May 29 2005

How Will You Be Remembered

May 29, 2005 Rev. Dr. Christopher Carlson

This morning in the newspaper there was an article, a credo if you will, written by a Michael Carlson, a soldier who was killed in Iraq back in January. As the family got ready for the funeral they were digging through his things and came across this document that was written when he was in high school. It says a lot about a young man. In fact it has been read on the radio stations and printed in the Wall Street Journal and today, printed as well. I want to read you a small passage which I think really talks to what we are talking about today. He said back in high school, before he joined the Army: “I want my life to account for something more than just a game. In life there are no winners, everyone eventually loses his life. I only have so much time. I can’t waste it with a game. I want to be good at life; I want to be known as the best at my job. I want people to need me, to count on me. I’m never late. I’m either on time or early. I want to help people. I want to fight for something, be part of something that is greater than myself. I want to be a soldier or something like that, maybe a cop or a secret service agent.” Strong words from a kid. Today is Memorial Sunday. A memorial is traditionally a monument or something we put up to remember some event or some person. But I think a memorial is something we also do with our lives; we leave something with what we do for people to see, what we stood for. And so we see what people have done in the military; some have given their lives. In India there is a cemetery where the bodies of American soldiers are buried and on the entrance to that cemetery are the words “Tell them we gave our todays for their tomorrows.” Sobering thought, especially as we’ve read about a young man who gave his life and other young men and women everyday we are losing…some of our soldiers. Especially in our reserve command which is a six-state region from Minnesota to Ohio, we’ve had more casualties than any other reserve command. Partly it is because we have a lot more truck drivers, we have a lot more people who have been needed and we send more people. But we send more soldiers than anyone. Everyday we hear about an 18-year old daughter or 19-year old son passing away, giving their life. We salute those people. We salute those who not only have given their lives and those who have served. We don’t have to join the Army or Navy or Air Force to make our lives count for something. I want to talk to you this morning about leaving a memorial or thinking about how you will be remembered. I read a story this week about a football coach who is taking a little different approach than the normal; he’s trying to make men out of these boys. He says to these boys that there are generally three things that men are remembered for; one is their sexual exploits or their ability in sports or their business success. He says I want you to be remembered for something else, I want you to be remembered for your service So whenever you go into a lunchroom, for example, and you see someone there who is by themselves I want you to go and sit with them, make a difference in their lives. And instead of simply having an award ceremony at the end of the season, he has them write an essay about how they would like people to speak about them at their funeral. Sobering thoughts for young men but something we all often think about. How would we like to be remembered? What would our memorial be? How as Christians, particularly, do we live our lives in such a way that we will be remembered well? I’ve chosen a couple of scriptures for you this morning, both taken from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount or the material out of that. One is from Matthew and one is from Luke.

First from Matthew, Jesus says:

You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.

And then in Luke 6, verse 27:

“But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ lend to ‘sinners,’ expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” … “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”

This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray.

As I was thinking about ways in which we can build a memorial of our lives, I naturally turned toward the Sermon on the Mount. Of course there is so much material there. We could be here all day. But I’ve chosen a few things which I think and hope can help us all build a memorial. I’ve been struck the last few days particularly how we really do build our lives on what people have done in the past. None of us arrived here through any fault of our own, we just arrived. And of course there are thousands of years of history before us. We inherit a lot of what we are from our parents, grand-parents, great-parents and all those around us. Our nation is built on the sacrifice of so many. Our lives are built on the sacrifices of so many. We owe a lot. But that in turn, makes us or, should make us think, about what we are doing for generations to come. For those who are around us, those who follow us, what kind of memorial are we leaving them? I think one way to get at that is to ask: what will people say about us? How would we be known? And how do we build a life that builds this kind of lasting memorial that people can look at and say that was a good life for Christ?

I’d like to begin where Jesus begins in the Sermon on the Mount. Of course, he does the Beatitudes but then he goes right into saying, “You are the light of the world.” I’m always struck by that. Partly my sense of humor goes a little crazy and I think that if I walked out into the street and said, “I’m the light of the world,” I would be carted off somewhere. But Jesus really means that. He’s not of course saying that we are the light like he is, but we reflect it. He is saying that he has sent us into the world as His light. And then he says also, “You are the salt of the earth.” Salt gives flavor. I like what Eugene Peterson says. He says, “You are the God-flavor of this world. You are the preservative.” Because the world is dark, it is evil, in many ways it is rotting. We are the preservative, we are the ones who God sends into the world to help the world. What does it mean to be light? How do we get a hold of that idea? I would ask you a couple of questions. For example, do people around you really know that you are a Christian? Have you said anything about it? Secondly, if they do know you are a Christian, does that make any difference to them? Does it make any difference at all? I have found that when people know that I am a Christian, one of two things usually happen. One is that people will actually come to me for help; they will come seeking advice and not simply because I am a pastor, they may find that out later, but they will come to me. On the other hand, there is the negative reaction. People judge you, maybe they hate you. Jesus says that, he says “Blessed are you if people hate you for my sake.” It’s not that we are going out there to insult people or to be “Oh gosh, isn’t it great that I’m being hated?” but some people actually will test you. Sometimes we are afraid of it. We know that and so we have to keep quiet. But we are to make a difference. People are to know. We’re to be light, God’s reflective lights in the world. And we are also to be salt. We are to make a difference wherever we go; wherever we go, God goes because His Spirit is with us. Sometimes I’m verbally asked a question, but sometimes it’s a question people ask without asking: “How can you as a man of God, or as a pastor or minister, be in the military? How can you as a person, who serves Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, be in an organization that basically is designed to kill people and break things?” I realize that sometimes that question is coming from a certain political view or in some cases, it is very sincere. But my answer to that is very simple. Soldiers need to hear about Jesus too. Sometimes war is necessary, but even when you are doing war, it can change you. It can make you as bad as the people you are fighting. A chaplain is there to be salt, to be light to that soldier. I was at a meeting a few months ago and a man who is in charge of several chaplains over in Afghanistan was talking with great pride about some of his chaplains. He read a couple of letters from these chaplains. In the Army, the doctrine for a chaplain is that you are with the troops wherever they are. And that sometimes means as far forward as you can go, out in the middle of nowhere. And he was talking about how these chaplains, a lot of times didn’t have any vehicles so they would put on the backpacks and go up in the hills in Afghanistan. I could imagine the scene, a chaplain walking along with an assistant, usually and some of these soldiers sitting out in the middle of nowhere, sometimes all by themselves but often in a group. They might be looking out in the distance and seeing a couple of people coming and wonder who it is. It’s the chaplain. That’s what the chaplain does; he or she will go and sit with those soldiers and chat with them a bit. And maybe those soldiers have been sitting out there alone and wondering what is going on, maybe they feel a little guilty because they had to kill somebody, maybe they have been seeing all the evil around them and wondering how they fit into it, maybe they have had some thoughts themselves or are slipping, and they see that person with a cross. And they are light. You are that light. We don’t have to be chaplains out in the middle of no place because there are hurting people everywhere. There are people feeling guilty everywhere. There are people wondering how they fit into this world everywhere. You go out into the world. You go to them. I can’t go to them, but you can. You are the light of the world. You are the soldier. You don’t have to be trained to help people. That’s what so many people think; “What if I mess it up? What if I do something wrong?” Half of the time people won’t pray out loud, I understand that, but it’s because they are afraid they will say something wrong. “Oh what if I pray and look stupid? What if I go out and help that person and I say something silly?” If you stand in Christ you will help them.

We are to be the light of the world. It’s interesting how so many Christians just go along. I was reading this book by Luis Pulau, it’s a really neat book, and he says “Are you just floating along? I consider a missionary friend one of the most Godly men I have ever known. I have seen him from the inside out. But only three of his six children have a serious commitment to the Lord. The others seem nice enough, nice lifestyles, nice children of their own, nice church, nice people. But they have no fire, no power, no cutting edge; they just go along with the flow. When this man’s wife was dying she said to my wife Pat, ‘The great agony of our lives is to see half our children not counting for anything.’ It’s not that they are evil. It’s not that they are into sin. They are perfectly okay in every area, they are just not counting for anything. They are just nice people floating along.” Lord deliver us from being nice, or just nice. We are to count for something. We are to be salt, to be light.

We are also to give. I love one of these verses in Luke. Jesus says: “Give and it will be given to you pressed down, shaken together, overflowing, poured into your lap. For the measure you use will be the measure you will get.” In the context of that, Jesus says things like love your enemy, do good to those who hurt you, be merciful as God is merciful. Jesus is saying that we are to be givers of mercy in this life. We have to remember that Jesus said “I have come not to condemn, but to heal. I have come that many may have eternal life in my name.” It’s not that we don’t stand for what is right; we don’t stand against what is wrong. But we must be given of mercy because we have received mercy. I was playing golf with a friend a couple of days ago. As we were playing along we missed a couple of shots; mine went into the woods and his into the water. We decided to give each other a mercy shot – that means we got to do it over. I said to him what has been quoted dozens of times by many, that I would much rather have mercy than justice any day. And people are like that, we could give them justice, we could always find something to condemn them for and rightly so. But our job is to bring mercy, be a giver of mercy.

Be a giver of your stuff as well. You know, it is often said that you can tell a lot about a person’s priorities by looking at their checkbook. What would your checkbook say about your priorities? Often the last thing that God gets His hands on is someone’s wallet because we don’t have our hand on anything else except our wallet, we are just holding on to it. What would your checkbook say about your priorities? Would someone who stood up at your funeral say you were generous? Some of you are old enough to remember Jack Benny, he was a comedian who played on the idea of being stingy. There was a famous scene in which he was mugged and the guy says, “Your money or your life.” And Jack Benny sits there and sits there and the mugger says, “Well” and he says, “I’m thinking, I’m thinking.” What are your priorities? Have you remembered God’s work in the world in your will? Have you remembered Faith in your will? I believe that we should give a percentage of our income and our legacy as well. This church has been built on by so many people in the past. What are we leaving for the future? Be a giver.

Last, be someone who is obedient. Jesus says, of course, “He who hears these words of mine and does them is like a person who builds his house on a great foundation.” But if you do not, you are like a person who builds his house on sand, or a bad foundation. When the bad times come, you are going to be washed away or hurt. Be obedient. So many people love the idea that Jesus is our Savior. We are saved from our sins, we are going to Heaven, Hallelujah! But there is another side to it…Savior and Lord. Not many of us know Jesus very well as Lord as we should. He says “Why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not do what I say?” We need to be about what Jesus says. It’s all about the memorial He’s left for us; He’s given us this promise of eternal life, this new life we have in our hearts. He’s given us the Holy Spirit to give us the power to do these things. You know, as I read this article or this credo by this soldier, Michael Carlson, I found that as touching as it was – it’s very powerful; it’s in this morning’s paper – this one piece I found a little bit sad. He says: “I want to live forever. But the only way one could possibly achieve that in this day and age is to live on in those you have affected. I want to carve out a niche for myself in the history books; I want to be remembered for the things I have accomplished. I have sometimes dream of being a soldier in a war…” He’s partially right. We do – as I was trying to say – we leave a memorial and that affects others and we hardly know how many we affect in our lives. But that’s not all there is to it. It’s not all about being remembered in history. I like better what Martin Luther King said many years ago about his own death. He said, “Every now and then I think about my own death and I think about my own funeral and if you get somebody to deliver the eulogy, tell them not to talk too long. Tell them not to mention that I have a Nobel Peace prize. Tell them not to mention that I have three or four hundred other awards. I’d like for somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to give his life serving others. I’d like for somebody to say that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to love somebody. Say that I was a drum major for justice, for peace, for righteousness. I just want to leave a committed life behind.” That’s my encouragement to you. Leave a committed life behind, not one that just exists, not one that just tries to get by, not one that just tries to be nice. Leave a committed life behind, let that be your memorial. Let us pray.