Anniversaries

One of the ways we mark time is remembering the dates of important events in our lives.


To begin the sermon for today,
     I want to offer a few thoughts about time.

We will be thinking about the way time passes,
     the ways we mark its passage
           and the ways we remember events
                as we move through time.

The Greek language
     uses two words to speak of time.

Most of us know them already,
     so it won't be Greek to us. :-)

The first word is chronos,
     as in chronological time,
            time that can flow along a time line
                  or be marked on a calendar.

The other word is kairos, the right time.

Anything that happens to us
     or anything we choose to think, say or do
          can happen at the right time - or not.

If we want to follow a bit of Buddhist philosophy,
       it is always the right time.

Another way of saying that is, "It is what it is."
      And, "It's all good."

Those words are becoming a kind of mantra for me,
      all day every day.

Add to it another thought,
     "Don't give up,"
           and you have some words that I say to myself
                   over and over
                         to keep myself moving
                              forward through time
                                    in a good way.

Among other words that I use
     to help keep my thoughts in line
          are these from the Hebrew Bible:

"Teach us so to number our days
       that we may apply our hearts to wisdom."
                     Psalm 90:12


So far I've lived almost 25,000 days, (24,831)
     and one way of numbering our days
          would be simply to count them.

There is a reason that
      numbering our days can lead to wisdom:

It's healthy for us to remember
   that the number of our days is finite (limited),
        and counting our days is a good reminder.

(That reason is summarized in the Christian liturgy
    for Ash Wednesday
        as ashes are applied to the brow:
           "Remember that you are dust
                 and to dust you shall return.")

(Those words are an echo
     of the 3rd chapter of Genesis,
         where God spoke them to Adam,
               whose very name means humankind.)

(Those may not sound like encouraging words,
     but they truly can lead to wisdom.)

Our time is limited,
      no matter how much we may wish
            that it were not so.

Remembering that our lives will end
    wonderfully enables us to focus our minds.

Then we are willing to set priorities
      and work to accomplish the things
            that are important to us.

The kind of wisdom of which I'm speaking,
   the wisdom that flows from numbering our days,
       involves both kairos and chronos.

Chronological time flows into the future
      and carries us along with it.

Many opportunities arise for us to do things
     or for events to happen
          at the right time.

We can accept the things that happen to us
     and apply ourselves to make the most of our time.

If we do so,
   our wisdom enables us
       to think, speak and act in truthful, helpful ways.

Some of us believe that there is life
    beyond time, in a world to come.

Some of us do not believe this.

Whether we believe it or not,
    we can still apply the principles
         of numbering our days
                to apply our hearts to wisdom.

It is important to do so,
     even if we believe in an afterlife,
           because life beyond time
                would have to be qualitatively different
                     from life that moves through time.

So whatever we believe,
     we will want to make the most of our time.

One way we can make the most of our time
    is to mark it on our calendars.

That is chronos, chronological time.

We remember the things
      that have happened in our lives,
            and we can contemplate their meaning.

Last month, our nation celebrated the day
     widely considered to be its birthday,
            July 4.

The Declaration of Independence
    from (the mother land} England and the King
         called the new nation into being.

Ideals were named: the equality of all people
     and universal human rights to
           life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

A different view of the nation and its birth
     could involve the anniversary
            of the ratification of its constitution,
                 September 17 (1787).

Celebration of the Constitution
      calls our attention
           to the kind of nation
                  we are called to be.

(We the people...)
(In order to create a more perfect union etc.)

Both the Declaration of Independence
     and the Constitution
           are examples of kairos,
                 a point of time that is the right time
                      for certain events to happen.

Another way of saying it is that
      the time was ripe
            for the founding of the new nation.

We are about halfway between
     those remembered dates,
          July 4th for the Declaration of Independence
              and September 17th for the Constitution.

There are many other days we remember
      as a nation,
           to our joy and our sorrow.

September 11 is obviously a sorrowful day
     for us to remember collectively.

It is also a sorrowful day
     for me to remember personally:
          September 11 will always be for me
                the anniversary of the day
                      that our dear Beth died.

Today is August 11, one month before
    the one year anniversary
         of my own sad September 11.

For this reason I have chosen today
     to speak about our ways of marking time.

At this present moment in time,
   I also feel the need to mention one more thing:

We may find that the first weekend in August,
     or August 3 and August 4
           will be remembered in the future
               as (the time of) a turning point
                    in our nation's history.

Back to back mass shootings call our attention
      to the the intersection between
            the  nation's problems with guns
                  and its issues of white supremacists.

There have been many events that have not led
      to any kind of turning point,
             but I'm beginning to wonder
                   if this time could be different.

This could be the right time
      for new and different considerations.

If that happens, the current right time
      may be remembered in the future
            as an event to be commemorated.

We shall see.

(Meanwhile, back more generally to the main topic,
      marking time by remembering occasions...)

Religions also mark certain dates
     to remember their founders
          and many of their most important saints.

Birthdays of the founders of religious faiths
     are among the most common days
         to be remembered.

Buddha's birthday is celebrated on April 8.

This year, Muhammad's birthday
     will be celebrated on November 10.
          (The date on our calendar varies,
               since it follows the Muslim calendar.)

The birthday of Jesus (obviously)
     is celebrated on Christmas Day, December 25.

We have no way of knowing if these days
     are really the days
           on which the founders were born,
                but it doesn't really matter much.

The celebration of the day
     is intended to be a celebration of the person.

Likewise our own birthdays
     are celebrations of ourselves
           by the people who love us.

[This year my own birthday will be interesting:
   Beth and I shared the same birthday,
        month, day and year,
             and this year will (obviously) be
                  my first birthday since her death.]

I find it meaningful that saints' days
    are generally celebrated
        on the day of the saint's death,
            since that day is considered
                 the saint's birthday in Heaven.

Religious holidays also help us mark time
     with celebrations of great events
          in our remembered history.

Sometimes remembered history is quite different
     from the things that really happened,
           but the way we remember them
                is at least as important
                     as the events themselves
                          in considering their ongoing effect
                               on our lives.

One of my favorite examples
   of the importance of remembered events
       is Passover along with its Christian corollary,
            Holy Week and Easter.

Passover is the rembrance of the great event
    of the rescue of the Children of Israel
          from their captivity (slavery)
                in Egypt.

Holy Week and Easter are the remembrance
      of the great events surrounding
           the death and resurrection of Jesus.

In both cases, Passover and Easter,
   the meaning of the events includes liberation
     (in the case of Passover, from slavery;
         in the case of Easter, from sin and death)
          and both events remind us
            of the freedom to be our true selves.

Both events are examples of events,
    whatever they were in history,
           marking the right time
                 for us to discover new possibilities
                     for our lives as we live them
                          in and through time.

Remembering the events that shaped us,
     as individuals, as communities
           and as nations,
                we understand better who we are
                      and how we are able to live
                           in our own times.

Truly, living in time,
     across time and at the right time,
          is the life we know now.

When we are wise,
     we apply the lessons we are learning day by day
           to give meaning to our own paths through life.

Amen.

Blessed be.