Communion Message
This is Memorial Day weekend
May 30, 2004
Pastor Leighton Sheley

You know when the music ministry teams were discussing this particular weekend we thought, this is Memorial Day weekend; it's a holiday weekend. To a lot of people a holiday weekend is an excuse to have a day off of work and pull out the barbecue and watch a sports game. And in fact there are a significant number of people if you were to ask them what holiday it is, they would probably guess because what the holiday is is not so important to them as having that day around the barbecue. But this is Memorial Day weekend. This is the weekend that we remember the men and the women who have given their last full measure to protect us as a nation, to protect our liberties, and to go into the far reaches of our world and provide liberty for our brothers and sisters who have been under the heel of oppression and tyranny. This is Memorial Day weekend.

On Saturday the president and many of our nation's leaders gathered together in the national park to dedicate a memorial to the World War II veterans, men and women who gave of themselves to protect our nation as well as to provide liberty for those who were living under the heel imperialism, fascism, and socialism. It's appropriate for us to pause and remember, to memorialize.

As I mentioned earlier, we're actually people who have a dual citizenship because our primary citizenship is now in heaven. And it is appropriate for us to stop and remember those who have given their lives for the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven. Even from the earliest days we are told through church tradition that 11 out of the 12 apostles were martyred for their faith. Only John alone according to tradition died of old age. We're told that after the establishment of Islam around 600 or so AD that there was a militant march across Christendom and that two-thirds of Christians either died for their faith or were converted to Islam at the tip of a sword. After 400 years of the militant spreading of Islam the Christians finally defended themselves in a campaign that has been known as the Crusades.

In the last century we are told that more Christians died for their faith than in all of the previous centuries put together. Under communism in the Soviet Union somewhere between 30 and 100 million people were marched to death by their own government, many, because they were believers in Jesus Christ. Under Communist China somewhere between 100 and 250 million men, women, and children were tortured and marched to their death, many because they were believers in Jesus Christ. And the suffering, the torture, the murder continues today.

This week I got on the Internet and looked up our voice of the martyrs website and they told about Rhanja Masih. It says: Christians comprise only about two percent of the population of Pakistan. During a Christian funeral on May 8, 1998 (about six years ago), Muslim witnesses say that Rhanja threw a rock at an Islamic sign. Rhanja denies this claim. He has been in prison since his arrest, a victim of Law 295c, blaspheming Mohammed, which normally carries a mandatory death sentence. But on April 26, 2003, Rhanja was sentenced to life in prison and fined 50,000 rupees.

Another Pakistani Christian, Samuel Masih, had been accused of blasphemy under that same strict law and died in just the last couple of days at around 9:00 p.m. local time in the Lahore hospital where he was a patient. Masih was arrested August 23, 2003 and was accused of throwing waste against the side of a mosque. He was held in the Lahore Central Jail until, suffering from tuberculosis, he was transferred to a local hospital on May 22. Two days later, early in the morning, Masih was attacked by one of the policemen assigned to guard his room. The policeman, a Muslim, reportedly told investigators that it was his religious duty, as a Muslim, to kill the Christian man. He was quoted as saying: "I have offered my religious duty for killing the man. I'm spiritually satisfied and ready to face the consequences."

The Bible says that there will come a time when the believers of Christ will be killed by people who think they're doing God a favor, and that is happening right now. It is appropriate for us to memorialize, to remember those who have given their last full measure for the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven. But there is one very unique memorial that must never ever be forgotten, it is the memorial of Jesus Christ -- unique.

Paul says: For I have received from the Lord what I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He brake it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; this do in remembrance, in memorial of Me." After the same manner also He took the cup when He had supped, saying, "This cup is the new testament in My blood. This do ye as often as you drink it, in remembrance, in memorial of Me." For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death until He comes. Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

The Scriptures say that we should examine our self. So I would like to invite you, if you're physically able, to join with me now as we kneel in the presence of our Lord and Savior.

Lord you are the author of liberty. You're the originator of choice. You gave man, mankind, the opportunity to choose in that garden. Your gospel is not spread at the tip of a sword. It is spread in dialogue and discussion and relationship and proclamation. You said: "Come, let us reason together," says the Lord. "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as wool." We live in a world, Lord, where the forces of darkness are trying to silence the dialogue and the proclamation of the gospel.

By our act today we are proclaiming Your death until You come. Lord there's not only a war, a spiritual war, that's taking place around us, but there's also a spiritual war that takes place within our members. Your word says that sin resides in our members and sometimes, Lord, those inclinations to sin win and we do things that are displeasing to You. Thank you Lord for Your word that says if we confess our sin You are faithful and just and will forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Lord the elements we now partake of we partake of in remembrance, in memorial of You. Let's partake of the bread and also the cup.