Dear Friends in Christ, grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

My father would have been 101years-old this year, which means he would have been toddler when the cornerstone of Lake of the Isles Church was dedicated on a cold November morning in 1925.  No doubt, he would have stood in awe at the uniformed men carrying our nation’s flag.  When he was 20 years-old, as a soldier in the US Army he was wounded in combat in the South Pacific and for his service, he received both the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star for courageous and meritorious achievement in a combat zone. Typical of that greatest generation, he never told his children why he had received the award. For the past 25 years, I have dedicated the observance of Remembrance Sunday, first to his honor and then to his memory.

Cornerstones come in a variety of forms. Some are ceremonial, others are physical, many are ornamental, and some are simply metaphorical.  Regardless of their nature, cornerstones become the foundation upon which we tell our story.  Indeed, we build upon these cornerstones. In the military, it is upon the cornerstone of discipline, solidarity and brotherhood that we serve. In medicine, it is upon the cornerstone of patient-centered, holistic care that we seek health and healing.  In education, it is upon the curious acquisition of knowledge that we aspire to learn and teach. To overlook the cornerstone is to deny, negate or simply rewrite history. For God’s faithful people, the promise of the resurrection in Jesus Christ is that cornerstone upon which we build our lives. Surprisingly, it is the rejection of that cornerstone that is at the heart of this morning’s gospel reading.

In Jesus’ final days on earth, the scene unfolded.  It was Holy Week in the Temple in Jerusalem.  The tension and excitement in the city was great as Passover approached.  The crowds were welcoming Jesus and scorning the religious community. The leaders of the Temple, however, were growing increasingly agitated by Jesus’ teaching- especially his words on the resurrection. Eventually the Sadducees, those who denied the resurrection of the dead, approached Jesus with a case meant to make resurrection look ridiculous. Seven brothers each marry the same woman. “Whose wife would she be in the resurrection?”   Mind you, marriage had nothing to do with love. This was actually a measure prescribed by Moses to protect women by passing them from one brother to brother. Regrettably, the practice often turned women into pieces of property. The Sadducees, in their challenge to Jesus, made this practice prescribed by Moses into a farce. They wanted to trap Jesus into criticizing the ancient lawgiver. Jesus responded instead by saying that in the age to come, the whole institution of marriage would not be unnecessary, and that women would not be passed along as property. In that age, people “cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God.” It is a majestic, glorious promise.

Regretfully, Jesus doesn’t tell us what the resurrection will be like. He doesn’t portray the nature of our relationships with those we love and leave behind, nor does he describe our place in heaven.  Jesus gives few specific answers to such questions, though it does stress that we should not limit our imagination — let alone God’s design — for life after death by our own experiences. But it is a glorious promise, just the same, “Those who are worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from dead cannot die anymore They are like angels and are children of God.”  The resurrection is the cornerstone of our faith, and like the cornerstone of the church, there is some treasure in there we cannot see.

In Steven Spielberg’s World War II epic movie, “Saving Private Ryan,” set in Normandy, France in 1944, a small group of American soldiers under the leadership of Captain Miller, having already survived the D-Day invasion, are given the nearly impossible mission of locating Private James Francis Ryan and bringing him home safely after his three brothers have been killed in action. The mission is challenging, deadly and seemingly unfair. Why, the soldiers wondered, should one man be given a free ticket home, while they are placed in daily combat? There are many honest lines in the movie worth quoting, as one soldier lamented, “He better be worth it. He better go home and cure a disease, or invent a longer-lasting light bulb.”  The little company of beleaguered soldiers, reluctantly agreed to fight to bring Private Ryan home.  And in the final battle scene, a dying Captain Miller whispered into Private Ryan’s ear, “James earn this. Earn it.”

That is, of course, the message of Remembrance Sunday. We express our gratitude this day for those who have protected us in the past. We honor them by remembering them. But how do we choose to live our lives and in the word of a dying Captain Miller demonstrate to the world that we “Earned it.”

At the close of Saving Private Ryan, a much older Ryan is seen with his extended family of wife, children and grandchildren, visiting the war cemetery in France where white crosses in long rows stand sentinel over the graves amid the green grass. There Ryan finds the grave of Captain Miller. He has never forgotten him, his dying words, nor the sacrifice of his brothers in arms who perished on his behalf. Standing before the grave a tearful Ryan sighs, “I hope that, at least in your eyes, I earned what all of you have done for me.”  That heroic World War II rescue became the cornerstone of his life.

My friends, consider the man who rescued you from sin and death, Jesus Christ.  Meditate upon his suffering- all so that you should live. Consider his sacrifice upon the cross – so that you may have life and live it abundantly   Do not let your life be empty words and gestures. Live your life as if you have earned it. Amen.

May the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.  Amen.