Day 31 - A Community of Memory and Hope

Child of Hope: An Advent Devotional

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

A Community of Memory and Hope

We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
I Thessalonians 1:2-3

Paul writes, not to an individual, but to a community. To be a Christian is to be in community. The values of the Christian faith require a social setting; that’s why it is virtually impossible to conceive of a solitary believer. We are made to be together. There can be no love without relationship; mercy is empty unless it is exercised; kindness cannot exist in a vacuum. Therefore, despite the individualism of our age, we need one another. Together, we are a community of memory and hope.

We have a communal memory. As we read the stories of the Bible we not only come across characters and situations that resonate with us, we also discover a history of which we are a part. In the story of the Exodus, we don’t just see a metaphor for our own flight from a cruel, godless world, we also find that we have been joined to the people of God’s choice. Their history is ours. Abraham is our Father, too. We recognize our place within the narrative of salvation. Through creation and the fall, the exile and redemption in Christ, God tells a story and includes us. As a community of faith, we look back in awe. When we read the stories of Jesus, especially when we re-enact His last hours in an upper room, we find ourselves bound by a common memory. The Bible binds us together. It tells us who we are.

We are a community of memory; but the story is not over. We are to be identified as much by God’s promises as by His deeds. We look back and see, in bread and wine, symbols of the story of our salvation; but they are also emblems of our hope. One day, the Church will sit down at the Great Banquet feast of the Lamb. Just like the changing year, our communion looks back in remembrance, and forward in hope.

When the Child returns, as our conquering King, may He find us faithful – living as a community of memory and of hope.

Prayer for the Day
Father God,
Just as You guided our spiritual ancestors
through the wilderness to the promised land,
guide us today.
When we face exile, bring us home.
When we rebel, make us restless until we find our rest in You.
When we catch a glimpse of Your glory, as yet unrevealed,
give us patience as we wait for the Day
when our hope will be fulfilled –
in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.