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| Interior of Central Synagogue |
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| Leaf from Weeping Willow Memorial |
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| Weeping WIllow Memorial |
Our gospel reading this morning ends on a familiar note. We know the verse as the Golden Rule. A form of it is found in many of the world’s religions--it’s not unique to the Judeo-Christian tradition. “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” It sounds nice doesn’t it? That’s because we usually interpret it as saying, “be nice and others will be nice to you.”
But being nice is a luxury of those who hold the power, isn’t it? Point out the inequalities of a power situation or the fact that someone is being oppressed and somehow you’re no longer very nice. And then the Golden Rule goes out the window. If he, she or they aren’t going to be nice, well, I don’t have to be either, do I? It says so right in the Bible.
Reading through the passage immediately before this Golden Rule that Jesus sets down, it does seem that Jesus wants us to be not only nice but sort of doormats. But if you think about it, he’s putting forth radical ideas. Love your enemies? Wow, who’d’ve thought? Enemies are there to be hated, aren’t they? What is Jesus trying to do? Make us into saints or something?
Well, yes and that’s why these scriptures are set for All Saints Day, which was actually last Monday, but is often celebrated in worship on the Sunday following. So here we are commemorating All Saints Day and we have fairly clear instructions from this passage from Luke on how to be saints and what to avoid if we want to be known among the saints. We usually have All Saints Day to remember and recall but it’s also a day of looking forward. But before we look forward, we do spend time looking back and pulling up memories.
During our time in Budapest recently, one morning we visited the Dohany Street Central Synagogue which was built in the mid-19th century and is the 2nd largest synagogue in the world. It’s the main though not the only synagogue for the large Jewish community of Budapest. The interior, to make an understatement, is ornate…and gorgeous. Two balconies for the women surround the main floor. Gilt ornamentation is readily seen wherever you look. One of our guidebooks said it was built to affirm the Jewish community’s place in the life of Budapest; an attempt, as it were, to keep up with the Christians. They even included a few items, such as an organ and a pulpit, that aren’t usually found in most synagogues evidently.
Behind the synagogue is a memorial garden, built to remember those who died in the holocaust. It includes a symbolic, ceremonial grave for Raoul Wallenberg, the Christian Swedish ambassador who saved hundreds if not thousands of Jewish lives with his diplomatic abilities and handfuls of cash to bribe the proper officials. Wallenberg died in a Soviet gulag in the 70s.
The main focal point of the Memorial Garden is a metal sculpture that is in the form of a weeping willow tree. Just like a live weeping willow tree, its branches hang gracefully, sweeping down, until they almost touch the ground. If you look closely, on the leaves are inscribed the names of those Budapestians who died in the holocaust, hundreds and thousands of leaves and names, all helping us to remember.
I never want to trivialize the experience of the Jews during the holocaust. That was a terrible, unfathomable era of our human history with great suffering and tragedy. But isn’t that what today’s often overlooked holiday is about; remembering? Don’t we each inscribe a mental weeping willow leaf with the name of loved ones who have gone on, who have led us closer to God and taught us about turning the other cheek? For those of us who are Christian, today is a day when we wander in our own memorial gardens and take note of those leaves, pausing at each one to recall how they brought the Golden Rule to life for us. We remember because as humans we are almost programmed to do so. We remember the ones who lived out the beatitudes and brought blessing and joy to us.
We look forward today in one way; look forward in hopes of becoming one of God’s saints in the eyes and memory of another. But we also look back. We look back and remember; we look back and recall the love that we felt that was and still is a reflection of God’s great, unconditional love. Because that’s who the saints in our lives are: those who reflected God’s love through themselves, often selflessly, often tirelessly.
In a few moments, we’re going to recall the saints of our lives. After strolling through our own memory gardens, I’ll ask us to name the names we find on the leaves there. In the meantime, take this weeping willow leaf as a way to help you remember. Let it be a tangible reminder of the person or people who are inscribed forever in your memorial garden. And remember.
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