How We Remember

Christmas isn’t always silver and gold for us.

I have old picture that hangs in my dining room. It is a picture of my father, standing beside one of his favorite things— a grandfather clock. Each time I enter the room from our kitchen, I can see it. Each time I see it, it gives me pause and I think of how much I miss him.

Framed pictures are a gift. Whether sitting on the table or hanging on the wall they speak to us. They speak to us of a moment frozen in time. Captured with a flash of light and seared into our memory. Pictures have a way of taking us back to a time and a place when we commune with the visceral emotions of what once was. In 1974, John Lennon wrote and released the song Old Dirt Road, it was arranged in the form of a ballad. The Old Dirt road served as a metaphor for a place of stability. A place that was familiar. A place that could be counted on as being home. How many of us can find ourselves in the Christmas season looking for the “Old Dirt Road” in the light of the frames around us?

Grief, conflict, anxiety, struggle are the elements that often steal our joy. I use the word steal with intention because none desire a a time in which we feel this way.

The Psalms are our Prayer Book

Intro to the scripture.

Psalm 22 is a lament. A lament can defined as a complaint against God. Now, don’t get hung up on the word complaint because in our modern world we have a much different understanding. A complaint is a truth telling to God. It is crying out of the deepest grief and sorrow of your soul to foster an awareness that life isn’t what it is supposed to be, there is a cognitive dissonance between what we know to be true and the reality we experience.

The Psalter gives us words when we have no words.

Denise Hopkins wrote “Psalm 1 is a call to obedience and Psalm 150 a call to praise but our lives are not lived in a linear experience.”There is a road of turns, ruts, and pot holes in between.

As human beings we exist in a broken and fallen world. Where we experience the pain of the loss of our dearest family members, broken relationships caused by addiction, struggle from injury and disease, we are not always able to embody a posture of praise.

The Psalms when we utilize them show us the postures of our faith journey. There are Psalms in which we cannot help but to stand and exalt God’s amazing power and presence. There are Psalms of deep reflection and promise for a future that causes us to stand or sit. There are Psalms of the broken. Psalm 22:17–19 “I can count all my bones. They stare and gloat over me; they divide my clothes among themselves, and for my clothing they cast lots. But you, O Lord, do not be far away! O my help, come quickly to my aid!”

A God who is present

It’s true, we can cry out to God in our loneliness, in our hurting, in our struggle, in the times of greatest spiritual crisis. We can cry out :My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The Psalmist shares a deep guttural cry for God to act. Psalm 35:22–23 “You have seen, O Lord; do not be silent! O Lord, do not be far from me! Wake up! Bestir yourself for my defense, for my cause, my God and my Lord!”

Growing up, I was often taught to things that turned out to be false. They are not supported in scripture and do not fit in the framework of what we do know and understand about God.

God never gives you more than you can handle. As if God desires for you to handle all of the experiences of life that break us down under our own power.

The second, it’s all part of God’s plan, as if it is God’s desire to bring us pain in this world.

We as human beings exist in a broken and fallen world that is not the world in its perfect righteousness that God had designed in the beginning. Because of the disobedience of the first humans, sin’s entry into the world forced us away from the Divine protection that was once enjoyed. In the Psalms God is frequently portrayed as the one who covers us with his wings, who is the fortress of our protection, and who is the rock of our security. God does not ask us to stand on our own but to fall on him. God does not cause our pain or desire us to experience the harsh things of this world. As it says in Romans 8:28 “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”

God is working for us, in us, and through us, through the pain through the suffering, the loneliness because even the hardest experiences can be redeemed. That is the root of Christian faith that even death itself will be dealt with. Through the promise of Jesus.

Matthew 5:1–7 “When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.”

2. In the upside down kingdom, Christ has revealed that all things will be made right. All of those things that have broken us, that have caused us to walk bent over will be redeemed. We will experience the peace and fullness of the complete reign of God’s kingdom through the name of Jesus Christ.

Revelation 21:5“And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.””

3. God is keeping his promise. The photos around us capture a moment of our history. They are the memory that brings forward the future promise of God in our midst. Memory is an important aspect to our lives.

4. It is through the power of memory that we can share experiences and tell stories. There was a time when things weren’t so blue and we are not chained to that reality because God has broken the shackles, God has given us hope. The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. That Light was the light for all people. John 1:1–6 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. ”

Blessed are those who mourn.

That is the answer to the Psalmist who crys out “My bones are out of joint, and my heart is like wax, melting. So today cling, hold on, grab with both hands so to never let go the promise of God. All will be made right. God is restoring all things. We are inheritors of that promise and that means our suffering is only for a time. There will be an end to it. Its days are numbered.