I remember hearing a woman’s faith story. She was raised into a strong Christian faith within a very religious family. Yet she told of a moment in her teens when she was confronted with a statement that shook her to the core. She was at a rally where the fervor of faith and passion of conversation soared. The speaker said, “You can’t love Christ, until you love yourself.” As an insecure teen, what did she know about loving herself? but she certainly knew how to love Christ. At least until she heard this dichotomy. She had more than enough love for Christ why did she have to love herself? Fast-forward, she is a grown woman struggling, enduring a difficult divorce and as she tells her story she recalls how it was the faith of women in her Bible study that believed for her, held faith for her, until she could heal enough to believe again. In her defeated place she could not shoulder faith, but her friends carried her, believed in her, believed for her. Her faith was held in trust by her dear friends. She was remembering her faith, her faith story, her journey with Christ through the ups and downs of life.
You have a faith story. Your story of how Christ grabbed a hold of you and brought you to tears, or how the Holy Spirit nudged you into curiosity and exploration, how God hit you over the head with a two by four with the wonder of creation. Maybe you have looked into the abyss only to meet silence, and then years later God wraps loving arms around you, bringing you home. Or you faced a health crisis and you know in your heart of hearts Jesus was right there with you in your hospital bed. You have a faith story, ripe with twists and turns. Recalling those moments carries us through the dark times and warms our hearts in the good.
“Remember Jesus Christ” scripture implores…. There is great power in remembering. How hearing your wedding song transports you back in time; breathing in the familiar and wonderful scent of your beloved breath, gazing at a picture of a moment of joy. Sounds, smells and visuals can trigger memories, but we can simply choose to remember. Just consider all the times we are asked to remember in scripture. “Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy” (Ex. 20:8). Remember to rest and to rest in God. We all know how off we get when we fail to rest, and rest in God. How about, “Do this in remembrance of me” (1 Cor. 11:24). We intimately join with Christ as we taste eternal life and drink the cup of blessing. Our last hymn has “Jesus Remembering You” in eternity. Because when we remember our faith and our connection we are knit together as the body of Christ. “Remembering in Scripture is often a call back to the sacred and, ultimately, a call to ‘re-member’ Christ’s body and become Christ’s body in this world (Feasting on the Word, C4, pg. 161). Did you get that? “Re” as in do again; and “member” as part of the body of Christ. So when we remember Christ we are reclaiming belonging to Christ and following him.
“Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendent of David.” At fist these seem reversed. Jesus’ heritage certainly comes before his resurrection. But like everything in Scripture it is that way for a reason. When you look at the Greek, it is not the event of Christ rising. Rather it means, “Remember your risen and ever-present Lord” (Timothy, Barclay, pg. 164). Remember your experience of Jesus, remember the stillness after you prayed, and remember the grace you live in each day. Remember what it means to be loved by Jesus. So then when we consider his heritage as a descendant of David, and the traditions of faith, everything feels different. We start with the experience, our moment with Jesus and then the history, the tradition, information, comes to life.
Did you ever have a dream destination? A place you deeply want to visit? Maybe you have read about it, watched travel shows on it, talked to friends who have visited, but you have never been there. Then you get to go, to see, taste, feel, and revel in the wonders and new experiences. All your prior knowledge takes on new meaning, personal meaning, because you have an experience of the culture. This is the kind of remembering we are asked to do. What we learn in scripture comes alive with personal experience of Christ.
That is the kind of remembering that happens in the four stanzas of the hymn embodying this remembering. If we die, if we endure, if we deny, if we are faithless- these are our experiences with Jesus. We chose how we relate or fail to embrace our Lord, and the hymn helps us to know the consequences. If we die with Christ, if we take up our cross and follow him, then we are promised to live with him. If we put down the bottle, or if we let go of our ego, if we die with Christ then we live in the light and love of Jesus. But this dying is a daily task. Martin Luther wrote, “daily dying and rising with Christ.” Reflecting on this Marcus Borg wrote, “In the course of a day, I sometimes realize that I have become burdened, and that the cause is that I have forgotten God. In the act of remembering God, of reminding myself of the reality of God, I sometimes feel a lightness of being- a rising out of my self-preoccupation and burdensome confinement. We are all called again and again to come forth from our tombs” (Heart of Christianity, p. 118).
As Christians, we are asked to die with Christ and endure for Christ. Tertullian an early Church father wrote, “‘The man who is afraid to suffer cannot belong to him who suffered.’ Jesus died to be true to the will of God; and the Christian must follow that same will…” (Barclay, pg. 170). This of course referred to martyrdom, but the question for us is can we endure a skeptical look when sharing our faith, so that we can reign with Christ? Because if we don’t endure the look, suffer the uncomfortable moment, then we really are denying Christ, denying our Lord.
Has someone ever said some offensive things, things that go against your core beliefs and you chose to remain silent? Maybe it was over politics or a social issue of the day. Not wanting a scene, you just kept quiet. Silence is denial of Christ’s teaching. Maybe you’re not as bad as Peter before the cock crowed, but our silence can be denial just the same.
The final truth from this hymn, this song, is that no matter how many times we are unfaithful, no matter how many times we turn away and pursue our own path, Jesus will always be faithful.
He can be no other, it is his nature. So many times in scripture we hear “You of little faith.” But it is Christ’s fidelity to faith that sustains our relationship. Borg writes, “Faith is faithfulness to our relationship to God. It means what faithfulness does in a committed human relationship: we are faithful (or not) to spouse or partner. Faith as fidelity means loyalty, allegiance, the commitment of the self at its deepest level, the commitment of the heart” (p. 32). This is how we strive to be faithful to God. And yet Jesus offers a safety net of faith. So even when we fall short, Jesus has the perfect faith, the complete faith. We need only to remember Jesus’ faith; his healing faith, loving faith, his willing to die for YOU faith. When we do, Jesus becomes the friend who holds you, holds your faith, until you get through your difficult time.
Today we celebrate our Church Picnic –full of moments to remember- to recall. I remember playing ping pong in the parking lot after someone rolled it down from their house. You might remember the boat races in the park, or Banjos by the Bay serenading us, a memory we will soon enjoy again. Joining in fellowship helps us to “re-member” ourselves as the body of Christ and follow. Shari will sing about “All the earth worshipping God” with the green and yellow as we remember together; as we recall love and tenderness. But I want you to listen to the conclusion and see if you hear it within the scope of your faith, as part of being faithful to God. As you remember, may you hear it as being faithful to Christ who asked us to Follow, Follow, Follow. Amen.
