Memory is a very tricky thing. You never know what you will remember and what you will forget. The other day one of my friends told me if he is in a group and he is asked to introduce the members of the group, by the time he gets halfway around the room he is forgetting the names of people he knows very well. Why, he said, the last time that happened, I got to where my wife was sitting and I couldn’t even call her name.
That’s never happened to me, has it, Martha?
Memory is a very tricky business. For some reason it is highly selective. That is, there are some items you can remember very well, and others that never stick. I cannot begin to explain why, but I can remember numbers. Just abstract numbers.
I know the numbers on all our business accounts; I know that at Sears we are 5450932848171 and that at Sovran Bank we are 3930676. Don’t get out on the edge of your seat, because I am not going to recite the number that accesses the automatic teller!
Why I remember numbers I don’t really know. It is not all that useful that I can recall all the phone numbers I’ve answered, back to childhood, when we were Highland 1421W. It does help that if I need the deacon chairman I already know 829-7170 or that if I want the moderator I don’t have to look up 723-1025 or that when tenants wonder about the houses I can give them 882-2615. But most of the numbers running around in my head are just taking up space; I’d like to be able to follow the genius Albert Einstein, who is supposed to have said that he didn’t bother with learning things like two plus two that he could look up or get somebody else to do for him!
I say, I can remember numbers, for some peculiar reason. But ask me to go back to my office and get something, and by the time I get there, I will have forgotten what you asked for! Ask me what I preached about last Sunday, and, even though I expect you to remember it, I will stumble and struggle and may not remember!
Memory is a tricky business. What we remember and what we forget seem to have neither rhyme nor reason. Or do they? Or do they?
I said I can remember numbers. I told you that I can recall all sorts of abstract figures. Well, it’s my experience that many of us can remember particular kinds of numbers -- the kind that are associated with dollars, with money. We can remember how much we are earning; we can remember how much some prized possession cost. We can remember what’s left in our bank accounts, and we can recall perfectly our monthly mortgage bills or rent bills.
Why? Why do these numbers stick in our memories? Why is it we are so conscious and alert about our financial facts and figures?
I think it’s pretty obvious, isn’t it? These things represent the critical facts of everyday survival. These numbers represent whether we are going to make it or not. These numbers, these bank account numbers and pocketbook numbers, tell us whether we can pay the bills and whether we can survive. And so they stay with us. You will remember the things you need to remember to survive. You will remember the things you must remember in order to keep on going.
In other words, the memory strings are tied to the purse strings. The memory strings pull the purse strings and keep you aware of what’s happening with your money.
I
In the scriptures, God is constantly asking us to remember. Primarily, He asks us to remember what He has done for us. He calls on us to recall what He did in bringing Israel out of Egypt, and says that He brought us out too. He requires us to remember His mighty acts in making a people for Himself, and tells us that we can be a part of that people too. He brings us to a Table, set with symbols of His body and His blood, and He commands us, "Eat and drink in remembrance of me, until I come again." God calls us to remember.
I don’t think I could possibly improve on the way the prophet Isaiah says it. Turn with me now to chapter 46, verse 3:
Our God is saying, remember. Remember. Remember what I have done for you, and remember that I am faithful and I am going to keep on doing it. Remember that when you were hungry, I saw to it that you were fed. And I will keep on. Remember that when you didn’t see how you could get out of debt, I brought you around to a new place, and I will keep on. I carried you and I will keep on carrying you.
Remember. Memory. Keep alive the memory of the goodness of God.
II
But now, I’ve said that memory strings are tied to purse strings. And Isaiah sees that too. Isaiah sees that and helps us see the danger in it.
The prophet is about to tell us that there is something that competes with our memory for God. There is something that gets in the way of our remembering what God has done in us. Isaiah knows well the principle that memory strings pull purse strings. Listen: 46:5-7
I hope you are following what Isaiah is telling you. In strong language, he is saying, "Your money cannot save you.” He is saying, "If you get invested in your money, how much there is and how much there isn’t, you will forget that it is God who has brought you along this far.” In a masterpiece of irony, this eloquent prophet sees that when we get preoccupied with our gold and silver, we expect things to do for us what God does. And we forget. We do not remember. We forget we’ve come this far by faith, leaning on the everlasting arms. We didn’t do this by ourselves. But we forget.
One of the banks here in town was advertising for a while, ’No strings checking’. They claimed that there were no strings attached to their banking services. No strings attached. Don’t you believe it! Don’t believe it for one moment! I have not yet seen anything having to do with money that didn’t have strings attached. If nothing else, there are memory strings. Memory strings are tied to purse strings, and what we spend money on remains in our minds and in our hearts for a long, long time. What we do with our money creates our memories.
Why, one church member claims that his wife can tell you today what she paid for a pound of sugar ten years ago. My wife can tell you with complete accuracy what she gave for some of our choice pieces of furniture, picked up at classy places like yard sales and Good Will! We do remember where our money goes, and we place a lot of value on that. The problem is that we let that take us over. We let that dominate us. And, worst of all, we let it erase the memory of what our God is doing in us and for us. We think we’re doing it all with our money, if we have any, and we forget what God has done. Or even if we don’t have any money, we’re preoccupied with getting some, and we still forget to let go and let God be God.
You see, memory strings are tied to purse strings. And when you are all caught up in the purse strings, you cannot remember what God has done. It competes in your mind with the record of what God has accomplished. Jesus said it best: "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
III
So what do you do about this? What’s the answer to this issue? Again, let the prophet Isaiah alert you. Follow him at verse 8:
Remember. Remember what? Remember God’s mission, which He is performing and which will succeed. Our God is on mission; our God has a plan and a purpose. We know what that plan is; that plan is to redeem all humanity. We know that God’s purpose is to seek and to save all who are lost and to bring them, reconciled, into His arms again. We know that this is the intent of God. And it is more than a vague intention. Can you sense the power in it? "I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have planned, and I will do it."
When I remember that, I can get free from worrying about money. Yes, that’s exactly what I mean. When I remember what God has done for me, and then remember that He wants to do it for everybody, I won’t worry any longer about money and what to do with it. I will know that I want to invest it in God’s purposes. Why? Because memory strings pull purse strings. Memory strings pull purse strings, and when you once remember what God has done for you, and recall that He wants to do it for everybody, then you’ll know what to do with your money. Your priority for God’s mission will rise to the top.
Let me drop the preaching pose for a moment and just lay out some very important facts in front of you. Let me jar and jog some memories this morning and see if we can discover the connection between memory strings and purse strings.
The first fact to get in front of you is a positive one. I take great pleasure in reporting what some of you know already -- that we have improved in presenting our gifts to the Lord’s work through this church at a remarkable rate. In fact, in five years we have improved by about 60%, and that is wonderful and remarkable by any measure. This says to me that more and more we are catching a vision for what this church and its ministry could be and should be. That’s the first fact, and it’s wonderful.
But there are some disturbing facts to put along side that positive one. I am disturbed about our per capita giving -- about how much we do for the Kingdom per person, on average. About 300 persons, members and friends, support the church in some way. Many are wonderfully generous and consistent, and you are the salt of the earth, without whom we could not even exist. But scores of the 300 or so people who do give give only token amounts •• maybe a dollar, two dollars, five dollars a week. Less than the price of a movie or a fast food meal. When that happens, I just think we’ve forgotten about what God has done for us.
I will not even dwell on the even more terrifying fact that some 400 or more of our members are not involved in support at all. They are not here for worship, they are not involved in Sunday School, and they do not give in the course of a year a single penny for the Kingdom. Clearly they have forgotten. Clearly their memories for God’s work are gone. I will not dwell on them; they cannot hear me. I will speak to you and to me and ask us to remember.
I will ask us to remember that God took some of us when we were dirt poor and made us successful. We didn’t do it alone. God did it in us, and we are to remember. We are to remember that He wants to do that with others. Those memory strings need to loosen our purse strings.
I will ask us to remember that God’s standard for Christian giving is the tithe. Ten percent of your income is not really all that much if you think about what God has done: He gave us the one hundred per cent. People who tithe find that it may be tough at first, but they don’t miss it once they get started. It helps them to remember; tithing, sharing ten per cent of your income with the Kingdom, tugs at the memory strings, and you will find that it’s no problem at all to loosen the purse strings.
I will ask us to remember, too, that we are not being called on to give for trifles, for big expensive nothings. I will ask us to remember that the funds we channel through our church work to provide us with a staff and with a facility to serve our needs. I will ask us to remember that there have been ministries here in this place which have meant something to you •• that there have been lessons taught and messages preached and friendships made that have mattered. Memory strings that ought to free up some purse strings.
And I will ask, rather, I will insist that we remember that this church is dedicated, absolutely and irrevocably, to God’s redemptive purpose. If it seems odd to you that we actually give away a fair portion of the money we receive, I just ask you to remember that what He’s done for you He wants to do for others. As long as I am in this pulpit, as long as there is breath in my body, I will preach the needs of missions,
I will urge the church to do ministry, I will focus on what we can do for others.
You ask why? Because I remember when I was a college kid in Kentucky, headed, I suppose, for a lucrative career in chemical engineering, but bored stiff with it. And the Lord God caught me with His mission, gave me a sense of purpose, endowed me with a drive that just won’t quit. And I do remember.
Because I remember when my wife and I were raising our children and paying our mortgage and coping with inflation, and it would have been easy to have kept more of our income for all those bills •• but not once in thirty years have we skipped giving to our church. And our God delivered, just as He said He would. I do remember.
And I remember that you and I are part of a church which has been here for seventy-two years, rooted in missions, its history marked by a determination to God I swill, recording the redeeming power of God, right here on this corner. Surely you remember? I remember.
Remember what God has done for you. Remember how dangerous it is to lose your memory. Remember that God will complete His missionary purpose. Remember that He will be with you always, to the end of the age. Let the memory strings pull wide the purse strings.
"And go therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember -- remember - I am with you always, to the end of the age."
