Remembering

In our Judeo-Christian tradition remembering is of utmost importance. Our identity as an individual or as a people is influenced by what we remember about our past and about ourselves. In Exodus 13:3 we hear Moses urging the people of Israel to remember their great deliverance from Egypt. This act of remembering is established forever in the Jewish celebration of Passover, and this act of remembering was meant to be more than just a mental exercise of recalling a past event, but it was meant to shape the Jewish identity and how they lived. As they remembered generation after generation what God did for them, they were to remember their identity of being God’s free people and live accordingly no matter what socio-political situation they found themselves in. The same is true of the Lord's Supper or the Christian reinterpretation of the Passover tradition. In the Lord’s Supper tradition as narrated by Paul in 1Corinthians 11:23-26 Jesus in verses 24 and 25 is heard saying as He breaks the bread and takes the cup, “Do this in remembrance of me.” In essence what Jesus is saying also is, ‘Never forget.’ What Jesus is asking us to remember is his self-sacrifice for our sins, and allow that remembrance to inform our identity and how we live in this world.   As we remember, no matter what socio-political situation we find ourselves in we need to live a life of self-sacrificial love toward God and others.