What About Today?
by Rev. Dr. Michael Stotts

Is. 49:8-16a
Mt. 6:24-34

While Peg and I were on vacation , as usual, we listened to different public radio stations as we drove along. One particular day we happened to hear a story about Memorial Day and it's origins, and one of the things the story mentioned was how few Americans really knew what Memorial Day was all about. They said that according to a recent survey something like only 20 percent of Americans knew the reason Memorial Day was established--other than giving us a nice day off for barbecues. Yes just that few a Americans realize that Memorial Day was and is a day set aside to remember those who have died in the past wars of our nation.

While I'm sure there are many reasons for such ignorance, maybe one of the reasons so many don't realize why Memorial Day is observed is that people would rather forget the wars of the past. After all, we all yearn for peace in the future, and remembering the dead also reminds us of our own mortality-- a subject most of us are very good at avoiding. Yet death, as much as we don't like to think about it--death is a part of life!

Then of course there are other reasons why we tend to avoid recognizing Memorial Days real purpose.
For me, I've always found Memorial Day a difficult time, because I think there is a tendency for some to use Memorial Day as a time for glorifying war, while personally, it's clear to me that our faith teaches us instead that we ought to be about the business of beating swords into plowshares. Yes, we ought to honor those who have died for us, in past wars, because of the great sacrifice they made for us. But that does not mean we ought to honor war itself. In fact I'm sure that those who have given their lives in the wars of this nation would almost all agree, if they could speak to us today, that wars should not be glorified--that instead we ought to b e about the business of finding ways to build peace, rather than jumping too early to the military solutions for our problems.

Then there's still another reason why Memorial Day's intended purpose is often forgotten, in favor of the festive holiday picnic view of this particular day off for Americans. That is that psychologically, I think we all would much rather focus on a pleasant present and hopeful future, than to dwell on the past--especially unpleasant times in the past, such as wars, and those who died there.

Indeed our gospel lesson this morning tells us that we ought not to worry about all those painful lessons of the past and the worries they generate for the future--worries like: Will we have enough? Will we be safe? He told us that if we look to the past we'll also find that God indeed always has taken care of us. So Jesus seems to want us to look to the positive lessons of the past and how God always finds a way to care for us. Even after the times of difficulty, like wars, times of new life have always followed in God's world. Jesus in our lesson pointed to the lessons of nature to show us just that--that God cares for us. So instead of worrying we need to live for today.
And that I think is perhaps the most valuable lesson of all we can learn from wars of the past. That indeed it is in the here and now that we need, as God's people to live, and to work toward peace. Instead of dwelling on the past we need to yes, to learn it's lessons but then be about the business of being God's peacemakers today.

What a vital lesson that is for us today, is it not?! Too often, we as a people, spend far too much time being anxious about the future--and so, with our anxiety, that Jesus talked about here, we wind up being too security conscious--to quick to build walls and defenses and weapons for the future, instead of simply trusting in how God has always been there for us in the past, and so living with hope, and love and peace, in the present.

So what then are the lessons that we should take from past wars, on this Memorial Day weekend? Well clearly first of all, those who have died for us on the battlefield, would tell us, I believe, that fighting against our enemies with military solutions as our way of diplomacy and our way of solving problems, is precisely the wrong way to settle our differences. Instead we ought to be about the business of seeing the humanity in every group of people, no matter how different they are from us, and no matter what our differences. If we can see that those we call enemies are "just people like us" who've just grown up in a different world of circumstances, then perhaps we can begin to understand each other, and be less likely to take up arms in trying to achieve peace.

Indeed, I would say that those who have died in past wars have all learned--though tragically learned the hard way--that in the end there is very little difference between people on either side of wars conflicts. When soldiers experience the death of their brother and sister combatants on the battlefield, they find that death is death, no matter who you are, and the same human hopes for life are dashed for each one, on all sides of the conflict.

Yes, those who've died in our past wars would this day I'm sure all tell us loudly if they could--find ways to live in peace! For war is no answer, and indeed in the face of death, we are all one--we are all mortal--we are all very much alike, and so realize how tragic has been our deaths.

Recently, I ran across a fascinating epitaph that had been etched on a Revolutionary War Monument, marking the grave of many soldiers who died in Ridgefield, Connecticut during that war. The inscription read as follows,
"In Defence of American Independence
At the Battle of Ridgefield, April 27,1777
Died, Eight Patriots Who Were Laid in These Grounds
Companioned by Sixteen British Soldiers
Living Their Enemies, Dying Their Guests,
'In Honor of Service and Sacrifice
This Memorial is Placed for the Strengthening of Hearts."
Yes, "Living Their Enemies, Dying Their Guests." Those who've died in wars past have learned the hard way how tragic are the divisions that lead us to war, and how much our deaths, our mortality teach us that in reality we are all brothers and sisters--meant to be not enemies, but neighbors--hosts and guests.[ Stories on Stone, Oxford University Press]

Don't worry about tomorrow, Jesus said. And indeed , most of our worries that attach to those different from us, would disappear, if only we'd learn from wars past, and get to know those we call enemies-- get to know that in our mortality and our hopes for peace we are not that different at all--that instead of fighting one another, God made us to love one another.

Then as we learn that vital lesson from past wars, on Memorial Day, we ought indeed to be primarily focussing on today--on applying those lessons today. If you think about it, in our culture we spend far too much time not only dwelling on the past but living just for the future, so that tragically we forget to focus on the primary purpose God has given us--to live today with love and understanding of one another--with love and peace. If we will, says Jesus, then tomorrow will take care of itself.

Yes, Jesus talked about how foolish we are to live with worries about tomorrow--to worry as he put it for example, "about your life, what you will eat, or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear." We shouldn't worry about such thoughts related to our future security he said for "Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing." And yet foolishly, we do spend far too much time and energy worrying about the future : planning for our financial future, working always to try to get a better job, to earn more, to be sure our kids have clothes to wear tomorrow, and always newer clothes, and always more than enough food (how much food have you thrown away lately?) If instead of obsessing on gaining more and more for the future, with our overconcern for security, or living each of us with a focus on the past--and how it's taught us sometimes to worry, Christ tells us, let tomorrow take care of itself, for today's trouble--like finding ways to live in peace with one another--today's trouble, he said, is enough for today. Yes we need to forget the past long enough, and the future, if we are to learn to live in peace, today.

One of the problems with living in the past, or the future is that we all have slightly different experiences in our past, and that give us different views or goals for the future--indeed very different experiences from some people, so if our head is always "back there" instead of being focussed on loving the people in front us, or if we're pulling those around us to some imagined better future when their different world of experiences has taught them to head in different directions, then no wonder we have troubles finding peace, instead of war. We haven't learned to live in the here and now, and to deal with and work in the present together, sharing our thoughts and dreams to build peace now.

Let me give you an example. Some of you have heard me mention Ron Del Bene--an Episcopal priest who is a spiritual guide and retreat leader. I was fortunate to attend a very helpful retreat he led for our United Methodist pastors in this area awhile back, and so I have often turned to some of his writings as well. In one of his stories, he shared an experience he had in the early nineteen eighties when a Christian singing group he had heard, called the Fisherfolk, was very popular in some church circles. He said, "I knew several people in the group, and at various conferences we shared many special times together. And because I was such a fan of the Fisherfolk style of singing, I tried to teach my parishioners," said Del Bene, "the songs that the group had popularized.

"But although we sang the songs week after week," he said, my enthusiasm didn't catch on. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't ignite the spark that got the congregation singing with much gusto. One day I mentioned this to the music director. 'Something's just not right Sharon,' he said, 'We're making a pass at the songs, but we're not pulling them off.' "

The pastor then says that Sharon didn't respond right away. "She seemed to be weighing how forthright she dared be. 'Well,' she finally said, "what I think is happening when we sing these songs is that we're singing with you, and you're singing with the Fisherfolk!'
"It took a few moments," he said, "for me to fully comprehend what Sharon was saying. Then I laughed. 'You're absolutely right,' I told her. 'Whenever we sing those songs--especially my favorites--I'm not in church, at least not in my mind. Instead, I'm back at the base of the Rockies or in North Carolina marching around a campfire and singing to the strum of guitars. ' Sharon then made some suggestions about church music. When we picked up on her ideas, the singing took on a new vitality. As for me," says the pastor, "whenever I find myself trying to pull people along and their reluctance is obvious, I say to myself, 'Okay, Del Bene, remember the Fisher folk.'"
[Del Bene, Ron; Montgomery, Mary and Herb; From the Heart--Stories of a Pastor's Walk With People; Nashville, Upper Room Books, 199, pp.49-50]

Yes, and oh how we could learn from his experience here! For we too, instead of living each of us, in our own past world of experience, or instead of having our head focussed on some future we particularly yearn for because of our different past, we too need instead to be tuned in to the lives of those with whom we're called by our faith to interact with love and peace, in the hear and now. Whenever we start trying to pull people into different directions and a future our past has taught us to go in, we need to stop and focus on who we are with in the hear and now--and hear their stories and their dreams--and then ask, what about today--what's our task in order to build a better world together now--not back then or in some dreamed for future. Yes, Jesus put it well. Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today's trouble is enough for today."

Indeed, in the end, if you think about, if it's a future peace we're worried about, that puts all the more importance on focussing on peace-making effort today, rather than worrying about some future war. For if we're dreaming dreams of peace today, and working toward it, wars won't be necessary. If on the other hand, we're convinced wars will always be the way we have to live, and spend all of our efforts building defenses and weapons, then guess what? All we'll have to use to build our future are . . defenses and weapons--not ways of peace.

Speaking of our future, a Roman Catholic Cardinal--Cardinal Suenens once said "happy are those dream dreams and are willing to pay the price to make them come true." Yes, and if indeed our dreams are dreams of peace for our future, and we're paying the price, focussing our efforts our time and money on building peaceful relationship with all of God's peoples in this world of ours, instead of building defenses --then think how much more peaceful our future will be. But it has to begin today -- in each today--not in some future moment.

Now is the time, to build peace. Now is the time to find a way to build a new relationship with that estranged family member of ours, or the neighbor down the street with whom we don't get along. And, now is the time for all of us, to begin to get to know people of other lands and religions and ways of life, so we can understand them, rather than fearing them. And now is the time for our nations leaders, not to mention the rest of us, to talk to and begin to understand even would-be terrorists, and try to understand why some people seem to hate us. Now is the time to begin to build a new kind of relationship with others in our world. If we are so hated by some, what can we do to help them get to know the people that we really are--a people who yearn for the same peace that they do. Certainly that was always the yearning of even those we remember today, who died for us in past wars. Let's honor them today by living today in ways that will make for peace--for It's time--now-- we began to live the peace for which we so yearn for every tomorrow.
Amen.