Remembering and Remembering No More
I would imagine that for those personally affected by the horrors and suffering of war, every day brings remembrance of lives lost in, or lacerated by, conflict. No reminder is necessary. For the rest of us, though, the institution and observance of a special day of remembrance is a right and necessary declaration of our determination to remember that which, either due to the passing of time, or because of our personal distance from historical and current conflicts, we might otherwise forget. It is to make our remembering an act of will.
Similarly, Jesus' words at the Last Supper, 'Do this in remembrance of me' (Luke 22:19), instituted that meal as a deliberate act of remembrance for his disciples. Whenever we share communion, we are, as an act of will, remembering Christ's death. Whenever we pray the Lord's Prayer, we remind ourselves that we must extend to those who sin against us the forgiveness we have received from God on account of Christ's sacrificial death.
This is hard. It is hard because it's not easy to forget the wrongs done to us. Forgiveness, however, is not about forgetting. According to the Bible, God's forgiveness of his people's sins is not the result of some lapse in the divine memory; rather - and more wonderfully - it is an act of the divine will to remember those sins no more:
'I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more' (Isaiah 43:25).
'For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more' (Jeremiah 31:34).
As God's people then, our forgiveness of others is not passive forgetfulness of their sins, but an active choosing to remember them no more.
We cannot know whether we will forget wrongs done to us (making the ease with which we forget the wrongs we do to others all the more remarkable), but we can, by the grace of God, choose to remember them no more. As an act of Christ-like will, we can refuse to allow the wounds of the past to bleed all hope from the present. If, in this way, we will let God's will be done on earth - in the midst of our personal conflicts with family, friends, colleagues, and even our enemies - as it is in heaven, then we will be channels of the peace that is so much more than the absence of war; the peace that transcends all understanding.
Nigel Hopper
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