replaced by safeguarding our military bases, diligence and reflected in a world of security clearances, line badges, and fences everywhere. Reminding anyone mindful the need to venerate those who lost their lives on 911 and in countless encounters all over the planet since then.
It is also important to memorialize people because they were people (a creation of God), and not just for what people have accomplished in our eyes. But for all of the thousands of instances that make up the span of a life. I’m afraid our own eyes are much too weak, single minded, and limited by our own notions of life, to be able to see all the good that encompasses people. You know, that distinction that rises and separates itself from the bad that we all deal with. In short, we don’t know what’s in the heart of another.
No. Getting even a glimpse of who someone else really is, takes practice, effort, and most of all desire to look for the good, and to build up the virtue in others. This is a process, a skill the human race could use more of. How great it is when you meet someone possessing the ability of perceiving and being able draw out the good in others, and then celebrating God when the Lord’s light of divinity has been discovered. It brings hope when one is challenged, or surrounded by the images we all remember twenty years ago, and countless times past.
People jumping from buildings collapsing from fire and ruin, other people running for safety in streets resembling the battle worn regions of Iraq, Somalia, or Afghanistan. And then others running toward the dangers of the abyss, struggling within themselves to help others in need, and many perishing in the process.
What is it that makes some of us able to give all for another person in need on the drop of a dime, with no notice or apparent thought to self-survival? And why do evil things happen to bystanders, people who had no idea of anything beyond what was going to be for dinner that day? Let me quote a hero of mine Billy Graham, who said at the Memorial twenty years ago. From my memory he said; “I don’t know.” And then went on to explain, that we are fallen people living in a fallen world. Which goes a long way in understanding life.
The questions and the observations remain the same as they were twenty years ago, but maybe for many of us with more nuance added to the mix with the passing of time. We can’t know what was in the minds of those people, the victims, the selfless heroes, or the hearts of the planners and perpetrators of the massacre, just the words of the survivors. We can’t know for certain because what we carry around is really only known by the individual and God.
What we do know as Christians, followers of the Lord, is what we are tasked with working on in our own lives. We are instructed by God’s word, whose requirements are instructed in scripture. Regardless of being in the Tora (Old Testament), Gospel (New Testament), God is very consistent in what is important in life. We learn as the Lord instructs from Mark 12:28-34;
28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
32 “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33 To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
34 When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.
The Lord’s answer begins with the reciting of the Shema (Listen Israel); Shma Yisrael, Adonai Eli nehu, Adonai Ehud. Or; Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Followed by the Lord’s instruction;
30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
The Lord is quoting Deuteronomy 6:4-5, and Leviticus 19:18. Confirming for me how unswerving God is in declaring that our mindset must be about loving God with all we are and loving our neighbors as ourselves. (Understanding that we don’t do the picking on who our neighbors are, God does). And sometimes, God has a sense of hummer when He picks the perfect people to be your neighbor!
When I begin to work on what God has commanded regardless of Torah or Gospel, the world opens up. When I really take to heart what God instructed through Moses to Israel in the wilderness, and determining it is the same message the Lord is commanding us today (love God, and love other people; genuinely), my way becomes clearer. I’m no longer consumed by who’s to blame as much as how do we work on making things better. What can I do, or how can I give of myself?
I think, this is when we as Christians can begin to understand what it might be like to be able to put it all on the line for another person. By the way, each person working with the Lord gets to figure out what it means to give of our lives for others, and you don’t have to necessarily die for another person to give your life for another.
Devoting ourselves to the service of others is also being a hero, and it happens in a myriad of ways that reflect the people, times, and challenges of the moment. Just look at who is keeping our society going right now! Beginning with first and foremost; our Police Fire/Paramedics, Hospital/Medical, Ice/Border Patrol, Homeland Security, and especially our military. We are blessed!
It shows that we are more than just about ourselves, that we must be interested in the lives of others, the progression on our society, and the respect we have for what we have been given to by God.
Much like what John’s New Testament letter where he instructs in, 1 John 3:16-18;
16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.
Not all of us can be like the heroes just mentioned, but I believe, John is not talking about dying as much as he is talking about living for others. That our lives are so much deeper, more empowered, and robust, when we give of ourselves. When we do, we resonate some of the heroism we memorialize today for the fallen of 911, those in our military who have battle tyranny and depravity for twenty years hence, and the police who continue to give the last full measure on our city streets. Their lives taken by those who choose not to love their neighbors.
This is when all of us must remind ourselves that we will always need heroes in our lives! The day-to-day heroes that build society below our radar of observation. Those who do the right thing when no one is watching, or helping others in need. Willing to bind up when others seek to tear down.
This is confirmed because there will always be those who choose to put themselves and their selfish desires before all others. Isaiah spoke of this challenge in Today’s Call to Worship reading from; Isaiah 50:5-8;
5 The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears;
I have not been rebellious,
I have not turned away.
6 I offered my back to those who beat me,
my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard;
I did not hide my face
from mocking and spitting.
7 Because the Sovereign Lord helps me,
I will not be disgraced.
Therefore have I set my face like flint,
and I know I will not be put to shame.
8 He who vindicates me is near.
Who then will bring charges against me?
Let us face each other!
Who is my accuser?
Let him confront me!
And at some point, we must all set our faces to flint and oppose the evil that is our very nature, and support those of us who would battle evil, and fight the good fight for others and our society. As Isaiah reflects hundreds of years before the Christ, what the Messiah would endure, and lead by example, we are left to contemplate what it is like to walk in the footsteps of the Lord.
In spite of the threats spoken of by Isaiah, the Lord remained faithful to us. God shows us how to live in harmony with others, and when to take a stand for God’s righteousness, with Isaiah describing:
6 I offered my back to those who beat me,
my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard;
I did not hide my face
from mocking and spitting.
Thankfully in our country right now, most of us are not persecuted for our faith in Him, or who we are as a people. 911 was an exception and a reminder that it is a dangerous world out there, in which many people of faith are persecuted by intolerance. Perhaps the greatest hurdle we face is overcoming our fears of being ridiculed and mocked. Especially in our country of privilege and splendor.
When we do come to the aid of others (and we must) when harassed, we curb evil’s ability to cultivate and destroy. When we offer a helping hand, a smile, a pat on the back, we affirm our commitment to be more then the sum total of ourselves.
And it all starts with loving God with all we have, and loving our neighbor as ourselves. When we learn to follow the Lord, we begin to remember all of the ways to enhance our walk in him, our lives begin to transform into something much bigger than ourselves. Perhaps this is when we begin to learn how to give of our lives for others, by the giving of ourselves.
At this point we are following our Lord’s commands, and we are enveloped in his love as instructed in Today’s Message Reading from John 15:8-13;
8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
When one thinks on this 911 anniversary, of all those who have laid down it all that you and I might live free, it makes me want to thank God for all those who have answered the call and walked in the Lords footsteps of selfless service. Perhaps today we can begin to live for each other in this vast mystery we call life.
Amen!
Benediction; Based on Romans 1:16-17 and Numbers 6:24-26
16 For we are not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.
And
24 The Lord bless you
and keep you;
25 the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
26 the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace.