“Stirring Our Memory”

A sermon preached at

Heart of the Rockies Christian Church

(Disciples of Christ)

Fort Collins, Colorado

May 25, 2014

Christian love is not the world’s last word about itself – it is God’s last word about himself, and so about the world.

Hans Urs von Balthasar
Texts: Acts 17:22-31 & John 14:15-17, 25-27

Will you take a minute with me to recall some of Jesus’ teachings? What comes to your mind, what words of assurance, admonition, or promise? Anything particularly helpful at this time in your life? Can you recall a time when something Jesus said or did came to you? Will you share it with the rest of us?

The church sets aside the seven weeks following Easter as an extended time of celebration, a time to discern what Jesus’ death and resurrection mean for us and for the world. But toward the end of the Easter season – it’s been five weeks now – the church’s attention is turned from our thinking about Jesus’ resurrection to Jesus’ gift of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, which we’ll celebrate in a couple of weeks.

Our Gospel reading is taken from the Book of John. John includes many more of Jesus’ teachings about the Spirit than the other Gospel writers. Maybe because the other Gospels – Matthew, Mark and Luke – were written sooner after Jesus’ death and resurrection, when the church was still expecting Jesus’ immediate return. By the time John wrote his Gospel, it was decades after Jesus’ resurrection. Many in the church were asking, “When will Jesus return? When will the kingdom come in all of its fullness?” John wrote his Gospel to say to the church, “We’re not to concern ourselves with the when. In this time between Jesus’ first advent and his final coming in glory, we have all we need to get on with Jesus’ work in the world: Jesus’ teachings; Jesus’ example; and Jesus’ Spirit, the Spirit of the Living God.” Here’s a part of what Jesus taught about the Holy Spirit. [Read John 14:15-17, 25-27.]

“The Holy Spirit will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.” Because we forget. It’s easy to forget. Psychologists tell us that our memories are actually quite malleable, that unconsciously our brains shape our memories in ways that may bear little resemblance to what actually happened. A few years ago, my mom called to remind me of the time, on a long-ago Memorial Day, when I was six years old and was asked to recite the Declaration of Independence during a ceremony at the cemetery in Canton, Illinois. Mom had the holiday and the location of the cemetery right. But I was 15 and mine was a considerably shorter recitation of the Gettysburg Address. At least that’s the way I remember it. Jesus knew how time can erode our memory, how our memory can play tricks on us. Jesus knew we’d need to be reminded.

And maybe Jesus knew that there’ll be times when we’d just as soon forget. Like a child to her parent, “No, I don’t remember you telling me to do that.” Sometimes we choose forgetfulness, speaking and behaving as if we had no recollection of what Jesus said, no memory of our having committed ourselves to a life of discipleship. We get lost. We lose ourselves. Early Christians used the word amnesia to describe this kind of lostness (Fred Craddock, in his commentary on John).

So the Spirit intervenes to stir our memory. Because it’s our memory that imparts a sense of time and place, of importance and purpose. The Spirit reminds us that we’re part of a particular story that has shaped us, part of a particular community that nurtures us and challenges us to live our way into a specific vision of the future.

Memory grounds us, orients us, gives meaning to the present and hope for the future. There’s a medical condition – maybe you’ve heard of it – in which sufferers awaken in every moment to a new world. Every piece of furniture in the room, every face, the view out of the window is brand new with each passing moment, because these people have no gift of recollection, no memory. They can’t even participate in an ongoing conversation, because they can’t remember what’s been said the moment before. I called a neurologist’s office to ask for the name of the condition. One of the doctors at Fort Collins Neurology Associates checked and called back to say that it’s a very rare, nasty condition. He said Wernicke’s-Korsakoff Encephalopathy is a permanent condition. Patients are simply rootless, having no sense of self or others or the world around them.

Without our memory, we forget who and whose we are. When I’m visiting someone with Alzheimer’s or I’m at the bedside of one who’s been heavily sedated – maybe under Hospice care, I’ll sing a children’s song, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so…” or a familiar hymn, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound…” Somewhere deep within, the Spirit stirs and there’s a remembering. Or I’ll serve communion, “Jesus took the bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it to his disciples…” and the other’s lips will move, or their eyes will brighten, as the Spirit embraces them, reconnects them, reminds them who and whose they are. Jesus had said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.” This peace is a work of the Holy Spirit.

This Memorial Day – as we remember those who didn’t return from war – I’m thinking of all the veterans who have, and how the Spirit can use the church to receive and reconnect them, to remind them that, in spite of horrendous experiences and memories that will haunt them, there are memories deeper still, memories of God’s love and God’s promises of healing and reconciliation.

The Holy Spirit reminds us that by way of Christ Jesus our past is not governed by blame and guilt but by forgiveness and hope and the possibility for change. The Holy Spirit works in every moment to connect us to Jesus’ life within us and the world around us and God beyond us. The Holy Spirit works to make a community whole and healthy by way of reminding it of its past so that it can wisely choose its future. The Holy Spirit who reminds us of the things Jesus has said to us.

Love one another as I have loved you.
Forgive one another as I have forgiven you.
Your faith has made you well.
Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these other things will be given you.
Do not worry about tomorrow. Today’s troubles are enough for today.
In everything, do to others what you would have them do to you.
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal.
You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.
Ask and it will be given. Seek and you shall find. Knock and the door will be opened unto you.
Blessed are the poor in spirit.
Blessed are those who mourn.
Blessed are the peacemakers.
Blessed are you when others revile and persecute you for my name’s sake.
Abide in me and I will abide in you, like a vine and its branches.
Just as you did it unto the least of one of these, you did it to me.
Feed my sheep.
Love the Lord your God with everything you’ve got, and your neighbor as yourself.
Pick up your mat and walk.
You will be my witnesses.
As you go, make disciples.

Most everything we do in the church is a kind of reminding each other what Jesus said and did. From our warm welcome of the stranger at the door, to the songs we sing. The peace we pass. Eating and drinking at the table, like he asked, in memory of him. When you think about it, most preaching and teaching is merely reminding us of the stuff we already know but have a way of forgetting. I think this is one of the reasons we come to church, to be reminded, and why sometimes we don’t come, because for whatever reason – grief, guilt, anger, indifference – we don’t want to be reminded, thank you. But it’s the work of the Holy Spirit, a work of grace, to stir our memory anyway.

When I officiate at a wedding, I want the couple I marry to be able to relax during the ceremony, so that they can enjoy it. During the rehearsal, I tell them that they won’t have to worry about remembering what to do during the wedding, that I’ll be reminding them all along. Every time they have to move or turn or say something, I just whisper a cue. That way they can focus on the moment, enjoy the experience. This is how the Holy Spirit works. The Spirit of the Crucified and Resurrected Jesus whispers Gospel cues in our ears so we can be at peace, giving us a confidence, reminding us that, no matter what may come, we are not alone. Because… we forget.

Jeff Wright
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