A Time to Remember

Topics: Communion

In his book The Swann's Way, the French novelist Marcel Proust wrote of
returning home late one evening on a dull winter day when he faced the
prospect of a depressing tomorrow. The maid greeted him and, seeing that
he was tired, brought him a cup of hot tea and some cake. Being both
tired and depressed he at first refused them. Only at her insistence did
he finally begin to drink the tea and eat the cake. Proust wrote that an
unexplainable delight suddenly came over him. His anxieties and troubles
seemed to vanish. Suddenly, he wrote, I had "ceased to feel mediocre,
accidental and mortal."

What caused this wonderful sensation to come over him? He was at a loss
to explain it. How could a taste of tea and cake produce this feeling of
peace? He drank and ate more but he still could not decipher the secret.
The truth, he guessed, must be in himself and not in what he was eating
and drinking.

Proust began to search within himself. Suddenly he began to remember.
His mind carried him back to Combray, France where in childhood he
visited his Aunt and she feed him cake and hot tea. Proust had been
unmoved by the sight of the tea and cake but the taste had sent
shockwaves through him and reminded him of scenes long forgotten.
Suddenly he remembered the little town, the village church, the old
house, the long forgotten relatives, and the flowers in the garden. The
tea and cake had recovered for Proust the memory and mystery of an
existence long past.

Is it, indeed, possible to hand a person a cup of tea and say to that
person: Now drink this and remember who you are? It not only is possible
but I submit to you this morning that in a real sense that is what we do
when we partake of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. By partaking of
the bread and wine we are seeking to recover the experience of
salvation. Like the novelist Proust, it causes us to think back on
experiences that happened long ago and in remembering these experiences
we begin to recover our own sense of identity. In a haunting and
mystical way the sacrament calls us to remember--remember who we are and
whose we are.

Brett Blair, Sermon Illustrations, August, 2000.