Have we forgotten about God?

In the Old Testament in the book of the prophet, Amos, you will read in chapter 6 about Amos criticising the wealthy people who live an indulgent life. He tells them that they just go from party to party, thinking only of themselves and forgetting the poor. Now, under their traditions they had a responsibility for taking care of the poor. But they were so busy enjoying themselves they forgot their duty. Not only this, but Amos even suggests that this life has caused them to forget God who brought their ancestors safely out of Egypt and on to the Promised Land.

The sort of life they are leading blocks out everything except themselves. They drank from bowls instead of goblets, so keen were they to feel the intoxication from alcohol. They lounged around on reclining furniture. They soaked themselves in the finest oils which were supposed to be commodities offered to God as being "the best". Amos could see very clearly that these people had forgotten the poor within their society. Indeed he could see that their life style had probably helped to worsen the plight of the poor. But, to Amos, the unforgivable sin was that all this had led them to forget God, what he had done for them, and their responsibility to worship him as their deliverer.

Is there a danger that in leading life in the 20th century we too have forgotten God? Has God become an irrelevance in our thinking and in our life in general? I know that it is all too easy to forget matters which are important in the busyness of today's life. Many years ago my wife went home after she had done the shopping only to find she had forgotten to bring home our baby son in his pram. My memory is so bad that I can forget the most important things if they are not written in my PC diary, and even then I have to remember to check the diary!

To highlight our forgetfulness of God let me put a case to you. You have won the Euro Lottery and the prize is many millions of pounds. Now you have to think about what use you will put the money to. Is your first thought to buy an expensive car to show off to the world? Do you decide to buy houses in Florida, France, Spain, Italy etc? They would be useful when you took those interminable holidays all over the world! Maybe you would allocate a million pounds to your favourite charity and do some good somewhere in the world. As for the rest, how would you use it once the excitement of riches had levelled off? I suggest that many people would radically change their life style and begin to live an inward-looking existence. If you are a Christian, is there just a chance that you would gradually cease attending church in this new life?

In this age of consumerism there has been a forgetfulness as people have targetted the various luxury commodities on which to spend their now-significant incomes. A few years ago I was with a few people and involved in a conversation about how their money was spent. One young woman was quite open about how she saw an importance in buying her children the latest and greatest in clothes and amusements. She was honest about buying the very latest replica football strips for her boys so that they became leaders among their peer group.

The introduction, following the 2nd World War, of the welfare state has made a huge difference to life. The development of new technology has also contributed in a massive way. Ownership of a PC might be important as a way to play the modern computer games. My reason for buying a computer was to be able to write and store my sermons on it. The secondary reason was that I needed to become computer literate in order to get employment when I found myself jobless. Now I find that a PC connected to the Internet can be the means of telling the world the wonderful story of God's Son, Jesus who is the means of salvation for all.

So it depends on what use these modern inventions are given as to how they affecy our lives and our thinking. I am, of course, not suggesting we should take the fun out of life. Fun is as important to our religious life as well as it is to everything else we do. Happiness is an important slice of life and should not be downgraded by the pious and over-serious among us. This fun element can be a means of remembering God as we live out life. God is a loving father and, as such, wants us to have fun as members of His family.

Quite apart from the serious and important duty we must exercise in the name of Jesus, I am absolutely convinced that it ought be fun. Surely, our message of salvation and grace makes us smile! So what prevents a Christian from experiencing fun as he/she promotes the Gospel of Jesus? In this way there should be no problem of that forgetfulness that Amos went on about to the rich people of his time.