Have We Forgotten?

Isaiah 51:1-6

I came across an interesting reading this week. It's a sermon by Ellen Lippmann, a progressive Jewish Rabbi, which speaks about humanity's connection to God. The sermon title is called "The Thread That Binds Us" and starts out this way:

The rabbis of the Talmud are speaking. They say,
“There are 613 commandments given by God to Moses.
David came and reduced them to 11 principles.
Isaiah reduced them to 6 principles.
Micah came and reduced them to 3 principles.
Isaiah came again and reduced these to 2.
Amos came and reduced them to one.
Finally, the prophet Habbakuk came and based them all on one principle.”

Rabbi Lippmann goes on to explain that in this teaching the Jewish people are reminded that both tradition and progression live in harmony and that our place in humanity is to recognize that the people we are today is a direct correlation to the people who came before us.

This morning my wife and I were discussing a book review we saw in the newspaper. The book is based on the idea that World War 1 never happened. In the utopia which follows, several things are assumed: Adolf Hitler goes into the health food business, Vladimir Lenin comes to the United States and becomes a university professor, and Richard Nixon is an evangelical minister.

I must admit, I had a chuckle at the ideas represented by the author (Richard Ned Lebow - "Archduke Franz Ferdinand Lives"), but my wife took it seriously and said that if we follow this train of thought we can truly envision a better world today.

That's the problem, isn't it? Most of us are cynical and believe that if someone is bad they are bad, and nothing can change that fact. But, imagine if you can (and as I did) that war didn't exist, that there was absolutely no reason for people to "rule" over others. Imagine what kind of a world it would be if instead of money and power, love and justice guided our every thought.

Less we forget, the stories of history don't only teach us about domination, it also teaches us about peace. Mahatma Ghandi, Mother Teresa, and Martin Luther King, Jr. are just a few of those people who lived for one purpose - to be the image of their God in whatever situation they were placed.

I think it's time we do the same.