Cemeteries, Picnics, Thanksgiving
Romans 13:10
Gettysburg Presbyterian Church
Harry G. Winsheimer
May 24, 2009

            This weekend is schizoid.  It has so many personalities.  In my earlier parishes, I knew what I would do on Memorial Day morning: I would be with about ten or twenty hatted VFW or American Legion honor guards, a politician and a handful of citizens.  At the corner of the cemetery or at the memorial to the war dead, the following brief ceremony would take place.  I had a prayer, a declaration of the day as a memorial was read, the flag saluted, a politician lauded the war dead, the honor guard fired its disjointed salute, someone blew taps nearby followed by the echo taps from far away.  I said a benediction.  We replaced our hats, folded the flags, drove home or to the American Legion for lunch.

            I recall observing the folk at those ceremonies, a scant representation of the citizenry, the same folk every year.  Some cried.  Others stood quietly.  In many cases, they came because family wholeness had been ruptured by war's larceny of a brother or husband or father or son.  I would stand there not having lost anyone to war, yet moved by the unskilled reminder of our past, the price of liberty savagely bought and graciously handed to me when I emerged from my mother.  Reminded by Legionnaire and politician that all in the world are not presented with such a birthright.  Cars roared by, their occupants rushing to only God knew where, maybe to a picnic, motor and tires occasionally drowning all but the crack of the Springfields and the near bugle.  I wondered about the contrast.  On one hand, patriotic and family commemoration, and on the other, holiday fun.  The same day, the same moment, the same birthright, maybe even the same loss---a remnant stood in solemn ceremony, while many raced to their picnic.

            On this, the first holiday weekend of the summer, the roads are busy.  The main arteries near our major cities will be parking lots.  The Park will have people like blades of grass.  The sun will scorch wintered bodies.  The tablecloth will be spread; drink and food will be consumed like a supersonic jet gulps aviation fuel.  Families will assemble, tales be told, the latest arthritic ache described, the future plans of graduates vividly painted in pain-less beauty.  The soft ball will be thrown from right field by the unconditioned arm of Uncle John, and tomorrow he will not be able to get that arm to the top of the steering wheel.  That is, if the terrible of terribles does not happen: RAIN.  Rain is the spoil sport of Memorial weekend.  On this weekend, to have rain is to be convinced of the falseheartedness of nature.

            Cemeteries, picnics---two of the personalities of this weekend.  Both have their blessing.  The cemetery reminds us of the frail, chrystal goblet nature of our lives, and encourages us to keep installed the window screens of society lest tyranny get to us. The picnic warms us with the comfort of a blanket of friends; and we forget about cemeteries and lay-offs and paying for the root canal.  For a few hours, we laugh and enjoy.  The world is heaven!  It is good to be alive!  But, is that all?  Cemeteries and picnics?

            How about prayers of thanksgiving?

            I thank God for the troops, past and present, who sacrificed, even to maiming and death, that I may enjoy freedom.  I thank God for the troops this morning who obey and risk in the service of our nation.  I thank God for families, who worry and wait for their loved one in harms way. 

            I thank God for the freedoms which we have.

            I thank God that our ancestors had both the intuition and the courage to create this republic with laws which protect individuals. As President Lincoln succinctly and eloquently condensed it:  "government of the people, by the people and for the people."

            I thank God for the men and women who kept the ideals and the laws of the nation, protected freedoms, and handed on to us these freedoms to enjoy, preserve and share.  One example is our assembling in this room for worship.  Did you pause this morning to evaluate the cost of coming here?  Did you quiver in fear that government agents would be here takings names?  No!  We assume that we have the right to worship together.  Peace is not a right of many of our brothers and sisters in the church catholic.  This Lord's Day, some of them had to assemble before going to work, because they work in a society which does not give even token respect to a Lord's Day.  Some of them knew that the government controlled what the priest or minister would say, as in Moslem countries and was the case for decades in communist nations.  When you came today, you did not know what religious or political ideas I would proclaim.  You may be offended, insulted, edified, instructed or amused, but you are not afraid of being in my audience.

            Lest we assume, or teach any citizen to assume, that this freedom to worship is a right given us by the government, let me state unequivocally that it is not!  Our freedom to assemble is not the right of government workers to deny or to give.  Two fertile beliefs of our founding parents were that people had certain rights and that government existed to serve the people.  This is rooted in sound theology.  We do not belong to the government or to the individuals who for the moment occupy a position of authority in that system.  We belong to God!  We are God's creatures. 

            On a Friday morning at about 3:30 I awoke with a busy mind and could not relax.  I turned on the TV, but failed to find anything interesting.  Then, I came upon a propaganda movie about Hitler and his Germany filmed in the '30s.  It showed Nazi leaders and Hitler addressing up to 200,000 German boys and men.  The speakers were master orators.  I was impressed.  But, what they said made me shiver, literally.  They lauded the German fatherland and the Aryan race as superior and capable of accomplishing anything.  What really curled my skin were the comments about Hitler:  Heil Hitler, the model human, praise Hitler, serve Hitler, Hitler, Hitler, Hitler!  Burrr!  Chilling!  Repulsive!  The antithesis of what I believe. 

            I believe that we are God's people.  Fundamentally we answer to God.  In the course of living our lives as God's people, we need numerous services which may be supplied by government organization and employees.  But, those people being compensated by tax monies are "public servants, "not overlords."  Only God is Lord!  When I pledge allegiance to the flag of these United States, a small tingle ripples through me, an expression of my pride and gratitude for this nation built upon the belief that rights belong to people answerable to God.

            I firmly believe in the phrase, "under God."  With all my reverence for this nation, I know that its people are corrupted by power, self-gratification, egotism, vanity, selfishness and just plan meanness.  Therefore, I believe that our founding parents were smart.  They had much terrible experience with government.  They did not trust government people.  Kings and queens had abused and used them like doll babies.  Disney has fantasized the ugly reality of kings and queens.  There were no serfs, according to Disney's rewrite of history.  Everyone was a princess or knight.  No one forked the manure.  No seven-year-old girl died because the queen wanted to throw the most magnificent ball and confiscated the best food.  In our fantasies, we have no room for dungeons where father was sent because he could not pay his bills, resulting in his children being sold into slavery.  Our memories select the history which makes us feel good.  However, living in those times, our founding parents wanted to prevent such tyranny from ever oppressing citizens.  They wanted neither citizens nor leaders to believe in the fantasy of divine right to privilege and abusive power. 

            I appreciate the words "under God," not only because they mean that God blesses our nation.  That is not all that the words mean.  I believe that we are responsible to God for our use of power.  Therefore, whether we be president, congressman, senator, judge, park ranger or secretary in the local IRS office, we view our work as a trusteeship.  For custody it is.  We must appear before God Almighty and report on our stewardship.

            We know that God looks at certain behaviors.  From the prophets, we learn that God will ask:  "Are the poor widows cared for?  Do they have enough to eat?  Are they treated equally with the rich chief corporate officer in your courtrooms?  Are the sick and orphaned provided care?  Does the alien receive courtesy and equal treatment in your courts?  Do you secretly see yourselves as diminutive gods deserving unique privilege?  Are you indifferent to the persons who drive and repair the limo, the cook whose food you eat, the 20 year old black man who cannot find work, the elderly woman who cannot pay her physician's bills so she suffers in hiding?"  The prophets teach that those are the questions which God will ask on Judgment Day.

            When a stretched black limousine passes we turn and look, hoping to see who rides in the back seat.  The darkened windows always forbid us from learning the secret.  But, the rider inside knows.  She feels important.  She must be important to ride in the symbol of high class!  Nonetheless, darkened windows will not block God from knowing motives or behavior.  Nothing can.  God's vision penetrates any shield or disguise.

            “Under God” is in our Pledge of Allegiance, but under attack.  Some would delete it.  I would not be surprised that someday a judge will declare it to be illegal.  I want to keep it.  Even if illegal, it will still be true!

            "Under God" means that God knows, God cares, God judges, God is boss.

            I thank God for those leaders who think of themselves as stewards under God.  I thank God for public servants who endure the stress, the inner conflict, of trying to be helpful yet have too few resources.  But the keep trying!   I thank God
for those who do not see government work as a means to stuff the pockets, for those who are asking, "How can we create opportunity for the illiterate black girl who grows up in the ghetto?  How can we best pay for astronomical medical bills so that poor people will receive medical care, yet not break the economy?  How can we be God's stewards of the environment and encourage industrialization with jobs at the same time?  How can we preserve the right of Christian churches to speak out on public issues and at the same time save the concept of separation of church and state?"  I thank God for citizens and leaders who believe their role to be custodians of rights and freedoms.  Thank God for "public servants”.

            I make this foundational point because I fear that it is a belief becoming as rare as the buffalo.  Americans are drifting into the attitude that God does not care, or will not affect our national life.  Or, just as heretical, we are viewing God as the servant of our nation -- God’s role is to bless us.  In truth, God may bless us, if God chooses.  Certainly God’s role is to judge us!  That is clear in the Old Testament.  Also, clear in the Old Testament is this truth: God blesses the nation who deserves to be blessed.  From the time the Hebrews chose their first king, God repeatedly sent prophets to confront the middle and upper classes and government to protect the rights of people and meet their needs. 

            I speak of values, of ideals, of our sense of integrity, of who we want to be.  Vague stuff, some might think, yet as concrete as the freedom to rise this morning and without fear to gather in this room to worship our God, as foundational as the freedom to go to a picnic tomorrow.

            As we go to the cemeteries or our picnics this weekend, may we thank God for our rights and freedoms, including assembly for worship or for picnics.  May we thank God for troops and their families.  May we thank God for those who see themselves as God's trustees.  May we pause to pray that we responsibly use rights and freedoms, carefully preserve them and generously share them.

View a Printer Friendly Version
Return to the Sermons Menu