Good morning…
“It’s hard to believe that we were holding a prayer vigil outside of the hospital for Dobbs at this time last week,” said one mom I talked with after Saturday’s baccalaureate service. The Davie family, friends of so many of us from our Lovett community, lost twenty year old Dobbs the next morning on Mother’s Day.
“I have listened to Steve speak three times during this really difficult week,” she continued, referring to my husband Steve, who is the head chaplain of the Lovett School. “Closing chapel. Dobb’s funeral. Now this special service. Each of his messages feel like it was written just for me. His words are so comforting as I try to process everything.”
She asked if I might share his sermon with our written word community. Certainly I can. Now as we read Steve’s sermon privately in our homes, may we be encouraged to be people who remember.
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May 14, 2022 – The Great Forgetting by Rev. Steve Allen, from Deuteronomy 8:11-14, 2 Peter 1:12-15
A few years ago a popular TV show was introduced called “Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader?” The way the show works is that adult contestants go on TV and are asked questions that students typically learn in the 1st through 5th grades. Seems like a pretty simple idea – asking adults questions about things they learned in their elementary school days. What could be hard about that?
I decided to look online and found some of the questions they ask.
2nd grade geography – How many US states make up New England?
5th grade history – Which treaty ended the war of 1812?
4th grade social studies – What is the most populous Native American tribe in the US?
3rd grade social studies – What appears on the back of the US 10 dollar bill?
And 5th grade geography – Which river forms the entire boundary between New Hampshire and Vermont?
Feeling dumb yet? If it’s any consolation – you’re not alone. I went to our valedictorian and discovered that she didn’t know the answers to these questions either. And so here we are about to celebrate the pinnacle of a Lovett education and I’m here to tell you that NO: We are not smarter than a bunch of 5th graders.
Now please understand, I am not trying to make fun of our valedictorian, I’m simply trying to make a point about a general human condition that affects us all, even the best and the brightest. Let me explain. The thing about “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” – the thing that I think makes it so popular – is that at one time in our lives, we all knew the answers to the questions they ask. But that’s the point. “Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?” isn’t an illustration of what we DON’T know – instead it’s an illustration of what we’ve forgotten.
From the time we’re born we start learning things. But with that learning, come’s an interesting phenomenon, forgetting. And it’s amazing how much and how quickly we forget. I heard two students walk out of an AP exam the other day. One said, “Do you remember what you got for the last question?” The other one responded, “What was the last question?”
We are a people who forget. But this is not because we’re stupid. Rather we forget because we’re human.
Seniors just ask your parents. Ask them if they’ve ever forgotten a wedding anniversary or a birthday? Forgot to pay some bills on time? Seniors tell me you never forgot an assignment that was due – or where you parked your car or where you put your car keys. We are great forgetters.
Now this may sound harmless enough. A birthday here; an anniversary there. But I think that the great forgetting is much more damaging than that. The biblical account of the Israelites leaving Egypt tells us that despite all that God had done for them – they would soon forget. I’ve referred to this in today’s sermon title, The Great Forgetting. It’s the tendency that we, as human beings have to forget important things in life. The haunting text from Deuteronomy that we read this morning put it this way, “When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them…and all that you have is multiplied, then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God.” God was warning them that once they got too settled – once they achieved success in life – once they had food enough to eat and fine houses to live in – they would begin to attribute it all to themselves and their hard work, forgetting the One who made it all possible.
So, soon to be graduates of the class of 2022 what do we do about all this forgetting? Well, this is the hard part. As you head off to college you will lose all the convenient reminders that have been in your life for so long. There will be no more church on Sundays. No more mandatory chapels on F days. No more Young Life. No more Lovett Christian Fellowship. No more prayers before football games or grace before meals. Not only that, they’ll be no more curfews, no more chores. You can go to bed late, get up late, skip class, not turn in your work. Gone will be all the guardrails that have been in place for your lives. And the forgetting will come fast and furious.
Seniors, I call you to find a way to remember. For remembering your car keys – hang them on a little nail near the front door. For remembering to call you mom on Mother’s Day – put it on the calendar in your phones. For school work – use mnemonic devices – maybe sing a dumb song to help you remember.
But for remembering who God has created you to be – for remembering God’s promises to you when life gets tough – for remembering you’re forgiven when you mess up – for remembering how to be your best self, setting aside the selfishness that so often plagues us – for remembering that you have value and worth far beyond any grades you’ll ever get or any job you’ll ever hold – for that – I encourage you to get up a minute or two before class or perhaps before you go to bed at night and say a prayer. That prayer will serve as a reminder about who you are and whose you are.
I encourage you to listen for God once in a while. Find a church service that meets in town or on your campus and go listen to someone preach a sermon. That sermon just might serve as a reminder of God’s promises for your life. Find a service project and give up some time to be of service to others. College can be an exercise in selfishness – it’s good to remember to be selfless now and then. Find a group of fraternity brothers or sorority sisters and form a Bible study or a discussion group on your hall. Do it to remember to feed your soul once in a while. If you don’t do this – you won’t be evil or bad or a despicable human being – you’ll simply begin to forget.
You’ll forget not just information that you learned at home and at school, but you’ll begin to forget what it means to belong to God. You’ll begin to forget who you were created to be and who God has called you to be.
Class of 2022 – you have been filled with so much information and so much wisdom – you have been nurtured and loved and cared for and now we’re about to send you off into the world with one final word of encouragement, a blessing if you will, and it’s this: The world is filled with great forgetters. I hope you will find a way to remember.
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“In the end, all must go to our eternal home while there are mourners in the streets,” reminds Ecclesiastes 12:5b-7 (VOICE). “So before the silver cord is snapped and the golden bowl is shattered: before the earthen jar is smashed at the spring and the wheel at the well is broken—before the dust returns to the earth that gave it and the spirit-breath returns to God who breathed it, let us remember our Creator.”
Might we each, young and old, commit to helping one another remember the eternal, expansive love of our God?
Therefore, I will always remind you about these things—even though you already know them and are standing firm in the truth you have been taught. And it is only right that I should keep on reminding you as long as I live (2 Peter 1:12-13, NLT).
…Sue…
