Oak Chapel United Methodist Church

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To me it will always be the hymn they played at President Kennedy's funeral, as millions watched, numb with grief. That slow-stepping honor guard baring that casket up the Capitol steps, as a military band played, "Eternal Father, Strong to Save." He was a navy man, and this was "the navy hymn." Our nation could not find its chart or compass in those days -- seemed to be adrift on stormy seas -- and now we had lost a young president to the senseless hatred of a mad man. The words of the hymn spoke for us all that day: "O hear us when we cry to thee for those in peril on the sea."

"Eternal Father, Strong to Save" takes us back to the grand days of the British Empire (upon which the sun never set, you remember), to a time when Britannia did indeed rule the waves (and half the world's dry land, too), and when British wives and mothers would send their young men off to sea not knowing what dangers lurked, and would be out of touch with them for months at a time, and would go to church on Sunday and sing, "O hear us when we cry to thee for those in peril on the sea."

A military hymn, of course, especially loved by the navy for obvious reasons. And that is fine: Memorial Day is for remembering those who served their country and died at arms -- on the sea, or on land, or in the sky. So it is a right hymn today. But "Eternal Father, Strong to Save," is more than that. If "the sea" here is the sea of life, upon which we are all in peril, then the hymn is not only for sailors but for everyone.

Under God's Control

"Eternal Father…." Father, of course, is the first person of the Holy Trinity. This is a Trinitarian hymn, verse one being addressed to the Father, verse two to the Son, verse three to the Holy Spirit, and verse four, to the Trinity as a whole. The Father created the sea on which we sail, verse one reminds us, the very sea on which we travel far and wide, and on which we sometimes founder and sometimes sink. He created it: "Whose arm hath bound the restless wave, Who bidst the mighty ocean deep its own appointed limits keep…" So important to remember that this restless wave, this world of ours which seems so chaotic at times, is not out of God's control.

We can bewail the world. We can say (as Jesus said) that the world often leads us away from God. But be careful how far you go with that. If we would have a God who is really "strong to save," we must not think of him as powerless in this world.

God Loves This World

The world is God's creation, and he loves it, as a father loves a child, even if that child has gone badly astray. He made the ocean, appointed its limits. When I am drifting on the sea of life, and cannot find a star to steer by, the first thing I try to remember (and the most comforting thing) is that "the earth is the Lord's, and everything in it." Spiritual kindergarten! That leaves unanswered some important questions, I know, but the alternative is worse: to surrender this world to the enemy, to say, "God can't help." For if there is no hope in God that is darkness indeed.

Jesus, Who Can Calm the Waters, Trusts in His Father

"O Christ, whose voice the waters heard, and hushed their raging at thy word, who walkedst on the foaming deep, and calm amidst the storm didst sleep." For courage, we have Christ's example, his unbroken confidence that God, the creator, was still in control, even when the storms of life were raging. The hymn reminds us that Jesus could hush up the stormy sea, could walk on the water. He had such faith in God's loving care that he calmly slept in the bow of a tossing boat when all the others had lost it. "Master, don't you care if we die," they screamed? How can you sleep?" He rubbed his eyes. "O ye, of little faith," he says. And to the sea, "Be still!" It was a miracle, of course, and that was what the disciples saw. But, even more, it was a lesson about living in faith and trust. One miracle that he could calm the storm, but the more important miracle here: that he could sleep with the storm crashing around him.

When the storms of life are raging, stand by me.
When the storms of life are raging, stand by me.
When the world is tossing me, like a ship upon the sea,
Thou who rulest wind and water, stand by me.

Now when we come to verse three, the verse about the Holy Spirit, we find (of all things) the creation story! For it is the Holy Spirit, the breath of God, in Genesis, that blows across the water, and brings order out of chaos. "O Holy Spirit, who didst brood upon the waters dark and rude, and bid their angry tumult cease, and give, for wild confusion, peace….Hear us when we cry to the, for those in peril on the sea," for us all.

Order From Chaos

The essence of the creation story is not "something from nothing" but "order out of chaos." Something was there (created by God we would surely believe), but it was a mess. And the act of creation was to order it up. To put the sun where it belonged, to separate sky from earth, water from dry land. To give things names.

There is such a lesson here for us, in this old creation story! It's not that we don't have lives to live; it's that our lives too often are wild confusion. There is no order. Everything is urgent, critical. Time is never enough. Because we're confused about ultimate values, we have no basis on which to decide what is important in the moment and what is not. We've lost our measuring stick. So we return to primeval chaos, a world without a creator.

God Will Order Our Lives

But, if we will let him, God does for us individually what he did originally for his creation: he gives for wild confusion, peace. We seem to enjoy the "emergency room" shows on television. My guess is that it's because they reflect our own lives: rushing from place to place, giving orders here, advice there, repairing this, patching that, stopping the bleeding.

Peace Passing All Understanding

But Jesus promised a peace that passes all understanding, and (listen to the rest of it) "that keeps our minds and hearts in the knowledge and love of God?" Not that we wont be busy, not that we wont be stressed sometimes, but that at the root of our being there is a blessed assurance that God is in control and that life makes sense.

In this secular world we always avoid the deeper questions. The ancient Greeks, you know, believed that Atlas held up the world. But then someone asked, "What holds up Atlas?" The leaders got together and thought for a while, and said, "Atlas stands on the back of a gigantic turtle… and don't ask anymore questions." We are like that. We don't want to talk about ultimate things.

God Decrees Peace for Us

For example, we say, "Avoid violence." Why? If there is no God (and therefore no ultimate right or wrong), why shouldn't we take whatever we want by any means necessary? Why shouldn't we kill somebody for his coat or his boom box? We say, "Protect the environment." Why? If there are no eternal truths, if nothing we do counts in the big picture, why should we care if future generations have dirty air and water? It's no skin off our backs. We say, "Be kind to people of different races, and nationalities, and religions." Why? If all men and women are not children of a common God why shouldn't we simply ignore, or perhaps even eliminate, those who are not like us?

All these secular philosophies, so popular in our time, are in fact bankrupt without God, and following them we find no answers and no peace. We have to talk about ultimates. We have ask what the turtle stands on.

A few years ago I happened to visit Gettysburg on the Memorial Day weekend. I had almost forgotten what Memorial Day was about, and was surprised (and deeply moved) to see little flags on all those graves, thousands of them, in some places as far as the eye could see. Someone had remembered. Those whom Lincoln said gave "the last full measure of devotion" had not been forgotten, even after more than a century. I have tried, ever since, not to forget the meaning of this day. It's not just the first weekend of summer, not just the day Ocean City starts up big time, not just the day we open the pool and eat outside.

Memorial Day Reminds us of Ultimate Things

It is a day to remind ourselves that there are ultimate things, things worth living for and even dying for. And if don't know where those ultimate things are, and if our lives, therefore, are wild confusion because we have no measuring stick, we need to seek those ultimate things and find them, or we are indeed in peril on the sea of life, and we will never find the peace and assurance Jesus had, that enabled him to sleep through the storm and walk on the water, which peace and assurance Jesus promised to us. O hear us when we cry to thee, for those in peril on the sea."