We made the point in this series that Christianity was born @ a table, and that as a table fellowship, Christianity feasts upon the table of the Eucharist and the table of holy scripture.
But there is more.
Back in the day we evangelical protestants were taught the idea that truth resided only in propositional expressions directly from the bible (Dave Tomlinson
), but today post-evangelicals have discovered that truth comes to us through scripture yes, but also through the entire canon
of Christian expression -- e.g. the creeds, the traditions.But there is still more.
Truth also comes through hearing your story and telling my story, saying, "this is what happened to me." This means that I am confronted with the experiential moment of the one facing me as she relates her moment (s) with the God who is there. And, it is all these stories that comprise our story, the community's story, which is part of the expression of truth -- the kerygma -- about the God who is personal but who is not personality. It is in these stories -- our story -- that we feast on the reality of the ever-present God.
God wants his people to remember. He built in reminders- every year the Passover
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Special meals
Days of fasting
Days of feasting
Much of their lives were oriented around activities designed to prompt their memories
If we fail to live with the memory of deliverance fresh in our minds- we repeat the destructive patterns of an enslaved people again and again- leading us back into a more extreme form of bondage.
We share communion and recite the workings of God in our lives to remember what God has done for us. DELIVERENCE
He brought you out of your own personal form of slavery- from sin-selfishness-destructive patterns of behavior.
He delivered you from loneliness and alienation
He brought you into a land of purpose- meaning- relationships
He took us off the path leading to destruction and put us on the path headed for our eternal home.
He took our sorrow and gave us joy- like Sarah
He took our anxiety and gave us peace
He took our fear and gave us hope and confidence.
Christians are expected to give, love, forgive, serve others and offer thanks to God on a regular basis. It could be that those things will flow more easily from our hearts if we would regularly take time to simply remember.
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