This past month I have been reading Judges and Acts during morning prayer. Through these scriptures, I have been re-minded of the vital importance of remembering who we are and Whose we are as the people of God.

Throughout Judges I see what it looks like when the people of God forget who they are and Whose they are. These recent nomads have settled into a more comfortable life in the Promised Land, no longer wandering the desert and depending on God to provide manna in the morning dew and water from rocks. In their comfort, they began to stop telling the stories of faith: the stories of suffering in Egypt, of God’s hand breaking the bonds of slavery and leading them to freedom through the Sea, of God providing for God’s people even as they wandered through the desolate deserts of life. When we stop telling the stories of who we are and Whose we are, “another generation grows up after us, who does not know the Lord or the work that he has done for us” (Judges 2:10). The Israelites “abandoned the Lord,” yet God remained faithful and raised up judges like Deborah and Gideon to remember and remind God’s people. They would tell the stories of faith, stories of God’s great love, and remind the people who they were and Whose they were. This cycle simply repeats itself throughout Scripture: we forget, God remains faithful, someone helps us remember; we forget, God remains faithful, someone helps us remember; we forget, God remains faithful, someone helps us remember…who we are and Whose we are.

In Acts, those who do not even yet know they are the people of God are reminded and remembered into the community we call the Church. Through breaking bread, sharing possessions, praising God, and praying daily these members of the early Christian community – the Body of Christ – are remembered to one another and to God. Paul constantly reminds the community, “You are the Body of Christ and individually members of it” (1 Corinthians 12:27). As the Body of Christ is broken on the cross and in the bread and in the bodies of martyrs like Stephen, the people of God are reminded and remembered into the Body of Christ for the world. Paul tells these communities, “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus” (Phillipians 2:5). As the people of God, our entire being – heart, mind, body, and soul – are reminded and remembered into the Body of Christ for the sake of the world.

I find it so easy to forget things in my everyday life. Even with the help of Google Calendars and Siri Reminders, I have learned I am prone to forgetting. I forget a birthday, a chore on my to-do list, to pray at the end of a long day. Yet, as I read Scripture, each morning I am reminded that I am not the only one who easily falls into forgetfulness.

From the very beginning, human beings so easily forget the great goodness of God’s love, who they are and Whose they are. So Scripture reminds us, “Remember the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 8); “do this in remembrance of me…do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11:23-26). And so each week we gather in worship, as the people of God, to remember and be remembered into the Body of Christ, to remind and be reminded into the mind of Christ Jesus; to break bread, share possessions, praise God, and pray once again that we might remember who we are and Whose we are: the Body of Christ, broken and remembered for sake of the world.

In Christ,
Ricky Harrison