Remember

Remember

• Please turn to Esther 9:19-22
  • Pur-eem, or the feast of Lots is celebrated to remember how God saved the Jews from the plot of Haman. 
  • A few things specifically are done to celebrate. 
    • Reading of the book of Esther, which recounts the story of the Purim miracle. 
    • Giving money gifts to poor people. (vs. 22)
    • Sending gifts of food (vs. 22)
    • A festive Purim feast, which often includes wine or other intoxicating beverages. (That’s up to you later tonight)

Instead of reading the entire book today, I thought it would serve us well to watch the Bible Project Video which gives a fantastic overview of Esther. It’s a pretty long video, so relax and enjoy… 

• Author Chad Bird tells this quick story to explain the biblical idea of “remember” 

Tom and Charlie remembered their respective wedding anniversaries in two very different ways. Tom’s way landed him in his wife’s good graces; Charlie’s landed him in the doghouse. Here’s why. Tom remembered his anniversary by sending his wife a dozen red roses at work, taking her out to her favorite restaurant for dinner, and buying her a little gift that said, “I love you and I’m so happy that you’re my wife.”

Charlie remembered his anniversary in a much more dangerous way. He remembered it in the same way that he remembered that 2+2=4, in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue, and that he’s going golfing with Jeff and Marty next Saturday.

At bedtime, when Charlie asked his wife why she seemed so upset, she cried, “You forgot our anniversary!” to which Charlie, thoroughly surprised, replied, “No, honey, I did not forget. I remembered it when I got up this morning and looked at the calendar. And I’ve been remembering that it’s our anniversary all day long.”

Poor Charlie will spend the night, if not the entire week, in the doghouse because he chose a remembrance of the mind over Tom’s remembrance of action. Or, to say it differently, Tom chose to remember as the Hebrews remember while Charlie chose to behave like a Gentile.

• Many times in scripture it says that “God remembers” 
  • But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided. Genesis 8:1
• For God: Remembrance = a divine act of mercy.
  • The Hebrew word is Zakar: to employ your hands and feet and lips to engage in whatever action that remembrance requires.
• When the Lord sees the rainbow and ‘remembers [his] covenant,’ he actively prevents a cosmic flood from recurring (9:15). When he remembered Abraham, he ‘sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow’ of Sodom and Gomorrah (19:29). When he remembered Rachel, he ‘opened her womb,’ (29:22). As John Goldingay remarks, ‘When God is said to think about someone or something, this is preliminary to acting on their behalf.’ Or, as Brevard Childs puts it, ‘[remembrance is] an action directed someone, rather than as a psychological experience of the subject.’” 
• When the Psalmist complains, “Has God forgotten to be gracious?” (77:9), he isn’t asking if Yahweh is a bit absentminded lately. He’s wondering why God hasn’t acted graciously to save them. When God forgets, he doesn’t engage in a certain action. When God remembers, he does. Chad Bird
• For the Jews, to remember an act of God through feasts and celebrations, fastings & sacrifices, in the same way it was a reminder to act in accordance with their faith in God. 
• For us to remember biblically to is to live biblically
  • to live what we believe. Faith=works / to remember = to action
• We learn from the Old Testament examples 
  • The jews had feasts, offerings & worship and but their actions did not follow… 
  • “I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. Amos 5:21–24
  • this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, Isaiah 29:13
• This could happen to us. 
  • For us to “forget” means to stop living as we believe. 
  • For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  2 Peter 1:5–8
  • For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. 2 Peter 1:9
• For us to remember biblically to is to live biblically. 
  • Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, 2 Timothy 2:8
    • Paul is not telling the young Pastor Timothy that he forgot Jesus, but he is reminding him to act in accordance with faith in Jesus. 
• May we do the same… 
  • A few things specifically are done to celebrate. 
    • Reading of the book of Esther, which recounts the story of the Purim miracle. 
    • Giving money gifts to poor people. (vs. 22)
    • Sending gifts of food (vs. 22)

• Lead into communion. 
  • Feast of Remembrance. 
  • The last tradition in Purim to share food. You are invited to feast with us!
• Benediction 
  • May you biblically remember and by God’s grace live biblically