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There were 496 names on the list. Names written on thin sheets of paper, in tight columns. Four hundred and ninety-six names that Johnnie Johnson didn’t want anyone to forget. The year was 1950, and Johnson was an Army private, just 18 years old, when his division was thrown into combat in what they called a "police action" in Korea. About two-thirds of his comrades were killed, and many others were captured, including himself. Johnson began to worry that these brave men would be forgotten, and that their loved ones back home would never know where, when and how they had died. So he started a list. Using a pencil stub, he wrote their names on anything he could get his hands on: discarded cigarette packages, strips of wallpaper, pieces of trash. He wrote their names, their units and their dates of death. After three months, most of Johnson’s fellow prisoners were sick and malnourished. Seventy were dead, including seven by execution. Johnson kept writing on his list. Then a cruel North Korean army major took control of the remaining 758 POWs and forced them to march 120 miles across snowy mountain terrain. The idea of the list increased in importance in Johnson’s mind, especially after the North Koreans took away all the remaining prisoners’ dog tags. American soldiers were shot and left to die if they stumbled or fell over, and Johnson kept focusing on his list as he walked, in order to ignore his pain. He managed to jot down the names of more than 100 men who died along the way. That winter, in a camp alongside an ice-choked river, almost 300 more prisoners died. Johnson kept writing, adding their names to his secret list, even risking his life at one point to steal paper from his captors. Johnson made two identical lists and hid one in the mud-hut wall, the other in the dirt floor. When guards discovered the list in the wall, Johnson was tortured and accused of maintaining "criminal propaganda" for his government. But it wasn’t propaganda he was writing. It was a gift, a gift for the families of his buddies. The list he buried in the dirt floor was never discovered, and so at the end of the war Johnson dug it up. He sealed the list inside a toothpaste tube, and didn’t take it out until he was safely on a troop ship home. On the ship, an officer asked him, "What have you got there?" Johnson said, "It’s my list, sir," and he showed it to him. Four hundred and ninety-six names. A list he had risked his life to complete. But the military showed no immediate interest in the list, aside from a note in Johnson’s debriefing report. It took many years for people to discover its value, and it remained largely hidden until it appeared in a Reader’s Digest article and a History Channel documentary. But now, at Korean War Veterans’ reunions, Johnson is overwhelmed by relatives who want to hug and thank him. Those who have lost loved ones are anxious to see the list, which Johnson has in a scrapbook, and when they find their loved one’s name, you can sense their relief and gratitude. As long as a man is on the list, he is not truly lost. The Bible says that God has a list of names. To get on Johnnie’s list, you had to die; to get on God’s list, someone died for you. This divine directory is called "the book of life" in Revelation (20:12). In Luke, Jesus invites his disciples to "rejoice that [their] names are written in heaven" (10:20). And in his letter to the Philippians, the apostle Paul speaks of colleagues who have struggled beside him in the work of the gospel, people "whose names are in the book of life" (4:3). What lists include your name? Is your name on the FBI’s ten most wanted list? I hope not! Is your name on the membership list of your child’s PTA? Is your name on the list of registered voters in this state? My guess is that we could not count all the lists that include our name. And we are probably unhappy about our name being on some lists, such as telephone marketers or email spammers. Do you remember the movie, "Schindler’s List?" If you were a Jew in Poland in WW II, this was a list you desperately wanted to be on. Rena Finder was only 10 years old when the Nazis invaded Poland. She later wrote: "I would not be alive today if it wasn’t for Oscar Schindler. My mother survived and so did my grandfather. It’s a tragedy that Oscar Schindler died young before the world could acknowledge his heroism. His countrymen considered him a traitor, to us he was our God, our father, our protector." Leon Leyson says he was "just a skinny kid" during World War II. But Oscar Schindler developed a fondness for him, nicknaming him "Little Leyson" and showing him many kindnesses: extra soup and bread; and when his vision began to blur from the factory work, he was excused from the night shift. The most important act was putting him on the final list. His two eldest brothers did not survive the war, but he, his parents and brother and sister were saved by Oscar Schindler. These are just two of the hundreds of people saved by "Schindler’s List." The Bible teaches that God has a list of names: The Book of Life. Is your name on this list? If you’re not sure, you can be. With a simple prayer of faith you can give your life to Jesus Christ. You can pray a prayer like this right now. You can pray it kneeling here at the chancel during Holy Communion. We often talk about prevenient grace, the grace that comes before. It is the love of God working in our lives even before we are aware of it. This may sound crude, but it is a bit like getting a new credit card. Before it can be used you have to make a phone call to activate the card. You already have the presence of God in your life. But maybe you need to call the heaven hotline and ask God to activate your life! According to the Bible, once our faith is activated in Jesus Christ, we are on the list! This list is good news in three ways. #1: This list is for everyone. This gift is for everyone who believes, not just the elite. #2: The list is for life. This gift brings life to those who die, not just peace to those who have lost loved ones. #3: The list lasts forever. Jesus gave his life, and the result is eternal redemption. His list is never going to change or diminish or disappear. Jesus has suffered once, for all, so that we might make his "list of life." And we can respond, as so many have before us, with faith and with gratitude, with wonder and with worship. With our names on this list, we’ll never be lost. |
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11.02.03 - The List (Hebrews 9:11-14;Philippians 4:1-3)
