Psalm 99

1 The Lord is King; let the people tremble; he is enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth shake.

2 The Lord is great in Zion; he is high above all peoples.

3 Let them confess his Name, which is great and awesome; he is the Holy One.

4 "O mighty King, lover of justice, you have established equity; you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob."

5 Proclaim the greatness of the Lord our God and fall down before his footstool; he is the Holy One.

6 Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among those who call upon his Name, they called upon the Lord, and he answered them.

7 He spoke to them out of the pillar of cloud; they kept his testimonies and the decree that he gave them.

8 O Lord our God, you answered them indeed; you were a God who forgave them, yet punished them for their evil deeds.

9 Proclaim the greatness of the Lord our God and worship him upon his holy hill; for the Lord our God is the Holy One.

This year, Monday Matters will focus on wisdom conveyed in the treasures of the book of Psalms. We'll look at the psalms read in church before Monday Matters comes to your screen.

There’s a lot to be said for living in the present. Be here now, and all that. There is also a lot to commend an orientation towards the future. As theologian Jurgen Moltmann asked: Where would we stand if we did not take our stand on hope? But this Monday morning, I want to highlight the importance of looking in the spiritual rear-view mirror and remembering where we have been.

That focus is prompted by a psalm you may have heard in church yesterday (reprinted in this email). In that psalm, the greatness of God is celebrated by remembering how God acted in the lives of Moses and Aaron and Samuel, among many others who were guided by the Holy One. Throughout scripture, readers are invited to recall the ways that God led people to a place called home, how God provided liberation from oppression, how God provided nourishment when hunger hit. That retrospective view was not simply nostalgia. It was intended to help people navigate the challenges of the moment and to move into the future with courage.

On the night before he died, in final words to his disciples, Jesus instituted the eucharist with this bit of instruction: Do this in remembrance of me. He knew that the going would get rough for these disciples. The remembrance of Christ’s presence, the real presence in the bread and wine, would strengthen them for the journey. As the liturgy for that sacrament has come to us over the centuries, the prayer over the bread and wine always includes some expression of thanksgiving for what God has already done. Listen for it next time you attend a service of Holy Communion. That thanksgiving is referred to as anamnesis. Literally not amnesia. Not forgetting.

The fact is, we are a forgetful lot. And I don't just mean my senior moments. So a helpful spiritual practice is to take time to look in that spiritual rear-view mirror and see how God has acted in our lives. It is often the case that in the present moment, it’s tough to see God at work. We might feel that way about our broken political culture. We might feel that way about the brokenness in our personal lives. But if we can remember the ways that God has acted in our lives in the past, the blessings we have received, the disasters that have been averted, the relationships that have fed us perhaps through what seemed like chance encounters, we can find resources to move forward. If we can repeat the story of our faith, recounted again and again in scripture, we will find “strength and courage to love and serve God with gladness and singleness of heart.”

When we say that the Anglicanism is based on that three legged stool of scripture, tradition and reason, we can see the importance of scripture, as it again and again reminds us of God’s faithfulness. We can see that our honoring of tradition is not simply chauvinism. It is about remembering the story of our faith, as it has been lived out over the centuries. With gratitude, we look to the witness of saints who let us see what faith looks like in action. It’s all very reasonable, actually. And to that stool, we might add a fourth leg: experience, which among other things, may call us to look back and offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving.

This kind of remembering doesn’t sugar coat or deny difficulties. Last week, a friend shared a quote from the Rev. John Claypool, a great Episcopal preacher (not an oxymoron, folks!). He said: “The only way down from the mountain of grief is on the path of gratitude.” Based on that wisdom, we see gratitude as a way of looking in that spiritual rear view mirror, and then moving forward with courage. That's an important guideline, because it's too easy to look at the past with regret or resentment.

This week, we begin the season of Lent. On Ash Wednesday, the liturgy will extend an invitation to a season of self-examination, among other things. Take time to prepare for this holy season by reviewing your own spiritual autobiography, as you recall with grateful heart the ways God has been at work in your life.

 -Jay Sidebotham