I wonder about forgetfulness. In truth I am a rather
forgetful person. Things just slip from time to time so I do well to keep
lists...and to remember to refer to them. The only place where this
forgetfulness was a positive is when I heard confessions with some
regularity. I was rather good about leaving the content of a confession at the
altar. Truth be told confessions are not as extraordinary as some think of
media fantasizes. Most are very plain or are made of the universal struggles with
boundaries between what is perceived as right or wrong. But this could be its
own reflection. I want to think about forgetfulness and its complement, remembering
In Deuteronomy 10:12 -22 we read in part today:
"What does the LORD your God require of you? Only to fear
the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your
God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of
the LORD your God and his decrees that I am commanding you today, for your own
well-being.
...The LORD set his heart in love on your ancestors alone
and chose you,
...The LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the
great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, who
executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers,
providing them food and clothing. You shall also love the stranger, for you were
strangers in the land of Egypt.
This is what I do not want to forget, that God is over all,
acts for the love of all. The commandments of scripture help us see the
boundaries and open places where we may live inside this love. I also know that
those boundaries sometimes find a new openness. We see that sometimes in Jesus'
interpretation of law. We see it in how he broke open the Sabbath and how he ministered forgiveness and reinterpretation. We see it too in the gentile mission where God's love is
impartial, opening to all nations even beyond the people of Israel.
I do not want to forget that God chooses relationship with us
and to know oneself as chosen is to know oneself related broadly in life to
others. I do not know who the Lord of life will allow to cross my path today or
may ask that I practice awareness of today. I do best to be open and aware.
I do not want to forget that even though I was brought up in
the Church to a large extent, there was a time when I was a spiritual nomad, a
stranger, when I could not find God easily or be found by God such that I was
aware of God's power and presence. Yet in a very hungry moment I found God
finding me at an altar, in the Lord's Supper. I do not want to forget that God
is ever seeking us and wants my kind aid to reach out beyond
myself.
One of the tools that helps me get past forgetfulness is the
Daily Office. Today I pray it using the St. Helena Breviary rather then the
Book of Common Prayer. There is a set of versicles and responses in the morning
office that reminds me of God's values as we have received them. They are
slightly sharper then what I find in the BCP. In part they read:
V: Let not the oppressed be shamed and turned
away; Psalm 74:21
R: Never forget the lives of your
poor Psalm 74:19
V: Continue your loving kindness to those who know
you; Psalm 36:10
R: and your favor to those who are true of
heart.
In the Book of Common Prayer we find instead:
V: Let not the needy, O Lord, be forgotten;
R: Nor the hope of the poor be taken
away.
I am challenged to wonder How do I not
increase the shame of the poor. How do I not turn them away. How do I aid them
in knowing God through my mercy, my true heart. How do I increase their
dignity? How do I live well with never forgetting the poor, the lost, for they
are God's. How do I execute justice and love? There are personal actions, food
pantries, clothing collections. I have chosen to aid in educating a 2/3 world
child. These help me/us be attuned.
But I also am part of a society larger than the
Church. What is my role there? Whose voice will articulate my concern where my
personal power to effect care becomes limited? What are we to do to decrease
our national forgetfulness of the stranger and the poor? We are so far from the great depression where vast numbers of us suffered
together. We live in pockets of wealth, middle class and poor separated from
each other. How do we remember each other into health? I have some answers
but from what I read in scripture it is the daily task of the nation to
remember, to remember when we were not so strong, not so well provided for, were
sojourners in this our homeland as a immigrant people, or a less educated and
skilled people. If this was never true for me (and it was not) then it was for
my ancestors who were Scots-Irish.
And so very simply, Lord, let me not forget and
show us each the way of memory. School my thoughts and actions so they are consonant with you.
