They Gave Their Lives to Set Us Free

This sermon was preached at the Village at Brookwood, Burlington, N.C. on Memorial Day May 27, 2013.  The Gospel lesson is John 16:12-15, the one appointed for Year C, Trinity Sunday.

John 16:12-15

Jesus said to the disciples, "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you."

               Today is Memorial Day - the day we in the United States remember those who gave their lives in the service of our country.  They came from all over this great nation - the Great Plains, the heights of the Rockies, the hollows of the Appalachians, the inner city of New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Miami, the cotton fields of the Deep South, the congested highways of California, the corn fields of the Mid-West and the deserts of the Southwest.  They were rich and poor, white, black and brown, male and female, farm hand and city dweller.  In the trenches of Flanders fields, on cemetery ridge at Gettysburg, in the rice paddies of the Mekong Delta, on the mountains of Afghanistan, in the desert of Iraq, on the beaches and jungles of countless Pacific islands, on and under the waters of the South Pacific and North Atlantic, in the skies above Midway and Nazi Germany, these men and women made the ultimate sacrifice to free us from tyranny.

               Yesterday was Trinity Sunday.  Our readings are the ones appointed for that day.  Trinity Sunday and Memorial Day might seem to have little in common, but the two are connected on a deep, primal level.

We Christians believe that God is a Trinity, three persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – in one being – God.  This revelation of the Trinitarian nature of God comes to us in and through the person of Jesus Christ.  In the life, death and resurrection of this Galilean, people saw much more than a humble carpenter.  They saw the Son of God; they saw the very being of God.

Jesus, like the men and women we remember today, made the ultimate sacrifice.  God the Father, out of his great love for each of us, sent his only Son into harm’s way to free us from the tyranny of sin and death and to reunite us with God.  Jesus, when he returns to the Father, out of his great love for each of us, sends the Holy Spirit to continue his work – to comfort, to strengthen, to heal and to lead us in the way of Christ.  Every Sunday, every time we celebrate the Eucharist, we observe Memorial Day, because we remember Christ’s sacrifice; and we see again this incredible Trinitarian vision of God - this incredible community of love.

               Today’s Gospel comes from Jesus’ farewell discourse.  In the farewell discourse, Jesus explains to his disciples why he must leave them.  There are two parts to this discourse.  The first part begins in chapter 14.  Jesus consoles his disciples in this part saying, “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.  In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live” (14:18-19).  The second part of the farewell discourse, part of which we heard today, looks to the future.

Jesus tells his disciples, “I still have many things to say to you but you cannot bear them now.”  The Greek word translated as “to bear” normally is used for carrying a physical load or burden.  The implication of this verse, according to biblical scholar Gail O’Day, is that the future will test the disciples in ways that they cannot bear to hear now.  Jesus, however, does not abandon his disciples.  He sends the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth to guide them.  The word translated as “guide” is a compound Greek word that literally means “lead in the way.”  Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to lead us in his life-giving way through the struggles and vicissitudes of our lives.

As you know, last week my father was in the hospital.  He slumped over during dinner Tuesday evening.  Bobby, the nurse on duty, found he had a 103 degree fever.  He was rushed to Alamance Regional.  We were all very concerned.  After different diagnoses ranging from pneumonia to congestive heart failure, his doctor finally said that he had had an infection of his lungs that had exacerbated an existing lung condition. 

During this anxious time, the Holy Spirit comforted, healed and led us.  Dad’s priest Courtney and the hospital chaplain both visited and prayed with him.  The excellent doctors, nurses, aides and staff of ARMC cared for him.

One of these caregivers was a young, physical therapist named Aslan.  Aslan, as you probably know, is the name of the lion in C.S. Lewis’ fantasy series The Narnia Chronicles.  Lewis said Aslan was an alternative Christ figure in the fantasy world of Narnia.  Like Christ, Aslan dies and is raised from the dead.  Aslan is a guardian, a savior, a benevolent guide to the children who visit him.

Aslan is an unusual name.  I had to look it up in the dictionary.  It is the Turkish word that means “lion.”  In the course of my life, I had never met someone named Aslan.  Intrigued, I looked online and found that not surprisingly it has never been listed among the 1000 most popular names in the US.  In the rare instances when a parent names a child Aslan, the child is a boy.

This past week I met with Stuart Hoke for spiritual direction.  Stuart has been a priest for 40 years.  He has a Doctorate of Theology in Ascetical Theology.  Ascetical Theology simply means the study and practice of becoming more like Christ.  Stuart asks those who see him for spiritual direction simple but thought provoking questions.  Where is God working in your life?  What consolations or disconsolations have happened to you?  What songs, television shows or books spoke to you?  What coincidences or signs have you received of God’s presence?  These questions help people look beyond the surface of their lives to a deeper reality.  They help us have eyes to see and ears to hear, as Jesus said (Mat. 13:16).

Dad had about as much chance of having a physical therapist named Aslan as he did of winning the $600 million Powerball.  Aslan did much more than provide physical therapy; she was a sign of Christ’s care, a sign of the Spirit’s comforting, guiding hand in a confusing, anxious time.

This Memorial Day, we remember those Americans who gave their lives to free us from tyranny, and we remember Jesus, who gave his life to free us from sin and death, who opened the way for us to God the Father and who sent the Holy Spirit to comfort, to strengthen and to guide us in his way.