2020.09.06 | Remember
“Remember”
Rev. Dr. Arlene K. Nehring
Exodus 12:1-14 (NRSV)
My Grandma Thomsen’s worst fear in her later years was that she would develop dimentia. Sadly, for her and for all of us, Grandma’s worst fears were realized. The memory loss started slowly, so slowly that most people who saw her frequently didn’t realize what was going on. The situation increased slowly over time. Sort of like frogs in a boiling pop. Most people adapted until, well, no one could deny what was going on.
When I came home from seminary for my first Christmas break, I couldn’t help but notice that there was food spoiling in the cupboards where Grandma normally kept clean dishes. I went looking for her tea kettle after supper to boil some water for decaf coffee, but I couldn’t find it. When asked her where it was, she said that she’d ruined it. Let it boil dry a few weeks ago. She was hoping Santa would bring her a new one.
I had planned to stay at my mother’s house for the entire Christmas vacation, but I could see (and feel) that things weren’t quite right at Grandma and Grandpa’s house that night. So I pulled Mom aside and told her that I was really worried about them, and that I thought that I should stay and assess what was going on, and help them catch up on some chores around the house.
Mom was not happy with my proposal. She had big plans for me, and a long list of chores for me waiting at her house, too. I promised to do double duty.
We agreed that I would stay over, at least one night to see what was going on. That evening as we were getting ready for bed, Grandma called me into their bedroom and asked me for help. She was trying to put on a half slip. At bedtime. She said that she couldn’t remember how to put it on, or how she was supposed to wear it. She asked me to help her figure it out, and then she broke down in tears. She was not one prone to expressions of emotion.
Anyone who has ever lost a loved one to Alzheimer’s Disease or some other type of dementia has stories like mine about a loved one and you know the excruciating pain that the patient and loved ones endure as they lose their memory and we lose them, bit by bit. So you may agree that memory loss is a terrible thing. It’s not something that you would wish on your worst enemy. We need better prevention practices to stave off memory loss, and better medicines and therapies to ameliorate the effects of these neurological diseases. The same is true regarding the corporate memory of the church, our society, and the human community rit large.
II
Congregations, denominations, faith traditions, even whole societies are at risk of memory loss. When I survey the late night international news, I am troubled by the number of movements afoot in Europe, Asia, and the US that smack of narcissism, isolationism, and white supremacy.
In my younger years, I would have never believed that the atrocities that took place in the earlier part of the 20th Century would have been repeatable. Now I wonder and worry, as do others, especially those who lived through WWII, about the possibility of repeating the egregious mistakes of our forebears.
So we would do well to remember, to probe, and to learn that what has happened in the past could happen again. We must compose a different ending to the horror story that we have all heard about and that some of us have lived through.
As descendants of Abraham, we must re-member. We must put together the stories that were handed to us. We must claim them as our own, and we must understand our roles in confronting modern-day Pharaohs, claiming our power, and engaging in liberation movements that would set all people free.
As descendants of Abraham, we must retain and pass on our heilsgeschichte (our holy history), including the painful stories of what we’ve overcome, admit the distance we have to go, and pass on lessons learned in a manner that emboldens current and future generations to keep the faith and use our gift of freedom to free others.
As descendants of Abraham, we must ground ourselves in rituals, such as the Passover and Holy Communion, which remind us who we are and what we are about so that this knowledge is not only in our heads, but it is in our hearts and in our muscle memory for the times when we need it most--like when we can't commune with the people we love, when we have to improvise because the otherwise ubiquitous elements are scare, and when we find ourselves and our faith values literally and figuratively under siege.
III
Consider, for example, the Jewish celebration of Passover. The occasion is celebrated, in large part, to help Jews remember that they were once slaves in Egypt, and that God sent Moses to lead them out of bondage to the Promised Land.
According to Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, our Hebrew ancestors were nomadic people who endured a famine that led to their migration from the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt. There they sold themselves into servitude to forstal starvation.
God had a plan for the Hebrew, plans to give them a future and a hope beyond slavery in a foreign land. So God called Moses to lead them out of Egypt to the land of Cana.
Today’s scripture describes the first Passover and reminds Jews that the reason they observe this celebration annually is to remember who they are, where they came from, and how they have overcome hardships, like salvery, with God’s guidance.
The Christian celebration of Holy Communion, which is based on the Jewish celebration of Passover, serves a similar function in our tradition. Christ instituted this sacrament during the last week of his earthly life, by gathering with his disciples in an upper room for the Passover feast, offering these traditional elements to his disciples, and adding another layer of meaning to the ritual.
In this ritual, we remember our brokenness in the breaking of the bread, and we receive God’s grace by drinking from the cup that he has offered us. We are also brought together--at least spiritually if not physically--around the eucharistic table, and nourished in order to get up from the table, to do God’s work in the world, and invite others back to the table to enjoy the abundant feast that God has prepared for everyone.
IV
The practice of remembering is a practice well worth embracing for Christians. If we reclaimed the central role of remembrance, we would remember that our ancestors in the faith were once slaves. We would remember that God heard the cries of those slaves and liberated them from bondage. We would also remember that Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike share a common ancestor, Abraham.
We would also remember that we are the spiritual descendants of migrants. The Hebrew people were nomadic pastoralists. The Holy Family migrated from Israel to Egypt and back to save Jesus’ life. Jesus was an itinerant preacher. His disciples and the apostles were itinerant teachers, preachers, and faith healers, who traveled throughout Palestine and the Roman world.
Our more recent ancestors in the faith were the Pilgrims. They were people on a journey who fled England and Holland for North America, where they hoped to establish a city on a hill and serve as a light to the nations. Their progeny, the Puritans, and their grandchildren the Congregationalists, sent missionaries and migrant colonies sailing on prairie schooners, and then those westward bound pioneers migrated up and down the Left Coast, planting churches, colleges, and a seminary.
V
Except for indigenous people, the United States is a nation composed of immigrants and the descendants of immigrants. One might think that we could remember and behave as though we knew that we were once strangers in a strange land, or that we are descended from newcomers. But, no. Despite this truth, our nation suffers from what the French historian Gerard Noiriel refers to as “immigration amnesia.”
Most US citizens seem to forget that our ancestors were immigrants and that the circumstances under which our forebears immigrated here were different than today. For example, until 1921 there were no quotas limiting the number of people who could immigrate to the US.
We whose ancestors arrived earlier tend to forget that assimilating into a new culture isn’t easy. Language acquisition requires a great deal of effort, particularly for adult learners. And, even when we have learned a new language there is so much more to comprehend about culture.
So we would do well to remember--and appreciate--the challenges associated with learning a new language and navigating a new culture--and to demonstrate respect for the experience and hardships that newcomers have endured.
In addition, we would do well to re-mem-ber our own experiences of injustices and oppression, so that we might authentically empathize with others, without minimizing the hardships that they have endured.
These are good and important historical artifacts for us to remember as people of faith and as Americans this Labor Day Weekend. Let’s remember where we came from, appreciate the hardships that our forebears have overcome, and empathize and align ourselves with those who seek the more abundant life that God envisioned for all of us. By so doing, we will honor God and be the good neighbors that Jesus encouraged us to be. Amen.
[1] The term “remember,” for example, is used 286 times in modern English versions of the Bible, and the concept is integral to several key stories and events described in the Torah. Examples include Noah and the Ark (Gen. 9:15), the Call of Moses (Exodus 2:24), the first Passover (Exodus 13:3), the 10 Commandments (Deut. 5:15), and the sabbatical law to Israel (Deut. 15:15.)