reynaldo reynoso (admin)
For as far back as I can remember it has rained on Memorial Day. I’m not making an uninformed statement that makes inference to God weeping, no such thing. It’s an observation based on the fact that for years my local gathering would try to meet up together in a certain park in New Jersey , only to be met with wet grass, gray skies and a cold breeze. The burgers never cook quite right, the drinks get dirt in them, the preacher is completely impossible to understand with the bad sound system being used?all in all the day is usually a wash.
We usually make our way back home through hours of traffic and seeing countless accidents due to the treacherous driving conditions. We didn’t bother going this year (in fact, I don’t even remember hearing it announced?perhaps no one bothered going) but I still had a nagging feeling in the back of my head dealing with memorials.
Yesterday another brother was preaching at our gathering and he made mention of the price men paid to assure the freedom in the United States . Indeed, it has been many battles and several wars that have allowed the foundational freedoms of the United States to blossom. That day, once known as Decoration Day to honor the people who died during the nation’s Civil War by decorating their graves, know is a day to remember any and all soldiers of any and all wars fought by American soldiers. Thousands of men, some faceless and long forgotten, remembered and due gratitude subsequently offered.
Inevitably my mind was set to think about a man who receives very little gratitude and the remembrance of Him is sparse except for swearing. This man, humble and of no repute, who sat at a table and (with hands which were to be nailed to a tree the following day) broke bread and blessed the cup. ?This,? said He ?Do in remembrance of me.?
How many of us do ?this? of which He spoke? In our local gathering, we sit around the table and remember Him every Sunday. There are many shed tears, songs offered, prayers lifted up, words brought?and at the end our hearts are amazed by the unity that the Lord Himself has made evident. Yet, I know that there are hundreds of churches that don’t spend this time worshipping the Lord by remembering Him, but rather ignore the bread and wine completely except for four times a year or once a month.
I think of Peter who took that supper and but a few hours later was rejecting and forgetting the Lord?how much easier is it for us to forget who aren’t even spending that given time to remember?
Christendom would offer the Eucharist while lay-thoughts are elsewhere, watching the performed actions before them. Some gatherings may take the supper once every three months they say ?so that the feast doesn’t lose its meaning? as if spending time with the Lord can ever lose it’s power.
How humbling it is to think that the very night that Jesus was betrayed, the very same evening before He was taken and accused and proclaimed worthy of death although He was innocent, the Lord broke bread with His disciples and passed the Cup and He prayed for them?He prayed for us.
All He asked was that we do this in remembrance of Him, and as often as we do it we proclaim His death and His return.
-r-
Passages mentioned:
Matt 26:26-30; Mark 14:30 , 66- 72; Luke 22:15 -22; Luk 22:31 -35; John 17; 1 Cor 11:22 -29; Acts 2:42