Dr. Rodney Plunket

President Ronald Reagan’s first inaugural address was delivered at the west front of the capitol building in Washington, D.C., on January 20, 1981.  In that speech he made many references to heroes.  And very near the conclusion of President Reagan’s address he returned to his theme of heroes.  He spoke of “Arlington National Cemetery with its row on row of simple white markers bearing crosses or stars of David.”  He said this of those grave markers:

They add up to only a tiny fraction of the price that has been paid for our freedom.

Each one of those markers is a monument to the kinds of hero I spoke of earlier.  Their lives ended in places called Belleau Wood, The Argonne, Omaha Beach, Salerno and halfway around the world on Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Pork Chop Hill, the Chosin Reservoir, and in a hundred rice paddies and jungles of a place called Vietnam.

Under one such marker lies a young man––Martin Treptow––who left his job in a small town barber shop in 1917 to go to France with the famed Rainbow Division.  There, on the western front, he was killed trying to carry a message between battalions under heavy artillery fire.

We are told that on his body was found a diary.  On the flyleaf under the heading, “My Pledge,” he had written these words:  “America must win this war.  Therefore, I will work, I will save, I will sacrifice, I will endure, I will fight cheerfully and do my utmost, as if the issue of the whole struggle depended on me alone.”

Tomorrow is America’s Memorial Day.  It is the day set aside to remember and honor those American men and women who have died in military service to our country.  We honor all of our veterans on Veteran’s Day, which falls this year on November the 11^th.  On the Sunday nearest to that day here at Broadway we customarily have all of our veterans to stand, and we applaud them and the services they have rendered.  But Memorial Day is for veterans who will be unable to stand here or any place on this earth and be applauded.  They, like Martin Treptow, paid the ultimate price for our freedom.  They gave their lives.  So I encourage us all truly to remember and honor those who have died all over this world in service to our nation.

I fear that for many Americans Memorial Day is nothing but a highly prized long weekend at the beginning of summer.  I hope that we will make sure that it is more than that for us.

Just a few weeks ago I was in Washington, DC, with Dean Barham, Floyd Stumbo, Carl Stem, and Rod Blackwood attending a conference.  Rod had not been to the Vietnam memorial, and he knew someone who had been killed in that conflict.  So we made our way to that powerful black wall and with the help of the book of names found the name of the person Rod knew.  The sheer amount of names is overwhelming.  So tomorrow in the midst of all of your Memorial Day activities say something/do something to honor those who died in military service to our nation.

Please listen again as I read the statement from the flyleaf of Martin Treptow’s diary, “America must win this war.  Therefore, I will work, I will save, I will sacrifice, I will endure, I will fight cheerfully and do my utmost, as if the issue of the whole struggle depended on me alone.”  In 1981 President Reagan used Treptow’s pledge to call upon the American people to give their best effort to fight the problems that faced our nation at that time.

I remember Reagan’s speech and the powerful use that he made of this quotation from Martin Treptow.  He used that quotation to call for a national renewal generated by effort and belief.  Great stories of sacrifice have the power to do that; they have the power to motivate us toward renewal.  They have the power to get us out of ourselves.  They cause us to look away from our own self-centered concerns and toward higher goals.

On Memorial Day we honor Americans who died serving their country in war.  I hope that such a day does indeed cause us to look away from our self-centered concerns and toward higher goals.

But we Christians have a death to honor that must have that effect, or any claim of its hold on our lives is illusory.  If you have your Bible, please open it to Hebrews (Heb) 13 and follow along as I read verses (vv) 10-12:

We have an altar from which those who officiate in the tent have no right to eat.  For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp.  Therefore Jesus also suffered outside the city gate in order to sanctify the people by his own blood.

In verse (v) eleven of this passage, the author refers to the bodies of animals that were given “as a sacrifice for sin.”  He says that those “bodies . . . are burned out­side the camp.”  What is being referred to here are the bodies of the animals that were sacrificed on the Day of Atonement, and the instructions to take these bodies out­side the camp for burning are found in Leviticus 16:27.  The author realizes that there is a connection between the sacrifices made on the Day of Atonement and the death of Jesus.  Jesus’ body was taken outside the camp––that is, outside the city of Jerusalem––just like the bodies of the sacrificial animals on the Day of Atonement.  But that connection leads to a much more important connection.  The animals sacrificed on the Day of Atonement were sacrificed for the sins of the people.  Jesus was also sacrificed for the sins of the people.  The writer of Hebrews makes that clear in v 12 when he describes the purpose of Jesus’ sacrifice in this way:  “to sanctify the people by his own blood.”  Jesus’ lifeblood was poured out in order “to sanctify.”  To sanctify means to make holy, i.e., to dedi­cate or set apart for God; and anything or anyone that is set apart for God has to be purified from sin.  Jesus’ sacrificial blood does that.  It purifies from sin.

We want to pause right now and partake of the Lord’s Supper.  Would the servers please move to the foyer in preparation for that meal?  As we partake of the Lord’s Supper we celebrate Jesus’ sacrifice.  We celebrate the fact that His sacrifice purifies us from sin and dedicates us to God.  This is indeed a memorial feast.  We eat in memory of Jesus.  We honor what He has done for us.

The bread of the Supper connects us to the body of Jesus that was nailed to the cross for us.  The juice connects us to the blood of Jesus that cleanses and sanctifies us.  Please focus your mind on the sacrifice of Jesus as we eat.  Let’s pray.

[After the Supper].

Now open your Bible to the remainder of that passage in Heb 13.  Please follow along as I re-read v 12 and continue on to read vv 13-16.

Therefore Jesus also suffered outside the city gate in order to sanctify the people by his own blood.  Let us then go to him outside the camp and bear the abuse he endured.  For here we have no lasting city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.  Through him, then, let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name.  Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

Here we connect to a teaching found frequently in the NT.  It is the teaching that what Jesus did is to affect our lives and to affect them profoundly.  In v 12 the writer tells his readers that “Jesus also suffered outside the city gate in order to sanctify the people by his own blood.”  In vv 13ff he tells them three responses that we should make as a result of Jesus suffering “outside the city gate” for us.

I want to look first at the second and third responses because I want to conclude with the response that is listed first.  The second response that Jesus’ sacrifice should elicit from us is given in v 15.  There we read, “Through him, then, let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name.”  In response to the sacrifice/the offering of Jesus we should give a sacrifice/an offering “of praise to God.”  We should give Jesus an offering of fruit, “the fruit of lips that confess his name.”  Because of what Jesus did surely we can offer up to Him praise and worship.

The third response is given in v 16.  There we read, “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.”  In response to the sacrifice of Jesus we should be glad to share with others.  Such sharing, the writer says, are sacrifices; and “such sacrifices are pleasing to God.”

The first response is given in vv 13-14.  There the writer says, “Let us then go to him outside the camp and bear the abuse he endured.  For here we have no lasting city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.”  The metaphor of leaving the camp carries the idea of leaving the known and stepping out into the unknown.  Jesus’ death outside the camp is a calling to us to have the courage to step outside of our safe and comfortable normality and to “bear the abuse [Jesus] endured.”  In other words, Jesus made a huge sacrifice that saved our lives.  We must be willing to make the sacrifice of stepping out of the status quo for Him and to be willing to do that even if abuse is sure to follow.

This morning’s paper carries an Associated Press piece entitled “Nation salutes those who gave their lives.”  It focuses upon those who have died in Afghanistan during the recent war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban.  Two stories in that article stood out for me.  One was this story:

“32-year-old Sgt. 1^st Class Daniel Petithory . . . . died last December . . . .

“My father was a great man, and I love him and I’m proud of what he did,” his 14-year-old daughter, Christina, wrote in an open letter that lay next to his flag-draped casket.  “He died defending the U.S.  He died defending YOU.” 

Another story was of “Sgt. Jeannette Winters, the first female Marine to die in a combat zone.”  Listen to the words of “her brother, Marine Sgt. Matthew Winters.”  He said, “I lost a fellow Marine . . . .  I lost my baby sister, but most of all I lost my best friend.”[1]

These people left the relative safety of their homes in places like Ohio, Illinois, Nebraska, and Texas and fought a war in an extremely unsafe place.  They died as a result.  They took the radical road of military service for us, and it cost them their lives.

Jesus left the invulnerable safety of heaven and came to earth for the express purpose of dying for our sins.  We show how much that sacrifice means to us by willingly stepping out on faith into the danger of a radical commitment to Jesus Christ.  Let’s live lives of radical discipleship.  Let’s give our all to Jesus Christ.  That is what He gave for us.  “Let us then go to him outside the camp and bear the abuse he endured.”

We are about to sing a song that we often call our invitation song.  We call it that because during the singing of this song people are invited to come to the front to allow us to address any of their spiritual needs.  But I hope we will all respond to this invitation whether we come to the front or not.  I hope we will all respond by committing our lives more fully to our Savior, by giving our lives to Him like He gave His for us.  But if you are here this morning and desire prayers that you might have a deeper faith and a more radical commitment to the Christ who died, please come and let us pray for you.  If you are here and need to give your life to Jesus for the first time, there is certainly no better way to celebrate His sacrifice than by putting your faith in that sacrifice by repenting of your sins, confessing Him as Savior and Lord, and by being buried with Him in baptism.

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