Sermon Snippet for November 6, 2016

Based on: Deuteronomy 5: 12-15; John 14: 25-27; I Corinthians 11: 23-26

The Power of Remembering

Remembering is a normal function of the human brain… and there are different ways to remember. Some are more powerful than others.

There is the regular garden variety of remembering that includes facts, details, information. There is the nostalgia kind of remembering that has us driving into the future while looking in the rear-view mirror wishing things were the way they used to be. And let’s not forget the kind of remembering that appears irrelevant since it refers to something that happened so long ago.

And… there is the kind of participatory remembering that can transform our lives and our world.

 … when the commandment says Remember you were a slave in Egypt and God brought you out of there… it’s not telling us to simply recall information about the Israelites in slavery and the trip through the Red Sea. 

… when John, the Gospel writer, tells us that Jesus promises that God will send the Holy Spirit to remind you of all I have said, he’s not talking about us quoting the Scriptures.

…when Paul tells the congregation at Corinth what he received from the Lord about Communion: Do this in remembrance of me, this is not simply telling us to recall the details of Jesus’ last supper with his disciples.

 No.  Here we find a different kind of remembering that is alive in the present with power to change us… and the world… if we are willing.

 This remembering:

•  intentionally brings into the present, the transformative power of a holy moment, an experience, an encounter where God has done something…
•  invites us to do something or to allow something to happen as a result of the remembering…
•  causes us to be re-membered and re-connected with God, with our neighbour, with our true self.

On All Saints Sunday, we each remembered someone who has made a difference in our lives… who touched us in a way that drew us to God or deepened our faith or gave us confidence, etc.  We remembered in order to bring into the present the power of that person’s life and the gift/quality that they left to us…in such a way that our lives are influenced and empowered in the now.

Each year in November we remember the veterans and all those who lost their lives in war. We remember our first-responders who put their lives on the line for us in our city.

What does it mean for you to truly remember these in a way that transforms your living now?

 In our Communion we hear Jesus’ empowering words: Do this in remembrance of me. The words over the bread and the cup… inviting each of us to the power of a transforming moment, calling us to allow this remembering to touch our hearts and minds in such a way that it makes a difference in the now, in us, for the world.

 Where in your life situation can remembering in this way empower you to make the difference you want to make in the lives of others?