SUNDAY COLUMN

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 45, 3 December 1949, Page 3

SUNDAY COLUMN

“FORGETTING GOD”

(CONDUCTED BY THE ASHBURTON MINISTERS’ ASSOCIATION). 1

The Ulfoie has more references to “remembering” thai> to “forgetting,” yet from a study of the Word of God we might profitably write an essay on forgetfulness, ft is indeed surprising that the Hebrews, of all people, should have shown, on so many occasions, how short was their memory. No people in the ancient world had so much cause for grateful remem-

brance. Had they not, by the mercy of God, become a Chosen People? Had not the Divine voice spoken to them in solemn tones from Mt. Sinai? Had not the Divine hand gathered them together, assembling the ill-as-serted tribes into a nation conscious of itself and its destiny? Had not a leader appeared when he was most needed, and were they not delivered from the despair and hopelessness of slavery and was not their entry made possible into a land “flowing with milk and honey?” But their memories were short. They forgot, and kept on forgetting. Wanderers in the wilderness, they so far forgot the God of their deliverance as to make a golden image to take His place. Settled in the promised land, they forgot the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and dallied with strange deities in the, Canaanite high-places. And so the story continued, until, near the end, they were given a special opportunity to remember. In the years of exile, when this suffering people were far from the cities and shrines of earlier years, memory began to work its blessed if painful ministry. Not the least of the unexpected blessings of that exile was its recalling of that which had long been forgotten, and so from the exile period there came a new attention to history, a new regard for the historic festivals of the faith, a new and more grateful commemoration of national deliverahees.

This moving record gives us specific and vivid examples of what happens when a man forgets *God. One of the finest dramas in the Old Testament is the story of Naboth and his vineyard. Naboth had a little plot nearby the king’s palace, and Ahab the king coveted it. He made a fair offer for it to his subject, but Naboth had a sense of tradition and. of the meaning of inheritance. He had a sentimental attachment to the vineyard where his ancestors, like himself, had spent so many happy years; and not even at the imperious request of a monarclk could that sentiment be dispelled. The queen Jezebel was equal to the emergency and made a plot Avliereby Naboth was accused of blasphemy and the unhappy man was stoned. “Now,” she said to her consort, “the way is clear; go in and take the vineyard.” So Ahab got the vineyard, but there was something he had forgotten. Elijah reminded him. There was God to be considered, and from the lips of the prophet came one of the most terrible denunciations against the king and his house.

The New Testament has no comparable dramatic story, but it gives us one of Jesus’s word pictures, of a rich man who ‘ prospered so much that he had to build more and greater barns for his prosperity. And he said to his soul “Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.” But he had forgotten God, for God said to him “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee; then whose shall these things be which thou hast provided ?” It is permissible to take these two men together, the king from the Old Testament drama, and the prosperous busjness man from Jesus’s parable; for together they represent two features of life in most ages, and most certainly in our own. Ahab was dominated by an acquisitive spirit, the prosperous man by a materialistic spirit. Both are features of life as we know it, and both can ultimately be traced to the forgetting of God and His will for human life.

That acquisitiveness and materialism are prominent features of the world as we know it is so obvious as to need little elaboration.

Ts not the lust for power, however it may be veiled or disguised, the evil thing which has menaced our life for 'three decades? If ever we have doubted the malign effects of the spirit of acquisitiveness in the international realm the tragedies we have lived through should by now have convinced us that William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, knew what lie was about when he said: “Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the mihds of those who possess it.” And it is not only of men in high places that we must needs be critical. What of the ordinary man? Will anyone deny that the creed of the multitudes around us is that of practical materialsm? More money, more things, more leisure, more indulgence—everything except more of God.

It does not achieve much to dwell at great length on such a diagnosis of our social and personal ills. What is far more important and effective is that Christians, who have the high honour of being called the salt of the earth and the light of the world should counter the forgetfulness of our age by a more complete remembrance of God. If the crowds which drift along the street have no thoughts of Him, that is all the more reason why we should make our lives one long act of remembrance. Every Christian must put one question to himself: “Am I leaving God out?” We who belong to the churches cannot solve the economic puzzles in a week, or speedily replace international suspicion by harmony and trust; but there is one thing we can do, and we must do it. Day by day,

and through the day, we can remember God. There is one special day for this remembrance. We call it the Lord’s Day. Do we spent its hours as the Lord would have us do? There is a special place for His remembrance. We call it God’s House. Do we fill it with our praises and intercessions? There is one special service. We call it by various names, but the one most of us prefer is “The Communion of

the the Lord’s Supper.” That, if all gatherings of HR people, is the service of remembrance. Do we take our places around the Table? These are questions for Christians. Let them be answered. For if all who name the Holy Name throughout the world were committed to constant remembrance of God, there would come into being a mighty channel through which the grace and mercy of God could come to our needy world. —TP. T. Lord).