Volume 28, Issue 6

The following ideas are offered as helpful suggestions on how to structure an exhortation for Memorial meetings. 

It’s perhaps an understatement to say we live in disruptive times, and it can leave us feeling fatigued and even numb. Let’s spare a thought for our first century brothers and sisters, whose families were torn apart by men like Saul after the death of Stephen (Acts 11:19). We can imagine them fleeing in the night from Jerusalem, having had a father or mother or uncle or aunt brutally murdered or imprisoned. How distressing it would be to have to leave their lives behind: fleeing from their homes, schools, local markets and all the places that were familiar and comforting to them. Many travelled with what few possessions they could carry to places as far as Antioch in Syria and beyond. Antioch lay around 500km north of Jerusalem, some 2-3 weeks journey on foot. In these new places, these believers and their families would try to shape a new life. What a disruptive time for these Christians!

Each year we have the opportunity to connect with the Jewish community as a reminder of the strong connection we have with Abraham’s natural descendants. The Apostle Paul had an incredible desire to see the fulfilment of God’s purpose through His people, for he wrote in Romans 10:1, “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved”. It is with this same earnest desire that we to look to the fulfilment of those verses and the eventual completion of the promises to Abraham.

The exhortation to remember and to forget not is a constant theme throughout the Scriptures. Israel were frequently reminded to remember the works of God along with His commandments and statutes (Deut 8:11). They were instructed to teach their children about God’s power so that “they might set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments” (Psa 78:1-7).