Dear St. Paul’s Family,
My family and I have been spending the past few days on Horseshoe Lake, Minnesota, at a cabin owned by Jessica’s family. This is a special place for her, as it prompts many childhood memories of summers spent fishing and boating, swimming and water-skiing. The shoreline beach is foot-printed with many ferocious games of beach volleyball. The boat dock is lined with stories of big-time catches, and ones that got away. The clothesline in the yard reminds Jessica of summers spent wearing nothing but her swimsuit, indoors and out, 24 hours a day. And the dining room table is etched with countless games of euchre, hearts, spades, and card houses that filled many rainy days and cloudless nights.
My first memory of the lake was fifteen years ago this month, when I met Jessica’s extended family for the first time. Walking out onto the dock, I introduced myself to her Uncle Mike, and the conversation went something like this:
“Hi, you must be Uncle Mike,” I said. “I’m Jessica’s new boyfriend.”
“Oh, hey there!” said Mike, with a firm handshake. “You must be Steve.”
“Umm…”
“No? Then you’re Rick….Mark?.....Joe?......”
“My name’s Magrey,” I said, sheepishly.
“Aw, I’m just kidding with ya’,” he said, swatting my now-slumped shoulders, nearly knocking me into the water.
(I credit Mike with this idea for a prank I swear someday I will play on my daughters’ new boyfriends.)
All of us should have locales like these that can serve as memory reservoirs – places that flood you with memories so vivid and evocative that it feels like you are reliving them the moment you walk in. Maybe for you it’s a backyard tree house, a grade school tire swing, a library bean bag chair, or a patch of grass under a shady oak tree.
Whatever place is unique to you, I believe we all share one in common. It’s the church: a memory reservoir unlike any other.
When the New Testament speaks of remembrance, it often uses the Greek word anamnesis, a word packed with so much meaning that there is no perfect English equivalent. To first century Christians, this kind of remembering was more than just “fondly recollecting,” or flipping back through one’s mental scrapbook to ponder past events. To remember something “anamnetically” was to do so with such vividness and clarity that the events of the past came alive in the present, as if they were happening for the first time.
This is exactly the word that Jesus used in the upper room, when he told his disciples to share in the bread and the cup in remembrance of him. When we partake of communion, we aren’t just retelling a fable secured in the distant past. We share in such a dynamic, anamnetic remembrance of Jesus that he is actually alive in our experience, a real presence in real time.
The church is where this kind of vibrant remembrance occurs. In every aspect of our worshipping life together, the past springs to life, and those who have gone before us join us in a mystical communion that lives in and through us.
- When we say the Lord’s Prayer, our voices are joined with that of Rev. O.S. Wight, the Methodist circuit rider who first brought Methodism to Cherokee 150 years ago.
- When we sing “I Love Thy Kingdom, Lord,” we are joined by the St. Paul’s congregation of 1915, who sang that hymn when our sanctuary was first dedicated.
- When we recite “The Apostles’ Creed,” we feel the electric presence of the saints who have gone before us: loved ones, friends, preachers and lay people alike, who forged a faith upon which we stand.
- And at every moment, we remember Jesus, who lives and reigns among us, guiding our church through 150 years of ministry.
The sermon this Sunday is based on the prophet Isaiah, who spoke words of comfort and hope to a people in exile, and offered them this call to remembrance.
Listen to me, you that pursue righteousness, you that seek the Lord. Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug.
Remember and celebrate! See you Sunday!
Magrey
The Rev. Magrey R. deVega
St. Paul's United Methodist Church
531 W. Main St.
Cherokee, IA 51012
Ph: 712-225-3955
http://www.cherokeespumc.org
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