December 29, 2011

"Life is to be understood backwards, but it is lived forwards." - Soren Kirkegaard

Texts: Psalm 148, Isaiah 49:5-15, Matthew 12:46-50

"But Zion said, 'The LORD has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me.' Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you," (Isaiah 49:15).

This text continued nagging at me today, and I find that when it does that, it is best to listen.

"Even if all others forget, I will not forget." So often, we think of remembering as something we do with past events. But, having read the book Trauma Recalled by Dirk Lange (highly recommended, especially for those interested in postmodern philosophy!), I think of remembering as a becoming, as a new beginning, as something that interrupts us and disrupts what we think of as reality. "A beginning that continually irrupts, something unknown that continually returns and strangely calls," (Lange, 140). Though he speaks of the Event of the cross, the discussion of remembering an event in which we did not participate and having a sense of a time and place in which we were not bears mentioning in this context as well.

It is remembering, or anamnesis, that beckons the story forward, though we would think it would reflect the story backward. God's remembering of God's promises is always remembered forward. Though Abraham may be cited as the impetus for the Promise, the Promise is always lived in the present tense, in the context of exile, in the context of celebration, in the context of fear, or in whatever context the Promise is spoken.

It is through remembering, through anamnesis, that the story is remembered forward and back: "Anamnesis is primarily a form of communication for divine revelation, a reactualization of the promise of God: the revelation of salvation, forgiveness, and life eternal," (Lange, 140).

Here, God's remembering inspires our remembering. Though Zion believes it has been forsaken, the anamnesis of God precludes Zion forgetting the promise, for the reality of God irrupts into their reality, beckoning them forward with the Promise made thousands of years prior. So they hear the words, "Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you." And so it beckons us forward, remembering God's promises in Christ, remembering forward that which exists behind us.