Sunday, November 4, we will celebrate All
Saints, a day in which we honor those from our church
who have passed from glory to glory in this past year.
As we remember the past, we will also take time to look
into our future. Memories of our past inform our future.
A life without memories is a life without direction. Think
about it. How could you do anything you do if you did
not have memories to direct you? There are stories of
brain injured people who have no memories at all—everything
has to be relearned from moment to moment. There is no
past to inform the future, and no forward movement can
be made. While living in the present in a good thing,
being stuck in the present is not. The proper honoring
of our memories gives us impetus to create new ones.
I had a professor once who spoke of “cellular
memories” and the phrase really struck me. He had
a sense that there are lots of memories built into our
souls that we are not really conscious of but which very
much affect how we live and the decisions we make. It
was his guess that those memories go back for generations
and generations. It makes sense—there are memories
built into our DNA. They surround us, influence us, sometimes
they bring good, sometimes harm. But they are there.
When we worship together, I often have
a sense that there are hundreds more people in the room
than we see physically around us. Each of us brings with
us powerful relationships and these people in our lives
are present mentally. Sometimes when I’m alone in
our Sanctuary, sitting quietly, I have a sense of thousands
and thousands of prayers embedded in the walls. Memories,
joys and concerns, hope and despair, friendship and isolation,
wedding delights and funeral sorrows. They are all there.
When we move to our new location, we’ll need to
infuse the new worship space with another set of memories.
And it is very, very important that we not lose the special
history of our church in the process. The saints who went
before us have helped to create the saints who walk among
us. And that is what we will do for the next generation.
It’s our gift to them. May we do this with grace
and generosity.
