Despite the title, I am going to “look back” to last Sunday’s Adult Bible Study lesson, which was based on Philippians 3:7-14 — in particular, I want to focus on one aspect of verses 12-14 —
Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
Here’s the question I posed to the class — Why does Paul talk about “forgetting what lies behind”?
Sticking with the athletic metaphor, one of the class members replied that it was because if you are running and you look behind, it’ll slow you down.
I posed the same question later in the week during our Disciple Bible Study session and my friend Rob immediately replied with Satchel Paige’s classic quote: “Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you.”
A Clean Slate
The athletic metaphor of running a race and striving toward the goal is fine, and one that Paul used often, but let’s look at the meaning behind the metaphor so that we can apply it to our lives. We discussed one way to look at in class last Sunday — forgetting things “behind us” may enable us to overcome past mistakes or ways of living that would otherwise be obstacles. I’m not proud of every moment in my past. Should I let past mistakes or lack of judgment prevent me from trying to teach a Sunday School class? I guess that could depend on just how grievous the mistake was, but the “good news” that Paul is preaching teaches us that what Christ has done is to grant us a “clean slate”, to use another metaphor.
Politics and/or culture may impose limits on “forgetting what lies behind” —
I’ve watched the news of elected officials in Virginia the last few days and wondered at what point the past ceases to pursue someone. In case you haven’t been paying attention, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam has been embroiled in controversy over a yearbook photo depicting two students, one in blackface, the other in a Ku Klux Klan costume. The photo appeared in the 1984 Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook. The controversy has been further complicated because next in line for the governorship is Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, who is now facing two sexual assault allegations dating back to 2000. Behind Fairfax is Attorney General Mark Herring, who admitted to using blackface in a decades-old incident, as well.
Should Northam get a pass or should he pay? I don’t have the answer to that question from a political standpoint, but from a theological standpoint the answer would be he gets a pass. From a theological standpoint, however, that “yes” would also be accompanied by a change of heart.
Before we leave our slates — clean or bearing more chalk dust than we’d like — I thought of another issue that has been and likely will be in the news over a longer run. Should convicted felons who have “served their time” be restored to full rights as citizens, including the right to vote? Should there be a limit on the type of felony involved? Should a felony involving property be treated differently from one involving physical harm to a person for purposes of restoring the franchise? What is the appropriate Christian response?
Forgetting and Forgiving
This started out answering the question of why we should forget what lies behind by focusing on how past mistakes might cloud our vision to such an extent that we fail to take hold of opportunities to do good or — as Paul might put it — to strain “forward to what lies ahead.”
But as I considered the headlines in the news I realized that forgetting what lies behind is also a valuable tool in forgiving others for perceived or real slights and injuries. Like many things, this business of not looking back is a two-edged sword (metaphors abound!) and we do well to keep in mind the way in which Christ taught us to pray — especially that part where we ask —
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Should forgiveness involve forgetting?
In the efforts to bring reconciliation for past wrongs caused by South Africa’s apartheid and Rwanda’s genocide, victims are able to recount injuries as a part of the process of healing. Those who committed the wrongs are encouraged to acknowledge their actions even as they ask for amnesty or forgiveness. A similar process has been followed in other instances with some measure of success.
Where bitter memories are fostered and cultivated, reconciliation is often difficult if not impossible to achieve. This has been particularly true in the Balkans where memories stretch back centuries. When generation after generation is steeped in traditions that have a core of hatred even years of apparent civility can be lost overnight.
Holding on to national memories has proven an obstacle (among others) in the search for reconciliation in post World War II China, Japan and Korea. Attempts to simply ignore memories have failed or been unhelpful in Northern Ireland and the Basque region of Spain.
All of these examples are of memories on a national and even international scale. What about the memories of individual victims? There’s not enough room for an examination of the role memory plays in forgiveness on that scale, but Miroslav Volf’s book The End of Memory: Remembering Rightly in a Violent World is a thought provoking treatment of the idea of letting go of the past in an appropriate way. The inside flap of the book jacket provides a good summary of its content:
Can one forget atrocities? Should one forgive abusers? Ought we not hope for the final reconciliation of all the wronged and all wrongdoers alike, even if it means spending eternity with perpetrators of evil? We live in an age when it is generally accepted that past wrongs - genocides, terrorist attacks, bald personal injustices - should be constantly remembered. But Miroslav Volf here proposes the radical idea that letting go of such memories - after a certain point and under certain conditions - may actually be the appropriate course of action.
The more I’ve thought about this idea of Paul’s — of “forgetting what lies behind” — the more challenged I become. Miroslav Volf can advocate appropriate forgetting, but is what he proposes realistic? Forgetting what lies behind sounds good in theory, Paul, but in practice it’s proving a little more complicated than we’d like. Maybe that’s because we’re human and find that erring is where we excel, while forgiving is the destination to which God desires us to arrive.
But enough of forgetting the bad — in us or in others — what about forgetting the good?
A Bed of Laurel
In ancient Greece a wreath of laurel or sweet bay leaves was a symbol of victory and status — think Nobel Laureate for instance. To “rest on your laurels” was to be comfortable and satisfied with past achievements.
Paul had something to say about the danger of looking back on past achievements — he called them “rubbish” (actually, he called them something worse, but we won’t go there). This wasn’t because he thought that these things were bad in themselves, they just paled in comparison to what lay ahead.
We’re in danger of allowing past achievements to distract us from “pressing on” to the great goal of righteousness in Christ when we bask in the glow of a well completed mission, a worthy project that was successful or even a particularly good Sunday service. It’s not that we shouldn’t be pleased with such success, it’s that we shouldn’t dwell on them to such an extent that we forget to keep moving forward.
This is true of us individually, but also as a local church, a community or a nation.
We recently celebrated the “sesquicentennial” of First United Methodist Church in Tupelo and we recognized the milestone with a year-long series of events that included inviting former pastors to return throughout the year. That was a good thing, and everyone enjoyed the well-organized events and wonderful memories of 150 years of being a church. But we didn’t stop there. Instead, after the celebrations and fellowship, we moved right back into the day to day committee work that it takes to move forward — hopefully for the next anniversary celebration.
Tupelo, as a community, has always prided itself on its “can do” spirit, its legacy as the first “TVA City” and its successive achievements in being recognized as an All-America City. All of these are truly things we should honor and celebrate, but if we only look back we risk allowing the future to be less bright.
As a nation, we’ve celebrated “the Greatest Generation” in recent years and we should, not least because the members of that generation are fast disappearing and we should honor them while they’re still with us. Pride in the history of the United States is a fine thing too, but we should guard against the perennial risk of pride turning to hubris.
Paul, in his athletic metaphor of forgetting what lies behind so as to focus on what lies ahead, wasn’t saying that we should never remember. We learn from our mistakes and we take inspiration from past achievements. But our focus should be toward a higher goal — as Paul said and would say again today —-
“I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”