Luke 22: 14-19
“Souvenirs”
July 21, 2019
If you happened to have $9 million this week you could have been the proud owner of the flight manual, a 3 ring binder with all of the important data and notes that sat between Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in the lunar module of the Apollo 11 mission that took them to the moon’s surface. A little too steep for your pocketbook? For only $32,500 you could have snapped up an autographed picture of Buzz Aldrin standing on the moon, the place he described as “magnificent desolation.” This weekend when the world remembers that amazing journey 50 years ago that for a moment in time left humankind united in awe, we can all treasure the memory you have, for those of us old enough, of where you were on the late evening of July 20, 1969. Where were you? I was at home in front of the television set that my parents let us stay up late to watch as they didn’t want us to miss this historic moment. I remember it being hot and muggy just like last night and that it was a somewhat fuzzy image we saw and that we did some clapping and cheering when Neil Armstrong’s foot at last touched the surface and we could hear our neighbors doing the same through our open windows.
The dictionary defines the word souvenir as “a thing that is kept as a reminder of a person, place or event.” We typically associate it with a trip or a visit to some special site or a concert we attended or a museum we toured. Whether you have added an item up here to this display or are treasuring it back at your house, each of us, I would hazard to guess, has something in our home that reminds of a previous time or a special person. After a death, sometimes families have been known to struggle over who gets Grandma’s favorite lamp or Uncle Joe’s fishing rod, as they try desperately to hold onto the piece of that loved one that brought them joy, hoping the memory of that joy, embodied in that item, can sustain them through their grief and perhaps even be something that they will pass down to their children or grandchildren in the hope of keeping that person’s memory alive through the generations.
Today, as we heard in both readings, a meal can also be a way to remember and hold onto a story and the lives of those within it. The meal that Jesus shares with the apostles before his arrest and crucifixion and resurrection is the Passover meal that was being lifted up in the reading that Kiera shared. What Jesus did was to transform this special devotional meal that remembers the deliverance of the people of Israel and how God spared them and offered them freedom from the powers of Egypt. Passover is intended to be a remembrance of God’s mercy and in that remembrance they are given very specific instructions about what they can and cannot eat and to this day, all these centuries later, Jews still observe this remembrance annually.
Jesus then adds his own twist with a call, only in Luke’s Gospel, that in the breaking of the bread and the drinking of the cup these disciples and the ones who would come after them would remember not just Jesus but the new kingdom, the new heaven and earth, that will come into being with his death and his victory over that death. This remembering, unlike one of our travel souvenirs that conjure up wonderful vacations, comes with expectations. In the remembering there is an empowerment. We, the heirs to this tradition, are to be continuing the building up of the kingdom. The work was begun by Jesus but it continues. Unlike a postcard or a tee shirt, the bread and cup of remembrance that we in this church lift up monthly are not something that we hold onto. Instead they become symbols of strength and nourishment offered at the table of inclusion and forgiveness that is open to all. One of the ways that Jesus models this for us is the inclusion of Judas who would betray him and the others who would deny him and run away when the going gets tough. This souvenir that we consume is intended to remind us that nothing we can do will separate us from the love of God, as evidenced in Jesus’ feeding even of those who others might judge as undeserving of such grace.
As we continue to remember that day 50 years ago when the first men walked on the moon we should also note that they brought along souvenirs from home with them in the space capsule. Included among those items from the Apollo 11 crew that were auctioned off last week was one that went for $143,750. This was a souvenir of a souvenir. Neil Armstrong brought along a piece of cloth from the Wright Brothers 1903 Flyer plane to remember just how far science and technology and the art of the possible had traveled in just 66 years. What Buzz Aldrin brought with him was kept fairly quiet at the time. Aldrin came up with the idea to bring the communion elements – bread and wine – with him on the mission. Aldrin explained why when he said, “I wondered if it might be possible to take communion on the moon, symbolizing the thought that God was revealing himself there too, as man reached out into the universe.” At the time, NASA had been recently sued because the Apollo 8 astronauts had read the Book of Genesis aloud during their time in space, so this private communion service was not broadcasted. After unpacking the communion bread that had been consecrated from a small plastic packet and with just enough gravity, Aldrin was able to pour the wine into a small light silver cup from his home church, Webster Presbyterian, outside of Houston. The wine and the bread were the very first things ever eaten on the moon.
Neil Armstrong did not partake but sat quietly and watched Buzz Aldrin remember that Last Supper far, far away.
The Sacrament of Holy Communion reminds us of who Jesus was and that he came bearing a message of love and forgiveness, welcoming all people, especially the ones that were often shunned, letting them know that they, too, mattered. There have been many symbols of our faith as Jesus followers that we treasure. The cross is one that instantly comes to mind – worn on a chain, sitting atop altars and steeples or displayed on stained glass. For many in the early church it was the Ichthus or Jesus fish that was used to secretly identify Christians who faced persecution by the Roman Empire. For some Christians it is a medal worn around the neck of a saint or prayers said using a rosary. Nativity scenes at Christmas, palms on Palm Sunday, ashes on Ash Wednesday, water at Baptism – all of these speak of remembrance. The important thing about symbols or souvenirs is what they bring out in us – hopefully they are memories we wish to honor or people who we can never forget who bring out the best in us. If you could hold onto one item throughout your days to remind you of what your faith is calling you to do, the best you can be, what would that item be?
As we continue our life’s journey, hopefully with enough opportunities to find meaning and purpose to fill our days, may we abide in the promise that Jesus offered, a new kingdom of love and inclusion that has room for all. Perhaps we might share items with others to help them remember that they are not forgotten – the snacks that tell children each summer right here in our community that we want them to be fed and healthy as well as the hygiene kits we’re preparing tell people we’ll never meet that they are beloved and that they matter and that we have not forgotten them. Let’s continue to look for ways that we can offer God’s children in need those things which let them know that they are remembered and treasured for it is sometimes tangible gifts to those with less that most powerfully express our abiding faith. Let us keep doing this in the name of the one we remember, Jesus the Christ. Amen and amen.