Communion 2010

It may not have come to your attention, but the dominant change in the history books today comes not from new information but from something called “historical revisionism.” The changes to the history books now come from the opinions of the historians. Let me give you a couple of examples:

·        One state approved high school text on American history covers the Civil War without mentioning Robert E. Lee.

·        We now are told in various periodicals that George Washington never prayed in the snows at Valley Forge. This is despite the records of the time. “Expert opinion” says he wouldn’t have prayed at all.

Why such an emphasis, such a distortion? It’s very simple: if I can change what you believe to be history, I can change what you will do. You rely on history to make many judgments. If I can make the “good guys” into the “bad guys,” I can change your vote.

That’s a fact: we depend on history to guide us. That’s why we have events like Memorial Day – to remind us of the price of liberty. It’s human nature to be guided by the past. So when Christ was ready to leave his disciples by death, he instituted his version of Memorial Day: the Lord’s Supper. He asks you to remember one thing: his sacrifice which brought atonement to mankind. It is so important that he made it a ritual – repeated over and again so that you will not forget.

Like the history book, the Lord’s Supper is designed to change what you do. It is as if Christ reminds us what he did for us so that we will consider what we should do for him. What does he ask?

·        He asks us to examine ourselves. We are to see the sin in ourselves and ask forgiveness, applying the atonement in our lives.

·        Then, being forgiven, he asks us to accept the discipline that comes with it.

No doubt the revisionists will have a different view. The followers of Christ for two thousand years have clung to the original version: Do this, in remembrance of Me.