Tomorrow marks the national observance of Memorial Day. All across America, in great cities and small towns, people will be marching in parades, gathering at parks or congregating at cemeteries.
There will be speeches given and prayers said, in honor of those who have given their lives during times of war, so that we might enjoy the liberties we possess today.
Memorial Day or Decoration Day, as it was first called, emerged from the shadows of the Civil War back in 1865.
It was only a few days after General Robert E Lee surrendered that a group of women from Vicksburg, Mississippi decorated the graves of the fallen soldiers.
Three years later, May 30 was the permanent day set aside for the placing of flowers on soldier’s graves throughout America.
It wasn’t until 1971 that the federal government began the practice of observing it on the last Monday of the May.
Memorial Day is all about REMEMBERING.
And Locked away in each of us, is a treasure house full of memories.
Through our memories, we can be children again skipping stones across the lake or walking through the tall grass of a meadow.
We can remember what is was like to fall in love for the very first time. For others we can recall the day we got married. We can do all of that and more through the memories that are fixed in your minds.
Some of our memories are filled with happiness and joy and you wouldn’t exchange a single one of them for all the money in the world.
But, some of our memories are not as pleasant, some are painfull, some are filled with tears and some still hurt.
But without Memories we would stumble through a world of confusion. We would forget to stop at a red light and forget to go when they turn green.
Important people, places and events would eventually fade away and we would have nothing left to remind us of what life was all about.
Memories are what keep us from being forgotten and people are very much afraid of being forgoten? A recent poll was conducted to determine what peoples greates fears were and do you know what was listed as the top two fears?
#1= The fear of being alone when death comes a knocking.
#2= Was the fear of being forgotten.
We as humans do not want to be forgotten. And so we have Buildings named after ourselves, We erect Museums in honor of people. We have Scrapbooks of special times spent with loved ones.
We write in Diaries so as to not forget, we have home movies of the kids growing up, Photo Albums filled with pictures and even Tombstones and Monuments.
All dedicated to the memories we have of places, people or events.
WHY?
Because we do not want to be forgotten.
Maybe the reason for that is because of something that God Himself has instilled in each of us.
We can see all through the Bible that God himself calls on people to remember the past, to not forget what has gone on before, in His dealings with them.
After the flood he put a rainbow in the sky as a reminder of his promise to never again destroy the world with water.
Later on, he commands that people should set aside one day out of the week as a reminder, as a memorial, of his deliverance of them out of bondage.
And when the hebrews were about to cross over into the promised land to take possession of it, he instructs Joshua to have twleve men, take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan river, in order to create a pillar, a memorial of what God had done for them.
The very offerings of animals as sacrifices at the Tabernacle and also later on at the Temple were to be constant reminders of the penalty for sin.
All through the Bible there are many examples of special days, places and events that were instituted by God as memorials of his encounters with Humanity and he has recorded them for us so that we would not forget.
"Remember well what the Lord your God did..." Dt 7:18
"Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God
redeemed you from there..." Dt 24:18
"Remember the wonders he has done..." Ps 105:5
"Remember this, fix it in your mind and take it to heart..." Is 46:8
"Remember that in the past you were without Christ . . .” Eph 2:12
Yes, we can all do with a little help in remembering because of all the things we do tend to forget, sometimes God, is at the very top of that list, especially when things are going good.
So today, being Memorial Day week-end, we will participate in a very special event, that the Lord himself instutited so that we would not forget him.
“The Lord’s Supper”
For the Xian, it is a Memorial Day Celebration.
Why did Jesus choose a meal as a way of remembering Him?
What are we not to forget when we share in this meal?
In Luke 22:15 Jesus said,
“I have eagerly desired to have this meal with you”
In the original language the same word is actually used twice, Jesus is saying,
"With desire I have desired to have this meal with you...."
Why, did Jesus so desire to share this meal with his closest followers?
One reason was because he wanted them to remember their worth to Him.
The value of any item is determined by how much someone is willing to pay for it. What makes old furniture, baseball cards and one mans junk another persons treasure?
Is it not for the fact that what made threm so valuable was because someone was willing to pay a large price for them?
What price was God willing to pay in order to save us?
The death of His Son... whom he loved... No higher price could have been paid. Whenever we take communion, Jesus wants us to remember our worth.
Another reason Jesus so desired to share this meal with his followers was because he wanted them to know of his great love for them.
Scriptures says in John 3:16 that "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son” In Rom.5:8 we are told that "God demonstrated His love for us in this: While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us"
Understand that you are special to God.
Even Jesus Christ himself said in John 15:13 . . . "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends"
Sometimes, God’s love for us is hard to understand, and sometimes even harder to accept, because more than anybody else, we know how we really are.
We are well aware of our own sins.
And yet, even the Apostle Paul who at one time sought out beleivers in Jesus for the purpose of putting them in prison and even killing them wrote in his letter to the Ephessians 3:17,18.
"And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power with the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses all understanding".
The Lords Supper is a Memorial of God’s great love for us.
Let us begin to fix our minds on that as we continue in our worship of God and His son Jesus Christ through praise and prayer.
(Introduction of Special Hymns dealing with communion)
Tomorrow, our country will celebrate a national holiday called Memorial Day in honor of those men and women who gave their lives during times of war for our freedom.
But today, we will celebrate a Memorial Day in honor of the one who gave his life, so that we might live.
Worship is nothing more than remembering.
We have come here this morning to remember what God has done for us.
We have come here to remember that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins. We have come here to reexamine our lives and rededicate ourselves to His service.
Jesus says come, not because you deserve it, not because you have earned it, He says, come because it is freely given.
And so today, we come not as people who are deserving, but as people who accepting.
We come to this banquet to celebrate God’s victory over sin, not ours.
We come, not because we are so good, but because God is so great.
We come even though we have ignored God at times and even turned against him at others.
We come though we have used him and taken advantage of him and even maybe become angry with Him.
We come because, we want to celebrate our freedom in Christ who has freed us from ourselves.
We come as those who have made mistakes, as those who have strayed like sheep without a shepherd.
We come as people who have messed up in our relationships by saying and doing the wrong things.
We come as people who are sorry for our mistakes.
We come, as undeserving people, as people who shift between being a friend of God one day and an enemy the next.
We come not as perfect people, but as a people who have been forgiven.
We come because He still invites us. We come because He still accepts us.
We come, because this table is not dependent on our merit or our good works or our good deeds.
We come because of what God has accomplished, not for anything that we have done.
The invitation is a free gift from God.
Christ’s love is present here at this supper.
He brings himself as a reminder of God’s gracious love for us.
As you receive the bread, you will know in a personal way that YOU are the invited quest at this meal.
The Lord Jesus, on the night 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.”
(Silent Prayer Followed by Soft Hymns after distribution of the Bread)
In sharing this meal with his disciples, he wanted them to understand their oneness, their unity.
When we take the Lord’s Supper we are not only declaring our "oneness" with God but also with each other.
When Paul writes about the Lord’s Supper he says, “Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf” 1 Corinthians 10:15-16.
There should be unity among ourselves, for we have all traveled the same dusty road. We have all sinned and not one of us is worthy to partake of this meal, but we do not partake of it because we are worthy.
We partake of it because God is holy and He who is holy has invited us to come into His presence and share in His supper with Him and with each other.
Jesus did not say, that in order for any us to be able to share in this meal, we would first have to “figure out his doctrine”. He did not say, that we would first have to “Understand his theology”.
He did not say, “That only those who are clever enough to figure out what it all means can share in it”.
He did not say any of those things. And the reason for that is because Communion is not a test of our intellect.
It is not a examination of our theology. It has nothing to do with how clever we are or how much common sense you have or even how accurate your judgment of others may be.
The only thing that he said would be required of you to share in this meal was that when you did it, you would do it, in remembrance of Him.
And in remembering Him, we remember why he did it. He did it because he loves you. And in inviting you to share in this meal, he is wanting to know if you love him.
You see, your willingness to participate in the supper of the Lamb, is a test of your love and of your obedience. It is a test of your love because Jesus said that we are to do this in remembrance of Him.
It is a test of your obedience, because when Jesus instituted this supper, He told his disciples and all those who would follow after them to “Do This.”
Our Love for the Lord, is shown in our willingness to obey Him. That is why, Jesus said, If you love me you will obey my commands.
And of all the commands that Jesus has given this is one of the easiest to do.
Simply to sit down, share a meal and talk to Him about your life.
Simple, isn’t it?
Sit down, forget about time, forget about your worries, let them all go, and talk to your father about you.
In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 1 Cor.11:23b-25
The world drinks to forget, We drink to remember
(Distribute Fruit of the Vine at this Point)
(Conclusion)
If you were to attend all of the services in all of the churches in this area and witness this celebration, with the use of a single loaf and single cup shared among all.
You may find others using small pieces of bread and small individual cups, such as we practice it here.
In another church you will find people coming forward to an altar where they will receive the bread and the cup from the hands of a priest.
Not only would you find this memorial being practiced in many different ways, but you would also here it being called by many different names.
Some, would refer to it as a Mystery, others call it a Mass or Sacrament.
Some refer to it as the Eucharist or Communion. Congregations influenced by the Protestant Reformation usually call it the Lord’s Supper.
There are those who believe that in the very act of partaking of the elements one receives a special Grace from God.
Some believe that in sharing this meal they are guaranteed salvation.
The scriptures teach none of those things.
What they do teach concerning this meal is that it is an act that brings us into the presence of God, it brings to rememberance the penalty for our sins by giving testimony to the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross and it points to his Second Coming.
The Lord’s Table is not something that magically saves us or washes away our sins. In order for those things to take place, you must be willing to surrender your life to God.
For over 2,000 years people have participated in this memorial feast and because they were willing to believe in a God who loved them so much as to send his son into the world to die for them, this meal was a reminder of that.
Would you like to share in the supper of the Lamb?
Would you be willing to surrender your life to the one who gave his for you?
We give you the opportunity to do that now as together we stand & as we sing.
