Most of us have restore dates on our computers. It is a marvelous feature. Should we be invaded by some horrible virus that corrupts your system we can restore our system to a previous date when all was well. More than once this has saved me headache and heartache. Now all I need is a restore date for my human behavior. Wouldn’t it be grand if we could back up and start over on a previous date? When I say something stupid or hurt someone or violate my sense of right and wrong it would be terrific to back up and start over.

In one sense we do have that. God is quick to forgive and forget. Restoration is but a prayer away. However God isn’t the only one with whom we have to cope. He’s not the problem. It is humans that are the problem. Hurtful words, calloused attitudes, slights, and deliberate meanness leave indelible impressions on the minds of others. Even though they might be smart enough to forgive us (It’s always smart to forgive. It lessens the pain.) they will have trouble forgetting what we did.

It is a rare person indeed who can forgive without the transgression forever affecting the relationship. Once a trust has been broken it can never have the luster and shine when it was perfect. Let’s face it. There are no restore buttons available. Forgiveness - yes. Having it exactly like it was prior to the event – sorry. Life on earth just doesn’t work that way. It does work that way in heaven. Isn’t God grand? When forgiven He treats us as if we had never sinned at all. That’s the best restore button ever.

When we moved into our home in Massachusetts we discovered the former owner left behind a wonderful old leather-bound set of Encyclopedia Britannica published in 1910. I learned it was a classic edition. While doing some research this evening I wondered what scholars thought about my topic exactly one hundred years ago. So I pulled down volume XIII – Harmony to Hurstmonceaux. While doing so I remembered as a child we had a set of World Book Encyclopedia, not quite in the same league as Britannica, but respectable for a child. I used to wonder what it was like to be so famous one got an article about oneself in such books. This evening I turned page after page of such names without recognizing one name. I realize my education is limited but really I should know some names.

Who or what was Hurstmonceaux? Why should I care? Does anyone in the 21st century care? Probably the people who live there care. It is a village in England. In 1818 Percy Shelley wrote the famous poem, Ozymandias about an old statue in the desert.

“And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

Greatness and fame are a fleeting thing in this world. So tonight I think of my childhood curiosity about fame and realize the only place I want my name is in the Lamb’s Book of Life mentioned in the book of Revelation. There is Someone in charge of that book who will never forget us. Let the ages pass and we will not only live in His memory but be alive forever in His kingdom. How grand!

Jesus had come home. Sabbath morning the little place of worship was packed with relatives and friends. Nazareth was a little town. Most everyone was somehow related and everyone knew everything about everyone. Rumors about Jesus had set their imaginations on fire. The room was hushed when He rose to speak. Isaiah flowed from His lips. “He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed.”

The crowd was electrified with horror at the blasphemy. Uncles, nephews, granduncles, and grandnephews grabbed Jesus and dragged Him out of town to a cliff. But before they could throw Him over, their own flesh and blood, He walked right through them. It is the last time He would go home to Nazareth. A few years later He went to His real home.

His message is just as appropriate today. The good news is salvation is a gift no matter how bad we have been. The freedom is from our guilt and slavery to our nature. Sight is to enlighten our understanding that we need not fear the future. Our place in eternity is secure. The release is from the oppression of memories of a not so perfect past. We are given power to forgive others as well as ourselves. Is there someone who harmed you? Let it go. Is there someone you harmed? Fix it if you can. If you can’t, let it go. God will fix it for you. Take Him at His word. Believe Him. If we don’t we are just like the folk at Nazareth. When we do believe, joy and inner peace are the natural fruit.

I rarely give my students passages to memorize. Instead we read and talk about the significant ideas contained in important passages. Sometimes I wonder if I am doing them a disservice not to require that they put them to heart. I remember hating to have to memorize. Yet decades later I find it to be rewarding when I can recall a passage and once again ponder the beauty and import of certain works. Memorized verses of Scripture, poetry and other works seem to be mental anchors around which I can tie new and challenging ideas. Today’s students have laptops and other electronic devices that instantly find and reproduce almost any literary content. Has memorization become a non-essential? With a small handheld device my wife can within a few seconds find factual answers to most anything that strikes our curiosity.

Yet I am uneasy about the mere reproduction of facts as opposed to thinking about things. A set of encyclopedias whether on paper or on an electronic screen is only information. Information is the stuff of thought. It is fodder for ideas. It is the inspiration for the creation of new concepts and new understandings. I must teach my students to love. Love is the foundation of all true education. It is that which builds character and prepares people for unselfish service, the only avenue to lasting happiness. Will it not enhance their journey to put 1 Corinthians 13 into their mental library? The Psalmist wrote, “Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.” When temptation comes they will not check their laptops. But they will certainly check the content of their characters. Something needs to be there.

I am sitting here looking at a list of doctrinal beliefs. It defines a certain kind of Christian. It sets him or her apart from other Christians who do not subscribe to this particular list. I’m not so sure Jesus ever intended there to be different kinds of Christians. Either you are or you are not. He had a criterion. In John 13:35 He clearly said, “People will know you are my disciples if you love one another.”

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus lists some characteristics Christians should exhibit - things like purity, humility, and hunger for righteousness. What I can’t find is Jesus’ list of theological tenets. I do realize if you are going to have an organization one needs parameters of membership. This is a fact of life one finds difficult to contend with. The problem is once you draw a circle to determine who is in you have automatically created those who are out. Isms create schisms. Perhaps this would not be so bad if it were not for human nature that then creates “them” and “us.” Of course “us” is the best group and “them” have deficits and are not quite as good as “us.” This is when love begins to suffer.

We need organization. Collectively we can accomplish so much more than we can if each of us is running our own little program. And so grows the problem out of our desire to accomplish much good. We can become so mentally attuned to tenets and theological purity that we then let slide Jesus’ criterion of loving. Some of the harshest people I have known are theological purists. To be a real Christian isn’t so much agreeing with each other as much as it is loving each other.