Opening prayer

God all mighty, we are gathered here in a sacred place. Help us to feel your presence among us,
and our connection to one another as one big human family.

Send your Holy Spirit among us, so that the words of Holy Scripture may illuminate us.

In Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.

Psalm 78:1-8 New Revised Standard Version

(NRSV)
Psalm 78

God’s Goodness and Israel’s Ingratitude

A Maskil of Asaph.
1
Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;
incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2
I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter dark sayings from of old,
3
things that we have heard and known,
that our ancestors have told us.
4
We will not hide them from their children;
we will tell to the coming generation
the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might,
and the wonders that he has done.
5
He established a decree in Jacob,
and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our ancestors
to teach to their children;
6
that the next generation might know them,
the children yet unborn,
and rise up and tell them to their children,
7
so that they should set their hope in God,
and not forget the works of God,
but keep his commandments;
8
and that they should not be like their ancestors,
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation whose heart was not steadfast,
whose spirit was not faithful to God.

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all or our hearts, be
acceptable to you, oh God. Amen.

This Psalm talks about transmission of faith from one generation to the next. The
stories of human faith are, by definition, human stories in which human history
and God’s action are intermingled.

Human stories are not perfect stories, because humans make mistakes. Some of
our ancestors have edifying life stories. Some of our ancestors may have made
choices we do not want to repeat. I remember lyrics from a Victor Courte song
about Canada referring to “[his] father’s family fighting [his] mother’s race.”

All of those life stories are part of who we are. They are part of the much bigger
story of human history. We are called to remember them, to learn form them, and
to pass them on to the next generation.

Here are some of the stories from my own family. I had a great uncle who bet and
lost his Pepsi truck in a game of poker. He was given the choice, either to go to
prison or to go to war. He chose war to avoid the shame of prison and he lost a leg
in combat. This story became a cautionary tale. No one gambled in my family
since.
My grand-mother told me that my great-grand-mother was a very pious woman.
My grand-father had to learn his catechism while milking the cow. She told me my
grand-father was a man of faith to, but his was shy. He was saying Grace before
every meal, but was mumbling it. My grand-mother said: “If he had said it louder,
maybe we could have said it with him.” I also learned of my grand-father’s
criticisms of the catholic church. So, when I decided to become a Protestant, I
figured: “It’s ok. It’s the faith of my grand-father!”

I heard how kind my grand-mother’s adoptive father was to her. Her mother could
not take care of her. Her aunt, who adopted her, was cold and distant. But her
adoptive father was always so kind, dancing to make her laugh, patient and
generous. Even if I am not genetically related to this man, his story is part mine.
Even if I have not met all of these people, their lives are part of my identity.

We are standing here in the table of content of one of many books about life and
human history. This cemetery is a book. Each of these stones refer to a chapter, or
a few chapters of human history, to a life (or lives) lived.

Each of these stones have been placed and engraved as an act of memory. Each
visit to them is an act of remembrance. Each telling of the stories it refers to is an
act of transmission for the next generation.

This cloud of witnesses is part of this community’s identity and part of our human
identity.
Looking at these stones, we can guess parts of stories. We can look at the names
and get a hit of a cultural heritage. Looking at the dates, we know if someone had
a long life or a short one. There are words on some of these stones giving us hints
of relationships: Father, Mother, Wife, Husband, Children, etc.
But it is really when you are telling their stories that they come alive. We learn of
their relationship with God, or not; of how they related to others, or not. We learn
from these stories as a part of our human history, our human identity, our human
family. So, tell them! Tell them to your children, your grand-children, your great-
grand-children, your friends, your neighbours.

God bless all of those stories and empower those who share them. Amen.