To Re-Member

To Re-Member

Ruth 4 (selected); 2 Timothy 1:3-5 GNT                

A meditation delivered electronically by Rev. Dr. Randy K. Hammer, May 24, 2020

This is the weekend of the year when we re-member.  Have you ever thought about the basis or implication of the word “re-member”?  Member and again.  To again member.  To bring back to mind a member who is no longer physically present with us.  And so, this Memorial Day weekend, we re-member, we return to our minds and hearts, those members of our families and United Church family who have passed from us, especially since last Memorial Day.  And we also re-member those who died in military service, striving for liberty, safeguarding freedom, and standing against tyranny and injustice.

In one of the most beautiful pieces of all that Frederick Buechner wrote, he reminds us of the importance of being remembered.  This is a piece that I often use at memorial garden or graveside services.  Buechner says, “When you remember me, it means that you have carried something of who I am with you, that I have left some mark of who I am on who you are.  It means that you can summon me back to your mind even though countless years and miles may stand between us.  It means that if we meet again, you will know me.  It means that even after I die, you can still see my face and hear my voice and speak to me in your heart.”¹

The two scripture passages that were read speak of the human longing and need to be remembered, to remember those loved ones to whom we are eternally connected.  The story of Ruth illustrates how important it was in ancient Israel for the name of the deceased to be remembered and not forgotten, which included keeping the property of the deceased (in this case Elimelech, Naomi’s dead husband, and Chilion and Mahlon, her two deceased sons) in the family and making sure their names lived on through Ruth and her new husband, Boaz.

Then the passage from the second letter of Timothy illustrates Buechner’s point that our loved ones – their faith, their values, their personalities – live on in us.  They have left some mark of who they were upon who we are.  And as Buechner suggests, as long as we remember our loved ones, and as long as others remember us after we have died, they and we are never really gone.  The memory, the love, the influence, and in some cases the personality are living still.

Of all the people closest to me who have died in my lifetime, the one who has been gone the longest is my paternal grandmother, who died in August 1986, almost 34 years ago.  But I can still see my grandmother’s face and smile in my mind’s eye.  I can still hear her voice.  And something of my grandmother now lives in me, including her love of the Bible (in her case a literal King James Version, and in my case wonderful religious literature from several different translations), her love of flowers (in her case domesticated flowers such as roses, and in my case native wildflowers), and in her love of birds.  So my grandmother left some marks of who she was upon who I am.

And every time I use the pocket knife in my woodshop that she gave me for Christmas a few years before she died, her spirit is present with me as I work.  I can summon her back to my mind and from my heart.  And this is just one of many examples that could be cited of how those we remember are still with us, and how they in various ways continue to be with us.

And so, this is the Sunday of the year when we remember those United Church members and those immediate family members of United Church members who have passed from us, but who in many ways are still with us:

United Church members who have passed since last Memorial Day include the following:

Margene Lyon

Wilda Dritt

Barbara Hancher

Stanton MacIntyre

Wesley Bill Arnold

Lenore Davis

Dora Moneyhun

Immediate Family Members of United Church Members include these:

Joe Wood, husband of Mary Alice Wood

Perry Nun, son-in-law of Bob Keim

Peter Schultz, brother of David Schultz

Mary Austin, step-mother of Claudia Campbell

Tina Utley, sister of Tara Meade

Marjorie Little, mother of Traci Little

Agnes Veltz, mother of Raphael Hermann

If we have missed anyone, we apologize.  But in gratitude for the lives they lived and the service they rendered, and for the ways they left something of who they were upon who we are, together we re-member them.

Holocaust survivor and beloved author, Elie Wiesel, said, “Without memory, there is no culture.  Without memory, there would be no civilization, no society, no future.” 

And so, this Memorial Day weekend is more than just a long, three-day weekend.  It is more that an invitation to plan a backyard barbecue.  It is a reminder of how important it is to not forget the service, sacrifice, love, and continuing presence of those who went before us.  It is a time for sacred re-membrance.  Amen.