3-31-2019

 Good Morning All,

      1 Corinthians 11:25: “When supper was over, he did the same with the cup. He said, “This cup is the new promise made with my blood. Every time you drink from it, do it to remember me.”

    We like to remember often.  The Statler Brothers asked, “Do you remember these?” Mary Hopkins sang “remember how we laughed away the hours” Tom T. Hall “remembered the year that Clayton Delaney died”.  Do you remember any of those? 

    Too often we try and remember items or thoughts or ideas that, at the time seem so important that we will never forget them, only to have foggy memory cloud the truth.  “Does anyone remember where we put…?” gets asked a lot.  As faulty as our “remembering” can be, it is somewhat amazing that God places emphasis on remembering in the Bible.

    God told the Israelites to “remember the covenant”.  Here we hear Jesus telling us to “remember him” when we have Holy Communion.  We are told to do things in remembrance.  So, what does that mean?

   We use the word “remember” as a simple mental exercise.  I remember the mild winter last year.  I remember the last snowy winter of a few years before that but some of my “remembering” gets fuzzy.  I remember we cancelled Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and the first Sunday of Christmas services one year not too long ago but not exactly.  I remember that the Steelers and the Cowboys played a fantastic Super Bowl game but not which one.  A small group of us were looking at a confirmation picture and we couldn’t remember everyone in it.  We may even look at our wedding picture and wonder who the flower girl or ring bearer was.  So why does God tell us to remember?

    Remembrance in the Bible is more than a mental exercise.  It is an emotional, physical, and experiential exercise.  To “remember” in Scriptures means to bring forth a thought that causes an action.  Jesus wants us to actively remember all that He did and said so that we might have comfort in Him and peace in this world.  We are to remember that we belong to God and that He claims us as His own and the devil, the world and all created things cannot take us from Him.  We remember so that we know of the victory that is ours because of Jesus. 

    Remember that Jesus died and rose “for you”.  When you celebrate Holy Communion, his blood was shed “for you”.  When we pray, God hears “you”.  So, we want to remember what Jesus said, we want to remember God’s promises; not just as a mental exercise; but as a very personal act of love by God for you and we can always remember that “They shall be mine, says the Lord of Hosts”.  Do all that you do in remembrance of God’s great love.

Dear Father in heaven, you remember your people and give to them the blessing which they never deserve.  We give you thanks that we are that people.  Move our remembering from our heads to our hearts and through our hands.  In Jesus precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret