Bible reading: Luke 22 14-23 & Acts 1 1-11
Title : Remember me
Application: When “do this in remembrance of me” becomes an active reality of lives
1. Introduction
- In the romantic drama Remember Me, the character Tyler, a rebellious young man living in New York City
- There’s been some tragedy in his life that has separated his family
- Tyler’s relationship with his father is strained and difficult.
- Tyler doesn't think anyone can possibly understand what he is going through, until one day through an unusual twist of fate he meets Ally
- Love was the last thing on his mind, but as her spirit unexpectedly heals and inspires him, he begins to fall in love with her.
- Through their love, he begins to find happiness and meaning in his life. But soon, hidden secrets are revealed
- and the circumstances that brought them together slowly threaten to tear them apart.
- Remember me is an unforgettable story about the power of love, the strength of family, and the importance of living passionately, treasuring every day of one's life.
2. Remember Me
- The words I want us to focus on this morning are the words remember me.
- Jesus’ words to his disciples ‘do this in remembrance of me’ What it meant to his disciples then and What does it mean to us today when we join in Communion at the Lord’s Table?
-
- I don’t know about you but one of the things I cherish in life is the ability to remember.
- Article: God gives us memories so that we can have roses in December. But I have to admit that I haven’t got the greatest memory and in order not to forget I have to write things down. Especially those things which are important.
- I wonder how the disciples felt when Jesus said these words. Do this in remembrance of me
-
3. Hebrew vs English translation
- When I was at college in addition to Theology and Ministry we were offered the opportunity to learn Hebrew.
- It’s important to learn Hebrew especially those words which are commonly used in church.
- Hebrew meanings and English meanings are often quite different
- Let’s look at the word remember it doesn’t mean in English what it means in Hebrew. But in order to understand what remember means in Hebrew it’s important that we understand the difference between the Hebrew and English meaning for the word forget.
4. To Forget.
- To forget in English means merely to have an idea or notion slip out of your mind.
- Whereby to forget in Hebrew means to annilate a person to obliterate and blot out completely.
- As we read through the Old Testament when the Israelites cried out to God not to forget them. They didn’t mean, remember us once in a while.
- They meant don’t destroy us don’t annilate us don’t blot us out.
- It’s obvious then that to forget in Hebrew is not to do with putting ideas and notions out of our mind but to do with the active realities of our lives. The things we do.
5. To Remember
- In the same way to remember is not to recall to mind ideas and notions but to do with the active realities in our lives.
- In Hebrew terms to remember is to bring a past event into the present so what happened in the past becomes a living and active part of our lives.
- In other words to remember is to bring a past event into the present so that what happened in the past continues to happen now .e.g. Royal wedding street parties
- When the Israelites are urged to remember the deliverance from slavery of their forefathers centuries earlier they aren't being urged chiefly to recollect a historical facts;
- They are being urged to live the same reality themselves hundreds of years later.
6. The Lord’s supper
- And so two thousand years after Jesus words’ do this in remembrance of me the same words continue to be said at communion tables in churches across the globe. Jesus first said these words at the last supper to his disciples.
- When he spoke, he didn’t mean “think of me every now and then, especially whenever you celebrate the last supper with bread and wine,
- Pause for a kindly though about me.
- What good would that have been? We remember our Lord only when we come to communion.
- When Jesus spoke these words what he meant was ‘my sin bearing death was your salvation.
- As often as you eat and drink at the Lord’s Table, make my sin bearing death an active part of your life now. So that the forgiveness I give you epitomises every aspect of your life.
-
7. The way we remember now
- This way of remembering I venture to say is very different to the way we remember today. When we remember we merely bring to mind the idea and notion of an event.
- But when the Hebrew forefathers spoke they meant something much stronger, they meant that what happened in the past continued to be a present and active life changing reality.
8. God Remembers
- Over and over the Hebrew bible insists that God remembers. God remembers his covenant; God remembers his holy promise; God remembers his steadfast love; God remembers his mercy.
- All of these things ultimately amount to the same thing. God's covenant is his bond with us.
- Of his own grace and truth God has bound himself to his people. He will never quit on us out of weariness or give up on us out of frustration or spurn us out of disgust.
- He has pledged himself to us.
- To be sure, in his gracious pledge to us, he wants us to reciprocate; as he binds himself to us we are to bind ourselves to him.
- Nevertheless, even though we break our covenant with him he never breaks his covenant with us.
- Our gratitude to him may be as changing as our moods; nonetheless, his graciousness towards us is unwavering.
9. God forgets
- Since God is God his memory must be exceedingly good; in fact, is there anything God doesn't remember?
- Does God have a photographic memory, remembering everything forever? The truth is, God is supremely good at forgetting; he loves to forget, literally "loves" to forget.
- A minute ago I said that to forget, in Hebrew, doesn't mean to let something slip out of your mind accidentally; to forget is to annihilate deliberately, blot out, obliterate.
- To God's people who humble themselves penitently before him, says the prophet Isaiah, God declares, "I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my sake, and I will not remember your sins."
- The prophet doesn't mean that God has absentmindedly lost track of his people's sin.
- He means that God has forgotten their sins in the Hebrew sense of forgetting. God has blotted out the sins of repentant people; their sin is no longer the active reality of their existence before him; it no longer determines their standing before God; it no longer precludes their intimacy with him.
- God is marvellously forgetful when repentant people come to him.
10. Lord remember me
- Of course we know that we need God to remember for we want his mercy to be the active reality in our lives.
- Remember the dying Criminal crucified alongside Jesus, as he gasp his last breath. Lord remember me when you come into your kingdom.
- When Jesus remembers us he makes our need, our desperate need of pardon and new life, his preoccupation his all-consuming concern which becomes the active reality of his life. Do this in remembrance of me.
- And he expects us to remember others in the same way.
- Paul tells the Christians in Galatia that they must remember the poor. To remember the poor, everyone knows by now, isn't to recall them to mind, or even to think charitably about them.
- To remember the poor is to make the reality of their poverty an active ingredient in our discipleship.
11. What does it mean to us
- In this Benefice, Deanery, Diocese we may ask the question who is the poor? Because although we acknowledge that there are some who are economically disadvantaged there is virtually no one who would be classed as economically destitute
- In ancient Israel the poor were classed as the vulnerable i.e. the widows the orphans the sojourners, those who were especially defenceless.
- When Paul urges us to "remember the poor" he means that the plight of those people who are especially vulnerable; these people may not be financially poor at all.
- Nonetheless, we are surrounded with people who are extraordinarily vulnerable, unusually defenceless, even though they may be wealthier than us.
- It's not difficult to find people who are financially adequate yet who are emotionally vulnerable, psychiatrically vulnerable, racially vulnerable, ethnically vulnerable, physically vulnerable, and intellectually vulnerable. And of course those who are spiritually vulnerable are everyone, in fact.
12. What should we do?
- Then what exactly are we to do as we "remember" such people? There is no pre-packaged system; there is no assured formula or step-by-step program of remembering the poor.
- One thing we must do, however, is simply welcome and cherish those who are vulnerable, defenceless, in every respect.
-
- We had a community event last week, people commented that it didn’t cost much at all in terms of money. But it was a time of family togetherness fun laughter and enjoyment. How do we remember the day e.g. name a few activities
- Reminder: Jesus’ words….Do this in remembrance of me.
- When does the activity day become an active reality of our lives?
-
13. Who are the poor among us
- In Eton Wick and Dorney who are the poor among us. The single mother left to bring her children on her own.
- The child who is intellectually challenged and is tormented by other children. The elderly man or woman unable to go out any longer and so spend much of their time alone at home.
-
- The single person who have found living in a couple oriented society almost a form of solitary confinement.
- The spiritual impoverished who wonders what life is about anyway.
- Whom do you and I know to be especially vulnerable and defenceless?
- These are the people with whom our lives must interact, for only as their vulnerability becomes an active reality of our lives are the poor remembered.
-
14. Finally
- The boy in the story I read at the beginning was vulnerable in many ways until he found the power of love and it changed his life. It is the power of Jesus love for us why our sins are forgotten obliterated, blotted out.
- Like the needy man on Good Friday all that any of us can do ultimately is to cry “Lord remember me” and know that our Lord Jesus will do precisely that. Remember each of us when he come into his Kingdom.
No comments:
Post a Comment