Led by the Spirit!
“If we are led by the Spirit let us also walk in step (march) with the Spirit” (Gal 5:25)
In the Eucharist liturgy we use the words, “Do this in remembrance of me.”
This phrase is to be understood as “do this in participation with me.”
Christ calls us to a life of participation with him. In Christian thinking ‘remembrance’ is the act of bringing the past to mind and reinterpreting the present as we recall what God has done in the past.
Christ died for our sins once and for all, so when we remember the crucifixion, we do not crucify Christ again but we re- experience the event again and reinterpret and deepen our understanding of the magnitude of what God has done. In the Jewish Passover celebrated each year, it is said – eat this meal as if you yourself were delivered out of Egypt. You see we are our history. We are the product of our past. But we must not stay there, stuck in the past. We must learn from it and see that God has set us free from the pain and suffering and opened a way for us to live better lives, more appreciative, more merciful, more Christ centred lives.
One of Israel’s biggest challenges in the promised land was that they kept hankering for what they had in Egypt. when we get stuck in a “Victim mentality’ we don’t take responsibility for ourselves, slaves don’t have to think for themselves, they don’t have to make decisions and act. We use our suffering and our slavery (brokenness, past hurts etc) to avoid taking responsibility for our present circumstances.
As God calls us to build an Ark, he calls us out of an impoverished mindset of victimhood and makes us responsible, accountable disciples. Our lives all have a history of hurt and pain of some sort (war, disease, loss, abuse, failure is a thing we all share) the attitude, that “somebody had it worse than me” doesn’t really heal you pain, it is just avoidance.
My point is – no matter who you are, you have floated on the waters of destruction and you know the pain. Do not set up a memorial to the suffering of your past, see the dry ground that God has given you and walk boldly into the future that he has in store, the promise, the place where you can grow into all that God wants you to be. be careful not to stay in the Boat on top of Mount Ararat too afraid to come out.
God sent two signs and they are for you. A Rainbow in the clouds and a Dove with an Olive branch – a symbol of peace.
Walk in that peace, live out that peace and reinterpret your today in light of what God has done for you, for history is His Story, and it s a story of your salvation.
Today: – let go of the things in your past that ensnare you and enter the promised land of God.
Let us pray:
Holy and loving God, thank you for setting us free.
Free to live the life that you have given us, able to learn from our past and live in the promise of the future.
Strengthen us by your Holy Spirit, to reinterpret our lives,
as we participate with Christ in your salvation of the world.
Amen.
