Well, what an interesting combination, today is isn’t it…
Trinity Sunday landing squarely on
Memorial Day weekend.
Now that’s a lot to sort out…isn’t it?
But if you think about it…
both of these can be connected nicely, I think…
because today we see The Blessed Trinity in its fullest --
and at the same time here in America
honor the service of courageous people
in the name of Freedom.
Remembrance and Community.
we can remember the ultimate sacrifice of Christ Jesus
for the redemption of the world,
and through His loving act/gift,
we can now here in our particular context
receive God’s Holy Spirit in faith.
And truly live as free people.
And as we learned last week,
the Holy Spirit becomes for us 21st century Christians
a whole new means or platform onto which
we can now grow into and fully experience
God’s continuous revelation for all of creation.
fully and completely when we remember Jesus here at the table
as we gather as a community.
saying that
Community is strengthen and renewed
by Remembrance of those who have come before us.
Jesus and those we have loved along the way.
I have a very clear memory of My mother and I
sitting at the kitchen table.
and must be in the first grade.
I remember the daunting task
of forming each letter slowly and with care.
But somehow my hand did not do
what my brain wished it would,
and my letters bore little resemblance
to those at the top of my tablet…
due in large part to my dyslexia.
I remember asking my mother
to write my name on my tablet.
With ease she took the pencil and with graceful,
fluid strokes formed the letters of my name…
Mark Fitzhugh.
She said, “Yes.”
And pointed to Mark and then to Fitzhugh,
sounding them out as if I had never heard them before.
I remember a sense of awe, thinking, “That’s my name.
That’s me, right there on that piece of paper. My name.”
more important, more permanent
because my name was written down before me.
Trinity Sunday is about remembering the names
of the three aspects of our one God.
Tomorrow our nation pauses to remember
those who have given their lives
in service to their country.
over 5,000 US deaths in the Iraqi and Afghanistan war…
I calculated that if we read one name per Second,
it would take us well over an hour & half
to read the complete list.
on this Memorial Day Weekend?
Today I remember
three incredibly brave young men
who could very easily slip into history
and never be remembered.
flew B25 bombers alongside Gen Jimmy Doolittle
as volunteers in a surprise air raid over Tokyo
on April 18, 1942, following Pearl Harbor.
was on that very same mission along with 75 others,
but three of his closest friends –
First Lieutenants Bill Farrow, Dean Hallmark
and Sergeant Harold Spatz,
were all three captured
following their plane crash
and were executed six months later in Japan.
Memorial Day is about names…
these three will not be forgotten.
or Korea, in Viet Nam, Iraq or in other arenas.
silently or aloud…name those people on your heart today.
But there was a time in ancient Israel
when the people feared that God had forgotten them.
to remind them that He had not forgotten them,
and He said -- “I have inscribed you on my palms.”
sometimes write things on their palms.
We do it to remember.
God did it because He can not forget.
“Unless I see the nail marks in Jesus’ hands
and put my finger where the nails were,
I will not believe it.”
“Thomas, your name is written on my palms.
Written in these nail prints,
written in my own blood.
I haven’t forgotten about you.”
are written all of our names.
Dean, Bill, Harold, and your loved ones…
with our names engraved on his palms.
are cherished and never forgotten
by the one God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
