Remembering

In a recent episode of his podcast, “Revisionist History,” Malcolm Gladwell speaks of the strange phenomenon of memory. Though this particular episode was meant to evoke the listener’s distrust of his or her own memory in the face of trauma, Gladwell confesses that there is something distinctively human about remembering. I found this to be true as I gathered with family and old friends this past week in Tennessee. As is often the case with loved ones, we relished in the bond of our shared experiences. Each night, we watched as the sun sank behind the trees, reveled in the gleaming array of fireflies, and sat together simply… remembering.

What’s more, this particular trip to Tennessee is likely to be the first one that our daughter, Nora, will remember. We wonder with gleeful anticipation what her reflections will produce one day. Will she recall holding her grandmother’s hand? Eating her first chocolate oatmeal cookie? Face-planting on the wood floor her great-great grandfather laid?

This week at Christ Church, we will begin our study of the book of Ephesians. As I read through Ephesians, I was struck by its relevance to our current social, political, and spiritual situation. In the post-modern, post-Christian West, the whole of Christianity is misremembered as an optimistic opiate for those too intellectually frail to handle the fullness of reality. Instead of pulling up our boot straps, pounding our drums, and marching directly into the grim war of life, we hide in our churches, read our Bibles, and hope for a Messiah that never was and never will be.

Ephesians responds to this ill-conceived notion with an emphatic, “No.” Paul writes, to no one in particular, that God had a plan all along to unify His people in Christ Jesus. He appeals to the memory of both Gentiles and Jews—don’t you remember when you broke God’s covenant? Don’t you recall what it was like to be a foreigner to Israel’s commonwealth? Beloved, don’t you remember?

God had a plan all along for His people. Through Christ, we are invited into the cosmic mystery, “blessed…with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:3) and adopted into God’s very family through Christ Jesus (Ephesians 1:5). We have passed from death into life (Eph. 2:1-10), from strangers to citizens (Eph. 2:11-22), and are formed into a temple where God Himself dwells (Eph. 2:22). Having established the basis for the unification of the Church, Paul goes on to urge believers to “lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called” (Eph. 4:1). This life includes humility, gentleness, patience, and love, founded on our mutual hope in Christ. Indeed, it also has bearing on our habits, our worship, our marriages, and our friendships (Eph. 5-6).

To enter into the new reality of the Church, as articulated in Ephesians, is to partake in the memory of God’s promises from the foundation of time. My prayer for you this week is that, as you remember, you fulfill the Psalmist’s admonition in Psalm 22:27: “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord.”

Remember, brothers and sisters, what God has done for you through Christ Jesus, and turn to Him as your comfort and your hope.

May the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you now and always,
Bree Snow