TO LEARN AND REMEMBER
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Why Remember the Past? Why do we bother to set aside a day of remembrance and celebra- tion of an event that happened almost 2½ centuries ago? If it’s just an excuse for workers to take a day off, a holiday for bankers and the post office, a time for shooting off fireworks because they’re pretty, or having parades because they’re interesting, or hosting back yard barbecues because we enjoy the food and drinks—why should we spend any time on a weekend like this talking about the distant past? Who cares what occurred so long ago, before anyone we’ve ever known was even born? In a constantly-changing world, where the way things were even a year ago or six months ago is not the way things are now, what possible relevance could the distant past have for us? Aren’t we told relentlessly to be constantly looking ahead and adapting to the new, improved, latest things and current ideas and attitudes? Who wants to be seen as out-of-date or old- fashioned or behind the times? Forget the past, we are urged; it’s the future that matters.
That temptation to embrace a willful amnesia about the past is not new. It’s always been there, in every generation and society. It’s what Moses, the great leader of God’s people some 3,500 years ago, recognized as a grave danger. Let’s listen in on this profound mes- sage he delivered to his nation at that time, recorded in his final book, Deuteronomy.
hese are the commands, decrees and laws the Lord T your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, 2so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. 3Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you. 4Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6These command- ments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7Im- press them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. 10When the Lord your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, 11houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satis- fied, 12be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. Deuteronomy 6:1-12, NIV
The Light of Liberty In his powerful “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washing- ton in 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. lifted up the great documents of our nation, the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, as “promissory notes to which every American is an heir.” The promise was not fulfilled instantly, and was not completely filled in King’s time, and it’s not yet fulfilled for every American even to this day.
2 Whatever the politics, and whatever the virtues and flaws, at its core I believe the protests at the unjust killing of a black man in Minneso- ta were really sparked by the promise of our founding. People don’t protest government injustice and abuse with righteous indignation in China or Iran, because those corrupt governments never promised justice to their people, and thus none of their citizens expect any- thing from the state except naked power and control. It is our lofty and ambitious goals that cause us to be upset when they are not per- fectly fulfilled.
But the promise of America,—its shining light of liberty that has attracted millions of immigrants to the harbor where the robed lady holds her torch high—is one that can be lost by neglect and forget- fulness. Christian historian Eric Metaxas, in his excellent book on America, If You Can Keep It, warns that “we are in serious danger of letting that light of liberty go out in this generation.” It’s why he wrote his book: to teach and to remind us of what our founding principles are and who our great heroes and role models should be. It’s why this weekend is a necessary part of our annual calendar. And it’s why we are reading Deuteronomy again. Because the same concern that inspired Eric Metaxas inspired Moses: a concern that his people not lose what made them special, nor drift from their found- ing documents and principles, nor fall into the mistakes that other nations are prone to make.
The Lessons of Deuteronomy The first five books of the Old Testament (written, or possibly super- vised in their writing, by Moses, but actually directly inspired and guided by God) provide detailed directions for the nation of Israel to have various holidays and special times of celebration built through- out their year—not unlike our own annual calendar. The purposes of these were two-fold: to TEACH younger generations about their past, their heritage, their founding values and their enduring truths, and to REMIND the adults of what they had previously learned (but could easily forget or neglect). America has its Memorial Day, Inde-
3 pendence Day and Veterans Day; we have ceremonies to mark and commemorate the birthdays of great leaders, the critical battles of our history (D-Day, Gettysburg, Pearl Harbor, September 11) and the important victories (V-E Day and V-J Day, etc.). We hope that chil- dren and teens pay attention on these days—which may be for them history but for many of us older folks are not just the ancient past but personal memories.
1. Why Teaching Is Crucial The premature end to live classroom teaching in schools and colleges across the country in March was an unexpected shock that forced a lot of hasty, and not always successful, adjustments. I’ve talked with a number of college and graduate students who found online teach- ing to be significantly less helpful than their classroom interactions. Professors and students alike had to make changes they weren’t pre- pared for. I suspect the far greater impact on educational quality has been experienced by students in high school and below. Not only did the senior classes get cheated out of their expected proms and graduations; there are sobering indicators that many students from grades K-12 didn’t learn as much as they needed to during those lost 2-3 months. Professional teachers are openly wondering what it will be like when the new school year begins again soon (assuming that classrooms will be open). How much review and remedial work will need to be done? How far behind has the bottom half of the class fallen?
But as I search for a positive out of the negative of the virus shut- down of schools, hunting for that flower among the weeds, that rose among the thorns, here is one potential blessing. Some parents be- came much more engaged in their children’s learning process. The appropriate role of mother or father as the primary teacher— especially of values and faith and morality—is a strong biblical ethic. It was the assumption of Moses in Deuteronomy that the Hebrew children would not be shipped off to schools for all their teaching, but would learn primarily at home. There is no doubt that profes- sional teachers have a role in our modern and complex society, im-
4 parting special information and skill in their area of expertise. But outsourcing the raising of our kids completely to others carries sub- stantial risk. If dinner tables in homes have seen a higher level of in- teraction on things that matter since March, this would be a good thing for our nation.
Why is the teaching of history a special concern for Moses and the leaders of Israel? And why should it be a concern for our generation of Americans as well? We know the warnings, such as from the 20th century historian: “Those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” We see how studying the past can give us helpful in- sights into dealing with the present and future—from the epidemiol- ogists like Deborah Birx, who studied the 1918 Spanish flu, to the business researchers like Jim Collins, who studied what great compa- nies have done in the past to make them great in order to establish wisdom for today’s business leaders. When properly done, history is not just names and dates, wars and treaties, in numbing succession. It’s the account of real people and their successes and failures. They hold up a mirror in which we can see ourselves.
We need our younger generations of Americans to learn our history. Not because we are under delusion that our nation is perfect, nor do we claim that it is the best country or the only one that matters. Whatever country is our homeland, we believe God wants us to be good and faithful and knowledgeable citizens of that country. We believe it is important to understand and be consistent with that country’s values and beliefs—so that citizens can call their nation to account when it drifts or gets off course. The George Floyd protests can have a positive impact for us, if they are based not on anarchy but on calling us back to our founding values and principles, and helping us fulfill them as Dr. King dreamt.
Look at the disastrous situation in China, where an authoritarian government has clamped down on the truth. Their textbooks are completely purged of Tiananmen Square, the Red Guard, and the Cultural Revolution. Young Chinese are prevented from knowing what really happened in the Communist oppressions of the past as
5 well as the true nature of their government’s continuing lies and bru- tality today. The young people of Hong Kong know the truth about mainland China, but they may soon be silenced by the red hammer.
2. Why Remembering Is Crucial The words of Deuteronomy are just as relevant to adults (who need to remember their nation’s past and its values) as to children (who need to learn those truths for the first time). Why? Because the fact is that our adult brains have a tendency to leak. We know things, but they slip out of our conscious minds or are buried by other less im- portant things. The final verse of our text is the stern warning: “Be careful you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”
Why is memory a problem for adults? There are several reasons. We know that, as we get older, we tend to lose brain cells—by normal aging, or by disease, or by strokes, or by alcohol consumption. There are at least a few people here who are prone to the occasional “senior moment”: details are temporarily misplaced in our brains (such as other people’s names, our granddaughter’s birthday, why we went into the bedroom, what we did with our car keys or our reading glasses, etc.). Although the human brain is not exactly a man-made computer, it does have certain similarities. Jeff Faux told me a few weeks ago that his computer was getting slow and causing him problems because it was clogged up with too much data in too little space; he had to get a new and bigger hard drive, which made it work much better. Unfortunately, brain transplants and new human hard drives are not yet a surgical possibility for us the way they are for a Dell computer!
Another reason why our memories fail and betray us: we can be- come consumed by whatever our immediate situation is, to the ex- tent that we lose perspective. When you’re in the midst of a problem or personal crisis, it can obscure all vision. The same thing can hap- pen to a nation.
6 Years ago Jeanne and I took our first pilgrimage to the Holy Land of Scotland—the birthplace of our Presbyterian faith and our favorite sport, golf. We won the lottery for a tee time at the sacred Old Course of St. Andrews. It was no easy round. My approach shot to the famous and devilishly-difficult 17th hole—the notorious “Road Hole”—landed in a greenside bunker, right up against the lip. When I managed to crawl down into that pit and looked up, it seemed that the tallest mountain in Scotland loomed before me. All I could see from the bottom of that sand trap was the sand trap. It took me three sand wedges and a “hand wedge” to get out!
Later that evening at our hotel, the TV channel had a local video of the Old Course, shot from a helicopter traveling the length of the course about 50 feet off the ground. And from that perspective, the course looked very flat. In fact, the Road Hole bunker didn’t look deep at all from above. It was only when I was down in it that it looked intimidating. Life can be like that. When all you can see is an illness, or the loss of a loved one, or a family problem, or when all the TV news 24/7 is about some terrible national crisis, it’s easy to lose our perspective. Remembering the past and our history is like climbing into the helicopter and seeing our current situation from a higher perspective.
3. The Dual Heritage of Christians Finally, on this day and weekend when we Americans think about our country and its history and values, we American Christians also remind ourselves of our other homeland—and not just this week but every Sunday. You and I, as believers in the true God, have dual citi- zenship. We have a passport from the country where we were born or immigrated to, but by faith in Jesus Christ we also are eternal citi- zens of the Kingdom of God. We belong to Him forever. We love Him and are loyal to Him. And we are called to learn, remember and live out consistently His values.
If there is ever a conflict between allegiance to our earthly nation and our heavenly kingdom, our ultimate devotion and obedience must
7 be to our Lord. But that does not mean that we are bad or disloyal Americans (or whatever our nationality might be). For, in fact, we believe that Christians actually make the best citizens of every land, precisely because we have the higher laws of God written on our hearts and consciences.
I am greatly concerned for our nation’s future, and I know you are. Threats from without and from within are numerous and serious. Many of our own people seem to have agendas that are not con- sistent with our founders, nor with God’s Word. But we are praying earnestly, just as Moses prayed earnestly for his nation. And we be- lieve and hope that God is not finished blessing America.
The Bedrock Let me close with two profound quotes from a Frenchman named Alexis de Tocqueville, whose tour of America 200 years ago un- earthed the bedrock foundation of our newly-born nation that we need to remember and return to today. When I read de Tocqueville, it almost feels as if I am reading another Book of Deuteronomy, lay- ing out the principles for a new people.
“Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.” “I sought for the greatness of America, and I did not find it in its rivers or its fields or its cities. It was when I went into the churches of America that I found its secret. America is great because it is good. And if America ceases to be good, it will cease to be great.”
May God grant to us and our fellow-Americans, in these challenging times, to be found faithful. And may He grant to His Church to be bold and uncompromising in our witness.
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