Something to think about:
This is from my pastor back home.
"And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery." (Deuteronomy 6: 10-12)
None of us has forgotten what happened four years ago. September 11th will always bear a certain weight within the lives of all Americans. It is one of those days we’d like to forget, to live as if it had never occurred. But that is not possible. And we would be a bit foolish to live as if it never happened. After all, those who fail to heed the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them. But it’s not just tragedies like 9-11 or Hurricane Katrina that burrow into our psyches, refusing to be forgotten. There are all those bad decisions that we’ve made that always seem to haunt us, refusing to let us forget. That leads to the endless projections of what might have been if we done this or that differently. Such doubts are what mid-life crises and depression are made of. Then to compound the problem, we fail to remember all the good things. The bad decisions haunt us (what if the 9-11 hijackers had been identified in advance; what if the residents of New Orleans had all evacuated; what if I had applied myself more diligently in school or that job); the good decisions are repressed (one of the hijackers was arrested in advance and jailed; many residents of New Orleans did get out; you did learn great skills in school and now receive all you need to support this body and life in your present job). Why do we forget the good and dwell on the bad? Psychologists describe it as the Zeigarnik Effect. Zeignarnik argues that all the regrettable events of the past are continually spun around in our minds, waiting to be solved while the blessed events are easily forgotten because they involve the closure which our minds desire. So we forget the good and dwell on the bad – chalk it up to a mind that is bent askew by sin.
The Lord brings answer to every fallen, broken part of our lives, including our memory. So Moses delivers his farewell sermon in the book of Deuteronomy with words to direct the lives of the Hebrews – remember! He knew that enjoying a lush life in the Promised Land would quickly lead to them forgetting how they got there (only by the grace of God), so he says, “Remember!” But the entire message of the deliverance from Egypt and the entrance into the Promised Land does not hinge upon God’s people remembering Him, but the Lord remembering His people. That is why Exodus 2:24 proclaims that the Lord determined to save His people because He remembered His covenant to Abraham. God remembers! So also, when we weekly celebrate the Lord’s Supper we do so in remembrance of Christ – not just as a reminder to us, but in celebration of the fact that just as He remembered His covenant with Abraham, Christ remembers His promise to us that we receive His body and blood for the forgiveness of our sins. And notice what is combined there in the Lord’s Supper – remembrance and forgiveness - in other words, remembrance and forgetting. He remembers His promise and therein forgets the sins of His penitent people by forgiving them. Our sin-hampered minds may suffer from the Zeigarnik Effect but Christ is not under Zeigarnik’s constraints. And it is His remembering that makes all the difference.
"And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery." (Deuteronomy 6: 10-12)
None of us has forgotten what happened four years ago. September 11th will always bear a certain weight within the lives of all Americans. It is one of those days we’d like to forget, to live as if it had never occurred. But that is not possible. And we would be a bit foolish to live as if it never happened. After all, those who fail to heed the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them. But it’s not just tragedies like 9-11 or Hurricane Katrina that burrow into our psyches, refusing to be forgotten. There are all those bad decisions that we’ve made that always seem to haunt us, refusing to let us forget. That leads to the endless projections of what might have been if we done this or that differently. Such doubts are what mid-life crises and depression are made of. Then to compound the problem, we fail to remember all the good things. The bad decisions haunt us (what if the 9-11 hijackers had been identified in advance; what if the residents of New Orleans had all evacuated; what if I had applied myself more diligently in school or that job); the good decisions are repressed (one of the hijackers was arrested in advance and jailed; many residents of New Orleans did get out; you did learn great skills in school and now receive all you need to support this body and life in your present job). Why do we forget the good and dwell on the bad? Psychologists describe it as the Zeigarnik Effect. Zeignarnik argues that all the regrettable events of the past are continually spun around in our minds, waiting to be solved while the blessed events are easily forgotten because they involve the closure which our minds desire. So we forget the good and dwell on the bad – chalk it up to a mind that is bent askew by sin.
The Lord brings answer to every fallen, broken part of our lives, including our memory. So Moses delivers his farewell sermon in the book of Deuteronomy with words to direct the lives of the Hebrews – remember! He knew that enjoying a lush life in the Promised Land would quickly lead to them forgetting how they got there (only by the grace of God), so he says, “Remember!” But the entire message of the deliverance from Egypt and the entrance into the Promised Land does not hinge upon God’s people remembering Him, but the Lord remembering His people. That is why Exodus 2:24 proclaims that the Lord determined to save His people because He remembered His covenant to Abraham. God remembers! So also, when we weekly celebrate the Lord’s Supper we do so in remembrance of Christ – not just as a reminder to us, but in celebration of the fact that just as He remembered His covenant with Abraham, Christ remembers His promise to us that we receive His body and blood for the forgiveness of our sins. And notice what is combined there in the Lord’s Supper – remembrance and forgiveness - in other words, remembrance and forgetting. He remembers His promise and therein forgets the sins of His penitent people by forgiving them. Our sin-hampered minds may suffer from the Zeigarnik Effect but Christ is not under Zeigarnik’s constraints. And it is His remembering that makes all the difference.
posted by road runner at 1:05 PM
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