Warm-up Question
- What are some of the easiest things for you to remember? This might be something like information on a certain school subject, pop culture trivia, or peoples’ names.
- Why do you think you remember these things so easily?
Practicing Remembering
There’s a glut of information online about memory improvement. Some articles, like this one, detail the value of certain games to increase your brain’s health. At other times, phone applications promise a boost in your capacity to remember information. Websites like Quizlet offer resources to reinforce data memorization for school or work. Everyone, it seems, knows that memory is important and that it’s not always easy to remember everything we want to remember, even the things most important to us.
Discussion Questions
- What are some practices or tricks you use to help you remember things?
All Saints Sunday
(Text links are to Oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year A at Lectionary Readings.)
For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.
Reflection on the Gospel
Memory isn’t just important for school quizzes or group trivia nights. Memory is essential for faith. On the Festival of All Saints, we remember the saints who’ve passed on from life to death and again into new life with Christ.
Like Jesus, who wept at Lazarus’ death, we too grieve the loss of our loved ones who’ve died before us. Memory like this brings emotions that are sometimes difficult to carry. It’s also true that memory brings hope. People often tells stories of a lost loved one in ways that inspire smiles, spark laughter, and even foster hope.
On his own way to death, Jesus told his disciples to practice Holy Communion as a way of remembering him. Though not many people laugh at the communion rail, many will smile as they receive this gift of life in their palms. Hope glistens in many eyes as they taste God’s embodied goodness in the simple elements of bread and wine.
When we remember the saints who’ve died before us, it’s normal to have the combination of grief and hope, of sadness and smiles. After all, unlike Lazarus’s sisters, we haven’t yet experienced the resurrection of our loved ones. That doesn’t mean it won’t happen. It simply means that, until then, we have a memory trick of sorts: ritual. Communion is a ritual to remember Jesus. All Saints is a ritual to remember our loved ones. In these rituals of memory, we hold close not only the hope of our own resurrection, but the hope of resurrection of all those we remember in the love and light of Christ.
Discussion Questions
- Who are the saints that you remember today? Share a story about how they made a difference in your life.
Activity Suggestions
- Carry on the memory tradition after Sunday’s worship concludes. Set aside time for journaling or group conversations to remember loved ones who’ve died. Describe the ways their memory makes you feel and what you hope for in our reunion with God.
- Many struggle with loss around the holidays. Take time to make a collage of saints who’ve died in your community and place it in a public place. Share brief quotes or anecdotes that highlight the role each person played in your lives.
Closing Prayer
God of our Ancestors, we remember before you all the people who we love that have died. Please hold them, and us, in your care. Encourage us to hope in your resurrection promise, and until then, help us to recall the ways their lives inspire our faith in you, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord: Amen.
