A Culture of Remembering

I'm back from Christmas and New Years break. Emiley and I had the opportunity to be with her family in Southern Indiana over Christmas. It was a good time to reconnect, share laughs, good food, and memories (hence the topic of this post).

I've been attending Christmas with Emiley's family for 6 years now, and every year there is the same ritual. Christmas eve is held at her Grandparents, and before gifts are opened, the Christmas story is read and every one goes around to share thanksgiving, a significant event from the last year, or whatever comes to mind. On Christmas morning with just Emiley's immediate family, we essentially do the same thing.

In years past I always felt awkward during this; like I was in a discussion that I really should not be a part of. The family would share such deep stories of meaningful memories and gratitude for their life together with such intimacy that I felt like a voyager. In the past, when it was my turn, I said some general mumblings just to more on to the next person.

But this year I didn't. This year I offered the family reflections on how I've come to appreciate their tradition. I said that they are a family that remembers well - not just during Christmas, but in fact all the time in almost every conversation someone will launch off on an epic story which makes the ordinary moments of life seem spectacular. I shared how one of the main mandates of the Old Testament is to remember to Lord your God who brought you out of slavery in Egypt. This call echoes throughout Moses' teachings in the Pentateuch. Later, the prophets challenge the people to remember when they turn their backs on God and neighbor. And in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, initiated during the Passover, we are called to remember the many ways God has reached out to reconcile the people of God - ultimately expressed in the incarnation or God made Flesh.

There are a lot of books these days written about how the church in a post-modern, post-Christendom context needs to embrace the practice of sharing stories in how we do mission because people today relate more to personal story (testimony?) than they do grand meta-narratives about how the world works or who God is. It's a good concept and a vital practice for the church to embrace. But sometimes I have to sit back and laugh about how story is all the rage these days and is supposedly cutting edge in how we create and sustain communities. I laugh because here's a traditional family in rural Indiana, farmers, people of the land, not highly educated, and suspicious of change who doesn't need the next new pastor/rock star, book, conference, or seminary education to tell them that sharing our stories is integral part of our faith. They don't even do it (consciously) because of the biblical mandate. They do it because they understand family and community to be a vital part of one's formation.

To busy, fast-paced, technology-embracing urbanites like myself we may look at them as out of touch, resistant to change and creativity, and stuck in their ways. And to be sure their big family in a small town needs to be challenged by mission so that they do not become insular and their stories not exclusive. But it's also a family that by its non-conformity to the world around them never lost or forgot the simple truth that stories mean something, and remembering one's story of faith, family, and context is a precious pearl which is too often lost in our transient, globalized world.

By remembering so well in such a natural way, they remind me to not just talk about stories, but live into them, embrace them, share them, and never forget them.