Takoma Park Baptist Church, Washington, DC April 14, 1987, Easter
The old vaudeville song proclaims, “Dearie, do you remember? Because if you remember, then you’re much older than I.” The idea seems to be that remembering is nothing to be proud of; the implication is that remembering is all that is left for those who are past a certain age, and that if you are really now, if you are really with it, you won’t have to remember. Just live in the now and don’t bother with remembering.
And, in fact, we are discovering that a whole generation is growing up without a memory, at least without a memory for some things we think are awfully important to remember. Some are saying that the fascination of young people for movies about Vietnam, for example, is testimony to the fact that they are too young to remember the truth about those years, that if you remember Vietnam you do not want to see its horrors displayed, you do not need to see it fictionalized. Memory is enough, more than enough. But there are some who do not remember and therefore who must be taught.
Imagine my surprise several years ago when a group of us who were doing ministry on the Howard University campus put together a worship service celebrating the struggles of black Americans during the civil rights years. We had developed a service which gave thanks to God for His gift of freedom and His work of liberation, and to our amazement, the students, Howard students, children born in the turbulent years of the 60's – these students said to us, “Why all this talk about freedom? Why all this about liberation? Who is oppressed? Who has any problems with racism?” You see, no memory. Theirs was the gift, or the curse, of being without any memory of those powerful struggles.
I tell you this morning it is important to remember; it is important to remember who you are and to remember from whence you have come. It is important to remember that certain things have happened which make all the difference. If you do not remember there is no richness to life. If you do not remember who has formed your heritage and shaped your life, then you are like a cut flower, without roots: beautiful enough for the moment, but soon to wither and dry up and be useless. And so remember. It's important and vital and life-enriching to remember.
And so for me one of the key words in the Easter story is the word Remember. Remember. Watch the story with me and imagine the mental landscape, imagine the mood of the moment. Here are several women, followers of this Jesus; women who had been witness to the whole grisly affair out there on Mount Calvary. Their dreams dashed, their hopes soured; on this morning they know nothing to do but to fulfill a thankless, almost pointless mission. Filled with sorrow, disappointed, devastated, weary in body and drained in spirit, they have waited through the Sabbath Day as the law required, and now they are making their way through the slivers of light into the new day’s dawn. Their mission is to bring spices and ointments to honor the one whom they had loved.
Cold comfort indeed to go through the rites of burial; but as any of you know who have experienced death with someone close to you, there is a certain comfort, a certain assurance, in going through the motions. What else do you do when your world has collapsed? What else do you do except to go through the motions of ritual, hoping that ancient words and customs will somehow help heal the spirit.
But when these women arrive at the tomb, they find something quite unexpected. In fact, several things. Where they had understood there would be a stone sealing the entrance to the tomb, instead they find the stone moved aside. Where they had anticipated the painful sight off the body of their friend, they found but an empty slab. And where they had expected to be alone in their grief, they found instead two strangers, strangers with a message, "Why do you seek the living among the dead? Remember … remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” Remember; remember that there is an ingredient here which you have not taken into account; remember what you have already been told. Why did you come here and expect something other than what he had told you? You have chosen to forget; but remember.
And then the story continues: "And they did remember his words, and returning from the tomb they told all this to the rest, but these words seemed to them …” (That is, to the eleven disciples). “These words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them."
I
You see, the psychologists tell us that we remember selectively, that we remember things that we want to remember, we remember things that make sense to us, and we just blot out things that do not square with our understanding of reality. We remember what is important to us and we remember things that make a difference, but we forget all kinds of things that don't seem to have any bearing on our lives.
I can remember, for example, at least the substance of classroom lectures I heard 25 years ago, and can recall for you material that was taught me in high school, even farther back than that. But let my wife send me to the grocery for four or five items, and by the time I get there I will have forgotten three of them and will get the wrong brand of the fourth. I remember the things that matter to me, but, sadly, do not remember things that matter to somebody else.
I can put together a sermon and go over it a couple or three times and bring it to you on Sunday without using my notes. I can remember that because that is a part of my reality, that is a part of what I live for. But let my son tell me about his computer science course, and though he were to explain it to me ten times, I would forget it, because it makes no sense to me, and I have nothing in my experience to measure it by. I cannot or do not remember it.
Now the women who came to the tomb were in that predicament. Yes, they had heard Jesus tell them that he must suffer and die, and that he would return to life; they had heard it, but they did not remember, because they had no experience, no involvement by which they could measure it. There was nothing in their experience to make this sound real, it did not connect with their lives; nothing that could bring it home to them, and so they did not remember.
But the word of the angels at the tomb: remember. Remember who He is. Remember what He promised. Remember what He told you he would do. A word to the women, yes, but a word to us too. For I suspect that we are more like these women in our forgetfulness than we would like to think. We too have forgotten; we too have not remembered the depth and the power of his promises. And though we have come this morning to share· in the rites of Easter, we have not remembered that this is no memorial to a dead Jesus, but rather that this is a signpost pointing the way to a living presence. Remember; it does connect.
If this morning you and I are here with no sense of purpose, no direction, no awareness of our destiny, then it is because we do not remember. We do not remember that He is alive and that He lives to give us life.
If we find that we are carrying around some unresolved grief, then remember. Remember that earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot cure, for He has broken the boundaries of ultimate grief.
If you and I suppose this morning that we are finished, that we have no future, that there is nothing ahead for us that is worthwhile, then remember. Remember that the living Christ is a presence whose hand reaches down and grasps ours and lifts us up and makes us new.
Remember. Remember as those who found out first of his ralslng did remember, that no tomb is strong enough to hold him, that no force great enough to restrict him, and no good thing will he deny to those who love him and serve him.
Great God, how we have restricted ourselves because we do not remember! Because we do not remember who he is and whose we are. Remember. Remember and live in triumph. Remember.
II
And most of all, remember. Remember who Christ is and what he is doing in you, even when others around you put you down, even when they simply don’t understand. Remember that He who cannot be held down, even by death itself, is working to renew you, even though it may be that other folks cannot see it.
Here are these women, privileged above all others to be the first to know about the resurrection of Jesus. And so off they go, breathlessly wanting to share what they have seen and heard. And Mary and Joanna and Mary Magdalene and the others are bursting with excitement. They have remembered, they have seen, they have understood, and they have to share it.
And fellows, I find it a bit disconcerting that when the women tell the story to the men in the scene, the men will not believe. Listen: “The women told this to the apostles, but these words seemed to them an idle tale and they did not believe them.”
Well, male chauvinism is nothing new, I suppose. What a wet blanket approach; you have the greatest news in all of history to tell, and somebody says, “I don’t believe that.” “Why, that couldn’t be; pretty little thing, isn’t she, but she never gets the facts straight.”
But remember, and do not forget; remember who Christ is and what he is doing in you, even when others write it off and act as though it means nothing. Remember that he is bringing the kingdom into your life. Remember and do not forget, no matter what the skeptics may suggest.
Maybe you've reached a new plateau in your spiritual life; maybe you've arrived at a new decision, a new determination and a new awareness of Christ. And it’s a good solid decision, and you share that decision. You tell somebody about it, and they laugh you out of court. They tell you you don't know what you are talking about. Then it is that you must remember, you must remember the living Christ, not just an abstraction, not just a good idea, but a living presence. Remember.
Maybe you've discovered that living in the kingdom of the living Christ means peacemaking. It means working for the cause of peace and it means laboring to see arms reduced and hostility lessened. And then somebody says, don't be ridiculous, even the Bible says there will always be wars and rumors of war. Come on, forget this foolish crusade. I say, that is the time to remember; that is the time to remember that there is one who is alive and in the world and who is working for justice and peace among all nations. Remember, and live for him and his peace.
Maybe you've found a new compassion for the homeless, the desperate, the lonely, the distressed. Maybe you've sensed the call of God to do something about the scourge of poverty and the specter of disease. But then someone says, 0 come on, now, you can't win that one, the poor you have always with you, you know. Got to get your IRA’s and your CD’s and your gold futures in shape. Then remember. Remember the one who has put down the mighty from their seats and who has exalted them of low degree and who is now and forevermore King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Remember, even when a yuppie world summons. Remember.
That fine and oft-quoted theologian, Charley Brown, says to Lucy one day, “Lucy, do you see that airplane up there? That is where I’d like to be, going off somewhere, starting over. But Lucy, ever the realist, dispensing advice at the pre-inflationary price of five cents, disapproves. Charley Brown, forget it; when you got there you’d still be the same person you are now.
But Lucy, Lucy – Charley Brown is not dashed by this bucket of ice water – Lucy, there would be new and different people there and they might give me a chance, a chance for a new start. Forget it, Charley Brown, once they got to know you, you'd be right back where you started.
But something stirs deep within Charley Brown's seven year old soul; he is persistent about this. But Lucy, maybe these new people would be different. Maybe they would give me a new start. But Lucy is not deterred from her path of obstinate putdowns: Forget it, Charley Brown, forget it. People are people.
Great God, how many Lucies are still saying to us, Forget it. People are people, Charley Brown, yes, and death is death and tombs are tombs and that is that. Forget it, nothing ever changes, nothing is new, nothing is different. Forget it.
No. No. A thousand times no. Remember. Remember that Jesus of Nazareth is alive and that he does make a difference. Remember, even when they all tell you to forget it. He wants to make you new, He wants you to start all over again with Him. Remember.
“We serve a risen Savior, he’s in the world today … we know that he is living, whatever men may say.” Remember.
