I have learned over the last few years how important and how ephemeral memory can be. How easy it is as the years stretch behind us for what was once quite clear to become hazy and even displaced in time. What came before and what came after can easily be transposed. Our memories can be distorted by our emotions which may surround events, especially those that were painful. At other times we may surround a joyous event with a kind of halo that may be more a product of our feeling than an account of the facts of the event. Some memories may be quite clear and accurate, even indelible in our minds. We are also capable of calling up memories purposely. Memories of the events of the faith were important to ancient Israel. They were not only to remember God’s acts of rescue and liberation, but to teach them to their children and descendants, that they might also experience and “remember” those great events. Jesus initiated that kind of remembering at what we call the Last Supper. When he said, “Do this in remembrance of me,” he had in mind more than the anniversary of his death, but a participation in his great sacrificial act of salvation and resurrection. Even now when we celebrate the communion supper of our Lord, we know that he is present with and we are linked with all the saints who have come before and all those who will follow after. Next week, we will celebrate World Communion Sunday. We will experience again the presence of the Lord, and remember the breadth and depth of that redemptive fellowship beyond time and space. Christ is alive and because of his death and resurrection, so are we!