Title: The Future and Forgetting
Date: 2007-09-23
Reference: Phil. 3: 12-14
Thanks to your continued generosity, the Board of Trustees was able to arrange for new carpet in our educational unit this week. As part of the upgrade I received new carpet in my office which I love. It is beautiful and I’m so proud of it. In order to lay carpet everything had to be moved out including my many books. Most of those books are history books, and they are heavy. But we managed to get everything put back in order. My history books are back on the shelves. I love history. But I know one cannot live in the past with it’s regrets, mistakes, or even triumphs. It is not possible to change the past. At best history keeps us grounded and rooted. History makes us appreciative of the many things done for us by previous generations. We can learn from history. Someone has said “Hindsight is the luxury of historians.”
We live in the present, looking to the future which often means forgetting the past. Most historians agree that the two most influential leaders of the early church were Simon Peter, the big fisherman and Saul fo Tarsus who became the Apostle Paul. Christianity would not be as we know it today had it not been for the influence of these two individuals. These two men could not have become who they were had it not been for experiences described in Scripture.
In the 21st chapter of John, Simon Peter had gone back to fishing. He had failed Jesus and denied knowing Jesus three times. Peter was one of the original followers of Jesus. He was among the group that first heard the women coming from the empty tomb.
He had heard the rumor that Jesus was alive again; the Abba father had raised him back to life. Simon Peter even went to see the grave sight and was present on those two Sunday nights when Jesus appeared in the Upper Room. He felt his usefulness was over and his ministry at an end. So he went back to the one thing he knew fishing. He was joined by several other disciples and they fished all night but caught nothing.
As they approached the shore Jesus called out to them and told them where to drop their net. They received a miracle catch. Jesus prepared a meal for them and after breakfast, Jesus took Peter aside. This was the conversation Peter had dreaded and yet was looking forward to at the same time. Three times Jesus asked Peter if Peter loved him. Three times Peter said: “Of course I do. You know all things, you know I love you.” Jesus said: “Feed my sheep. Take care of my flock.” And Peter did. Until death Peter was the faithful shepherd Jesus commissioned him to be.
The 9th chapter of Acts describes how Saul became a follower of the Lord. Saul kept on threatening to kill the Lord’s followers. He was on his way to Damascus to arrest Christians and bring them to trial when a bright light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and Jesus spoke to him. For three days Saul was blind until a Christian named Ananias came to Saul. He laid hands on Saul and prayed with him and Saul was healed. Saul received his physical sight and he received the holy spirit and was baptized. Suddenly he realized he had been fighting God himself. He had been opposing the very one he was supposed to be serving. He must had wondered what God would do to him. An ancient saying was “It’s fearful to fall into the hands of an angry God. Saul must have thought God was very angry at what he had done.
But God had plans for the church and Paul was central in those plans. There was no looking back as St. Paul began his important ministry.
In both cases these two men, Peter and Paul, had much to live down. Both had failed miserably as we all have. Jesus is always more concerned with the future than with the past. Jesus is more interested in what we will do than our history. In both cases Jesus came and their worlds were never the same. Jesus showed more interest in the present and in the future than in the past of either one of these two men.
At the moment of their encounter with Jesus each of them was burdened with terrible memories of the past. Each carried much baggage from the past. When Jesus begins to deal with Peter and Paul he doesn’t say much about their past mistakes. He talks about the present and about the future. God is more concerned for the future than for the past. He’s more interested in what we can yet become than in all the things we used to be. I believe this is true for the church and for each of us as individual Christians. The past is interesting to read about. Again we learn from our history. But the present is where we live and the future is the only place of creative possibility. The past is unalterable No matter how intensely you feel about what you did and did not do there is no way to go back and change the past. Of course we live with the consequences of past decisions just as Peter and Paul did. But owning our past and trying to relive our past are two different things completely.
The only place open and fluid like clay in the hands of a creative potter is the future. God is more concerned about the present and the future than He is with all the great past.
Simon and Saul became Spiritual giants because they accepted God’s way of looking at time and chose to focus on the future not on the past. We all know people who simply cannot let go of the past. They are filled with remorse regret and anger at how the past treated them. All they can do is rehash the past until they are crippled in terms of the present and future. They don’t know how to lay down what used to be.
Our past has a tremendous gift to give in terms of teaching. To forget our history is a great tragedy. But we can remember the past too much. We can be so obsessed with the way it was we never cat a glimpse of how different our future could be.
Many years ago a thunder storm came through a Kentucky farm and the wind blew over an old pear tree that had been growing there as long as anyone could remember. The grandfather of the family was grieved to lose the tree he had climbed as a boy and whose fruit he had eaten his entire life. A neighbor came by and said: “I’m so sorry about your tree. What will you do now?” The grandfather thought for a moment and said.”I’m sorry too. This tree was an important part of my past. I’m going to pick it’s fruit and burn what’s left.” We do need to pick the fruit of the past and to learn it’s lessons. Amnesia is a sickness not an asset. But having learned what the past can teach us, we need to pick the fruit, burn what’s left and move on.
I was reading this week about a local pastor serving in the mountains of S.E. Ky. He is there as a channel of your love. You help pay for his salary when you bring your tithes and offerings here each week. Steve Wilson recently returned home to serve as a missionary pastor. Deep in his heart is a concern for persons caught in the chasm of drug and alcohol addiction as he once was.
He spends most of his time traveling through the community offering God’s love to people there. He brings hope for a better future. Steve Wilson knows first hand the devastating affects drug and alcohol addiction can have in a person’s life. He can personally testify to how he was set free from all of that when he became a Christian. He feels strongly that the church must reach beyond the walls and meet people where they are. In this area of rural isolation wholesome activities are limited and drugs and alcohol easily become the choice of entertainment. Pastor Wilson makes weekly visits to the drug count to pray and minister to people. On one of his visits he was able to pray with a young woman. In his words:”I saw her face change from chiseled stone to radiance.” This man understands what it means, with the help of Christ, to concentrate on the future and to forget the past.
There is so much in all of our histories that we are not proud of. Things we should be ashamed of. If I think about much of my past I blush with embarrassment. We need to learn the lessons of the past or we will repeat them.
Having learned those lessons we have to believe God still has the potential for making a different and better future. Later on the Apostle Paul would say: “After what God has done for me, this one thing I do: forgetting those things that are behind and reaching forth for those things that are ahead, I press toward the mark for ht prize, the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” One of my favorite verses is Jeremiah 29:11 where God promises.”I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you and not harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future.”
Our prayer should be this week and always.”The Holy Spirit will fill us and we will be less and less of what we used to be and more and more of what we ought to be. May it be so, creative Spirit.
