Historians don’t agree on when Memorial Day started or who started it, but we all know it now is little more than a three day federal holiday to most people. However, whether you are one of the people who believe that organized women’s groups in the South were decorating graves before the end of the Civil War or that it started in Charlestown, S.C. when slaves and abolitionists gathered the fact remains Waterloo N.Y. was officially declared the birthplace of Memorial Day by President Lyndon Johnson in May 1966. The bigger question seems to me to be what are we suppose to be honoring on this day?

It started out as a day to honor those you died in the bloodiest war ever fought on our soil. Since 1913 it has been a day to honor the dead of all the wars we fought and are fighting. You may wonder why I am writing about this on a website basically dedicated to mental health issues. Because there are people left behind each time a man or woman falls in battle.

Those left to go on living need support. They need more than a military graveside service. This country owes them ongoing support and I am not just talking about sending them a check. They need psychological and spiritual support and the country needs to make sure it does all it can to facilitate them getting connected to it.

Yes we have lots of wounded men and women being served by the Veterans Administration to varying degrees of success, but we need to take seriously our duty to the survivors of our fallen men and women. To do any less is a serious crime which should rise to the level of someone being held accountable.

Is your church a place you just go to on Sunday morning for the worship service or is it more to you?  It could be more.  Much more.  Church is your communal home if you follow the example of the New Testament church found in the book of Acts.  Now before you go ballistic on me I am using the word communal and not the word communism.  Don’t get them confused and start calling me names or putting a label on me that does not apply.  I could have used the word family, but for some people family is not a happy word or memory.  I am trying to use a word that conveys a meaning of oneness and closeness.

Let me give you an example.  I recently experienced some physical problems and members of the congregation I serve went above and beyond to be helpful.  One gentleman offered to do whatever it took to help my wife Patty to get me to the doctor.  We have only been part of this congregation for five months, but it seems like we have been there for years.

Why does it feel so special?  Because there is no doubt that they care about each other.  Jesus told us to love one another, but in today’s world it is wonderful to see it in action.  One mostly sees the “I/me” philosophy in practice in our world today.  That is what we are taught.  Individual rights.  Individual property.  Individual everything.

When I decided to accept the call to Mountain View Christian Church, I was not sure about it.  What I am sure of now is that it is a church that cares about the people who attend church there and about the people who have not yet found a church home.  I am also certain it is a communal church.  It is a church where you can find family.  The family of God.

Usually to use a quote one would not do such a long introduction of the person they are quoting, but I want you to know something about the person who penned these words I am about to use. Henri Nouwen was an internationally renowned priest and author, respected professor and beloved pastor who wrote over 40 books on the spiritual life. Since his death in 1996, ever-increasing numbers of readers, writers, teachers and seekers have been guided by his literary legacy. Nouwen’s books have sold over 2 million copies and been published in over 22 languages. Born in Nijkerk, Holland, on January 24, 1932, Nouwen felt called to the priesthood at a very young age. He was ordained in 1957 as a diocesan priest and studied psychology at the Catholic University of Nijmegen. In 1964 he moved to the United States to study at the Menninger Clinic. He went on to teach at the University of Notre Dame, and the Divinity Schools of Yale and Harvard. For several months during the 1970s, Nouwen lived and worked with the Trappist monks in the Abbey of the Genesee, and in the early 1980s he lived with the poor in Peru. In 1985 he was called to join L’Arche in Trosly, France, the first of over 100 communities founded by Jean Vanier where people with developmental disabilities live with assistants. A year later Nouwen came to make his home at L’Arche Daybreak near Toronto, Canada. He died suddenly on September 21, 1996, in Holland and is buried in King City, Ontario. He wrote, “Receiving forgiveness requires a total willingness to let god be God and do all the healing, restoring, and renewing.”

Can we give the process over to God or do we need to control it by committee and hierarchy? We may be able to answer this question by looking at reclamation efforts down through the years. I call them reclamation because all of them do not fall under the Reformation.

Reclamation means the process of reclaiming or the restoration as to productivity, usefulness or morality. To explore this word even further some of its synonyms are renewal, rehabilitation, restoration, reformation, and recovery. Renewal, rehabilitation, and restoration give us the idea of returning someone or something to a satisfactory state of being. Reformation means redirecting the course from error to a proper focus and direction. Recovery calls to mind the concept of restoring something lost to its rightful place or making something or someone whole again by being on the right journey or path.

If you have ever seen a mountain being stripped mined, then you know what man can do to God’s creation with machines. The Appalachians, which may be the oldest mountain range in the world, are wounded in many places by mountain top removal to get at coal so we can have cheap energy. The coal companies are supposed to do reclamation projects, but you can’t redo the handiwork of God.

The Reformation was an attempt to reform or redo the church. In 2007, there was a 500-year celebration of when Martin Luther became a monk and when he conducted his first mass. This year is the quincentenary of the birth of John Calvin and again there is a celebration of the Reformation.

Jacobus Arminius (1560-1609) was appointed pastor in Amsterdam upon returning from studies in Italy. Since it was a reformed pastor’s custom to preach through a book of the bible, Arminius began with Romans. Three years later, he was up to chapter 7. The big theological point that got him in trouble was his belief that free will is found only in the regenerate, in those whom God has freed to know and obey him. Unbelievers remain in bondage to sin.

John Wesley and Charles Wesley both certainly made huge contributions to the idea of the church having the proper focus and direction. However, John Wesley’s support of Britain during the Revolutionary War did not help the growth of the Methodist church here in America during that period.

James O’Kelly an Anglican by birth and a Methodist by choice after a disagreement with Francis Asbury started what he named Republican Methodists. The group was primary in eastern North Carolina. The James O’Kelly chapel founded in 1794 still stands and lies a few miles south of Durham, North Carolina. It became know simply as a Christian Church in 1802. James O’Kelly is known as one of the fathers of what is called the Restoration Movement.

What is my point? The church is so divided into denominations and independent churches saying they have “the truth” where is a sinner in need of the saving grace of God supposed to go? Where does one go for reclamation? Does the church need reclamation? Does Jesus even claim His bride? These questions need answers if we are truly going to do the work the Lord left us to do. We, the church, can either help folks on their journey towards the One we know or act in a way that they look at us in disgust and want no part of us. To be a haven for restoration our lives must be a proclamation of God’s grace in us to a wounded world.

Is it a war on poverty or a war against the poor we are fighting? In his first State of the Union speech, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared a “War on Poverty.” Johnson’s declaration came just weeks after succeeding to the White House upon the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. How has the war gone? The poverty rate has basically stayed steady since the 1970’s and certainly has worsened over the past 18 months.

The question we must ask ourselves is do we know how to execute this “War on Poverty.” I recently attended a conference at the First Broad Street United Methodist Church in Kingsport, TN. The conference was called “Abolishing Poverty in Appalachia: The Church’s Response To God’s Call”. The conference was inspiring and well organized, but I left still with a nagging question about whether or not we knew how to do this.

There are numerous organizations, foundations, and individuals dedicated to dealing with this issue. There are articles, magazines, and books on it. You can study it at college or at institutes dedicated to economic issues. Why then have we not made more progress?

Maybe it is the fault of the poor. Some would argue that this is true. However, if I am born with a disability that does not allow me to work. Is being poor my fault? If I have worked for myself in construction and there is suddenly no need for my services, is it my fault? If I am born into a family in a county where there is no work and no hope, is it my fault that I can’t dream of something I have never seen.

The country in which I grew up is devastatingly poor. Appalachia is poor, but Zimbabwe is almost on its last leg. Do we blame and shame or do we embrace and claim? That is the real question. Do we see people, God’s creation, or do we not see them at all?

The only way to really help anyone including the poor is to first see them as a person. Then let them guide you in how best to help them. The key word here is being “with” the person you are trying to help. Walk beside them. Show them the love Christ has shown His church. Remember Christ did not say anything goes, but He was willing to go anywhere to find His lost lamb.

John 11: 35 “Jesus wept” (NIV)

These tears were shed when He found out about the death of Lazarus apparently in empathy with Mary and the Jews with her and because He loved him. We are told just a little later on in the chapter about Lazarus being raised from the dead by Jesus.

Luke 19:41 “As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it,” (NIV)

These tears were shed as He approached Jerusalem because He knew it was going to be destroyed in the not too distant future because it had not recognized His coming.

The question I pose in the title of this blog may be disturbing to some. Is Jesus still weeping is a valid question to me. I think He may be and let me tell you why.

Yes, it is true that Luke and others tell us that Jesus “was taken up into heaven.” (Luke 24:51, NIV) I know most folk seem to think heaven is a place without tears and all is well there. They/you may be right, but just give me one moment to speak directly to your heart.

The Old Testament is full of examples of God showing His emotions from extreme anger, the flood for example, to pleasure as when He first looked on His creation. We know then God is not afraid to express His emotions so to speak.

We know Jesus showed His while on earth so I think He still does as He sits with His Father and looks at the mess we make of our lives. I think He weeps for each shattered soul on this planet. This brings me to my point. His bride, the church, should be weeping right along with Him.

The world around us should not hear our condemning voices, but rather see our tear stained cheeks as we reach out to the lost lambs and seek to bring them back into the community of compassion Christ died for.

Our commission is not to fix the faults in each other, but rather to bring ourselves and help others to find the way to the foot of the cross where we all might find the grace we need.

Why do I think Jesus is weeping? Because the wounded are not being sought out and brought back to the only place a soul can find solace.

I can hear some saying now “we are doing all we can.” To which I simply say try each day to not inflict any new wounds on yourself or those around you. If we all did that eventually there would be no wounded and Jesus could stop weeping.