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April 22, 2012

Forgetting and Remembering

Preacher: Rev. Jack Meehan Series: Lectionary Category: Biblical Scripture: Luke 24:36–24:49

The Third Sunday of Easter
April 21-22, 2012
Luke 24:36-49

“Forgetting and Remembering”

Recently, I sent a birthday card to a cousin of mine who, like me, also turned fifty years old this year. The card was a funny one, and included a number of sayings that a 50-year-old person might start expecting to hear. One of these was a picture of a person’s head with their glasses up on top of their head, and the saying was: “They’re on top of your head!” This, of course, means that the question behind this was: “Has anyone seen my glasses? I can’t find them anywhere.” Response: “They’re on top of your head!” We can forget lots of things in this life, including where we put our glasses. In the Scripture lessons for today, there seems to be a whole lot of forgetting going on, but that forgetting also leads to remembering. And so on this Third Sunday of Easter, the theme for today is entitled “Forgetting and Remembering.” May the Lord’s rich and abundant blessing rest upon the preaching, the hearing, and the living of his Word, for Jesus’ sake.

In the First Reading (Acts 3:11-21), a man who was lame and unable to walk from birth is healed. In the verses which precede today’s lesson, we’re told that Peter and John were coming to the temple in Jerusalem for prayer at 3:00 p.m. one afternoon, and as they walked into the temple courts, there laid this man who earned a little income from begging. He was expecting some loose change from Peter and John, but he got so much more! Peter told the man, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” (Acts 3:6). And immediately, the man was able to walk, and “… leaping up he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God” (Acts 3:8). And that’s how today’s first lesson begins: “While he clung to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astounded, ran together to them…” (Acts 3:11). I imagine we’d be pretty astounded, too! How often do you see a man lame from birth suddenly healed and then jumps up and starts running around? This is where the forgetting part comes in: should we really be so “utterly astounded?” Have we forgotten where healing come from? Peter points out to the people in this very teachable moment: “Men of Israel, why do you wonder, or why do you start at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk?” (Acts 3:12). Truth is, sometimes – maybe oftentimes – we do forget, and we need to be reminded. Peter clearly points out to the people that such healing power comes from the Lord alone. He reminds the people that they are the ones who delivered Jesus to be crucified, whom God raised from the dead. All of this, Peter says, was “… foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer,,,” (Acts 3:18). Jesus is the One who fulfills what was promised by God through his Word. It is this remembering all that God has said and done that draws us back to the healing power of the Lord, which is able to do far more abundantly than all we can ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20).

In the Second (Epistle) Reading from 1 John 3:1-7), there’s more forgetting going on – forgetting what binds believers together as a family. The apostle John sets this straight: “See what kind of love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are” (1 John 3:1). It is God’s great and amazing love in Jesus that binds us together! John tells us we shouldn’t be surprised if the world doesn’t know or acknowledge us; the world didn’t know or acknowledge Jesus. Why should it be any different for us? John urges believers to remember that as God’s Easter people we are waiting for the reappearing of the Lord Jesus when we will “see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). Until then, let us remember that we are called to abandon sinning, which is lawlessness. This is where we substitute God’s Law for our own, following the dictates of our hearts rather than what the Lord has commanded. Through the blood of Jesus which cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7) calls us to practice righteousness. Since we are declared righteous and holy, acceptable and pleasing to God through the righteousness of Christ, our remembering here is a constant and daily re-membering, being reconnected and growing in the righteousness of him who loves us and gave himself for us, Jesus Christ our Savior.

Finally, in the Gospel lesson for today (Luke 24:36-49), the disciples forget that life in the risen Christ is completely different. No longer bound by time and space, Jesus enters into the room where they are gathered, helping them to remember who he is. And how do they know it really is Jesus? “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see” (Luke 24:39). They know it’s Jesus through his wounds, just like Thomas did (John 20:19-31). He even eats some broiled fish! The disciples forgot “… that everything written about [Jesus] in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled” (Luke 24:44). Jesus had to open their minds to understand the Scriptures, causing them to remember. And the same is true for us: Jesus has to open our minds also so that we can remember, and understand the Scriptures because the Scriptures all point to him. And Luke’s version of the Great Commission follows: “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things” (Luke 24:46-48). We’ll still forget some things along the way as Jesus’ witnesses, but the Holy Spirit whom he has sent, first given to his in Holy Baptism, helps us to remember. That remembering and witnessing is strengthened by what we’re doing right now: gathering around God’s Word and Sacraments.

The 1995 Disney blockbuster movie, Toy Story, was the first feature-length film animated entirely by computer. The central character, Woody the cowboy, forgets who he is as Andy’s favorite toy. He has to be reminded of how important he really is, and that remembering comes by looking at the bottom of his boot, where his owner put his name: Andy. In a very real sense, we’re Woody. We forget who we are as God’s beloved sons and daughters. We forget how valued and important we are to our Maker and Redeemer. We forget how much we are loved by the One who has put his own mark on us – the sign of the cross. And so Easter is about remembering – remembering all that God in Christ has done for us, reclaiming this powerful gift for our lives today, and retelling this through our words and actions because we are witnesses of these things. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Amen.

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