from the rector

February 2010

Last Saturday night we gathered at a BBQ place in Memphis to have dinner with a few old classmates from high school. These are “old friends” who are now “new friends” – we all knew each other back in the 1960’s but have been out of touch ever since we graduated. So there was a lot of catching up to do, and a lot of old memories to dig up.

One of our classmates was absolutely amazing. She had never been an extremely visible character in high school, but she seems to remember everything. Who went with whom and when, who got in trouble for what, who was in which class with whom – she remembered things we had all forgotten. In fact, she remembered some things we had all tried very hard to forget. By the end of the night she had been dubbed our “official rememberer”. She certainly is good at reminding us where we came from, good and bad! And when we need to remember who somebody was or what they did back in those years, we sure know who to call.

Memory is important. In many ways the Bible is our “official memory” as a community of faith. And our central act of worship each week is, among other things, an act of remembrance – “Do this in remembrance of me.”

And in many ways Lent and Holy Week are our “official remembering time”.

We start on February 17, Ash Wednesday, by remembering where we came from: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

We climax in Holy Week by remembering, in detail, the acts by which God took who we are and made it into something wonderful: “God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that all who believe in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”

Hope you join us in our “official remembering time”. We always need to be reminded, in detail, of where we come from – and the new hope to which God calls us.

 

 

Yours in Christ, 

David Garrett