May 5. 2002

The Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church
6 Easter
Pastor Jens Arne Dale

John 14.15-21.

Recently I visited Ruth Torland at a nursing home here in town. By the way, she had her 97^th birthday on Monday. She misses being together with us when we gather at services Sunday morning, but she is in good spirits even though her age demands a lot. We had a very interesting conversation the first time I visited Ruth, because she comes from Arendal where my father also came from. One of the nurses came up to us and asked: "What language do you talk?" "Norwegian," we said, and he lit up. He was also Norwegian. That means, his grandparents came from Norway. And he himself could not speak a single Norwegian word. I presume this is a very common situation most of you can recognize.

It’s not easy to know for how long a time we will be remembered. I can’t remember my grandfather on my mother’s side. He died when I was a small child. It’s a bit sad to think that my children’s children might not even know who I am…

It’s valuable to know something about one’s roots. Betty Volney has started an interesting series of interviews at Open House on Tuesdays. The first was Ragnhild Hansen from Risør. She had an overwhelming contribution when we speak about remembering grandparents and great grandparents. Ragnhild showed us a very long paper where her family tree was drawn with small beautiful letters. Generation after generation back was written up, the oldest ones were born right after the black plague. 600 years back in time - that’s what I would call a great memory.

Why is this church called Mindekirken?

I think it must be in order to keep alive the memories of the generations before us. We have common memories of a country far north that either our ancestors or we ourselves left. The motivation for leaving Norway has varied. Many of the first people who emigrated fled from poverty and tried to find a better future for themselves and their families in the New World. But they brought with them a heritage, values and traditions they wanted to keep alive. Mindekirken shall remind us of the Norwegian heritage, culture and language. And it should be a contact point with Norway today.

The most beautiful part of the heritage of our ancestors was their faith. It carried them through the hard travel conditions to America, and it influenced their minds and thoughts to God’s service also in the new country. Mindekirken shall remind us about the faithfulness of the Lord.

King David says in Psalm 103: "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits…" We need to be reminded of God’s benefits.

Deuteronomy 6 quotes the creed of Israel. And it goes on: "Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." Here we hear that we shall write God’s word on an emblem or a post-it note. Maybe it was here 3M got the idea of the post-it notes that so many of us use.

God’s church on earth should be like a big post-it note for all people telling about the mercy of the Lord. We should be a model for our children. They should be able to build their lives and society on the same love that made the good Samaritan bow down to help the poor man who had fallen into the hands of robbers. The words of Jesus about charity and grace have to be passed on to the next generation. What a cultural and spiritual loss it would be if we didn’t pass on the Christmas gospel and the story about the death and resurrection of Jesus. A person would be so poor if he never learned the Lords Prayer.

To be reminded is an important part of the Christian service. In the Lord’s Supper, Jesus says: "Do this in remembrance of Me." 1 Cor 11.24.

I remember from my childhood a preacher of God’s grace called Torvald Øberg . He usually started like this: "I would only like to remind you of…" That’s the task of a preacher: To remind of, to keep the memory of something alive. What do you think the memory of Pearl Harbor meant for the soldiers of WW2? What do you thing the memory of September 11^th means to the fighting morale in Afghanistan today?

In today’s text Jesus says that he is going to leave his disciples. It is a farewell speech he makes. The disciples should be prepared for a time when Jesus was not there together with them. His presence would be just a memory. But Jesus comforts them and says he will send The Holy Spirit. "He will remind you of all I have said to you," Jesus says. John 14.26.

But there is something in today’s text that totally goes beyond the category of "reminding."

To be the church is something more than living on memories. "I will not leave you orphaned," Jesus says. Children who have lost their parents will normally miss them a lot. They will remember the time when they lived together. You could think that the disciples would miss Jesus a lot when he left them. But the fact was that Jesus would not leave them. But he would be together with them in a new way.

Jesus says: "I am coming to you."

"I live, you also will live." Yes, more than that,

To celebrate the service is something radically different from having a memorial service, for the one we are remembering isn’t there. On the contrary. Jesus is among us. That’s the promise of the Holy Spirit: The presence of Jesus. This speech of Jesus is a historical promise that was fulfilled on Pentecost. The disciples received The Holy Spirit, and they were filled with Jesus. They got a spiritual life, a new dimension to their lives that they hadn’t had before. In his earthly life Jesus could be only one place at a time. Now he is everywhere worldwide in his church. When we have the baptism today, we believe that the child will be reborn by the Holy Spirit. Life in God is the gift of the baptism.

Jesus said that the world didn’t know the Holy Spirit.

When I sat at home preparing this sermon, Magne Hatlevik , with whom I live, put together a PC. My data knowledge is very limited. It’s just enough to write a sermon and send an e-mail. But Magne is familiar with the inner side of the PC and he knows both the hardware and the software. He is a programmer.

Maybe this isn’t a good picture, but it might illuminate the difference between the world and the church. The world has no understanding of the things that belong to God. It’s a closed world for them. They have no use for God. But a Christian has life in God. The Holy Spirit, who is also called the Spirit of truth, points out our sins. And the Holy Spirit shows us Jesus so we can rest in his forgiveness. The Holy Spirit makes us love Jesus. The Holy Spirit gives us the will to do good. Jesus said: "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." The Holy Spirit doesn’t give us sentiment, but obedience. It’s obedience when it comes to receive the Grace of God. And it is obedience and motivation of keeping his commandments. It’s not in order to be saved, but because we already are saved. The Holy Spirit gives us the joy of serving others and of doing good. Or as Paul says: "The fruit of the Spirit is love.." Gal 5.22. Jesus lives with his love within us.

Glory is to God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one true God, now and forever. Amen.

The Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church ·  924 E. 21st St, Minneapolis, MN 55404-2952 ·  (612)874-0716