Anamnesis – Remembrance

Jesus has made Thanksgiving to the Father; he has taken bread and wine, blessed it, divided it, and shared it among all those who had been welcomed into the membership of the group.

The disciples are to do the same, to make Thanksgiving to the Father in the name of Jesus, through the power of the Spirit; to use those same elements and to do those same actions.

And Jesus promises to be present and available to those who take and bless and break and share, making Thanksgiving in this way.

What wonderful Good News it is!

We don't have to travel far or engage in esoteric magic.

Ordinary elements, offered right here in thankfulness, become the focus of Jesus living word among us, because he says so, and his Word happens, it accomplishes what it says.

Most likely, the disciples began by using the ordinary table blessing that everyone knew, identical with what we heard at the Seder on Wednesday evening Blessed be God who brings forth bread from the earth. Blessed be God who creates the fruit of the vine.

The blessing of God then expands to include (1) all that God has done in the past,

(2)what God is doing among us now,

(3) and what God intends to make of us and all of the creation in the future.

That is “remembering” in its fullest sense, reflecting the Greek word anamnesis.

In English we get stuck by thinking of the word “remembering” as referring only to a past event.

But Biblical remembering is much larger than merely an historical thinking about something past and unavailable to us.

It means to make presently effective the fullness of God's intentions for us, both the singular event of Christ's promise from the past and also the anticipation of its final fulfillment from the heavenly realms.

Both that particular past and that promised future are breaking into our present moment in Thanksgiving when we take and bless and break and share.

Come, Lord Jesus, the church prays again and again using the words of the close of the book of Revelation. Maranatha—come, Lord Jesus, quickly come;

come now and not only later, or as you came in the past.

We come to understand what an important word this “remembrance” is. It is not just a thinking about something safely in the past, but it is also an anticipation of the future.

“Remembrance” means to do away with our complacency, to stir us to confident and robust action in place of the paralysis of fear.

The disciples had tagged along with Jesus, but understood only a bit at a time what he was doing and who he is.

After the crucifixion, they were even more confused than before.

It was only when the risen Lord Jesus came to them and re-established the meal fellowship that they remembered from so many other occasions and especially from that special Thursday evening meal, that their fear can be overcome and their joy truly enlivened.

It is the same for us.

Everything we know is heading toward death.

No matter how clever we are, there is nothing about us that is enduring.

I suppose that some folks may try to deal with this problem by “living in the moment” as it has been called, not thinking at all about what is happening...”another day older and deeper in debt...” as the old pop song observed.

The painful realities keep intruding, even when we try to ignore them.

We have all run into folks who have no faith, no hope, and it can be a depressing encounter.

The antidote for those folks is remembrance with the full meaning that we have outlined,

remembrance that is full of memory of what God has done through creation, the exodus, and our Lord Jesus...

and anticipating what God will yet do in life and death and resurrection with us, today and finally.

All of that together is remembrance, .

It is a victory banquet celebrated in advance.

This is the one time that we can “count our chickens before they are hatched”!

We can count on the Lord Jesus to do all that he promises.

We can only imagine the fear and confusion felt by the disciples in that Holy Week,

not knowing what was going on, and why it was happening even though Jesus had told them in advance.

We, too, have plenty of reason for fears:

wars and rumors of wars, economic turmoil and personal crises, illnesses and family tensions, and more....

Oh, what a blessing it is to know what is offered to us in the Holy Communion!

What a blessing it is to be able to offer Thanksgiving: to take and bless and break and share.

What a blessing it is to not have to face all the troubles alone, since our Lord Jesus connects us to each other through himself.

What a blessing it is to come to the Communion rail without depending on our own holiness, but “wholly lean on Jesus' name....” as the old hymn phrases it. [LBW #294]

What a blessing it is to have memory, experience and anticipation.

What a blessing is the gift of remembrance in the fullness of its meaning! Amen

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.