Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

“Ahhh....the good old days.”

Have you ever found yourself reminiscing about the “good old days?”

Isn’t it easy to stand in the present and look back to the past? Sometimes what gets remembered is only the good stuff. Sometimes what gets forgotten is the less than good stuff.

Here’s an example of what I mean. My Dad and his older brother have memories of some suppers in their home that consisted of saltine crackers and milk. On multiple occasions when that was mentioned to Grandma Schaar, she adamantly denied ever feeding her family saltine crackers and milk. She even seemed genuinely offended that anyone would even suggest that. Sometimes what gets remembered is only the good stuff. Sometimes what gets forgotten is the less than good stuff.

Today’s Second Reading [Hebrews 11:17- 12:3] – a continuation of that great faith chapter of the Bible, Hebrews 11 – deals with that very topic. Writing hundreds and hundreds of years after the events he chronicles, it would have been very easy for the writer of the Book of Hebrews to create a mega-hero remembrance of all those great heroes of the faith he spotlights, remembering only the good and forgetting all the less than good. But that’s not what he does. No, he wanted his great faith chapter to connect with people, not ro drive them to despair. If all he chronicled was that life was easy, all of us would agree that it must have been easy for those great heroes of the faith. No, it’s precisely because life was challenging that those heroes of the faith are considered heroes.

Look in our Gospel today [Luke 1:46-55]. It’s one of the most beloved sections of Scripture. The words of Mary have even been made into a liturgical hymn called “The Magnificat:” “My soul glorifies the Lord ... my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior ... holy is His Name.” What’s often forgotten when reading or singing those words is the context of those words. Mary had not just received a special delivery message that she had won The Publisher’s Clearinghouse Sweepstakes. No, Mary had just received a special delivery message from the Angel Gabriel that she, an unmarried maiden of maybe 16 years old, was pregnant. It seems strange that she would break forth in a glorious hymn of praise. But, even at the very instant, one can chose how they react.

That’s a lesson that comes down to us from the great neurologist and psychologist, Dr. Viktor Frankl. As an established, professional 37-year-old Austrian Jew, from 1942 to 1945, Dr. Frankl spent time in several German concentration camps, including Auschwitz and Dachau. Through those years, both his wife and his parents were murdered in the gas chambers. The only immediate relative who survived was his sister, who had emigrated to Australia. Not only was Dr. Frankl liberated by the Americans on April 27, 1945, he went on to write 32 books, probably the best known is called Man’s Search for Meaning. In that book, while describing his time in the concentration camps, Dr. Frankl conveys a real gem: “They can take everything away from me, but they can never take away my freedom to choose how I will react.”

Maybe that’s the philosophy espoused years earlier by the great heroes of the faith. Maybe that’s the philosophy espoused by Mary. Maybe that’s the philosophy espoused by today’s “Great Hymn of the Faith,” “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing.”

Let’s face it. In 1900, when that hymn was written, things had not changed substantially in the 37 years since President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Sure, the former slaves had technically been freed for 37 years, but life for black Americans, especially those living in Southern states, had not improved that much during those 37 years. Yet when you read and sing “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing,” you almost get the feeling that everything was perfect – the dark past, the hope the present has brought us, the gloomy past, where we stand at last where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

For the past 110 years, the words of James Weldon Johnson have fortunately become a self-fulfilling prophecy and they continue to be as we continue even today to choose how we react to the present injustices still around us in today’s world. We can bemoan continued discrimination on many sides even today and resign ourselves to being enslaved to those injustices or we can choose to use today to make today and tomorrow better.

Where do we learn that? I think we learn it from Jesus Himself, Who, as mentioned by the writer of the Book of Hebrews at the very end of the listing of great heroes of faith, “for the joy set before Him endured the Cross, scorning its shame, endured opposition from sinful man, not growing weary, not losing heart.”

Today we glorify the Cross – and rightly so. There we see our only salvation from sin, from death and from the power of the devil. But for Jesus, the Cross was no glimmering, shining piece of beauty. For Jesus, the Cross was a painful place of torture and torment, of pain and humiliation, a place to be dreaded, a place to be avoided. Those were weary years. Jesus shed many silent – and not so silent – tears. But Jesus not only chose to walk the way of the Cross, but He chose to do so joyfully, knowing the joy of seeing you and me with Him for all time and all eternity in Heaven because of His Cross.

So, my sisters and brothers in Christ, lift every voice and sing for the good old days of Jesus suffering, dying and rising again for us.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Pastor Christopher Schaar
Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena