Posted by a.j.w. [aw] on April 01, 1999 at 19:24:19 {feW1wc1uNQgy8SS8Re/Q9b2GZPq.rk}:
Hi all,
I was amongst the first 81000 to "celebrate" the memorial this year in the manner that Jehovah's chosen slave would have us believe it should be celebrated (this observation from the City Overseer who gave the talk).
The
meeting was notable for:
1. high farce
2. paranoia (about partakers)
3. crying babies
4. emphasis on following directives of GB
The congregation I joined in with, is one of 7 that met in the one location (the local Assembly Hall which has a second KH in the Assembly Hall building, and another KH in the grounds). Nice new hall, lots of panelled wood, French doors, plush carpet, comfy seats, and lacking in the "Kingdom montages" which seem to characterise local Kingdom Halls. It was well heated to the point of enhancing the soporific effect of the meeting - the KH is new, and given this was the first cold evening this year, I suspect it was given its' first run last night. The fake flowers had not had time to gather dust - isn't it sad that the brothers and sisters don't get any time to do any gardening and show off their best blooms at the hall?
I sat next to a brother, who (afterwards) a brother from one of the other congregations who asked him "how are you?". The reply came: "Good", almost to the amazement of the other brother, who said, "really", whilst making strong eye contact. The brother was quite uncomfortable with this, and dropping his eyes a bit said, "yeah, really good. I'm still battling my illness, but other than that things are good". From the look of him, I'd say his illness is "red face, fat nose syndrome" which often makes it difficult for him to string words together (smile).
Song 87 was trotted out for it's yearly run - Easter is the setting for a gala picnic horse race here, so I thought that was quite appropriate. Obviously, despite the new hall, they are still using tapes - this tape was quite stretched and did not add much to the crooning of the sisters (mainly).
The brother giving the opening prayer was an elderly new Australian with a lovely accent. His prayer was punctuated by the crying kids, but nonetheless was nicely focussed on thanks and petition for those in Kosovo. He was almost finished - I could hear the fumbling as the congregation prepared to sit down - an action which seems to be attached to an involuntary action of saying "amen" - when he remembered that he had forgotten the most important people who had brought us all together that night, and snuck in a good word for the GB. I'm not sure what for - perhaps for their illhealth, or senility, or death, but we prayed for them nonetheless. Their presence at the meeting was notable. Oh, and of course he also nearly forgot to pray for the "vindication of your sovereignity" but managed to get that in before the audience expired.
So, our City Overseer kicks off his talk with a comment about the New World being "just ahead", and picking up a comment from Lk 22:19, and refering to Vines Expository Dictionary to bring out that this "remembrance" is the remembrance of an individual.
He
then explained what he was going to talk about. He said we have been asked essentially to answer 4 questions (I guess he'd been asked by the GB):
1. why command us to commemorate his death?
2. when should this be observed?
3. what
do "they" individually partake?
and perhaps, it seems, most importantly,
4. who is entitled to partake?
Every time the brother turned up a passage (generally one verse), we were encourage to turn it up because we have "been asked" to look at this passage.
We looked up John 3:16, and the brother "brought out" that Christ's love was going to be seen in the resurrection of billions (yes) of people. This brother really like billions. He said that Jesus had been doing stuff with God for billions of years too, until he became a man. He had glory with God for all this time, and he just had to demonstrate that his love was greater than all the other angels, by submitting to this "torture stake".
The brother obviously is not expecting Armageddon to arise out of the Balkans this time, like some of the board would have it. In looking up John 15:3 has commented how different we are to those who "are having that little scrap in Serbia". Jesus had proved to be the "perfect man", just like Adam could have been.
He then went to Matt 20:28, and began a serious exposition of why this celebration could only be once a year.
He suggested that we were celebrating
it at exactly the same time as Jesus had originally:
- refered to Jewish practice of looking for the "first slither" of the new moon "very accurately" (which we all saw on the way to the meeting - this was a part of the observance that
I had not been warned about - is it something all you loyal ones do). He implied that it was exactly 70 cycles of 6 years + 11 years + 11 years and another 6 years since 33 CE (isn't that nice).
- of course we are "very accurately"
looking for the appropriate date as well (he said)
- refered to anti-semitic Christendom which would move Easter by 1 week if it happened to coincide with the Jewish passover observance (this is news to me)
- of course it is an
annual celebration - Jesus was celebrating the passover (matt 26:17-25)
- refered to secular remembrance of dead relatives - if you are remembering their death, you only do it on the exact day, even though they've been in your thoughts
all through the year, and he went on to quote some comments out of the "In Memorium" columns of the local rag
The he went on to describe how the observance celebrates the ransom and validates his covenant with the 144,000 (1 cor 11:23; I Cor 5:7-8) and how our Governing Body has said that it was "only for spirit-annointed ones". This began the paranoia - I was told afterward by an elder that this is one of the City Oveseer's "pet subjects". For the last few years the number partaking has been "going up" when it should have been "going down" - he refered to a sister in Qld who was really "a bit loopy" who thought she was annointed - you really can't do anything about it - it is the "holy spirit after all". Apparently there are none of the annointed in any of the congregations meeting there that day. There is one brother up at ***** (a rural town about 30 minutes away).
He said there were 13m attendees in 87,000 congregations, and 8756 partakers - last year. That meants only 4 in the whole city of 40 congregations - 1 in every 10 congregations (obviously the brother is good at Math).
He "reasoned on" Jer 31:31-34, and drew a parallel between Moses and Jews. The covenant that Moses was a mediator of was with the Jews. The Jews were commissioned to "bless the Gentiles" - all the world. Now "we have to find a parallel". Jesus is now the mediator for the 144000 and the millions and billions will be blessed by the 144000.
He said it was like the mortgage agreement (or covenant) on a house - even though the parents in a family have the agreement, the children get to live in it, and use the furniture and everything.
"We who do not want to go to heaven" get to benefit from the covenant which the 144,000 have with Jehovah God".
Reminder was then made of Acts 15:14 and the "little flock" and "other sheep". Those of the 144,000 used to be fornicators, and unclean and covetous persons, so we know that they can help us today. SO the 144,000 are people whose "conduct is right" and who are "genuinely imitating Christ". (I got the real impression that all of us were unclean and fornicators, and covetous and we;d better not partake or else).
He went to 1 John 2:2 to show that there are 2 classes. There is the "us" (John was speaking to annointed as there were only annointed then) and "the world" - so the sacrifice is actually for the annointed but the world gets to benefit if they are keeping close to those annointed ones.
Having then been duly warned not to partake we went to the "celebratory" part. He looked up Matthew 26:26 and some brothers prayed. These prayers were not like the first one - they were really sermons given to the congregation, how we should do this and that, and how we are doing that and this, and how we love the GB, and the food is good and we should be eating lots of it, but not he bread which is for the annointed alone ... In fact the City Overseer in handing out the bread and making some comment or other said "as brother Christiani explained in his prayer ...".
Then the 20 servers went about the farsical motions of handing it around. Why it takes 20 I have no idea. Why everyone has to handle it and gaze at it in mystical illusion, likewise.
Of course the brother I was sitting with in a loud voice (probably goes with his disease), asked me if I knew not to partake (smile). I said back in a LOUD voice "OH RIGHT - YOU MEAN THAT ONLY THE 144,000 PARTAKE - IS THAT WHAT THE CHAP MEANT?" (LOL) It added some more farce to the occasion as every head in the hall looked around.
The servers (who I was told are "all the elders and ministerial servants") then all come down the front row and sit down and sort of hand it back to each other.
First, they put it all on the table and sit down.
Then,
one brother from the middle of the row gets up and gives it to the first brother in the row and goes back to sit in his seat in the middle of the row.
Then it gets handed along until you come to the aisle.
Then one of the brothers
from down the other end of the row (it's a wide Kingdom hall - about 25 seats wide filled with elders) comes across and hands it across the aisle, and goes back to his seat whilst it is passed along passed the first brother you thought
of.
Then it comes to another aisle (you get the drift).
Is this something unusual - I didn't notice it in the previous memorial I had attended a few years back.
So, after a good reminder that we all need to dedicate ourselves in the field service, and that qualified people should note the field service times on the noticeboard at the back of the hall, and the 5 meetings a week, we sang another song (forgot number) and a final prayer, and then went to do more mingling.
As you can probably tell, I came away motivated, encouraged and empowered to live forever in the New World. I really felt that there was real PERSONAL meaning in the ransom sacrifice for me, and for the other 178 people attending. I didn't fall asleep, even a few of the folks around me were, and I had everything I needed to do it.
So there you have it - I'd be interested in your observations of the memorial in your cong.
Love,
Andrew.