OH DO REMEMBER ME
A man sentenced to death obtained a reprieve by assuring the king he would teach his majesty's horse to fly within the year--on the condition that if he didn't succeed, he would be put to death at the end of the year. “Within a year,” the man explained later, “the king may die, or I may die, or the horse may die. Furthermore, in a year, who knows? Maybe the horse will learn to fly.”
Putting our hopes in those things that may fail is a waste of our resources. Our goals, dreams, and aspirations may well be just taking up time. I’ve become convinced that we deal with the discomforts of life, those things that cause us stress or anxiety, by filling our time and fooling ourselves into believing we’re doing something meaningful or constructive, but what we’re really doing is stalling, just like the prisoner who promised to make a horse fly.
I’m not talking about the work we do or the time we spend with others. All work is sacred, all relationships should be sacred as well. But it’s the times when we are by ourselves, trying to fill some void or just killing time, which is a terrible term, by the way – in those times we turn to activities or pursuits that we really don’t have any intention of following through on.
Case in point – my shameful display of projects yet unfinished, like a beautiful cross-stitch scene of an ancient temple whose steps only go so far and whose columns are only half draped with greenery. This particular project was started when my daughter, who is now 30, was about 9 years old.
I also have in a notebook the beginnings of a book I planned to write. The notes are there, the direction in which I want the writing to go, but I managed only two chapters before I stopped. I believe that was in January. I also have a stack of books with bookmarks attesting to the fact that I haven’t made it past chapter 4. On my Kindle I am at 29% of the way through the novel Les Miserables, which I probably downloaded over two years ago.
It’s beyond procrastination. It’s boredom and lack of interest intensified. I hope I’m not alone in this. I doubt that I am. So much enthusiasm, so many good intentions and yet we are still unfulfilled. Can I share some painfully honest knowledge with you? We are unfulfilled because we’re looking in the wrong place for our fulfillment. It is God who gives us our sense of being purposeful, of being complete.
If we deny Him that role or try to manufacture our own happiness, contentment or joy, we will only be disappointed, perhaps even bored. There is a wonderful old prayer attributed to the sixteenth-century sailor Sir Francis Drake. He prays that when God leads us to undertake any great piece of work, he will also remind us ‘that it is not the beginning, but the continuing of the same, until it be thoroughly finished, that yieldeth the true glory.’
In Philippians Paul proclaims that God is a finisher as well as a beginner. The particular work which He began and which He will finish is the work of grace. He began a good work and He will see it to completion. In the meantime, Paul prays for the people of that place, very specifically, as he usually did. He prayed that their love would overflow in knowledge and wisdom.
Paul sees the heart and the head endlessly bound together. This is how true Christian love has to be, engaging in deep insight into God’s world. Also, he prays for their wise love to result in moral discernment. They lived, as we do, in a world where moral issues are blurred and distorted. His wish is for them to tell right from wrong so they can be prepared for Christ’s return.
Pay attention to the two conditions Paul is aiming for all of us to achieve by that time: sincere and faultless. These two carefully chosen adjectives express the two aspects of Christian holiness as the result of divine action; inner purity of motive and outward blamelessness in relation to others. Surely Paul did not plan for the Philippian Christians to obtain these qualities only at the time of Christ’s arrival, hurriedly preparing themselves for His return like checking items off of a to-do list.
Since neither the Philippian Christians nor any of us can ever achieve these qualities on our own power my hunch is that he was anticipating and hoping they would be gradually developed so that they could be utilized within the community itself, even if Christ had not appeared before they died. How else could we proclaim the gospel as our own if we were not sincere in our witness and at fault in our relationships?
It is perhaps all too easy to think that all we have to do is sit back and relax while God does all the hard work. Or, to believe it’s all up to us if we are to become true followers of Christ. Neither of these options work, probably because they are not really options. Paul didn’t say “He began a good work in you, but now you do the rest yourself.” He said, “He who began a good work in you will see it to completion.”
It’s more than just filling time or killing time. It’s learning how to live in a hostile or violent world that is not our true home, while waiting for the return of Jesus who brings to us the place where we will spend eternity. If the thought of spending eternity catching up on your reading and needlework is appealing to you, consider a slightly more exciting scenario.
In our Old Testament reading today we heard the words of Baruch the scribe who wrote down the prophecies of Jeremiah. He also suffered alongside Jeremiah when they witnessed the Babylonian invasion of the people of Jerusalem and saw them carried off into exile.
In what can be described as poetry Baruch captured the promise of God in language so profoundly beautiful it almost seems unrelated to the life we often know here. “Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem, and put on forever the beauty of the glory from God. Put on the robe of the righteousness that comes from God; put on your head the diadem of the glory of the Everlasting; for God will show your splendor everywhere under heaven.
Take off your garment of sorrow and affliction. Oh, what an enticing message for us today. We fear something every time we step outside the door. We dread turning on the news because we are likely becoming desensitized to the presence of evil in the world. It’s hard to believe in God’s good work when there’s so much bad at work.
Three hundred and fifty-five mass shootings this year, more than one per day of the year, and don’t think we couldn’t break that record with one month to go. The latest was directed at a group of developmentally disabled persons and those who care for them. The idea that God sees us and remembers us and loves us is sometimes hard to hold onto.
In exchange for a life of sorrow and affliction God offers us the beauty of His glory, not temporarily, but forever. That’s a long time in God’s sight. Are you ready to wear the robe of righteousness and the crown of God’s everlasting glory? Can we ever be prepared, by our own estimation, of such weighty responsibilities?
“For God will give you evermore the name, ‘Righteous Peace, Godly Glory’. Arise, O Jerusalem, stand upon the height; look towards the east, and see your children gathered from west and east at the word of the Holy One, rejoicing that God has remembered them.”
Just listen to the words of affection. Make note of the loving actions, the moving forward of a people who had lost everything and were close to losing the faith of their ancestors because of the influence of an outside society. God was moving them to a completed work that would not take place completely in the lives of those who were addressed.
Does this mean God was just placating them to make them feel better? No, because even if we don’t know God’s timing we can trust in His ultimate plan, in the completion of His good work. Even those who did not see it in their lifetime will still witness the unveiling. So if we are here today but gone by the time of Christ’s return it doesn’t mean the promises are not for us.
It just puts us in a different place from which to view God’s brilliant ending to the story He’s been writing for centuries. It makes my unfinished book seem rather unimportant now.
God will give us the name Righteous Peace, Godly Glory. This really shouldn’t surprise us, because God always lavishes us with far more than we deserve. Grace beyond measure, inestimable riches. But it does. It surprises us every time, because we cannot seem to get used to the idea that we are loved more than we can imagine possible by a God who has created heaven and earth. If we did know that, Baruch whose name means blessed would not have to tell us to take off the garment of our sorrow. We would have shed it long ago.
To do so requires great humility and trust. To paraphrase one commentator, “The proposition which is set forth in Paul’s words is a universal principle: humans cannot complete their own lives. Three conditions come as a part of this principle: a) the source of everything we live by is not in our hands, b) the completion of everything is hidden in the future, and is always in the power of the Creator who alone knows the future and has the last word about the meaning of life, and c) the present is partly ours, along with the powers and resources that have been given us.”
We will leave this world with things unfinished; beds unmade, books half read, but we will be completed by God’s own hand. We are on the way to perfection because God does not forget. He remembers us always. He’s thinking of you right now, waiting for you to see how much you mean to Him, how much you mean to His church, how much you mean to the world.
You just have to come to the understanding that it’s not necessary for you to invite God into the space He created for you to occupy, but not for you alone. He is there. He has always been and always will be the beginner and the finisher of your life.
A man who fought a lifelong battle for the abolition of the slave trade in England wrote these words, “The true Christian recognizes this world is not his resting place. Here to the very last, he must be a pilgrim and a stranger. He anticipates that blessed future, where love shall reign without disturbance, and all shall be knit together in the bonds of indissoluble friendship, and all shall be united in the one harmonious song of praise to the Author of their blessedness.”
That is the true completion of all that we are seeking to achieve for ourselves, that which we can only truly appreciate, truly understand through God’s power and glory. In trusting God to fulfill His promises we also acknowledge that He remembers us; indeed, He can never forget us. May we never forget Him.
