God Remembers

Rebecca Sheridan
Sunday, November 1, 2026
1 John 3:1-3

    Last weekend, I had the opportunity to go back to Sioux Falls to Augustana College (now University) for my 20th college reunion.  It was so wonderful to see many good friends, classmates, and professors I had not seen in a long time.  At the reception, I went up to a professor with whom I had only one class, even longer than 20 years ago because I believe I was a sophomore – it was a great class! I wanted to tell him that, even though I was sure he would not remember me. It was only one class, over 20 years ago!  The first thing he said was, “Rebecca, I remember you! It’s so good to see you!”  Wow. It is a powerful thing to be remembered and called by name – to hear those words, “I remember you.”
    Have you ever had an experience like that of being remembered? Or maybe, the disappointing opposite experience of being forgotten?  This morning, we take intentional time to remember especially the saints who have gone before us.  Our Jewish friends have taught us to say of the dead, “may their memory be a blessing.”  As Christians, we trust in the power of the resurrection to eternal life – because Christ has died, we are raised with him.  Even if NO ONE remembers us, God remembers us, and we are God’s eternally, this is truly good news.  That doesn’t mean that there isn’t power in remembering…in taking time to recall stories and memories and the people who have touched our lives in lasting ways.  For the people we call by name today and for all those we remember who have gone before us and have shaped who we are today:  May their memory be a blessing.  We remember.
    Today our second short reading from the first letter of John reminds us that we, all of us, are God’s living saints – God’s children.  As Lutheran Christians, we believe that you do not have to wait until you die and go through a special process of canonization to become a saint.  Your baptism makes you a saint.  John says, “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God, and THAT IS WHAT WE ARE.”  Present tense.  What an important reminder!  We already are saints – children of God, because of God’s great love for us in Jesus Christ.  We need this reminder often, daily!  Often, we need this reminder because world does not know us, John points out.  The list of blessings Jesus preaches today is not on the world’s list of those who are blessed because of their success, popularity, wealth or power!  We find our wholeness, value, and blessing in God – not in the value or blessings of the world.  In these blessings, Jesus points us to remember and acknowledge those we may overlook or forget – the poor, those who mourn, the peacemakers, the persecuted.  Saints are not just the ones with the title, the day, their own Wikipedia article.  The saints include also the forgotten, because once a child of God, always a child of God, known and loved by God, and that includes us.  That is what we are.
    John gives us this hope this morning, that we are God’s children now, beloved.  “What we will be has not yet been revealed.  What we do know is this:  when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.”  Yes, we are also still sinners.  We took time this morning to begin with the confession of our sins, to receive God’s forgiveness.  We have striven for the world’s rewards and blessing instead of the treasures of heaven.  We have overlooked and forgotten those who just want one person to remember.  Perhaps we have even looked at the beloved children of God Jesus blesses as cursed and treated them as such.
    Today, God calls we who are simultaneously sinners and saints back to remember and to be remembered.  We remember those ordinary saints in our lives who have made an eternal impact on us.  We remember that the only blessing that truly counts is to know and be known by God.  Thanks be to God, in Jesus, God re-members us into one body of Christ which we call the Church – all of God’s beloved saint-sinners called back into loving relationship with God and with one another.  God re-members us.
    Religion is often on the outskirts of our memory today, somewhere on the sidelines until we have occasion to remember – like today, Christmas, Easter, perhaps we become more religious at a wedding or another funeral.  Many people prefer to consider themselves spiritual, not religious.  The root of the word religion comes from the Latin “religio” which is from the same word where we get “ligaments.”  Religion at its best is when we allow God to put the pieces of ourselves back together so that we recognize ourselves and others as who we truly are. God reconnects the ligaments.  God re-members us.  In Christ, God reunites the ligaments to create a faith community of nurture, support, celebration and growth.  Good religion puts God at the center so that we may be more like God-- so that the body that is the Church functions in healthy service to God and others in a way that no one is forgotten and all can participate.  Good religion is there for us when our loved one dies – anticipated or unexpectedly, blesses us when we mourn, wipes our tears, and helps us remember and move forward in faith.
    So we take time to remember today – we are saints, children of God, beloved to share this great love, for the sake of the world God so loves.  Most importantly, God remembers us.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.