Do This In Remembrance…

MONDAY marks an important holiday for our country. It’s a day we take time to remember the people who have died while serving in the country’s armed forces defending the freedoms we often take for granted.

Unfortunately, it has become less about remembering and more about hot dogs, picnics and sleeping in. Until we became blue star parents we spent the holiday in much the same way. When two of our sons served simultaneously in Afghaninstan, the concern for their lives made us take notice of holidays such as this one. Fortunately, our sons returned safe and sound, but so many other’s children did not. It’s for them we take time to remember.

It’s sad to think that many, if not most, will not even pause to consider the cost of their freedom. It has become a day off, not to reflect, rather a day of revelry.

Do This In Remembrance of Me…

The church of Christ has a memorial day. It was instituted by our Savior on the night He was betrayed, and then observed in the church He bought with His own blood [Mat 26:26-29; Acts 20:28].

For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. [1Corinthians 11:23-25]

Rather than being an annual observance, the first century saints observed this memorial supper each week… “And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them…” [Acts 20:7].

Even the first century saints neglected this memorial, turning it into a common meal and neglecting the ‘remembrance in me.’ The Apostle Paul rebuked this perversion when he wrote, “What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? shall I praise you in this? I praise you not.” [1Corinthians 11:22]

Monday is a day to remember the soldiers who gave their lives in service for our country. Sunday, however, is the Lord’s Day, the day that Christians come together to worship, to pray, to sing, to learn, to have fellowship (to lay by in store) and to remember the Lord’s Death. When we take this supper, we “proclaim the Lord’s death til He come.”

Wouldn’t it be sad if folks today started to view Sunday (the 1^st day of the week) as just another day off? Wouldn’t it be sad if folks treated the Lord’s Day as a day for hot dogs, picnics and sleeping in? Wouldn’t it be sad if folks started asking, “why do I have to go to church?” Wouldn’t it be sad if folks stopped observing the Lord’s Supper every week? Wouldn’t it be sad if folks looked forward to playing games at the worship rather than meditating on the incredible price paid for our freedom from sin?

May it never be so, but alas…