This morning, after another five years, we come together in reunion – to face reality and to face the future in hope.

To guide our thoughts, I’m going to make a strange juxtaposition, something from the Bible and something from Yogi Berra, the great baseball player and manager. Yogi was the kind of person who was able to speak wisdom even when he didn’t know what he was saying. In fact, he said, “I never said most of the things I said.” The particular piece of reality I have in mind this morning is when he said: “The future ain’t what it used to be.”

How true: the future ain’t what it used to be for us, not without the presence of so many classmates, who are no longer with us. They now live in our memories, to include all, those whose names will shortly be read. The future ain’t what it used to be without them. This is a reality we must face.

We also face the reality that for each of us there’s not so much of the future left anymore. The years are slipping away, there’s not as much time left. The reality is that time has become short. But this should not plunge us into despair, but rather with the Psalmist we would implore, “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” (Ps.90:12) To put it in another way, whatever we’re going to do that’s worth doing – let’s do it now.

I was visiting a retired Colonel who was dying of cancer . After I came out of the hospital room, I noticed his adult son was deeply troubled. It soon became clear that the basis of his deep distress was this: “My dad never told me he loved me.” I said, why don’t you go in and talk it over with your dad, which he did. And this is what this crusty Colonel told his son: “Son, if I didn’t love you, I would have told you.” Some would say – this was inadequate – but it was enough. The son knew his dad loved him. Time is short – if you need to tell someone you love them – do it now. If you need to ask forgiveness or give forgiveness – do it now. If someone needs your blessing or encouragement or help – do it now, while there is yet time. This brings us to the scripture, from II Corinthians, the fourth chapter and the sixteenth verse. It is the essence of what I have to share with you for this reunion:

"So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day." This is both reality and hope. The reality is that our bodies are winding down. The force of the Greek is very strong – we’re literally decaying and being destroyed, like rust eating into iron. But at the same time this decay is taking place externally, on the inside, within us we are being renewed every day. The Greek here is identical to the Hebrew in the 68th Psalm of David, where he declares: “Blessed be the Lord, who daily (that is, every day, day by day) bears us up.” (Ps. 68:19)

On the outside we may be wasting away, but on the inside we can grow and be recharged, rejuvenated and invigorated every day. Whereas the quantity of life may be diminishing, every day we can touch the quality of eternal life, not the infinitude of time, but the quality of life which comes to us from God’s love for us and for all, without exception.

We may be wrinkled and hobbled and constrained in a variety of ways, but alongside any dissolution that is taking place, within us there can be an incredible growth in beauty as we are infused and transformed by the power of love. Every one of us has been touched at one time or another by the fabulous beauty of a person who would normally be regarded as unattractive.

These are beautiful people, in the words of William Wordsworth, “whose exterior semblance belies their soul’s immensity.” Every one of us will have to face the discord of deterioration and loss, but in contrast to this discord, there can still be the music of the soul.

In November of 1995 the great violinist Itzhak Perlman gave a concert at the Lincoln Center in New York City. As a child he was stricken with polio so he walks slowly and painfully with the aid of two crutches. In this case, after he sat down and released the clasps on his legs, shortly after he began to play, a string broke. People just assumed he would have to reverse the process and go off stage to get another violin or to get another string. But instead he paused, closed his eyes, and then signaled the conductor to begin again. The people were amazed that he could play with just three strings so passionately and so beautifully – making all of the changes and adjustments that were needed. When he finished everyone, to the last person, sprang to their feet to cheer. Then Perlman raised his bow and the people became quiet and he said softly, “You know, sometimes it is the artist’s task to find out how much music you can still make with what you have! left.”*

My brothers and sisters, it may be that whatever loss we may experience in life, it is up to us to find out how much music we can still make with what we have left after that loss.

May this prayer be ours: “Help us, O Lord, to walk amid the things of this world with eyes open to the beauty and glory of the eternal so that among the sundry and manifold changes of this life our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found.”. . . .or in the words of the Shorter Catechism, “What is our chief end? Our chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.”

*For the details of this story, I credit Jack Riemer of the Houston Chronicle

(Kermit served as Major General, Chief of Chaplains, USA {Kermit is definitely a Distinguished Graduate})

God Bless America

E-      Ur Frend Andy