One of the, if not the bloodiest battle in World War II was the landing on Omaha Beach on D-Day. Tens of thousands lost their lives as they landed on the beach in an attempt to open a line of attack in The German forces. Soldiers were gunned down as the doors of their amphibious landers opened. Bodies dropped by the dozens into shore-waters already stained with blood.
Just as much as these soldiers, most of who were young men, were willing to give their lives to fulfill their duties, they were also scared, frightened to the point where they found it impossible to move.
Brig. Gen. Norman Cota was most likely the oldest soldier to set foot on Omaha Beach on D-Day. He was highly decorated, remembered for his leadership, his courage, his ability to visualize a battle and his preparation of his men. He is best remembered, though, as the D-Day hero who personally led traumatized soldiers through a gap off of bloody Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944.Before landing on Omaha Beach, Cota had warned his men of the terrible confusion they’d encounter that day, and he was right. Troops landed in the wrong places and the German defenses were stronger than anticipated. The Allies couldn’t get a foothold on the beach under intense enemy fire and around obstacles and mines.
About one hour after the invasion started, Norman Cota rode a landing craft into a crossfire of bullets, artillery and mortar. As the story is told, he strode upright across the beach toward a group of soldiers pinned down by enemy fire next to a sand dune. It was then that he may have uttered his most famous words: “Gentlemen, we are being killed on the beaches. Let us go inland and be killed.”
As he walked the shores of the beach, he came across a unit of men representing the 5th Ranger Battalion. He asked their commander, “What outfit is this?” When told, he replied, “Well, damn it then, Rangers, lead the way!
"Rangers lead the way!" is now that elite unit's official motto.
The Germans had put up wire fences to obstruct the Allies' path off the beach. A soldier placed a Bangalore torpedo – a tube filled with high explosives – under one fence and blew it away. The first soldier through the breach was killed by sniper fire. The men following him froze. Cota saw what was happening and raced into the breach. He led the surviving soldiers through the gap in the fence and up a steep bluff to overtake a German gun embankment.
None of this is to say Brig. Gen. Norman Cota was without fear. I’m sure he feared for his life. What Gen. Cota did was be an example of what is needed to begin saving the lives of those he was put in charge of.
Brig. Gen. Norman Cota put duty and what he understood as his calling before himself.
A lesson we also learn from Jesus Christ in today’s story from Luke.
Lent offers us the opportunities to take a look at the stories of Jesus’ journey towards the cross and reflect where we are on our own journey. Lent also offers the opportunities to take an honest look at our relationships and see if there is anywhere among them we need to focus on in order to find reconciliation. What are introduced to in today’s scripture is a view into Jesus’ heart and mind as he does the same.
Jesus is on his journey towards Jerusalem, a place he absolutely knows will bring him death. As he gets closer, walking through the small villages which surround the great city, he is approached by a small group of Pharisees. This would be a surprise to the first readers and listeners of Luke’s Gospel as there seems to always be a wall of dissension between the priests and Jesus. Perhaps this is Luke’s way of introducing the idea that not all people are followers of a single mind and that these particular Pharisees have discovered a better way to live their lives.
To get back to our story, Jesus tells the Pharisees to go and tell that “fox” to mind his own business. My guess is that being called a sneaky, elusive four-legged animal was just as bad a name they had for others when Luke was written. Like being a “brood of vipers.”
He tells those Pharisees to report what they see; that Jesus is “throwing out demons and healing people.” Not only is he doing these things, but he will be doing them today and tomorrow. Jesus doesn’t plan to stop doing what he sees as his duty. Jesus doesn’t plan to stop doing what he sees as his calling and purpose for being a presence in the lives of those around him.
Then, Jesus gets prophetic. “On the third day I will complete my work.”
Luke gives us two insights in this passage. First, the idea that because of the life-work of Jesus, people’s minds and hearts can be changed. Second, the idea that at some point Jesus’ work on this earth will be completed. In fact, it’s on the 3rd day, the day we now associate with Jesus’ resurrection, that his work will be completed.
As previously mentioned, Lent is a time to reflect on the journey of Jesus to the cross, and just where our same journey might be laid. This week we are being asked to answer one question: When will we be able to say that our work will be completed.
You might be asking yourself, “Just what is my work?”
There is an answer given to us in the Gospels, writings of Paul, and other epistles of the New Testament. Over and over we are told our job is to make better the Reign of God.
Matthew 6:33 says, “But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Acts 28:30-31 says of Paul, “He lived there for two whole years at his own expense and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.” Luke 17:20-21 tells this short story: Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, ‘The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, “Look, here it is!” or “There it is!” For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.’ The prayer we recite or sing every week has us asking that when the kingdom of God comes, God’s will should be done here on earth as it is in heaven.
Just what, then is the kingdom of God?
Author and theologian Frederick Buechner tells us “If we only had eyes to see and ears to hear and wits to understand, we would know that the Kingdom of God in the sense of holiness, goodness, and beauty is as close as breathing and is crying out to be born both within ourselves and within the world; we would know that the Kingdom of God is what we, all of us, hunger for above all other things, even when we don’t know its name or realize that it’s what we’re starving to death for. The Kingdom of God is where our best dreams come from and our truest prayers are answered. We glimpse it at those moments when we find ourselves being better than we are and wiser than we know. We catch sight of it when at some moment of crisis, a strength seems to come to us that is greater than our own strength. The Kingdom of God is where we belong. It is home, and whether we realize it or not, I think we are, all of us, homesick for it.”
How we do this is up to each of us, and is according to the gifts we have been given by God to accomplish God’s goal. How do we find and develop these gifts? That’s what Lent, and the time beyond Lent, is for.
Some of us will recognize we like to cook and decide to make and serve meals for places like Next Step Shelter or River of Life. Some of us will find we have a lot of time on our hands and might look for places to volunteer to help, such as with places like Easter Seals or Ewa Elementary School. Maybe some of us like to make phone calls and visit others and can find time to be with church members who have a difficult time coming to church. Maybe you just like to do labor and can show up at the church to mow lawns or move pews or polish wood.
The gifts we possess vary as much as we are different people. The one thing we should try to understand in this time of reflection is how to best discover and use the gifts we have to make the kingdom of God a better place, so that when we or those around us finally breathe in the presence of God, the kingdom we all live in, is what God had intended for us since the day of creation.
Will it be easy? No. Will we find what we are seeking in the next few weeks? Probably not. But, that doesn’t mean we stop trying. It might be a lifetime before some or most of us get to that place where we belong. Remember, though, that we never travel alone. God is always in our presence, Jesus is always by our side, we have friends and family who are as close as we let them be, and just as important, you have you.
At midnight every September 11, Elsie Clark hangs a banner on the fence alongside the front yard – memorial of her house to the 39-year-old son who perished at the World Trade Center. The banner reads: “In Loving Memory Benjamin Keefe Clark 9/11/01”
Her son was not a firefighter or a police officer. Benjamin Clark was a chef.
A morning that began with him preparing meals for the people at the Fiduciary Trust Company suddenly led to him becoming as brave as any first-responder. A Fiduciary official would later credit Clark with saving hundreds of lives as he made sure that everyone in his department along with everybody else in the company’s 96th floor offices in the South Tower was safely exiting the building.
He then paused on the 78th floor to assist a woman in a wheelchair, which led him to helping others out of the building, Benjamin Clark never made it out of the building that day. His mother reflects, “He could have gotten out, everybody else did.”
His mother credits some of his courage to him having been a Marine for eight years. “My son was a Marine, so you know he wasn’t going to leave anybody behind,” she says, “He was always there to help.”
Upon seeing others suddenly in the most mortal danger, his everyday decency had become uncommon courage. A chef known for his fabulous meatloaf and for remembering everybody’s name and favorite meals had proven as courageous as if he was a veteran of the New York Fire Department.
“There were a lot of heroes that day,” Elsie Clark reminds us, “and many seemingly ordinary civilians who would demonstrate astonishing bravery at other times and places such as the Aurora movie theater shootings and the Sandy Hook school massacre and the Oklahoma tornado and just about any other place where horror suddenly struck.”
Again and again, people threw themselves upon others in an effort to shield them. We have seen it so often that it seems to be at the core of what it means to be a true American. What we rightly admire in people who serve in our military, firefighters, police officers, and others who race into harm’s way also rest in each one of us and lay in wait for that moment when we, too, will be the one who are willing to give our life to save the lives of others. Who knows, maybe the reflex to hold a door for the next person coming out of a store or offer an elderly person a seat on the bus can, in other circumstances, propel you to react in such a way as to put other’s lives before your own.
The journey to the cross is not an easy one. Yet, it’s a journey we all take. God gives us gifts according to our abilities and it’s up to us to develop those gifts to help others on their daily journey to the cross. Each day we move a step or two closer, and each day comes with its own revelations into just where we are on our individual journeys.
God is always with us. Amen.
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