We Need Memento. We Need It Now.
I recently spoke with Jason on the Gottesdienst podcast about my struggle to compartmentalize. It wasn’t a planned topic. It just came up. I used the example of being yelled at by a member who doesn’t believe in closed communion and then trying to write a sermon. I find myself in a similar situation this morning. The reality is though that the example I used on the podcast hasn’t happened to me in a long time. I wasn’t yelled at by a member. I simply discovered that one of my brothers in office has been secretly living a double life of terrible wickedness, that a child I love has apostatized, and that the city where I live seems to be on a collision course of stupidity and greed that will bring a casino to my backyard. It sounds preposterous, but I would rather be yelled at than any of that.
Sadness and anger are appropriate emotions for these situations but they must be rightly ordered. They cannot rule us anymore than pleasure can. The real answer is not compartmentalization. It is the ordering of faith that delivers confidence and peace in God’s promises and goodness. To this end, Ian Kinney and Bryan Stecker have offered us real advice and support in the form of Memento which begins in earnest on Sunday, February 1.
Memento is a website and an app that aids men in committing to, tracking, and sticking with daily Bible reading, prayer, fasting, and brotherhood. It provides daily devotions and guides for prayer, gives practical advice and suggestions for other disciplines, and fosters a brotherhood of encouragement and accountability. It is just what I need. It is what I think our whole world needs.
Surprisingly, the program has been met with suspicion in some quarters of the LCMS. To be fair, Memento was inspired by a similar effort in the Roman Catholic Church known as Exodus 90, but there is nothing of papist doctrine or confusion in Memento. The concerns I have heard have never suggested that Memento will teach men Roman heresies but rather that an intense effort and training in Spiritual disciplines, such as Bible reading and prayer, might create factions in the church. Those who read the Bible and pray every day might feel superior to those who don’t. They might also think that they are earning their salvation through their efforts. They might even make up ceremonies and regulations that they then try to impose upon others to bind their consciences where the Scriptures do not. This, of course, seems to largely assume that while Memento men are reading the Bible they will not understand it or take it to heart. That seems patently unfair to me but there it is.
To be fair, nothing among men is free from abuse. Almost anything can be twisted and weaponized by the sinful flesh. Nonetheless, I think these fears are unlikely to come about. To be sure, concupiscence and pride are with us to the end and pietism and legalism are real threats and temptations to sinners. Still, in our day and age, those things are far less aggressive and subtle than Biblical illiteracy, antinomianism, and gluttony, and how might heresy be exposed and the pride squashed and faith strengthened outside of Word and Sacrament?
In fact, Kinney and Stecker are well aware of the dangers of pietism and legalism. They have sound counselors and colleagues who are likewise informed and alert. Sinful men might take Biblical knowledge and fluency as a point of pride even as they might take physical fitness or beautiful children as such, but they might do the same with ignorance or with a kind of gnosticism that thinks lawlessness is a sign of freedom rather than slavery. If we are to resist pride in all its forms and to recognize it as such we need catechesis and practice and we do well to consider the wisdom of the Church’s tested traditions and advice.
On the whole and for the most part a commitment to rigorous Bible reading, prayer, and fasting does not produce pride. It strengthens faith and produces humility. It doesn’t make one feel strong, but instead exposes weaknesses, idolatries, and dependence. Perhaps it seems counterintuitive, but in my experience it is fairly easy for armchair quarterbacks in every field to imagine they could do things they can’t if they wanted to but they just don’t want to and then to criticize those who are actually trying but are imperfect. Memento is for those who are imperfect by sincere, who want to try, who are willing to fail, and who long for the right ordering of their bodies, souls, and minds not only for the preservation of their own faith but also for the good of their neighbors.
For me, at least, it is just what I need on this sad day. I am sure it is not perfect. I am sure there will be bumps in the road and abuses. But the devil is active, the world is rejoicing, and my flesh is tempted to despair. I need to be re-ordered and restored, torn down and built up, set on the foundation of God’s Word and prayer. I need resistance and dependence and brothers. I need Memento. Thank God for it! If you haven’t yet signed up, I urge you to do so. I am almost positive you won’t become a pietist if you do and almost equally sure you will grow in your faith and have a most edifying Lent. Sign up here: https://memento70.com/home