Never Forget

HML  • 2019 August 25 •  21^st Sunday

• Isaiah 66:18-21  • Psalm 117  • Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13 •  Luke 13:22-30   •           

Title:   Never Forget

[_01_]    “Never forget.”

Never forget. Jesus reminds us, telling us that the first will be last and the last will be first that he will never forget us, also giving us a stern caution about following in his ways, that he always wants us never to forget to turn back to him, as difficult as that might be each day. Never forget.

[_02_]    In technology and technical ways, we know that things are never forgotten, always retained, always being recorded.

          AMZN. Amazon technology. About a year ago, there was an Amazon advertisement for its Alexa product, the Alexa smart speaker in which the actors in the commercial are Amazon employees talking to each other about the Alexa product’s technology.

The AMZN employees whisper to each other that there are a lot of technical Alex problems, a lot of failures with the “smart speaker”Alexa (similar to Siri on Apple). This is ironic that AMZN should actually put this in their ad, because there are a lot of privacy concerns, and possibilities of your voice being recorded in your own home by Alexa.

          So, that statement – that Alexa may have failures - is not “out in left field.” That’s true.

Then, there follows this humorous fictional example and exaggeration that Amazon gives that highlights something. Regarding “Alexa fails ”  the employee says… “you know we tried to make an Alexa dog collar” – so that dogs can communicate to the smart speaker -- and you see a little dog with a collar that lights up in blue every time the dog barks…and you hear Alexa’s computerized voice responding… “ordering dog food” … “ordering gravy”….. “ordering beef sausages….”

          The dog keeps barking until finally an Amazon warehouse responds fills the order, then an Amazon truck pulls up to the door to deliver, you guessed it, all the tasty treats for the canine.

Never forget.  Alexa never forgets. Records everything.

[_03]   We are called to remember that our lives are not defined by the convenience and comforts around us. We are called to never forget that suffering and pain have value and a redemptive value.

          Thomas Merton wrote …and this is also in line with St. Augustine on the value of human suffering … “that a society whose whole idea is to eliminate suffering and bring all its members the greatest amount of comfort and pleasure is doomed to be destroyed.” (Merton, c. p. 79 No Man is an Island__??__)

          Suffering has value. Never forget.

 [_04_]    Several years ago, a friend of mine never forgot.   She was in the hospital with her husband and he was dying of a terminal illness.  And, she used all of her powers of remembering and recall on his behalf. Do you not do the same going to hospital, to doctor’s appointments with your loved ones at hospitals, at emergency rooms, to help them to remember.

She used all of her very refined and developed interpersonal skills in business, all of her business acumen and indeed all of her human compassion on behalf of her husband. By the end, the physicians told her that she was so well educated on the illness, on the respiratory system that she knew more than the medical students. Never forget. We use those powers of remembering for others.

           [** pause **]

[_05_]   “You said you would never forget. I am here to make sure that you will not forget…”

          These were the words in Washington D.C. at the Congress/Senate of TV comedian and activist Jon Stewart to members of Congress, elected lawmakers.

          We read headlines such as….

          “Jon Stewart shreds

Congress ….”  / “Jon Stewart blasts Congress…”/ “Jon Stewart excoriates lawmakers…”

          “Jon Stewart lashes out at empty chairs ...” [ apparently, no one was there that day…]

[_06_]       In the Gospel this Sunday, Jesus is repeating himself,  over and over again to us, to his disciples and while Jesus also had an audience  of assembled  listeners for  whom the attention span was also short.

          Jesus  is  also trying to remind us that our moments of suffering and difficulty can also be  our greatest triumph.

          This was Mr. Stewart’s message to Congress/Senate about the importance of health care for them for the coming years, for those who suffered that we are called to give back and share in the sacrifice.

[_07_]    None of us wants to re-live or re-experience the destruction of Tuesday 9/11/2001. In fact, one of the challenges of parents and teachers on September 12, September 13 and the days following the terrorist attacks was how to protect/shelter children from what happened… to tell them in age-appropriate ways and at the age-appropriate time.

          None of us want to forget what happened.

          The reason that Jon Stewart was in Washington D.C. … speaking loudly to empty chairs and “excoriating lawmakers” was not because that’s the popular thing to do these days…

          But also because it is a triumph, a victory, and act of true love and fidelity what the workers, firefighters of NY, NJ, CT and beyond, police officers, volunteers, workers paid and unpaid performed by digging in the rubble after 9/11.

          It was truly a corporal work of mercy, to bury the dead.

          The reason that we have the Stations of the Cross – on Lent. Good Friday or any time is showing our respect for the abandoned person and body of Christ.  In the Easter tradition, we never forget and we receive back what we have lost, the body of Christ. 

[_08_]    Jesus speaks to us here also so that we will never forget his love for us and to remember that our suffering has value.

Yes, the loss of human lives in the plane crashes and the destruction of the World Trade Center towers is tragic. The lives cannot be replaced.

Yet, the willingness to dig in the rubble, to breath the toxic air shows us we gain salvation not by what is given to us but by what is taken – health included – and only God can replace what is taken.  Never forget. [_fin_]