Sunday, November 8, we will be honoring the 51st anniversary of the souls lost on the Edmund Fitzgerald at the 11 o’clock worship service. The service is a month from the time this email goes out, but please put this on your calendar and make a note to be part of this important event before your inboxes get filled with election and holiday ads. (Too late?!)
It’s important, but difficult, to remember important events. Why do we have such a hard time remembering? This is not just a fatal flaw of the busy or those of us past 50; it is human nature to plow forward in our lives without reflecting.
I believe this is one reason the Gordon Lightfoot song about the Edmund Fitzgerald has retained such an enormous impact on the culture of the Great Lakes. This song gives us an opportunity to remember through a beautiful work of musical artistry. The ballad has moved people for generations. This is not just because the melody is haunting and powerful and the lyrics are profound and insightful, but because this was a real event with real seafarers who deserve to be remembered.
Of course, there is something even deeper about remembering important, life-changing events in our personal lives or in society. Remembering these events makes us take inventory of what is important, what should be filling our thoughts and calendars, and what relationships need to have priority. When this takes place, there is a change in our hearts. When we remember things regularly, there is a change that can be permanent.
I believe this is behind why Jesus said of the Eucharist, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
Why should we do this ‘remembrance’ of Jesus? Paul says in 1 Cor. 11:26, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” We remember and proclaim, and this changes us on a spiritual level.
In the Eucharist, there is something mysterious about the act of taking the bread and wine. More than just an exercise of the mind where neurons and synapses remember an event, communion is a spiritual ‘thin space’ where the seen and the unseen worlds come into seemingly closer proximity.
The term “thin space” originates from ancient Celtic Christian spirituality, describing physical locations where the distance between heaven and earth feels exceptionally narrow. Within the liturgical church, it has been adopted to define moments or holy places—such as during the Eucharist or within sacred architecture—where the divine presence becomes tangibly near. These spaces do not change God’s location, but rather heighten our awareness, allowing us to experience a profound, immediate connection to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We receive the bread and wine into our physical bodies as part of receiving Christ himself spiritually. This has a mysterious effect of strengthening and nourishing us spiritually. This makes the act of communion remembrance unique in its nature. It is supernatural.
God knows we need to have physical reminders in our lives of important events, dates, and transitions. He wired it into us when He created us. Let’s walk into places of remembrance together. Whether it’s the annual remembrance of the Edmund Fitzgerald or the spiritual remembrance of Communion filled with mystery. May we lean into these times and let them change who we are at the core.
See you Nov. 8th!
Blessings and peace,
Rev. Todd
