Remembering

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday March 15, 2009, the 3rd Sunday in Lent.

Exodus 20:1-17
Psalm 19
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
John 2:13-22

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

Scholars teach there are three sections to the Ten Commandments, this morning’s reading from Exodus. The first three commandments, verses 4-7, tell us how humanity is to relate to the Lord our God. Verses 8-11 teach us how to relate to creation by the Sabbath. Finally, verses 12-17, the last six commandments, address social relations, how we deal with and take care of one another. Most of the Ten Commandments teach us using action verbs, though usually through their negative. We shall not make; we shall not bow; we shall not take; we shall not murder; we shall not steal; and so on.

The only commandment that seems less active is “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.” But this is not true, the command to remember the Sabbath is not just a mental exercise, it’s active too. Verses 8-11 instruct us not only to remember the Sabbath but how to remember the Sabbath. We are instructed not to work, not only us but everyone and everything in our household is not to work. We are to remember that the Lord made heaven and earth in six days and on the seventh the Lord made, blessed, and consecrated a day of rest for all that was created.

In English, often we think of remembering as a mental exercise, like remembering our multiplication tables or the alphabet. We know to “Remember the Alamo,” but what does that mean? What exactly are we to remember about the Alamo?

For the Alamo, we can be called to remember the bloody military battle and its horrendous body count. We can be called to remember political consequences of this battle to the Republic. We can be called to remember “Remember the Alamo” as the slogan used by the Republic forces at the Battle of San Jacinto, the battle which ended the revolution in favor of Texas.

Remembering the Alamo, I want to remember the words Lieutenant Colonel William Travis wrote about Davy Crockett during the battle. “The Hon. David Crockett was seen at all points, animating the men to do their duty.”[1] Crocket reminded the men of their duty, what they were to do in service to the Republic of Texas. The men were not only to mentally remember their duty; they were to perform their duty in service to the Republic.

This is a very Hebrew way to remember, not only do we remember in our minds, but we respond in our actions.[2] As important as it is for us to bear in mind the Sabbath, it is important that we also respond to the Sabbath. We are to meet the sovereign God and answer the Lord’s call keeping the Sabbath day holy. This is the command of the Lord to Moses and the people.

The reading from John’s gospel is the story of Jesus coming to the temple for the Passover and seeing it turned into a marketplace. It is the story of his acts in cleansing the temple for worship. It is the story of the veiled prophecy of the destruction of the bodily temple Jesus inhabits; and the resurrection of that same temple.

But there are two very interesting pieces in this reading that aren’t common to our lectionary readings. In verses 17 and 22, we are told that his disciples remembered. The disciples not only remembered the events, but they remembered teachings that preceded these events. They remembered not only words and lessons; they remembered the actions that coupled them. The way the disciples remember these events is not so different from how the Alamo was remembered at San Jacinto.

As the last verse in our reading teaches us, they remembered and by remembering they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. They remembered not only in their minds, they responded through belief; and through their belief, through their faith, were able to do many great things in the name of the Lord.

We are called to remember our baptism. In the words of John Calvin, “As often as we fall away, we ought to recall the memory of our baptism and fortify our minds with it, that we may always be sure and confident of the forgiveness of sins.”[3]

Surely those of us who were baptized as infants, as Maddie and Roxy and Suzy were, we won’t remember the events of our baptism. We remember neither the chill of the water, nor the smell of the oil as we are anointed as God’s own. But as these children of the Body of Christ were baptized into the community God calls into existence, we are called to remember the vows of our baptism too.

We are called as the community to accept the responsibility to encourage those receiving this sacrament. The baptismal liturgy in The Book of Common Worship asks the congregation:

Do you, as members of the church of Jesus Christ,
promise to guide and nurture these who receive this sacrament
by word and deed,
with love and prayer,
encouraging them to know and follow Christ
and to be faithful members of Christ’s church?[4]

Answering “We do,” surely as those of us who were baptized as infants will not be able to remember our baptism, we can remember those who are now baptized. And by our very words, we are called to remember the promises we make to them upon their baptism; promises not only of word but deed, not only of thought but action; actions including teaching, serving, rejoicing, weeping, sharing food, and breaking bread together.[5]

From Transfiguration of the Lord Sunday and Ash Wednesday; through Lent and Eastertide; until Trinity Sunday, we here celebrate the Lord’s Supper. Today we hear these words of institution of the sacrament:

On the very night He was betrayed
Jesus took bread and gave You thanks
He broke it and gave it to His disciples,
“Take, eat, this is My body which is given to you;
do this in remembrance of Me.”

In the same way, after supper
He took the cup and gave You thanks
He gave it to His disciples, saying,
“Drink this, all of you;
this is My blood of the new covenant,
which is shed for you and for many,
for the forgiveness of sins.
Do this as often as you drink it,
In remembrance of Me.”

If you are thirsty, drink the Fount of Life
If you are hungry, eat the Bread of Life.
Blessed are all who hunger for this Bread
And thirst for this Fount.
Together we remember and proclaim
the mystery of Christ.[6]

Again, this remembrance is more than a mental exercise. This remembrance is a call not only to know in our minds but to reimagine—even recreate the Lord’s last supper.[7] In our remembrance of the Lord, we are not just to imagine as we celebrate the sacrament. We are not to experience remembrance as a solitary event. Remembrance is an event of the church. We celebrate the body and blood of Christ as the Body of Christ. By repetition, we are to take this remembering event into our very beings and into the world. Doing this in remembrance of the Lord is so important to us that these very words are carved into the table.

We are to do this together until he comes again. In an oddly wonderful command, we are to remember into the future. We are to remember what is to come. The same Hebraic understanding of remembrance that allows us to experience anew the past also allows us to experience already the future.[8] The hope that is rooted in the historic past is the source of our Christian hope for the future. It is in remembrance that we connect these things in the present. It is in this sacrament that we are fed, nourished as the Body of Christ for God’s work in the world.

As the last verse in our reading teaches us, they remembered and by remembering they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. They remembered not only in their minds, they responded through belief, and through their belief, through their faith, were able to do many great things in the name of the Lord.

In the waters of our baptism, in the bread and the cup of the Lord’s Supper, we participate in the life and death and resurrected life of Jesus Christ, the special revelation of God, the Law incarnate, the living Torah. We are called to participate as Jesus did; not in the pomp and ceremony of the temple sacrifices, but in the life of the Church, the Body of Christ on earth and all of God’s good creation.

As the apostles and disciples before us, we are to remember and by remembering believe. By believing and through faith, the Lord is able to do far more with us than we could ever hope or imagine doing on our own.

We are called to remember. In remembering we are called to respond to God in gratitude. In response we are called to share the good news of Emmanuel, God with us.

We are called to share from the very life we are given in Christ. Today let us begin by remembering the Sabbath day and keeping it holy. Let us remember God’s wondrous love and respond.

[1] Groneman, Bill, “Alamo Defenders: A Genealogy, the People and Their Words.” Austin, TX: Eakin Press, 1990, page 27
[2] “tskr” entry, Brown, Driver, Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon, Electronic Edition found in BibleWorks version 7.0.019k.1 (Print Edition Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1907, page 269)
[3] Calvin, John, Institutes of Christian Faith, vol. 4, part xv, section 3.
[4] “The Book of Common Worship” compiled by The Theology and Worship Ministry Unit for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1993, page 406.
[5] Boonstra, Henry, “Perspectives: Remember Your Baptism”, in Reformed Worship Magazine, #14, http://www.reformedworship.org/magazine/article.cfm?article_id=243, retrieved March 14, 2009.
[6] Imago Dei Christian Community, a community drawn to Christ, Celtic Communion Liturgy, http://imagodeicommunity.ca/category/celtic-communion-liturgy/, retrieved March 10, 2009.
[7] Stookey, Laurence Hull, “Eucharist, Christ’s Feast with the Church.” Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1993, page 28.
[8] Ibid, page 31