What memories define you?

Memories are a powerful thing.  The memory of an event can alter a life.  The emotions associated with a memory can paralyze use or empower us to change the world.  How we allow those memories to define us can influence the decisions we make for a lifetime.

The Christian tradition is full of memories.  We inherit it from our roots of Judaism.  The memory is an important part of the Jewish past as well as the future.  This is apparent if you visit the Holocaust Memorials.  I’ve seen the one in Washington, D.C. and in Jerusalem. The overall message is: REMEMBER so that this will never happen again.

We also should remember certain events so that they DO happen again.  Certainly Jesus had this in mind at the Last Supper.  He was celebrating the Passover meal with His disciples.  The Passover is all about memories and tradition.  We are to remember that God’s people were slaves, but now are free.  In much the same way Jesus was declaring to the people that they were once slaves to sin and death, but He was about to set them free in ways they could never imagine.

We remember this still when we celebrate Holy Communion.  Jesus told us to do this in remembrance of Him.  He gave the disciples the cup on that Thursday night and told them it was a New Covenant offered to them.  Certainly they must have remembered the words from the prophet Jeremiah, 

31 “The days are coming,” declares the LORD,
   “when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
   and with the people of Judah.
32 It will not be like the covenant
   I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
   to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
   though I was a husband to them,”
            declares the LORD.
33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
   after that time,” declares the LORD.
“I will put my law in their minds
   and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
   and they will be my people.
34 No longer will they teach their neighbor,
   or say to one another, ‘Know the LORD,’
because they will all know me,
   from the least of them to the greatest,”
            declares the LORD.
“For I will forgive their wickedness
   and will remember their sins no more.”

What memories define us?  Hurtful memories of the past?  Or memories of a God who gave His all for us?  What will we do with those memories and how will we let God use them to change us and the world?

I look forward to exploring these with you this Sunday.