On new years day my Dad preached a message on "living memorials". He mailed me his notes and I thought I'd post them... enjoy! 

“Living Memorials.”

 Scripture Lessons: Joshua 4: 1-7, 15-24, Philippians 2: 5-11

 Text: Joshua 4: 6 “These stones will remind the people of what the Lord has done.”

 The year of 2011 has come and gone, and 2012 lies before us.

We can surely testify to the fact that through all the stress and strain, tests and trials, dangers and difficulties, highs and lows, tears and laughter, losses and gains, pain and pleasure – God has remained faithful in helping us to rise above it all. It is with joy and confidence that we can apply ourselves afresh to serving Him, His church and His world in the year that lies ahead.

 I would like you to share with a family member or friend next to you: One incident during 2011, for which you wish to thank God, where you know that He intervened on your behalf! Something, which, for you, is memorable!

 In our Scripture lesson, the stones, taken from the middle of the Jordan riverbed, were remarkable evidence that the river had actually stopped flowing to allow the Israelites to cross over! God had enabled the Israelites to cross over a major obstacle to the fulfilment of Gods promises!

God orders Joshua to erect a stone memorial to celebrate how God acted on behalf of the nation Israel.

These stones were “to serve as a sign for future generations.” (Verse 6a)

 Old Testament memorials

The raising, or setting up of stones as a memorial is common in the Old Testament

• Genesis 28: 18-22 Jacob has a dream of a stairway up to heaven. He meets with God, Who pronounces a blessing over him and his descendants. He takes the stone that he used as a pillow, and erects it as a memorial stone. He calls the place “Bethel” – “House of God”

• Joshua 7: 26 The Israelites defeated the city of Jericho. God orders that no bounty gets kept for personal use. Then the small Amorite town of Ai in turns defeats the Israelites. God is angry. A guy by the name of Achan is found out as the cause – he and his family gets wiped out! A memorial of stones is put up to indicate that God is no longer angry with the Israelites

• Joshua 24: 26-27 Joshua calls the Israelites to turn away from idols and covenant themselves to serving God. A huge stone is put in place to remind the people of their promise before God

• 1 Samuel 7: 12 Samuel pleads with God to save the Israelites from the Philistines. God does so, and Samuel takes a large stone and sets up a memorial, which he names “Ebenezer” – “Up to this point the Lord has helped us”

• These memorials were intended to provoke questioning so that the story of God’s miraculous interventions might be told over and over.

• The Joshua 4: 6 memorial was to signify an act of God. It was to be a testimony of divine intervention. The triumphant crossing of the Jordan River was not due to human genius or to the shrewd calculation of a leader.

 Reason for Memorials

Remembering was a way for future generations to participate in the great acts that God had done for Israel. God will not permit the past to be forgotten.

Yesterday has a meaning for today.

We are apt to be arrogant about our own accomplishments, and often we have little or no regard for the attitude and experiences of the past

Only as we live within sight of the stones of remembrance will we remember what has gone before.

• Memorials lose their significance because they become detached from the factors which call them into being.

• We may want to preserve a sundial, so we build a museum over it, when in reality it was meant to be exposed to the sun that it may be used as a instrument of guidance to man.

• We may have respect for the Bible as the Word  of God, but if we leave it on the shelf or in a drawer, no guidance will be received from it.

• We may wear a highly expensive, ornate and beautiful cross as a pendant, but if there is no knowledge of sin forgiven between the wearer and God, it will forever remain a mere piece of jewellery.

 Another important purpose

• The purpose of the memorial stones was also clearly pedagogical.

Verse 21 “When your children ask you what these stones mean, you are to tell them…that the Lord your God dried up the river.”

Parents were to teach their children the ways and works of God. (Deuteronomy 6: 4-7)

A Jewish father would not send his inquisitive child to a Levite for answers to his questions. The father would answer them himself! Apart from regurgitating historical facts of the past, personal experience of God in the present, makes the intervention of God a reality in the here and now.

 Personal Memorials

Our children don’t want to look at a chunk of stone that is lifeless, and far removed from their experience.They want to hear your own “Bethel” and “Ebenezer” memorial stories.They want to look and learn and listen to a real live saint – that’s you and me! This personal experience of a real live God, interacting with us on a day to day basis, is what our children want to hear.

This makes our faith, and theirs, alive!

What a wonderful privilege, yet awesome responsibility we have of sharing the things of God with our children. It still ceases to amaze me how our own children, periodically, will raise stories that we told them when they were much younger, and recall the significance of how God supplied our needs. I am sure that you also have an endless list to share

Allow me to ask a few pertinent questions, beginning with:

“When last did you share with family and friends”

• The way in which you came to salvation.
• The godly circumstances surrounding your marriage.
• God’s intervention in saving your life.
• God’s provision in a time of need
• God’s answers to fervent prayer in your life.

Many of these stories certainly have an element of the miraculous in them, and the honour is always in God’ favour. Notice the pronoun “you” that Joshua uses in verse 23.These accounts were to be related in the first person. Our children don’t want to hear second person stories, as much as they want to hear them personally from us!

“Anamnesis”

One of the greatest memorials we have in the life of the church is the Eucharist, otherwise known as Communion, or the Lord’s Supper. In Luke 22: 19 Jesus institutes the Lord’s Supper by saying “Do this in remembrance of Me” That word “remembrance” is “Anamnesis” – “living memorial”!Through it we remember what our Lord Jesus Christ did through His life, teachings, death and resurrection. It is a wonderful declaration of our commitment to Him as our Lord and Saviour. Let get out there and share in this incredible memorial supper with all of those who are His children! Amen