Remembering…..
So much of our Christian faith seems to be about remembering the past. This is brought into sharp focus for us in November. In November we remember those who gave their lives in different conflicts around the world - people to whom we owe a great debt of gratitude. Throughout the year, we also frequently use the word >remember= in the Eucharist. In particular, we hear it in Jesus' words: "Do this in remembrance of me.@
So, is Christianity all about remembering the past? No, it isn't! Our remembering doesn't just look back at the past, it impacts on the present. Christian faith is rooted in history. It is a faith which influences the lives of many people today. But it is also a faith that looks forward in hope to Christ's return.
For Christians, >remembering= is far more than thinking about the past. In the Eucharist, remembering Christ's death, is more than thinking about the Cross - we partake of bread, a powerful symbol of Christ=s body, and of wine which speaks powerfully of his blood. We embrace Christ's death as we take Communion. Our remembering is not passive, it is active. Our remembering alters who we are today.
When we remember those close to us, who have died - whether in war, sickness, or through the normal processes of life - we don't just think nice thoughts about them. Remembering brings up painful emotions. Remembering hurts... It really hurts. Our lives were and are bound up with theirs. Remembering is costly.
Remembering is both active and costly, and it calls for a response. We talk sometimes of the need to be worthy of the sacrifices others have made on our behalf - we have the privilege of living in a democracy they have secured for us, a democracy that continues to be secured by the sacrifice of the few on behalf of the many. And at the end of the Eucharist we pray that God will send us out in the power of the Spirit to live and work to his praise and glory.
Remembrance is a strong Biblical theme. The Israelites remembered God's saving acts as they left Egypt. The Passover and the Crossing of the Red Sea remain crucial in the identity and history of the Jewish people. The early Church remembered Christ's death and resurrection. Perhaps the best example is seen in the very early Christian hymn recorded in Philippians 2:
"Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who ... did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. He humbled himself and became obedient to death on a cross."
We see evidence of this active, costly remembrance, in the response of the early Church. A response of sacrificial living and faithfulness under persecution.
In our Eucharist we remind ourselves that our remembering is meant to affect the present and the future. We say: "we remember Christ=s offering of himself upon the cross, and proclaim his mighty resurrection and glorious ascension. As we look for his coming in glory, we celebrate his one perfect sacrifice."
Our remembering is meant to affect the present and the future. November is the month when we accept that truth. We have services to remember those close to us who have died and we mark Remembrance Sunday but we also look forward to Advent. Each week in November we count down the Sundays to the beginning of Advent.
In Advent we do two things, we anticipate Christ's second coming and we stand with the participants in the first Christmas story, looking forward to Christ=s birth. In Advent we stand with Elizabeth, Mary, Zechariah, Joseph and others and we grasp just a little of their confusion. Think of Zechariah, who couldn't believe he and Elizabeth would have a son; of Joseph, struggling with the discovery of Mary's apparent adultery; of Simeon and Anna, waiting for many years for God's salvation; of Mary, quietly bearing the stigma of being pregnant and unmarried.
Just like these people, we live in the 'now and not yet' of God's salvation history. We look forward with hope to the resolution of history, when Christ will come again, but we live in a world of complications, of joy and sadness, of hope and despair, just like they did, awaiting their Messiah. We live in 'in-between times', aware that Jesus= death & resurrection have inaugurated God=s Kingdom, but that its ultimate reality depends on his return.
Remembrance makes it possible to continue to hope. Remembrance makes real for us now the events of the past. Just as in Communion we 'partake' in the death and resurrection of Christ; so, as we look forward with ancient characters to the birth of Christ, we can begin to hope for Christ's return. Just as we remember 'the light of Christ' in those ancient lives, shining out into a very dark world; we can begin to recognise 'the light of Christ' in those around us. These may only to be inklings of God's Kingdom, but nonetheless, they're real portents of his return.
Our remembering can, if we let it, change our lives today!
Revd Roger Farnworth
Added: 28th October 2009 || Submitted by: Revd Roger Farnworth.
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