Sunday, May 26, 2024

SERMON: TO KEEP A MEMORY ALIVE -- Memorial Day Message

 


Naylor Community Christian Church

26 May 2024

 

I.  Introduction

            -- turn in Bibles to Joshua 4:1-9

 

Joshua 4:1 When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, 2 “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, 3 and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from right where the priests are standing, and carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.”

 

4 So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, 5 and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, 6 to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 7 tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”

 

8 So the Israelites did as Joshua commanded them. They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, as the Lord had told Joshua; and they carried them over with them to their camp, where they put them down. 9 Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been in the middle of the Jordan at the spot where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant had stood. And they are there to this day.

 

            -- in her song, “The Way We Were,” Barbara Streisand famously sang these words:

 

“Memories

Like the corners of my mind

Misty watercolor memories

Of the way we were

 

Scattered pictures

Of the smiles we left behind

Smiles we gave to one another

For the way we were

 

Can it be that it was all so simple then?

Or has time rewritten every line?

If we had the chance to do it all again

Tell me, would we, would we,

Could we, could we?”

 

            -- one of the most precious and distinct attributes of human beings is our capacity to remember -- to remember what has been -- to remember who has been -- to know who we are and what we have done -- to remember and to be remembered -- to know and to be known

            -- our personalities -- our lives -- our being -- are wrapped up in these memories -- we are who we are today based on what happened in the past -- on the experiences we have had -- and our memories of ourselves and those around us -- especially loved ones -- and the memories of our shared experiences direct our paths in the future in ways we don’t fully understand

            -- memory is important -- remembering is important -- that is why dementia and Alzheimer's are such devastating diseases -- it’s because those memories that Barbara Streisand sang about are slowly erased and can cause us to lose who we are

 

-- “[several years ago,] BBC Radio 3, the U.K.'s primary classical music station, ran a fascinating series of articles on music and memory -- Adam Zeman, a Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology, [was one of the authors and] wrote about amnesia and memory loss and their relationship to epilepsy.

-- “Zeman mentioned two patients, Peter and Marcus, who described their amnesia in very similar terms. -- One said: "My memory of my past is a blank space. I feel lost and hopeless. I'm trying to explore a void."

-- “Both [patients] described how disconcerting it is to look at photos. Even though they recognize themselves, they have no recollection of the moment. One said that it's like "reading a biography of a stranger." He's conscious of recent memories slipping away from him, like ships sailing out to sea in the fog, never to be seen again.

-- “Two things stand out in Zeman's essay -- First, without memory, it's hard to cling to an identity. -- [As] one of the patients said: "I don't have the moorings that other people draw on to know who they are." -- Second, it's hard to have hope when we don't know our past.

-- As Zeman explained, "The inability to invoke the past greatly impedes their ability to imagine a future."1

 

            -- because our memory is so important, God advises us in His word to remember -- to remember Him and the mighty acts that He has done for us -- to remember our community and those in our community -- and to remember ourselves -- who we are in Christ and who we are in His story

            -- we see this call to remember all the way back in the Old Testament -- in Numbers 15:37-41, God tells Moses to instruct the Israelites to add tassels on the corners of their garments, with a blue cord on each tassel -- so that, when the people look at the tassels, they will remember the Lord God Almighty -- they will remember the commands of the Lord and obey them and not turn away from them -- they will remember who they are in the Lord -- and how He brought them out of Egypt to be their God -- they will remember they are the people of God

            -- we see a similar call to remember here in this passage from Joshua 4:1-9 -- one of my favorite passages in the Bible -- let’s look at this together and see what we can learn about remembering through this story of the Israelites crossing into the Promised Land

 

II.  Scripture Reading/Lesson (Joshua 4:1-9)

            -- as we start, let me give you the background and context of this passage so you can better understand what is going on

-- the events of the Book of Joshua take place after God led the Israelites out of Egypt through the Red Sea -- because of their lack of faith and trust in Him, God had prevented them from entering the Promised Land until that entire generation had passed away -- so, because of God’s wrath and judgment on them, Moses led that faithless generation in the wilderness for 40 years without any of them ever going into the Promised Land

-- the Book of Joshua opens in a time of transition -- it begins with the death of Moses -- the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness are now over, and the time has come for the nation of Israel to finally cross the Jordan River and enter the Promised Land

-- Joshua has taken Moses’ place as the leader of the nation, and he has them all assembled on the eastern bank of the Jordan River -- right where their forefathers’ faith had failed 40 years earlier

-- at God’s direction, Joshua has the people of Israel consecrate themselves in preparation for entry into the Promised Land -- he tells them to cleanse themselves from their sin and renew their relationship with God -- to symbolically show their faith and trust in their Lord God -- with that final step, the nation of Israel is ready to enter the Promised Land

            -- God directs the priests to take the Ark of the Covenant and step out into the river ahead of the people -- a symbol of God going before them -- and as soon as the priests entered the water, the river quit flowing -- the Bible says it "backed up and the waters stood up in a heap" -- allowing the rest of the Israelites to cross the river on dry land, reminiscent of the moment God had brought their forefathers out of Egypt on dry land by parting the Red Sea

 

            -- which brings us to our passage this morning -- Joshua Chapter 4 -- if you would, look back with me at verse 1

 

Joshua 4:1 When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, 2 “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, 3 and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from right where the priests are standing, and carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.”

 

 

-- the nation of Israel had a memory problem -- they kept forgetting what God had done for them -- all the way back to when Moses led the people out of Egypt, the Israelites continually forgot what God had done and what He was doing for them

-- when they first left Egypt and were headed towards the Promised Land, they ran out of food and water there in the wilderness -- so, the people complained and told Moses they should never have left Egypt, because life was so much better for them there -- quickly forgetting how they had suffered under the yoke of bondage and how God had led them out of Egypt and out of slavery in such a miraculous way

-- and when the nation of Israel first made their way to the Jordan River and God directed them to go in and take the land, they refused because they were scared of the inhabitants of the land -- they had forgotten the mighty power and working of God against the Egyptians -- they forgot about the parting of the Red Sea -- and they didn’t trust that God was able to deliver them against their enemies

-- God did miracle after miracle with the nation of Israel, but they kept forgetting what He had done, and they kept turning away from Him, time and time again

-- so, this time, as God is once again preparing the people of Israel to finally enter the Promised Land, He wants to make sure that the people didn’t forget Him and His mighty works again -- this time, He gives them a physical reminder of His power and grace -- of His presence in their lives -- of how He defines who they are

            -- God tells Joshua to send twelve men -- one from each of the twelve tribes of Israel -- back into the Jordan River where the priests were standing with the Ark of the Covenant -- He tells each of them to take a stone from the middle of the river and to put the stones down at the place where they would spend the night

 

            -- verse 4

 

Joshua 4:4 So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, 5 and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, 6 to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 7 tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”

 

8 So the Israelites did as Joshua commanded them. They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, as the Lord had told Joshua; and they carried them over with them to their camp, where they put them down. 9 Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been in the middle of the Jordan at the spot where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant had stood. And they are there to this day.

 

            -- Joshua did exactly what the Lord told him to do -- he sent the men he had selected out to retrieve the stones and told them the reason why God had commanded them to do so

            -- in verses 6-7, Joshua explains that they were to do this so that "in the future, when your children ask you "what do these stones mean?", they would be reminded of God’s miracle at the Jordan and could share this experience with the next generation -- telling them how God stopped the flow of the Jordan when the priests carried the ark of the covenant into the river -- and how God had led them into the Promised Land on dry land, just as He had led them out of Egypt on dry land by parting the Red Sea

            -- these stones were to be a physical reminder of God’s faithfulness on behalf of Israel -- it was to be something that the people could look at and touch as they remembered how God led them from the wilderness and across the Jordan River to the Promised Land -- it was to be their burning bush moment with God

            -- so, the men did as Joshua directed

 

-- now ponder this: why do you think God had one man from each tribe get the stones? -- why didn't He just have Joshua do it or just send out a couple of guys to gather up the twelve stones for the entire nation? -- wouldn’t that have been easier?

-- it’s simple -- it’s because each tribe needed to remember that moment -- each tribe needed to erect a spiritual marker of their own -- by sending someone from each tribe to gather a personal stone, God ensured that the story of His miracle that day would be preserved forever, passed on from generation to generation -- if any tribe had been left out, the story might not have continued to be passed down through the members of that tribe

-- this is a reminder to us that our faith and our experiences with God are personal, too -- our spiritual lives cannot be based on the faith of others -- on what God did through them -- our spiritual lives are formed as God touches each of us, individually, and as He moves in our churches in the communities in which He has placed them

-- that is why it’s important for all of us to pick up our own memorial stones to remember how God has touched us personally and individually

 

            -- that night, Joshua set up the stones in the midst of the people, and they all looked at the standing stones -- at the memorial to God’s mighty acts -- and remembered

-- in verse 9, the writer of the Book of Joshua records, “and they are there to this day”

-- these twelve river stones became a permanent physical reminder of an experience of the nation of Israel with God -- a reminder of God’s faithfulness in bringing the people into the Promised Land

-- it was a place for the next generation and the ones to follow to learn the stories of faith -- to see and touch the stones that Joshua and the 12 tribes of Israel had erected -- to know the truth of God’s grace and mercy and faithfulness -- and to be encouraged by their remembrance as they walked forward in faith with God in their own generations

 

III.  Memorial Stones

            -- this story expresses to us the importance of remembering -- of keeping the past alive -- of using reminders like memorial stones or blue tassels or other spiritual markers in our lives -- so that we won’t forget -- because, truthfully -- just like the Israelites -- we sometimes have spiritual memory problems, too

            -- sometimes we find ourselves in the middle of a storm -- battling trials and tribulations -- and we take our eyes off God and we forget the past -- we forget all the times when God was there for us -- all the times that God helped us in similar situations in the past -- and this forgetting can cause us to lose hope

            -- or sometimes we find ourselves experiencing blessings in our lives, and we forget how God has led us to this very place and moment, and so we forget to praise Him for His blessing and grace and mercy in our lives

            -- sometimes we just see our churches as buildings -- as places or locations that we go to on Sundays and Wednesdays -- and we forget the sacredness of this place -- of the miracles and the moments that occurred in the past

-- how many lives have been changed at this very altar? -- how many relationships were healed in this place? -- how many people experienced the presence of the Lord God Almighty right here?

-- and, if we forget to remember what God has done here in the past, we can also forget the promise from God that He will never leave us or forsake us -- that He is here today and will be here in the future -- that He still transforms lives and hearts in this place -- if we will but remember and trust and believe

            -- that’s why God encourages us to have symbols of remembrance in our lives -- things like these memorial stones that Joshua and the Israelites erected on the other side of the Jordan

-- memorial stones keep us from forgetting -- they stand as reminders of who we are and where we've been -- and the stories these stones represent become a legacy of God’s faithfulness in our lives and in our churches that we can pass on to our children and those who follow in our footsteps

           

            -- I heard a story from a missionary one time about how he gave a Bible to a congregation in Africa that didn’t have one -- he presented it to the pastor and the pastor held it up and showed it proudly to the church

            -- and then, to the horror of the missionary, the pastor proceeded to rip the Bible up -- the missionary had no idea what was going on, but he watched as the pastor handed out pages and sections of the Bible to his members -- for none of them had a Bible, either -- and he wanted his people to have God’s word in their homes and in their lives

            -- after the service, the missionary was talking with some of the members -- and he asked one excited man what passage he had gotten -- “Lamentations,” he proclaimed -- and the missionary thought, “Lamentations -- that’s like the worst book -- how depressing is that” -- and so he told the man, “Let’s see if we can get you something else -- maybe something from the gospels”

            -- the man replied, “No, this is what I want -- it says right here, “The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah” -- and if the word of the Lord could come to Jeremiah, then it can come to me, too”

            -- that is the power and the promise of memorial stones -- to remember the past and look to the future

 

            -- another benefit of memorial stones is that they can help direct our path and our ministry in the future -- we need to always remember that God doesn’t want us to just live in the past, but He wants us to continue in faith by moving forward and doing great things for Him

-- memorial stones can help us continue on in our walk with Christ because they show us where we have been -- they help us to see how God was leading us in the past -- and they can be a road-map to show us the direction He intends for us to travel in the future

 

            -- when the Romans conquered England, they built roads throughout the country -- along each road at regular intervals and at each intersection -- they put these large marker stones to help travelers find their way -- these stones are six to eight feet in height -- you can still see them today in the English countryside

-- travelers could go down one of these roads and as they were walking, they could look back and see the markers behind them and they could line these markers up and it would show them the correct way to go, even when they couldn't make out the path in front of them

            -- our memorial stones -- our markers -- do the same for us and for our families and our churches -- they help us line up our lives and keep us from veering off the path that God intends for us to travel

 

            -- when I learned about this idea of setting up memorial stones and spiritual markers in my life, I went back and tried to record all the major times God had touched my life -- how He saved me from dying in an accident when I was a child -- the moment I gave my life to Jesus -- the experiences I had with Him at a Promise Keepers event in Tennessee and through Bible Study Fellowship -- how He led Kim and I to join the Methodist Church in Morven -- and how that led to me teaching Sunday School and Bible Study and then hearing the call to go into ministry

-- and looking back at these moments with Him, I could see a clear path -- a direction that God had been leading me all those years -- at the time, I couldn’t see it

-- when I was walking that path, I didn’t know where God was leading -- but because I had set up spiritual memorial stones in my life, I was able to look back and see how God had been with me the whole time -- leading me and directing my steps and my path all along the way

            -- I can see now how He led our family to this church -- how it was His plan for us to be here and to share our lives with you -- and how being here has grown our faith and our trust in God because of our shared experiences with you

-- because I had set up spiritual markers and memorial stones in my life -- because I intentionally remembered the moments when I had experiences with God -- I could sense where He wanted me to go in the future

            -- that is the power of memorial stones and spiritual markers -- it is important for us to remember these moments -- and that’s why I want to encourage you to take some time to identify these burning bush moments in this church and in your own lives so that you can see the faithfulness and the hand of God that has been with you all along

 

            -- to begin setting aside memorial stones and spiritual markers, the first thing we should do is sit down and try to remember the moments in our lives and in this church -- times when we had an experience with God

            -- these are events like your baptism -- the day of your salvation -- the time when God answered your prayers and healed a loved one -- the day God comforted you in the loss of a family member or a friend

            -- the day when God called you to a special ministry -- the day when God used you to do something important for the Kingdom, such as sharing the gospel and leading someone to Christ

 

            -- as you sit down and try to remember these moments, it might be helpful to write them down or to make a timeline of your life and mark these moments on that timeline to help you see how God has moved in your life over time

            -- as you know, I volunteer from time-to-time with a prison ministry called Kairos, and this was one of the exercises we led the prisoners through back in the early days of Kairos -- we had them make a timeline and history of where they had been and where they were headed -- physically and spiritually

-- and it helped them to see how God was with them early in their lives and it gives them hope that He would be with them in the future -- even though they may have made choices that led them away from Him and into prison, this timeline of spiritual stones reminded them that God was not through with them -- and that He would continue to reach out to them no matter where they were

 

            -- seeing God’s hand in your life and noting the moments with Him on a timeline can help you see how God has led you in the past and where He is leading you now

            -- additionally, these markers can serve as reminders of God’s faithfulness -- if He worked in your life in a mighty and powerful way in the past, then you can face anything in the future in the knowledge that He will be there for you again

            -- perhaps you have a physical reminder of a special moment with God, like the memorial stones that Joshua raised up for the nation of Israel -- like those rocks that Roger is always giving out to people

-- find those reminders and keep them in a place where you can see them regularly -- so that you won’t forget -- so that you will remember

 

            -- I am also a firm believer that churches need to document these spiritual markers in their history by putting up memorial stones, too

            -- the stories of God’s hand and work in a church community are powerful and can remind everyone of the great things He has done and will do in the future

            -- times such as the day when this church gathered around one of its own -- to share in someone’s joy -- to share their burdens -- to help them in times of sorrow and loss

            -- we need to remember the faithfulness of the founders of this church -- we need to tell the stories of the lives that have been changed through the ministry of this church -- of the salvations and the baptisms -- of the remembrances of lives well-lived -- of times of fellowship and sorrow and joy -- of ministries that have occurred

            -- we need to note the important dates and events that occurred in this community, because these stories will inspire greatness and increase faith and trust in God and point the way for the next generations

 

            -- the Apostle Paul routinely wrote in his epistles that he had heard of the faith of the churches that he was writing to -- he had heard of their experiences with God because they had shared the stories with others

-- what are the stories of faith that come from this church? -- what stories about you have others heard, and how has it inspired their own journeys of faith?

            -- we need to remember those stories -- write them down -- put up memorial stones and tell the next generations about them -- because we all need to remember how God has moved here in this place and in your individual lives as we look forward to where He is leading in the future

 

            -- and, finally, tomorrow is a reminder to us that countries need memorial stones, too -- tomorrow is Memorial Day -- the day we remember those who sacrificed their lives for our country -- who believed so much in the idea of America that they were willing to give their lives for that dream

-- our country is broken right now -- it is more divided than I have ever seen it -- we are hurting as a country -- and it is time for us to remember our past -- to remember how God blessed this country from the beginning and how God used America to change this world and the lives of so many people for the better

-- these stories need to be remembered and told, just like the stories of our spiritual lives need to be remembered and told -- and the headstones of our veterans should serve as important reminders for us of who we once were as a nation and where we need to go in the future

 

IV.  Closing

            -- as we bring this to a close, let me share with you one more thought -- I was listening to an interview with John Swinton on the Good Faith podcast this week -- Swinton was discussing how to live in the memories of God -- focusing on the theological aspects of dementia

            -- too often, we look at those with dementia or Alzheimer’s and we only see them slipping away -- we see how they no longer can remember who they are or who we are -- how their memories of the past that were so important in defining who they were are slowly being taken from them -- that’s why some have called their experiences with loved ones going through these diseases as “the long goodbye”

            -- but Swinton pointed out something in this interview that I felt was profound -- as long as someone else remembers, these people still live -- as long as someone else remembers who they were and what they did -- the shared experiences they had -- then their stories are not lost -- they are remembered and are kept alive as part of the family and the community of faith

            -- even though the person may have forgotten, our remembrances of them keep them whole

 

            -- that’s why memorial stones are so important -- they are reminders of who we are -- as churches -- as communities of faith -- and as individuals called by God

            -- we are called to remember -- to remember God -- to remember His faithfulness -- to remember who we are in Him -- Jesus Himself made that point when He instituted the sacrament of Holy Communion -- He told us to do this in remembrance of Him -- that by remembering what He had done, we would remember the story and our part in His death and resurrection

-- spiritual memorial stones serve to remind us of God’s faithfulness -- they stand as living monuments of hope to help us remember and they point to God’s promises for the future

 

            -- In this passage from Joshua, the Israelites needed to remember what God had done for them in the past so they might have the courage to stand on His promises in the land in which they were entering

-- because of the memorial stones God had them place across the Jordan River, they knew that they could trust Him to help them in this new land -- and where their ancestors had failed because of a lack of faith, this time the Israelites succeeded because they remembered -- they remembered God’s work in their past and trusted Him with their future

 

-- as we leave here today, I want to encourage you to take some time to remember and think about the spiritual markers in your own lives and in the life of this church so that you might be encouraged in what God has done in the past and have hope in what He will do in the future

-- to help you being this journey of remembrance, I have a rock for each of you up here on the altar

-- they’re nothing special -- just a small rock -- small enough to carry with you in your pocket or your purse -- a reminder of God’s faithfulness and what He has done in this church and what He has done in you and in your life -- so, I would encourage you to pick one up on your way out today

-- with that, let me encourage you to take a moment right now to remember who you are in Christ and what He has done in your life so that you can face the future in hope and faith and share your legacy of faithfulness with those who follow

            -- let us pray


 

1 Modified from Mark Meynell, "The Pulpit and the Body of Christ," Covenant Seminary 2017 Preaching Lectures

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