Flags and flowers will adorn many grave sights this weekend. People take special care. Trips are made to the cemeteries, and although much of the focus will be on those who have served our country, the day is not limited to remembering just veterans. It is a day when we think back, when we recall loved ones now gone.

Looking back can foster within us a desire to return to simpler days, or to days when we were in full stride. it can be tempting to hold fast to the past, to romanticize bygone years - those days when Sunday was a day set apart, days when evening meals were spent with a whole family gathered around a table, days when we talked to one another face to face, rather than on a computer screen.

The First Parish Book Group recently finished a book entitled, Plain and Simple: A Woman’s Journey to the Amish. Perhaps some of you have traveled to Ohio or Pennsylvania and been in the presence of the Amish, with their horse drawn vehicles. Perhaps you’ve experienced some of their cooking in one of the restaurants there, or seen their laundry hanging on clotheslines. It strikes us as rather odd, this religious sect that seems to hold on tightly to a bygone age. And yet there is something fascinating about them. Deep within, perhaps we know they have something to teach us. Sue Bender spent several weeks living among the Amish, clearly as someone from away. She lived among them, witnessed their ways, and returned wiser. Although clearly the Amish live like those of years past, there is wisdom they have that is worthy of our learning. Some of those learnings include a fair amount of irony. The Amish dress plainly so that they will not draw too much attention to themselves, although because of that they draw a lot of attention. They center on home and hearth, helping one another to feel loved and cherished by God. And yet opportunities for women to be leaders and contributors outside the home are limited. They are masters at living in the present moment. Bender writes, “Since all work is honored, there is no need to rush to get one thing over so that you can get on to something more important. The Amish understand that it’s not rushing through tasks to achieve a series of goals that is satisfying. It is experiencing each moment along the way. It is interesting that they are gifted at living in the moment, yet seem to be living in a different time and age.

Most of us, as human beings, are particularly gifted at being consistently inconsistent. But there is this challenge. How do we live in the moment? It is tempting to look back, and miss the past, holding on to it, and not wanting life to change. And then there is the other extreme, of constantly looking ahead to some better day, to some brighter tomorrow, when all will be well.

Wherever we go, we are right here. Or to use the words of Jon Kabat-Zinn, “Wherever you go, there you are.”

This morning’s reading from the Book of Proverbs reminds us that wisdom has been here since the beginning. Wisdom was “created at the beginning of God’s work. It rejoiced in the inhabited world and delighted in the human race.”

The Christian church celebrates Trinity Sunday today, a day when we ponder and acknowledge this Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer God; the traditional formula being Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We acknowledge that God creates, that God came to us in Christ, in human form, to redeem us and to bring us into closer relationship with God. We acknowledge that God’s Holy Spirit is present among us to sustain us. Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit as the Counselor, the Comforter. How often do we find ourselves calling on God’s spirit, hoping that we might receive insight, wisdom, assurance of a direction we are considering taking.

The Search Committee has been working on your behalf for a year now, listening to the hopes and dreams that many of you have regarding our next Associate Minister. We have spent time in quiet, open to God’s wisdom and God’s spirit. We have thought of those who have been part of our past, and helped to shape who we are as a church. We have thought about who we might be in our future, what heights we have yet to climb. But our hope is that we will choose someone who will lead us in this moment right here, who will help us to be present. God’s spirit was not just available yesterday and will not only be available tomorrow. But God’s spirit is here, now - in this moment.

Remembering those who have come before helps us to realize that we are who we are because of the gifts and the love they gave us. Dreaming dreams of what might be helps us to gain direction for where we might walk next, but this moment is a treasure worthy of our full alertness and attention.

Wisdom comes in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes it seems that the very young appear to be old souls, with wisdom beyond their years. sometimes wisdom arises out of intuition, sometime it arises within us as a result of evidence that is before us, and sometimes it comes because our experience has been a great teacher. But wisdom is often felt as a gift that comes from God, combining experience and evidence and intuition.

One of the ways to be truly present in the moment is to be cognizant of what life has taught in the past. How frequently we make the same mistakes over and over again. Often we don’t listen well enough to our pasts, hesitant to believe we can learn from our ancestors or experience.

Watching the oil spill encroach on the Gulf Coast is so very painful. There will be ongoing arguments about who is to blame. When risks are taken, mistakes are made. Of that we can be sure. But more importantly than determining who is to blame is for us to gain wisdom; to do our best so that mistakes aren’t repeated time and time again. The tendency to repeat mistakes does not just belong to our own culture. It is a human phenomenon. Opportunities to gain wisdom are given to us each and every day.

The passage from Romans provides us with some comfort along life’s journey. Paul wrote these words to give some solace to the early Christian community. They were harshly critiqued by their peers. They were often in danger of persecution because of their beliefs. So Paul says, “we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. That has been proven to us.

Remembering sometimes comes with pain, as when we think of loved ones lost, or difficult times in our past. Remembering, when it includes the positive as well as the underside of days gone by, can lead us to heartache. The early Christians had suffered, but they weren’t defeated. They endured, their character was building, and they still had hope. But the real reason they were able to hold fast was because they had a sense deep within that they were loved. It didn’t mean that the pain disappeared, that they were able to achieve all they hoped. It didn’t mean that they wouldn’t experience difficult days again. The gift they received in the moment was love.

God’s spirit is present now. Isn’t that true whatever our situation, even when we feel somehow abandoned? That when we find a way to open to that presence, wisdom has an opportunity to appear. It might come in different ways: intuition, reflection on experience, or evaluation of the evidence. The past helps us to become who we are. The future is a road that calls us forward, but it is in this moment that we live. [It is in THIS moment that we live.] The spirit is right here. Our call is to show up and listen.