“For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
1 Cor 11:23-26
To Remember
This word remembrance has jumped out at me recently. It is a powerful thing to remember, especially in the midst of a dizzying paced culture filled with gezillions of bespoke distractions, all competing for your attention. Yet Jesus declares, at the last supper, which became the first communion meal – we are to continuously remember His cross by taking the cup ‘as often as you drink it’ as a forever memorial.
Memory Aid
One of the two great sacraments is a memory aid! Jesus knew, among the distractions and cares of life, we would need a mighty help to remember the greatest act of love ever demonstrated. We need to remember how He loved us and how much He loved us, suffering even to the point of innocent death. How many pains we bear because we forget how He loves us! We need it today as we live among insanely powerful algorithms hungry to devour our attention.
Christian Mindfulness
It is curious how ‘forgetting’ is given in scripture as a causative element. Forgetting the Lord is held in scripture as the cause for being exiled from your promised land. We know satan uses distraction as a tool for deception or overworking good dead works. (see https://andrebaard.com/distraction-series-1-14/ ). Distraction is an evil worker to rob of giving the Lord ALL our attention and always remembering Him, to be consciously aware of Him continuously. Become undistractable by meditating on the Lord day and night. Thawte satan’s distraction tactics by being mindful of the Lord always. Remember is based on the word to “be mindful’ … God wants Christian Mindfulness!
“This is your lot, the portion I have decreed for you (ie exile) , declares the Lord, because you have forgotten me and trusted in false gods.”
Jer 13:25
Why do we Forget?
Forgetting hardly feels like a mortal sin, like adultery or murder but 55 times in the scripture God accuses Israel of ‘forgetting Me’. It is not like forgetting your keys or feeding the pet budgie. Why do we forget? I think partly because we no longer care. The less we care, the more we forget. Its on a sliding scale of diminishing returns. We remember things close to our heart. We remember things we are interested in. So forgetting the Lord speaks to our hearts departing from Him, as it happened with Israel. Our forgetfulness is a measuring stick, a thermometer, a litmus test.
And Moses injunction is clear today as it was then:
“Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” Deut 8:11-14
How can a simple act of memory, be so important to God? Because He knows, it reflects the state our hearts, what our hearts desire. It talks about our level of desire to know Him and seek His face and have God as object of our thought life. If you love, you do not have a problem to remember. What bride or bridegroom forgets his wedding day?
“Does a young woman forget her jewelry, a bride her wedding ornaments? Yet my people have forgotten me, days without number.”
Jer 2:32
What we cannot Forget
We cannot forget things we really love. So then, forgetting, or not remembering, is really a symptom of where our heart is at. Forgetting partners with abandoning, renouncing and graudally walking away. If we struggle to remember the Lord in the midst of the busyness of the day, its understandable but so are the consequences to our mental and spiritual health. Jesus is our life. He is our breath. What if we forget to to breathe? We die. We die spiritually.
How not to Forget
As Psalm 1 says he who flourishes like a palm and whatever they do prospers, is he whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. Mediates day and night. Good remembering has got something to do with having continuous thoughts on God, Brother Lawrence style. Daily, hourly thoughts of God. This is how you do not forget the one you love. When you’re on your bed at night, you think of Him, when you get up in the morning you think of Him. Morning, noon and night you ponder, wonder and meditate. While working, you invite Him to help solve math’s, accounting, engineering, social problems … this one will prosper in whatever He does, because he has God-thought filling his thinking … continuously.
Forgetting the Lord is really just a symptom of one’s heart moving away from a devoted center where Jesus is Lord and the Lover of our souls. Remembrance implies a keeping in memory, that which is effortless or unwilled to recall. We remember easily things existing closest to our heart. It is effortless to remember what our heart is filled with. May we always, easily remember the Lord Jesus Christ, who always remember us!
Breaking bread is the chief way to ‘remember the Lord’. To remember what great love He had and continuous to have for us, what great things He has done for us over the years. Lest we forget! Let us remember the Lord, remember His love, remember His words, remember all the things to thank Him for. May the church of Jesus Christ never forget and always remember the One our Hearts Desire!
One Response
Profound indeed!