REMEMBER

REMEMBER:

All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him  -Psalm 22:27

Truth is a funny thing. Last year some friends of mine were working at the coffee bar at our church during the Christmas Eve services. When I arrived they were all a bit frantic and one said, “Kevin, we don’t have any coffee! That little bit in the jar is all we have!” Considering that we were about to host about eight-hundred people, this would have been problematic. I calmly walked over to the cabinet where the coffee is stored, opened the doors, and knelt down to find about ten large containers of coffee pushed to the back of the bottom shelf. Crisis averted. My friends’ anxieties were based on a faulty perspective, but it was not truth.

Within the context of our post-enlightenment, post-modernity, post-everything culture, this is how most of us operate in life. We glean bits and pieces of information, often from biased and unreliable sources (the worst being our own senses) and formulate anxious, precarious, and unfulfilling worldviews based on limited perspective and skewed information. Ironically, in order to soothe ourselves inside our delusional cocoons of grossly twisted individual realities, we flock, swarm, and teem in clumps of congenial accord - desperately seeking external affirmation to balance delicate mobiles of selfish existence.

Unlike the Greek notion of truth, which is more akin to our modern day version, the ancient Jewish understanding of truth was inseparable from aseity (is-ness) and God’s divinely revealed progressive historicity. Our metaphysical conceptions of existence, truth, and faith were wholly unknown within ancient Jewish thought. Existence was not merely that of material essence, but rather ordained function within a larger system. Truth, in Ancient Near Eastern thought, far exceeded our intimations of limited, and skewed, sensory input. Faith was nothing so prentice or primitive as a “blind leap” for emotional derelicts struggling to cope.

According to Scripture, existence far exceeds material essence and instead ascends, soars, and gloriously intensifies into triumphant, God-ordained, life; a pulsating, vibrant wellspring of unfettered joy, voluminous love, and ineffable goodness enveloped in, and defined by, the presence of God Almighty. The Bible teaches us that all things, the heavens, earth, and humanity, were created by, and in, The Beginning, i.e. Jesus Christ. It instructs us that humanity (plural) was made in the image (Trinity) and likeness (altruistic love) of God. It reminds us that God breathed literal life into lifeless mounds of earthen dust. It articulates the once harmonious nature of Eden’s garden. It conveys the truth of our selfish neglect and disobedient rebellion. But more importantly the Bible discloses divinely gracious teleological history; a timelessly perfect revelation of a tragic past, immanent future, and hastily vanishing present - all to be remembered.

Scarcely a soul would be so bold as to assert personal omniscience, yet through restricted and tainted personal experience we formulate abysmal concoctions of reality, truth, significance, and values. The appeal and consequence of the forbidden fruit remains unyielding, unchanging, and resolute. Before “the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom,” God warned “when you eat from it you will certainly die." Reality, existence, identity, function, purpose, truth, and life were all established by, and eternally found in, The Beginning, Christ Jesus.

Israel’s failure throughout Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) was exactly the same as the original sin; forgetfulness unto rebellion. Abraham, Canaan, Moses, Torah, The Priesthood, Joshua, The Judges, The Temple, The Prophets, even The Kingship - all timelessly designed and ordained to command remembrance of, and simultaneously reveal, The Beginning, Christ Jesus.

Whether Christian or atheist, our failure today is precisely the same. Today the former are virtually indistinguishable from the latter in character or comprehension; we merely congeal in clumps of denominational affinity, doctrinal accord, or congregational convenience. Reality is personal, truth is subjective, purpose is fluid, and recollection of God’s grace and mission vanish beyond recall amid the light of vanity and woeful self-promotion.

The shining gems of faith throughout Scripture are not flawless characters of pristine morality, but rather hopelessly broken vessels who not only remembered, but actively, and obediently, participated in the mission of God; to bless all the families, tribes, and nations on earth with the gospel of The Beginning, Christ Jesus.

During the long nights in the Judean desert, having fled King Saul’s wrath, David frequently lifted up prayers of remembrance to God; prayerful songs like, “On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night.” King David’s musings and recollections were not those of grandiose galas or bombastic parades of pretension. Instead, they were ebullient meditations of participation in universal blessings transformed into songs of eternal praise.

What did King David remember, ruminate, and ponder upon his earthen bed in the Judean desert? The splendor, fidelity, and unmerited grace of God revealed in Scripture upon His creative masterpiece - that is humanity, and His desire to universally bless us with the gospel of peace and grace. In recalling Scripture, David prayed both prayers of remembrance and eager expectation.

Reality is not subject to interpretation, but rather established in the remembrance of who God is, what He has done, and what He is doing in time and space. Truth is neither unknowable nor individually determined. Existence is not philosophical or metaphysical, but rather divinely ordained and set apart as holy, i.e. functional. Life is not longevity of satisfaction stemming from positive personal experiences, but rather intimate relational dwelling in our Creator’s presence. And death is no mystical doorway into a “new beginning,” but rather a resolute determination to exist eternally disconnected from reality, devoid of truth, functionally sterile, and rebelliously autonomous.

When Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it extravagantly,” He wasn’t preaching prosperity garbage about cushy lives of comfort, security, and ease. The “thief” steals away God’s conception of reality, truth, existence, and function - replacing them with delusions of narcissistic grandiosity. Graciously, God has blessed us with a historical and teleological remembrance of who He is, who we are in Him, and what He is doing - it's His love story called the Bible.

Maybe tonight as you dig into God's Word you’ll remember the LORD from your bed, or through the watches of the night, and, like David pray a prayer that far exceeds personal desire or want, thus uniting you with and grounding you in the ultimate reality of truth, purpose, existence, identity, value, peace, and remembrance as you sing to Him...

All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him  -Psalm 22:27

Blessings,

-Kevin M. Kelley

aMostUnlikelyDisciple.com