Sermon: Remember Jesus Christ

Sermon:  St George's Church, East Boldon: Parish Eucharist, Sunday 14 October 2007(Trinity 19).

Title:    Remember Jesus Christ

May the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts, be now and always acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.

I've brought along a knotted handkerchief this morning, because we need to remember.  It is said that as you get older, you become more prone to forget. I notice it with names - sometimes, my mind goes absolutely blank, and it can be quite embarrassing.

We need to remember.  And that's exactly how this morning's Epistle begins:

Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David - that is my gospel.

It might seem a rather strange exhortation by one with Apostolic authority, to Timothy, a young church leader.  Surely, Timothy did need to be told to Remember Jesus Christ.  But it seems that Timothy's Church was going through hard times. There was a very real threat of persecution against the Church; there were very evident divisions within the Christian community; there were deviations in matters of faith and practice.   And there is a hint, that Timothy - a young man - might just have felt a little over-awed by it all.  He needed to be reminded, as in last week's reading - that God had not given him a spirit of cowardice, but of power and love and self-control.

And so, the exhortation Remember Jesus Christ, is partly pastoral.  It's an invitation to remember the bigger picture, and in particular:

Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead

We do not as Christians commemorate a dead hero, but a living Lord. We need to remember that Christ is risen; that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him, and so ultimately, his kingdom and his love will prevail. That is why we worship, pray, work and live for him - precisely because Christ is risen and we are working with him to bring in his kingdom - as today's Eucharistic Prayer says so eloquently:

                        Lord of all life,

                        help us to work together for that day

                        when your kingdom comes

                        and justice and mercy will be seen in all the earth.

And remember that today is Sunday: we worship on this day, not because it's the weekend or any old day of the week, but precisely because it is the first day of the week, the day on which Christ rose from the dead.  In coming to Church today, we witness to the resurrection.

And then, Remember Jesus Christ, a descendant of David. In other words, remember that Jesus was a human being like us; someone who had an ancestry; someone who, through being born of a human mother, shared our human nature.  In other words, God in Jesus has come down to our level - experiencing our poor and vulnerable flesh, knowing our hopes and our disappointments, our joys and our pain, our smiles and our tears.  A God, who knows our suffering, and even experienced our death.  There is nothing in our entire human experience that he did not know, save of course our sin.  And because he knows us, he has promised to be with us, always, even to the end.

But then, there is a further aspect.  You see, if you ask Jewish people what it is to remember; for example, how at the great annual festival of Passover they remember the Exodus, the great deliverance of the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the promised land - they will say this:  When we remember the Passover, it is as if those events so far back in history suddenly become real today. It's not just about our ancestors, they would say; Passover tells us that, whatever our outward circumstances, we are free, we are redeemed, we are brought from slavery to freedom, from despair to hope, from death to life.  When we remember, the Passover becomes a ‘today' event.

And the same is true for Christians. How do we remember Jesus?  Well, in this service, perhaps in two principal ways.  First, we hear the words and deeds of Jesus.  We read the Scriptures, culminating in the Gospel Reading.  Have you noticed how we address Jesus directly:

                        Glory to you, O Lord.

                        Praise to you, O Christ.

The words we hear are not those of a dead hero, but of a living Lord.  When we remember Jesus' words and deeds by reading them and hearing them, suddenly they become ‘today' words: Jesus speaks to us and through the Scriptures we hear his voice.  ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening'.

And of course, the second way we remember him is in this sacrament: ‘Do this in remembrance of me', ‘Do this to remember me.'  We take bread and wine, and mysteriously, wonderfully, we receive the very life of Jesus, his body given for us, his blood shed for us. And suddenly, what happened 2,000 years ago on a green hill far away becomes wonderfully real, as if we were at the cross, or as if the cross were happening right now. Time and distance disappear, and we taste all the forgiveness, and love and life that flow from the cross.  It becomes a ‘today' event, as if Jesus were dying for us now.  And when we remember that - well, there is no greater moment in human experience: love so amazing, so divine.

So, I'm back to my knotted handkerchief.  We need to remember.

Remember Jesus Christ.

Remember that he is raised from the dead - and so never forget the big picture; he is not a dead hero, but a living Lord.

Remember: that this is Sunday: the day on which he rose from the dead. And so never forget that by your faithful weekly attendance at Church, you witness to the resurrection.

Remember: that Jesus is a descendant of David: that he shared our human nature, and so never forget that there is nowhere in human experience where he has not gone before us, and wherever we are today in our lives, he promises to be with us always.

Remember:  that when we read the Scriptures in Church, and especially the Gospel, Jesus himself is speaking to you.  He is raised from the dead, so never forget that his words are today ‘words'; we must listen for his voice.

Remember: that when we celebrate the Eucharist: the cross, with all its love and power and forgiveness and grace- becomes a ‘today' event.  So never forget to embrace his gifts in wonder and joy.

Remember and never forget: and offer yourselves again to work with him, in bringing his kingdom; in showing that he is a ‘today' person.

                        Lord of all life,

                        help us to work together for the day when your kingdom comes,

                        and justice and mercy will be seen in all the earth.

Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David - that is my gospel.

And I'm going to keep this knotted handkerchief in my pocket all week - to remind me to pray for you, and that in our remembering, we may bring glory to God.