Tonight we are commanded to remember.

Remember that night when Jesus was to be betrayed

and yet took bread and wine and ate it at table with his betrayer.

Remember that night when that meal of bread and wine

did not keep his close friend Peter from disowning him out of fear.

Remember that night and that Jesus and the gift of forgiveness

which pours out on us.

There is much to remember.

We are called to remember the enormous distance between us and God

and how much we are consumed by I – me – mine

and how little we are truly concerned about you and them.

How the very phrase ‘the common good’ carries so little weight with us

 because we quickly realize that the common good just possibly means

 I will end up with less good than before.

We are called to remember the pervasive imperfections of this world:

the poverty, hunger, violence, abuse, and neglect

for which we do not want to take responsibility

but cannot reasonably figure out who to blame

We are called to remember the weight of power

 and the frailty of human life and

how often we are standing on the wrong side of that equation

We are called to remember that real life begins when two become one,

 when community is formed and sacrifices are made

for the sake of new and continue life

          …that for community to continue and prosper we must forgive one another. 

You can reject all this talk about forgiveness

calling it just another ploy to induce guilt or shame

You can pretend that all is well, or at least,

your life is no darker or lacking than most others

You can come up with a couple of good examples

of folks way worse than you

And you can pretend that you are contented with a world

where brother rises up against brother and

parents neglect their children and

the winner gets to eat all it wants and throw out the extra

while the neighbor sits before an empty supper bowl.

You can pretend that there is nothing greater than YOU

and if there is – you owe it nothing of yourself.

So tonight you are asked to remember:

 from dust you came and to dust you shall return.

Come to the table and drink the wine of forgiveness

and eat the bread of the body of Christ poured out for you…

…..whether you want it or not.