“Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead …” - 2 Tim 2:8a (ESV)

Why does Paul have to remind Timothy of this? Does he think that Timothy might forget Jesus, or that he might forget that Jesus rose from the dead? Well, yes, he clearly does. Paul knows that in the busyness of ministry life, and in the difficulties of suffering and persecution and in the distractedness of swamped routines, that it is possible to forget the reality of the resurrected Christ and what that reality means in the life of believers.

Sometimes I wish that there was a way to escape the humanness of my own humanity. Don’t get me wrong, I like being a person, as we really are incredible creatures, but, part of my human experience (an inordinately large part) involves running into my own limitations, weaknesses, frailties, failures and repetitive cycles of everyday life that are far too dull for anyone to want to see.

You know what’s more difficult and more significant than ruling over a city? Ruling over your own spirit and the emotions that it would love for you leave unchecked. Being slow to anger when you feel outraged, and being patient when you feel anxiously rushed, and being loving when you feel a desire for vengeance, these things are all more complex and more meaningful and more powerful than the complexities of leading a city that needs to expand a loop that actually doesn’t loop.

Memory in the Hebrew tradition isn’t simply a recall of an event. Rather, it is a revisitation, a reliving of what went before. It was part of the way that a largely oral tradition kept a record of a people with a unique origin story alive. Feasts and festivals and gatherings were ways to revisit memories, and to recall the goodness and faithfulness of God across generations. David asks the LORD to revisit his covenantal faithfulness and in so doing to act on his behalf as a recipient of that faithfulness.

Church is supposed to be a beacon of hope even (and perhaps especially) when it is surrounded by an environment of hopelessness. I loved revisiting the stories of Churchill’s leadership through the dark days of the air raids in World War II. Whenever Churchill would get updated on the damage that London had sustained the night before he would ask: “Is St Paul’s still standing?” It was, and it is, and that building served as a reminder of what the people of God are supposed to be like.

I hate waiting, for anything, and so this is the most frustrating thing the Scriptures could say to me, but it is an oft-repeated instruction for the people of God. Wait … and then wait longer … and when you’re done with that, well, wait. God operates on another timeframe. He never seems to be subject to our own time demands, and yet, He is never late.

Before we are prone to sin we first have to forget who we are in Christ! When we are able to remember that we are holy, and cherished, and beloved by God, and that we have been adopted into His family as sons and daughters who get to serve as priests of His great Kingdom, well then, sin seems … beneath us, unfitting for us to trifle with, unworthy of our attention and distraction. 

There is a painful proverb which says, “Better is a neighbor who is near than a brother who is far away.” (Proverbs 27:10b) As someone who lives with both of his brothers very far away, this has rung true. There is just something irreplaceable about physical presence and proximity. You simply cannot match it, try as you might.

Dear friends, as we get the opportunity to explore the scope and scale and wonder of the universe, use it as an opportunity to step back a little bit from what you are facing, and see if it doesn’t change the size of the obstacle in front of you. He made the stars also, and it wasn’t hard for Him, and so loving and caring for you isn’t hard for Him either.

Now is the time for us to really listen to the complex stories and to get to know the hurting image bearers who face what seem like impossible decisions, and to lean into those stories with grace, and love, and help, in humility. Oh how beautiful the church could be in this moment!