Message from our minister, Clare

Annwyl ffrindiau/Dear friends

Remember, remember the fifth of November! So much of November is about remembering. As well as celebrating the demise of Guy Fawkes across our communities we also honour the sacrifice of those who gave their lives in times of war. In the Church calendar, the Saints are recalled on All Saints’ Day followed by a time of remembering those who have died on All Souls’ Day. November connects us with what has gone before.

The Bible is big on remembering. Much of its first five books are about God pledging to remember the people of Israel and the covenant(s) made with them which the emergent nation is then urged to remember in turn. Most of the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, is however about what happens when God’s people forget. Against the backdrop of all this forgetting the psalmists plead ‘Remember not the sins of my youth’ (Ps 25:7) and ‘Remember me , O Lord, when you show favour to your people’ (Ps 106:4). It seems the habit of wanting the remembering to go our way is an ancient one.

But there’s another kind of remembering in the Bible. It is one that urges us not to simply interpret the past in a manner that suits our purposes, but to look back with fresh eyes to glean new understanding. When the disciples fail to grasp what is unfolding before them regarding either the new realm that Jesus is ushering in, or the hostility of the religious and political authorities, Jesus asks them despairingly ‘Do you not remember?’ (Mk 8:18). Jesus wants them to reflect anew on all he has said and done and see what is really happening instead of just what they want to see. On Easter morning in Luke’s Gospel the women disciples arriving at the tomb are urged by two angels to remember what Jesus had told them (Lk 24:6), to look back with new eyes to gain a fresh perspective on what is taking place. A perspective which will help them now in their grief and their new circumstances.

Perhaps this is a reminder this month to not allow our remembering to simply shore up our existing understandings, but for it to open up new insights which help us in our lives now.  As our political and cultural landscape shifts so rapidly, what new lessons from both Jesus’ life and history could be just below the surface if we might only remember?

May there be both comfort and challenge in our remembering,

Pob bendith/Every blessing

Clare

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