Last week I mentioned  a scene in the film “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” where Fred Rogers (Tom Hanks) asks his dinner companion to take a moment to consider the people who’ve loved him into being. The real Mr. Rogers actually did something like that when he received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 1997 Emmys.

Remembering is a powerful aspect of religion. The Passover is instituted so that the people of Israel would “Remember this day on which you came out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, because the LORD brought you out from there by strength of hand” (Exodus 13:3). At the last supper, Jesus instructs his disciples to “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19). Both Judaism and Christianity mean more by “remember” than “don’t forget about it.” In celebrating the Passover, modern Jews become the captives of the past longing for freedom. They are one with those people of the past. When Christians celebrate the Lord’s Supper, that holy meal of the past is taken into the present. Jesus is truly present with us as giver and gift.

There can be a danger in remembering because our minds don’t always get the past quite right. The Hebrews complained that they remembered all the good food they had in Egypt. They seemed to have forgotten they ate as slaves. Remembering can be selective, like remembering the nice things about the 1950s while forgetting how we used to build bomb shelters and practice for air-raids.

Remember what God has done for you.

Read 1 Corinthians 11:23-25 and REMEMBER: God loves you unconditionally.

Wayne