Let’s Make a Memory
(Play ‘Memory’ from ‘Cats’)
Memory is a funny thing. Whether we remember something properly or not, it can make a big impact on us. One of my first memories is of travelling from the US to Argentina on a plane that had overhead compartments with beds in them. I was thrilled once to see a black and white film with shots of those very same compartments, because no one else I knew could imagine that anything like that had ever existed, and I sometimes imagined that they questioned my memory. Some years ago when I told my mother that this was one of my first memories, she said, ‘But you were only three at the time!’ I remembered because it was so very much fun! Other memories are not so positive. The song ‘Memory’ in the musical ‘Cats’ is full of pathos.
Memory is important to God, too. The OT passage from the 12th chapter of Exodus begins with God giving Moses and Aaron instructions about the original Passover. The Passover was given that name because God said that anyone who believed him would be saved. If they obeyed God and put the blood of a lamb on the tops and the sides of the doorframes of their houses when God’s promised judgement came on Egypt, God would pass over that house. That relationship of listening to God and doing what he said, for their own good, would result in them being spared from death.
The instructions we have read about happened before the actual event took place. The final verse of our passage today says, ‘This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord – a lasting ordinance.’ The fact that they were to keep a memory of what God promised would take place in the future reinforces its importance. It would not be something that they could take for granted.
God did not say that they were to teach it in their schools as part of the history syllabus. History is important, and it’s fantastic that we have academics who can put dates to most of the biblical accounts. God did not make it part of the law – it was not integral to the OT legal system. The Passover was in a class of its own. It was about God’s own loving provision in a promise that he would save people in a certain way, because only he could do that. And the memory was something that was to be passed on in families – ‘for the generations to come’ it says. It was about a celebration – a festival – a joyful occasion in other words - used to remind people because of what it communicated about God.
Families are very important to God. Today we are celebrating the Baptism of Paige. The whole family is here to celebrate. To rejoice because God has done something wonderful. He has created a couple to produce a child out of the joy of their union. Christopher and Francesca and her Godparents now want to promise to give that child to God and to bring her up in the knowledge and love of God. God recognises the importance of families in remembering all that He has ever done in fulfilling His promises to all His people. One of my favourite passages is in Deuteronomy 6:1-9. It begins by impressing on us just how loving God is – that all His commands are for our good. Then it goes on to talk about the commands in the context of the family: ‘Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates.’
The memories are to be passed on to the next generation. The best way to remember something is to have it talked about all the time. The passage gives a great description of what ‘all the time’ means! But God also gives us some memory joggers here. I don’t know how you remember things, but when it comes to numbers I have one system, and to words another. For instance, our number in West Ealing was 8567 0241. The first bit was easy, but I played around with the last four digits, and immediately thought of the sequence that would come next – 024 were evens, and then I started with the first odd number (which would be followed by 3 and 5). I learned that number very quickly!
God said that his people were to tie the commandments as symbols on their hands and to bind them to their foreheads. Orthodox Jews still do that literally. But what it really is is a memory jog. So is writing them on the doorframes of houses and on gates. Many people have a favourite verse or verses framed in their homes. That again is an aid to memory. Maybe there was a story attached to that particular verse. The story told again when someone asks you about the framed verse reminds you again of God’s faithfulness, for example, and encourages the other person. We have one from Proverbs: ‘Step by step as you go the way shall open up before you.’ It has gone with us throughout our married lives and reminds us that God is with us in the present, and not to worry about the future. Time is always present in relationship to God, and today is all that we have. When we remember the past it is to remind us that God is still like that today.
So the Passover is a powerful memory, and made even more important for us as Christians, because Jesus became our ‘Passover lamb’. He died, and in effect his blood was put on the sides and tops of our doorframes, so that believing God we would be ‘passed over’ in terms of all of our offences – sins against God, others and even ourselves. Like Exodus 12, Jesus explained ahead of time what was going to happen, when he ate the Last Supper with his disciples. And like Exodus 12, he told his disciples to remember the actual event by re-enacting it in the future. The memory makes it real again – very real.
The most real thing about all these memories in the Bible is that they remind us of God’s presence with us all the time. Because we cannot see God, and we have not had the privilege of living with Jesus and so seeing God in Christ, we need to remember God in different ways. That is one of the reasons why we get together to worship God on a Sunday –though each one of us is not yet perfect. Our worship reminds us of God’s presence, and not only His presence, but also of His loving character. So in our passage in Matthew 18 about the church and its discipline, the important thing is not the discipline itself, but the fact of relationship in the church on which the presence of Jesus is dependent. His presence depends on agreement between members of the church body – the body of Christ.
The word ‘listen’ comes up 4 times in the passage! We are to listen for our own good! Jesus finishes that passage by saying that ‘if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.’ Of course, the prayers referred to here are contingent on them being in accordance with God’s will. In one of my favourite series of books about an Episcopalian rector in a town in North Carolina in the US, the rector always prays the prayer that never fails when he is at his wit’s end. That is, ‘Lord, thy will be done.’ We pray that prayer that never fails every time we celebrate the Eucharist – where we remember Jesus. But when that requirement is fulfilled, the prayers will be answered – because Jesus’ presence is there when two or three agree together. That agreement is something very major to remember. And it is amazing how many things we can really agree on! Let me guess at a few of them:
That our children grow up to love and serve the Lord
That there be growing justice and equality in all the nations of the world
(get the congregation to add a few more)
During communion we will offer prayer again in the Lady Chapel. God has already answered prayers offered in that Chapel – I cannot give details, but Jesus is here when we agree together, and he loves to honour those prayers.
So as we come to Baptism and then communion, let’s make a memory! That happens to be the title of a book I like about doing special things together as families. Today, let’s make a memory of what Paige means to all of us gathered here – a memory that will be brought up again most forcefully in the future, when she is confirmed and makes the vows promised on her behalf today her very own. Let’s make a memory as we re-enact the Last Supper and remember what Jesus has done and still does for us. And let’s remember that these memories are in a category all of their own. They are wonderful celebrations that can only be classified under the gracious provision of a loving God who wants, more than anything else, to make an intimate and lasting relationship with Him possible for each one of us. AMEN.