Remember!
23 Jan 2021
Earlier this week there was a lot of discussion in the media about “Blue Monday”. No, not the early 1980’s classic single by New Order, but the fact that the third Monday in January has been described as the most depressing day of the year. It has been decisively shown that there’s no real science behind that description. However this year it felt like an apt description of how I, and I’m sure many others, felt.
The length of this crisis is taking it’s toll on many of us. Lockdown certainly feels harder this time, coming as it does in the middle of winter. News from the hospitals is grim. There is for many the fear of the virus itself, for us or for others. Our physical distance from each other is getting more painful by the day. For some of us the political choices being made accompanied with a concern about precedents being set and no clear exit strategy (despite the good news about vaccines) is deeply unsettling.
If that’s how we are feeling, how do we cope with that? For me, it’s not been a case of learning new things which has helped me - although there’s always something new to learn from the Lord! It’s simply been the challenge and encouragement to believe the basic things I’ve always preached and claimed to believe. I’ve had to remember the truth that “God is love”, and I’ve been challenged whether I really believe that. I’ve remembered the cross and resurrection, and been challenged to believe what I know about it being the most important event in history, which affects my life and eternity. I’ve remembered that Jesus is Lord, and applied that to what I watched on the news. I’ve remembered Jesus’ precious words about his people being more precious than the birds of the air - and then had to repent for my worries.
It’s not a failure to recognise that we are weaker and more prone to discouragement than we expected. It’s simply facing up to reality. And the wonderful thing is - our heavenly Father knows that about ourselves before we admit it!
So much of the Bible is taken up with the importance of reminding God’s people of things they already know. By “reminding”, Scripture means to draw it to mind and then to call us to act on the basis of those facts. We may never truly forget truths about God, but that’s very different from truly remembering.
“Remembering” in this way is so important that the Lord makes sure his people have lots of opportunities to do it! When he brought Israel through the Jordan into the promised land, before they moved on he made them take 12 huge stones out of the river to erect amongst their camp. This was to be a permanent reminder of what the Lord had done by taking them through the Jordan. We might think they’d never forget such a dramatic part of their national life - but knowing the history is very different from really remembering, and meditating on the promising keeping power of their covenant Lord. This isn’t just a teaching aid, it was to give real help for whatever else they faced in the present or future.
Much of what we do when we worship the Lord and hear his word is this kind of remembrance. Hopefully I or whoever is preaching will teach new truths as well as old from Gods word - but we need something more basic than to be educated. We need to remember - we need God to preach the gospel to us weekly, so that we really believe it for the 7 days that lie ahead. The sacraments are in this way God’s gifts to draw us to “remember” and to feed our faith.
As we face every kind of discouragement at the moment, how much do we need to remember right now! So as we set aside the Lord’s day, as we gather (whether thats’ physically, or join in online if we are shielding) let’s come recognising our need, but ready to be reminded.