Shared Memory
Originally scheduled for March 3
The moment is absolutely unforgettable.
Dodger fans will remember it as long as there
is a team. The year was 1988; the Dodgers had struggled and parlayed
unusual luck into a visit to the World Series. Their opponent was
Oakland; the oddsmakers in Las Vegas were quite certain that Oakland
should be heavily favored. No one outside of Los Angeles expected
the Dodgers to win.
In the ninth inning of the first game, with two
out and trailing by one run, the Dodgers had a runner at first base.
Dodger manager Tom Lasorda went to his bench and tapped the National
League’s Most Valuable Player that year, Kirk Gibson. Gibson had
serious knee problems and a strained hamstring; he limped to the
plate. He worked the count to 3-2. Then, as Vin Scully put it, "in a
year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened."
Gibson pulled the pitch into the stands; the Dodgers won and rode
the momentum to win the World Series in five games. It was the first
time in World Series history that a team trailing in the
ninth-inning had won on a walk off home run.
It’s not just a memory for Dodger fans; it’s a
shared memory. It’s something they talk about even to this day.
Shared memories are like that:
·
Shared memory summon up the power of
deep emotions. You don’t so much remember the event as remember the
excitement.
·
Shared memory defines you as one of
the group, in this instance Dodger fans. You become one of the bunch
by sharing that memory.
·
If it is a pleasant memory, there is
the joy of sharing it. Memories have the power to make you feel
better; sometimes they have more than that.
You feel you just have to share them (which I just did!)
Communion,
by its very nature, is a shared memory.
It summons up from within us the deep emotions of salvation.
As John Newton put it,
“I once was lost, but now am found; I was
blind, but now I see.”
It brings back to you the sense of “I was
there.” You recall the
day that you accepted Christ as your Savior; you remember the moment
when you were baptized. It’s the day that everything changed in your
life.
But that’s not the end of it; if Christ is real
in your heart you must share. As the old hymn put it, “I love to
tell the story.”
Before you is communion; let it reach into your
soul and bring forward the memory of salvation. Then, as you
partake, let your memory dwell on the sacrifice that Christ made. It
is by his body and his blood that you are saved. Remember it well.
Then go forth, saved to serve.
