Do you remember 2009?

Luke 22:14-20 (NIV) 14 When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. 15 And he said to them, "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God." 17 After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, "Take this and divide it among you. 18 For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes." 19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me." 20 In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

It is a new year. I like the tradition of celebrating passing from one year to the next. For one thing it gives us a natural reminder to look back and evaluate the year. I am amazed though how difficult it is to remember things as recent as a few months ago. Recently I had to do a report for work on the past years work. Luckily I have a computerized calendar that I use as an agenda so I am able to look back at where I have been and what I have been working on. It was amazing looking back how many things were accomplished that I had forgotten about. Looking back I am reminded of projects and crisis that consumed my time and thought life a few months ago but that I have since forgotten about. It was interesting to look back too and say “oh, I used one week of vacation in February when we had a child and one week in June to move, no wonder the few days I had off over Christmas felt like such a rest.”

I don’t have a great memory. I think most people don’t. With a group of friends last night at a Bible Study I had them write down something that they did in each month of the past year. Most took a while to think of at least a few of the months and even when they could think of something it was fairly general/mundane. I am so glad I have the electronic record. I need to be reminded.

In the passage above Jesus says “do this in remembrance of me”. I know within Christian Horizons we have many denominations that all have a slightly different view of communion/the Eucharist/the Lord’s Supper but the idea I want to pick up on is the idea of remembrance. I am no expert in Greek but from what I can glean the word is more than “remember” or “recollect” it has a prefix that makes it “bring up into memory”. It is an active remembering. Jesus wants His disciples to actively remember Him. It isn’t like they would forget that He existed or forget that He died. My wife bought me a thing of pictures of my family for Christmas. My daughter asked me why I was going to take it to work. I told her I wanted it on my desk to remind me of my family to which she replied “You forget about me when you are at work!?!”

Of course I don’t forget I have children. Of course we won’t forget that Jesus died but there is a difference between retaining the knowledge and calling it up into active thought. The Jewish culture had many special days of remembrance. Jesus held the last supper during Passover, a time of remembrance of deliverance from Egypt. Purim celebrates the deliverance recorded in Esther. The feast of tabernacles remembers wandering in the wilderness.

It is good for us to actively remember what God has done. In looking over the past year I realized how many prayers He answered for me and all the things He accomplished through me. As our Bible Study group went through the last year one thing I noticed was that we had prayed for a lot of things together that we wanted God to provide but had not necessarily come back together to thank him when those prayers were answered. Actively remembering the past year gave us that opportunity. So as we are still close to the beginning of the New Year I encourage you to look back. See what God has done. Read back through the CH Com Book and see the issues that came up. See the successes and challenges of the year for the people we support. I am glad I have my electronic calendar but you may need to keep a journal to help you remember. Before you throw out the 2009 calendar take a look back through it. Take time to actively remember what God has done.

Mark Wallace