Eternal God, pour out your spirit upon us, that we might be sensitive
to your presence, attentive to your Word, and faithful always in your way.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord we pray. Amen.
Some things are seared into our memories. We will not forget them. However,
there are other things that seem to flit like a butterfly in and out of our
recall. Perhaps it is a factor of my age, but people seem to tell me more
stories and jokes about memory than I can recall in the past. Perhaps I have
just forgotten the others. Here are two memory jokes I have heard recently. Why
is a computer better than a man? You only have to tell a computer once. Why are
dumb blonde jokes one-liners? So men can remember them.
Today, Memorial Sunday, is a day of memory. We remember those who have
sacrificed that we might be free. It is good to remember heroic acts of the
past, but the greatest testimony to our gratitude for our freedom is our work to
establish justice, so others might be free as well. As Paul states, “For freedom
Christ has made you free.” (Galatians 5:1) We use our freedom to help others
experience freedom.
Both Amos and Paul speak about justice to people who seem to have lost their
memory. Both Amos and Paul are misunderstood by their respective audiences. Amos
labors in a time before the fall of the Northern Kingdom, Israel, to the
Assyrians. They mistake him for a professional preacher. (Maybe because he was
wearing a white robe and red stole, who knows!) They tell him to go back home to
Judea and practice his profession there. He counters that he is a herdsman and
dresser of sycamore trees; he’s a working man, called by God to share this word
about justice in the face of unjust practices in the Northern Kingdom. He states
that some have influenced and bribed officials and oppressed the poor that is
how they obtained their big fancy houses and verdant vineyards. He tells
everyone to seek good and not evil, to hate evil and love good, and establish
justice. The verbs used here do not relate to feelings, but to choices. It is
God’s will that our choices create justice.
Just like Amos, Paul on numerous occasions had to defend himself. He too
speaks of his occupation, that of a tent-maker, called by God to preach good
news to the Gentiles. Paul calls his hearers, Gentiles, not to submit to trying
to satisfy the rules and regulations that surround the Jewish law, but to use
their freedom to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit. He gives an
illustrative catalog of human behaviors that destroy individuals and
communities, that create injustice. Then he speaks of the fruit of the Spirit.
The word fruit is singular, there is but one thing that truly makes us free, it
is the love of God that we know in Jesus Christ. What does that fruit look like
in our lives, “joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness,
gentleness and self-control.” Paul is saying that living in freedom means we
follow the Spirit and experience and share justice and gracious living.
Amos and Paul are not ivory tower philosophers passing their time playing with
ideas, these are working people who take their faith seriously and speak it and
live it in the public arena of their day. They are doing more than affirming
ideas, they are calling their readers to make choices, to live free.
Today we look at the experiences of three of our congregation members who are
serious about their faith as well. They lived their sense of justice in the
conditions of World War II.
Ike Roesler was with the 101 Airborne. Because he could speak German, he was an
assistant to General McAuliffe. They were surrounded at Bastogne at Christmas
time. Hunkering down in fox-holes they saw three German soldiers come toward
them with white flags. The Germans had a typed sheet of perfect English that
demanded the Americans surrender or die. McAuliffe carefully read the paper then
turned to Ike and said, “Tell them, “Nuts to you!” So, Ike said, “Nusa!” (Nuts)
The Germans did not understand this was a refusal. “Nusa?” they said, “Nusa?”
Ike then, taking some liberty, said to them, “Go to (the theological place of
eternal punishment)!” McAuliffe applauded him, but the Germans still did not
understand. Finally McAuliffe said to Ike, “Tell them to leave.” Ike did so, and
the three German soldiers left. They never saw them again. The next day was
Christmas, General Patton and his troops arrived and rescued them.
Ike had 13 paratrooper jumps, five practice and eight into combat. At one point
in Germany when he jumped, the gunfire aimed at them was from women and
children. That circumstance provided quite a moral dilemma. Right after the
“nuts” incident, they had hoped for a time of leave, perhaps in Paris. They
didn’t get it. Rather they were sent right back into combat and Ike took machine
gun bullets in his legs. He was sent to a hospital in Rheims, France, to be
treated, and then sent to another hospital in England. While there two generals
visited him in the hospital, pinned a purple heart on him and saluted him. Why
would someone jump out of a perfectly good airplane? Why would someone risk
parachuting knowing there are those below ready to shoot while you are totally
defenseless? Why does one even notice that those on the other side who are
shooting at you are women and children? Because one has a sense of using one’s
freedom for the sake of others. One is willing to risk all for justice.
Dr. Mel Modisher was one of two medical doctors assigned to the Navy Cruiser
Indianapolis. In October of 1944 they were in Okinawa and were hit by a
kamikaze. Seventeen members of their crew were killed and their vessel was
significantly damaged. They returned to Mare Island for repairs. In July of 1945
they were ready to go again and had a special mission to travel as fast as they
could. Only a few on the ship, not including Mel, knew they were carrying the
first atomic bomb, the one the Enola Gay would drop on Hiroshima.
Four days after unloading the bomb at Tinian, about midnight on Sunday July 30,
they were hit by numerous torpedoes. Mel grabbed a medical kit and immediately
went to the deck. Sailors coming up from below were terribly burned. He
administered morphine and burn gel to as many as possible for about fifteen
minutes until the abandon ship signal was given. The ship had lost power
immediately so no radio signals could be sent. There were no tracking
instruments in those days. Four days later, on Thursday, a scout plane
accidentally spotted them. The plane was having trouble with its antenna. The
pilot went back to check it, happened to look down through the tail blister and
saw an oil slick, and then noticed people floating in the water. At first they
were uncertain whether the people in the water were Americans or Japanese. A sea
landing plane was called in. When it landed on the water and picked up some of
the survivors, they finally realized these sailors were from the Indianapolis.
No one even knew the Indianapolis had been hit and sunk.
The rest of the survivors were picked up the next day, Friday, by a
destroyer. There had been 1200 personnel on board. About half made it off the
ship before it sank. 317 were rescued five days later. Mel said in that five-day
time he had a half of a raw potato to eat. It came from a crate of potatoes that
had floated away from the ship. The survivors were in six groups that covered an
area of about twenty-five miles. As best he can remember there were only about
five or six life rafts among the 317 survivors. All Mel had was a life jacket.
He said their life jackets were supposed to be good for 48 hours, but they had
just gotten some new ones that were reported to last up to 72 hours. His lasted
five days. He said, “The good Lord had his hand in this, being spotted
accidentally. I was asked several times each day to pray for the group. I prayed
for myself as well. I feel that I have lived many years on borrowed time since
then. I always saw my medical practice as a type of mission work after that.” We
are free, to help others become free.
Klaas Terptsra was a county employee in Holland and a part of the Dutch
Underground during the five-year occupation by Germany. A friend and fellow
underground member, with whom Klaas had ice-skated and played on a semi-pro
soccer team, had a gun and was arrested. If you were found with a gun, you were
killed immediately. After his friend was taken away, Klaas figured he had about
five minutes before the Gestapo would go to the friend’s house and begin to
search. Klaas went there hurriedly. He said, “Somehow I knew where to go.
Someone was telling me where to go.” He found the gun above the door in a
closet, and took it. Soon the Gestapo arrived, searched, but found nothing.
Nonetheless his friend was taken to prison, tortured and eventually killed
anyway. Klaas had put his life on the line trying to help a friend.
Young Dutch people were apprehended by the Germans and sent to work in the
death camps. Klaas, with his job in the county offices, was able to change I.D.
badge birth dates to years other than those the Germans were targeting. Also,
Jews were not allowed to have I.D. badges and thus could not receive food stamps
either. Klaas falsified records in the county offices so that Jews in that area
got both I.D.s and food stamps. Klaas said he knew the risks of what he was
doing. Any of these activities would have gotten him killed. He also knew these
were right things to do, so he did them.
On a lighter note, when Klaas was 17 he served for a year and a half as the
organist for the Protestant Church in his village. The organist died on a
Saturday and Klaas was told he had to play for services the next day. His
brother went into the box to pump the billows. However, the minister stuttered
pretty badly, so the sermon lasted an hour and a half. His brother fell asleep.
When it came time to play after the sermon, Klaas had to hit the box to wake his
brother.
He said there was no freedom, no funerals, almost no food because it all went
to the German troops, no meetings, no more than three people could be together,
no newspapers, no radio, no traveling. His father had a crystal set hidden in
the ceiling. Every night about 7:00 p.m. his father would get it down and listen
to the BBC. It was their only source of any information. Klaas was stationed on
watch outside the house, and his brother down the street. His mother died during
the war because there was no medicine for her pneumonia.
Today we give thanks for these three members of our congregation, and for all
others, who in very difficult circumstance lived their faith, freely making
choices that helped bring about the freedom of others. Long may we remember, and
make choices that promote justice, freedom, and equality for all people.
Thanks be to God.
