December 30, 2007
Isaiah 63:7-9
“Recounting God's Gracious Deeds; Recalling The Savior's Presence”

[sung:]I want to thank you Lord for all you've done,
I want to thank you Lord for the times of trouble,
Thank you, Lord, for protecting me.
Thank you Jesus, Lord, for what you've done for me.

The passage from Isaiah today is a perfect way to end a year, giving thanks to God for all God has done, and recounting the “gracious deeds of the Lord” and recalling the Savior's presence throughout all our lives, but especially this past year. The passage makes it abundantly clear that it is a necessary and important act for any community of faith to remember, recall, and reflect on what has taken place and where and how God's grace, God's favor, God's love, God's salvation, God's pity, God's care… God's presence has been made manifest.

I want to take this opportunity, presented by the Lectionary Text for this, the last Sunday of 2007, to have us as a community reflect on this past year. We shall recount God's gracious deeds and recall the savior's presence in our life this past year. But first, a story:

I was reminded of a scene from the recent animated movie, Ratatouille about a rat that has great skills as a French Chief and takes over a restaurant in Paris. In one scene the extremely harsh food critic, Anton Ego, sits down to a plate of Ratatouille, known as a peasant's dish. Food for the poor set before a scathingly callous French food critic: a recipe for disaster. But what, in fact, happens is that as Anton takes a bite of this dish, he is immediately transported back to his own impoverished childhood when his mother would painstakingly and lovingly fix for him the very same dish. He remembered the presence of love in his life, hurdling years of hurt, pain, heartache, and disappointments, and was immediately transformed. In the language of the movies, and of the Spirit, his heart melted and he was reborn.

That's the power of memory, either ours or the communal memory. To give us new life. But such power, the power to remember, is not always used so well. Rachel Naomi Remen, a doctor and an author whose book, Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories That Heal has been part of my devotional time for the past few months, tells a story that shows the negative power in remembering, as well as the positive.

At a very early age Dr. Remen was diagnosed with Crohn's disease, a debilitating and difficult disease of the bowels that, if untreated, may be life threatening. There's no known cure, but with therapy some people can be in long-term remission. Well, Dr. Remen was following up with a doctor that she had not seen in quite some time. After some initial checking in, he asked her to tell him her story, the entire history of her living with Crohn's.

She did. Her remembering took her to places that were difficult. At one point, because of massive bleeding, she had gone into a coma. At another point, because of a particular drug regimen, she had facial hair and had to shave off her beard every day. At one point, again because of the medicines she was taking, her bones began to spontaneously break. But, through all of this, she had been able to live a full live life. She was a bit shaken by the retelling, because she had never told it all in one sitting.

At the end of the 45-minute story, the doctor leaned forward and asked if she was able to practice medicine at all. She was shocked, and reminded him that she had a full practice, plus traveled around the world doing speaking engagements. He was a bit embarrassed, and they soon ended the appointment.

But the way in which the doctor had remembered Rachel Remen when he had first met her, lived on when he met her this time. As mature and confident as she was, Dr. Remen acknowledged that she began second guessing herself. She cancelled some speaking engagements, scaled back on her patients and outside activities. She began to feel poorly.

About that time she sat down with a dear friend who was worried about her. He asked if she would tell him the entire story of her disease, also. She did, all 45 minutes of it. At the end, he said quietly, “God, Rachel, I had no idea. You are a warrior!” In that moment, she writes, I was healed.

How we remember is as important as remembering. The mere fact that we are looking for God's presence in our past ought to lead us to the path of grace, empowerment, healing, and hope. But you know as well as I do that many times we look not for God's gracious presence, God's steadfast love, but incriminating evidence with which we can condemn God for all the wrongs done against us, the hurts and failures we've experienced. How we remember is as important as remembering.

This exquisite text from Isaiah is not offered in the midst of comfortable living. It's not a call to remember based on the luxurious and care-free living of the people of God. It is offered as a hope as the exiles returned home to a devastated land. Remembering is most critical when we are in crisis, when life has fallen apart around us, when things just aren't as they should be.

That song I sang at the beginning. Listen to it again.

I want to thank you Lord for all you've done,
I want to thank you Lord for the times of trouble,
Thank you, Lord, for protecting me.
Thank you Jesus, Lord, for what you've done for me.
 

Thank you Lord for the times of trouble… But it doesn't end there… “Thank you Lord for protecting me THROUGH the times of trouble. Not diverting the trouble so I can be slap-happy and care free, not solving all of life's problems for me, but for carrying me through the trials and tribulations of life. That's how Rachel became a warrior instead of a victim!

Now, let us focus on this past year: 2007. Where do you recall God's gracious deeds being made apparent, where did you see or feel God's presence at work…
In your own life or the life of your family…
In the life of your neighborhood or community…
In the life of this congregation or the church universal…
In the world around us?

I'll begin, to prime the pump…

In hearing from my sister about how my nephew, Charles, was kicked out of the house when drug dealers came to collect money… and how he now has his own apartment, a steady job, and a girlfriend that is stable and responsible.

In the presence of Bob Shores, Community & Safety Coordinator for Ohio City Near West Development Corporation, and how he is out in the community, meeting with folks, and really listening to and responding to the needs of our neighborhood.

In how graciously and abundantly the people of this congregation responded to the challenge of the Board to raise pledges and funds to help undergird our new Associate Pastor for Youth.

In the declining number of deaths in Iraq, both our military and civilian workers, as well as of the people of Iraq.

Where do you recall God's gracious deeds being made apparent, where did you see or feel God's presence at work, in your life?

[hear the stories of the congregation.]

It is critical to our health and well-being as human beings to remember what has taken place in our lives and to learn from those experiences. But it is a gift that people of faith can offer to look at those same experiences through the lens of divine grace and holy love, and see where God has been present with us, at work in our lives for good. And in that remembering, we shall be redeemed.
Amen.




Rev. Allen V. Harris
Franklin Circle Christian Church
www.FranklinCircleChurch.org


 

Copyright 2007 -- The Rev. Allen V. Harris

Franklin Circle Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

1688 Fulton Rd., Cleveland, OH 44113-3096