The Rim of Gold
A Sermon for Memorial Day
The Rev. James H. (Jay) Barry
Lessons: Psalm 27; John 5:13; True Christian Religion 414
The Lord is the One who goes ahead of you and He will be with you – do not fear or be
dismayed. (Deuteronomy 31:8)
O
n Memorial Day the United States pauses to remember the men and
women who gave their lives in defense of their country. This is a day in
which we pause to thank soldiers who have died, giving their lives to the cause
of freedom.
There are many good things in our country, in our communities and
in our families – too many to mention in one brief phrase. The freedom to
express oneself, the availability of higher education for all, and the economic
freedom to improve one’s condition through innovation and hard work are
among them. The virtue of the soldier is the desire to protect these things and
to preserve what is good from people who would seek to do us harm.
In the Heavenly Doctrines the desire to protect what is good is symbolically
represented as a rim of gold that not only surrounds heaven, but also that
which is heavenly in ourselves and in
others. That is how the internal sense
of the book of Exodus expresses it
where the Sanctuary and the Ark of
the Covenant are described:
Then the Lord spoke to Moses,
saying: “Speak to the children of Israel,
that they bring Me an offering. From
everyone who gives it willingly… And let
them make Me a sanctuary, that I may
dwell among them. And they shall
make an ark of acacia wood…and you
shall overlay it with pure gold and shall
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