Readings for today: Jeremiah 1-4
Losing our memory is a terrible thing. My family knows this pain deeply. My grandfather developed some kind of Alzheimer’s-like disease when he was in his thirties. A brilliant engineer and gentleman farmer in Western Nebraska. Father of three kids. His whole life ahead of him. He died at age 38. His wife, my grandmother, contracted dementia in her early seventies. She had long periods where she didn’t recognize her own family. It was heartbreaking. My aunt began losing her memory in her late fifties and died in her early sixties. On my mother’s side of the family, my grandmother lived in a catatonic state for a couple of years before passing away though she was in her early nineties at the time. As a pastor, I’ve walked with family after family who has had to face this pain. It never gets any easier. Even though our loved one is still physically present, they are mentally dying. It’s why they call it the “long goodbye.”
God knows exactly how we feel. He expresses it over and over again in our passage from Jeremiah today. The source of all of Israel and Judah’s suffering lay in the fact that they had forgotten the Lord. They had forgotten their history. They stopped looking back and recounting all the things God had done for them. “They stopped asking, “Where is the Lord who brought us from the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and ravines, through a land of drought and darkness, a land no one traveled through and where no one lived? I brought you to a fertile land to eat its fruit and bounty, but after you entered, you defiled my land; you made my inheritance detestable. The priests quit asking, “Where is the Lord?” The experts in the law no longer knew me, and the rulers rebelled against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal and followed useless idols.” (Jeremiah 2:6-8 CSB) As a result, they began taking the Lord for granted. They presumed upon His grace. They became pantheistic and began to follow other gods in addition to the Lord. They looked to the nations around them and adopted their ways. They lost whatever distinctiveness and holiness they once had. All because they forgot the Lord.
We fall into the same trap today. It’s easy for us to go through life and forget all God has done. It’s easy for us to fall for the temptation to believe our own hype. Take credit for everything we’ve accomplished. Trust in our own wisdom and strength. Follow the ways of the world. Recently, I heard a Biblical scholar argue we have revived the worship of the ancient pagan deities of Aphrodite (sex), Mars (violence), and Mammon (wealth). He’s not wrong. How often do we worship at these altars rather than worship God alone? How often do our thoughts and feelings and actions seem more suited to the worship of these pagan gods than the One, True, and Living God? This is why it is critical to regularly recount all the blessings God has given us. All the things God has done for us. All the ways God has come alongside us and defended us and provided for us. Never forget! Never let go of your spiritual memory! Don’t allow spiritual amnesia to set in!
Readings for tomorrow: Jeremiah 5-8