Dear friends,
From time to time, we reflect on a literal understanding of ‘re-membering’ as involving putting back together something that has been dis-membered. When we are ‘re-membered’, broken, damaged and dismembered aspects of our past lives are put together again; mind, body and soul in the present tense enjoy wholeness; and helplessness in the face of an unknown future gives way to resurrection hope.
Our thoughts are often linked with Jesus’ instructions to share bread and wine in remembrance of him. At this time of year they also point us towards our Remembrance Day services, marking the sacrifice of fallen servicemen. But there is another, arguably even more significant act of re-membering to be found in our Bibles. It’s found in the encounter between Jesus and the thief on the cross who pleaded with him ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom’ (Luke 23:42). Jesus’ answer, ‘today, you will be with me in Paradise’, points to the significance of the cross as the place where Jesus re-members the living; where broken lives are put back together through God’s forgiveness, mercy and grace, and through which ultimately God’s image in us is fully restored as we take our place in his kingdom. Just as we remember Jesus when we share bread and wine, so he re-membered us when he went to the cross in order to take us from our spiritually dead state and restore us to the way God intended us to be – living and active members of his family reflecting God’s image.
One way that we seek God’s grace to heal our brokenness is to offer services of remembrance in which we bring God our feelings and circumstances in the face of 
loss. Remembrance Sunday is one such opportunity, focusing on lives lost in the horrors of war, and pointing us to the constant need to ‘…if it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.’ (Romans 12:18) Another opportunity is offered at our ‘Lost and Found’ service at 5pm on Sunday 1st December, when we will take time to give thanks for loved ones who we have lost in other circumstances (however long ago or however recently).
My prayer is that in remembering those we have loved and lost, we will reaffirm and give thanks for all that they mean to us; so that instead of being shaped by our loss we are shaped by the gains we still have from knowing them in the first place, which have helped us to be the people God calls us to be.
With my love and prayers
Matthew Scott