The longer we live, the more there is to remember. And yet the more we remember, the more we forget as well. Isn’t that ironic? The longer we live, the more there is to remember. And yet the more we remember, the more we forget as well. That could be due to several things. That could be memory loss. Or it could be selective memory. Or it could be an occasion of grace. An occasion of grace.
Remember! Do you remember? There used to be a fun song called, “Do you remember?” Something like, Do you remember rumble seats and running boards? Do you remember four-party lines and number please? The punch line of the song was that if you do remember, dearie, then you’re much older than I.
And if you remember that song, which I do not, you’re much older than I! I think it came out in the gay nineties ...the other gay nineties, before Ellen. Dearie, do you remember?
How much do you remember? Do you remember with crystal clarity everything that has happened to you? Or are you having a little trouble with some things? They say that as we grow older, our long-term memory may stay in place, but our short-term memory has problems. I know that I can remember lots of things from way back. I can remember my first grade teacher; you realize, don’t you, that I walked barefoot to school every morning with my fellow Kentuckian, Abraham Lincoln! That was a long way back! I can remember my early Sunday School experience; I can recall, when I was four years old, how my pastor came into our Sunday School room and let us all feel his bald, shiny head. Great Biblical truths taught that morning! I can remember lots of stuff from more than fifty years ago, but yesterday is hazy and this morning is impossible. What did I preach about two weeks ago? Uh, mm, by the way, what am I preaching about this morning? Do you remember?
How much do you remember? They say that it gets harder to remember people’s names. You run across someone you’ve known all your life, and, for the life of you, you cannot get that name out. Just this past week my wife and I were discussing nursing homes where we might move her mother. One particular home came up in conversation, and I said, “Oh, yes, I know that nursing home. That’s where I used to visit one of our members until her death, Mrs........Mrs.....” And do you think I could get that lady’s name out? I had visited her many times, I had preached at her funeral, I could tell you how to get to her son’s house, I could even tell you that she had a daughter who was a Catholic nun, but I absolutely could not reach back into my weary old memory and get that name out! And so I said to my wife, Mary, er Martha, er .......
The longer we live, the more there is to remember. And yet the more we remember, the more we forget as well. That could due to be several things. That could be simple memory loss, attributed to aging. But then it could also be selective memory. Or it could be an occasion of grace.
Selective memory. What do we mean by selective memory?
We mean that we remember certain things and forget other things, on the basis of our feelings. If it feels good, our selective memory remembers certain things and forgets others. Not consciously, maybe, but subconsciously. The point is that on the basis of how something feels to us, we may kick in our selective memory.
Now selective memory can work in two different directions, each of which gets into some spiritual issues. Let’s explore that.
I
On the one hand, you may find that your selective memory causes you to remember only good things and forget bad things. You may find that your selective memory blocks out all the negative stuff, and that some things too painful or too shameful to face are just taken away. You block them out. Several of you have told me that after you went to the hospital for some painful procedure, you couldn’t remember anything of it. You blocked it out. That’s selective memory.
But suppose that selective memory turns it back on the power of sin in our lives. Suppose that we just try to forget about that harsh reality called sin. I’ve seen it happen.
I have known people who would treat others in their families with complete disdain and disrespect; who would scream at and mangle the emotions of their children; who would betray their contempt for their spouses; but who would protest to the bitter end that they loved those families, they cared deeply for them, and nothing mattered more profoundly than these children who had just been slapped around. Selective memory can mean that we just turn a blind eye to our sin. It’s called denial. Denial.
And the truth is, I think these folks really mean what they say. I think they do not see their inconsistency. I suspect that denial goes deep. We wipe out all the stuff that hurts, we concentrate on the good times, and we hope the pain and the sin will go away.
The problem is: that is a Pollyanna existence, where life is all a bowl of cherries, there are no real issues to be resolved, and whoopee, it’s all good. The problem is: that is not living in the real world. It’s Scarlett O’Hara wrapping the drapes around herself and crooning, “I’ll think about that tomorrow.”
And, by the way, if you are old enough to remember those references to Pollyanna and to Scarlett O’Hara, well, then, dearie, you’re much older than I!
The prophet Isaiah won’t let us get away with this kind of selective memory. Isaiah speaks with power of God’s judgment. Isaiah pictures God coming with blood on His garments from having judged a rebellious people. “I have trodden the wine press alone .. I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath ... and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.” God takes sin seriously! God cannot just pretend that sin does not exist! Do not forget that, whatever else you forget; do not forget how seriously God takes sin and how God judges sin!
If we think we can deal with the issue of sin just by forgetting about it, we are off the mark. It won’t work. It won’t be enough. For, as the Bible says, “You can be sure that your sins will find you out.” And just when you least expect it, that thing called guilt will jump up and grab you by the throat, and the memories will come back. The pain and the shame, the guilt and the wrong, it will come back to haunt us. Selective memory will not, by any means, get rid of sin. It will grieve the Holy Spirit of God, and we will be profoundly unsatisfied, no matter what kind of cheery face we put on. Selective memory, forgetting sin, does not get rid of sin.
II
But, on the other hand, it is also true that some of us use selective memory in exactly the opposite fashion. Some of us use selective memory to remember only the bad stuff, and forget the good stuff. Some of us choose to live in the land of complaint and criticism, and never see anything to be grateful for. Some of us use our selective memory to dwell only on the painful, the shattered dreams and the broken hopes. Some of us are, it would seem, incurably pessimistic and chronically unhappy.
I know people who absolutely cannot find a kind word to say about anyone else. I know people who, if you were to provide them a room and meals, clean clothes and a hot bath, would, a week later, remember only that the room was drafty, the steak cold, the shirt too large, and the bathtub too slippery! You cannot win with folks whose selective memory is turned all the way over to the negative side.
Now don’t you see that that is also a spiritual issue? If, as you age, all you really remember and all you really dwell on are the tough times, the hardships, the challenges, then you are indeed of all people most miserable. If after all these years the only thing you really see in yourself is a miserable soul, whose life has been too hard and who has been treated with injustice and oppression, if that’s all you see, then, my friend, you have missed the mark too, just as much as the Pollyanna who selectively remembers only the good times. If your selective memory dwells only on the sour and the sorry, the insults and the slights, then you too have missed the grace of God. You too have missed out on what God wants so much to give.
Isaiah is so healthy here! Isaiah calls us to remember the wonderful times, the joy-filled times. Isaiah sings, “I will recount the gracious deeds of the Lord, the praiseworthy acts of the Lord, because of all that the Lord has done for us, and the great favor to the house of Israel .. according to the abundance of His steadfast love.” Isaiah says, yes, life may have been tough; yes, I know that the poet says the life is nasty, brutish, and short. But that’s not the whole story! That’s not the whole truth! For the whole truth is that in the midst of a host of difficulties, God has been good. In the midst of all sorts of trials, God has been gracious. In the midst of pain, God has been a healer. In the midst of sorrow, God has been a comfort. In the midst of it all, God has been gracious. A banker -- a banker! -- said to me this week, “God is good all the time!” “Oh, my soul looks back and wonders how I got over.” You must remember that and not just select the painful.
Let’s summarize. Selective memory. If your selective memory is stuck in remembering only the fun and frothy moments, and you do not recall your sin, you will have missed the grace of God. But it is also true that if your selective memory is stuck in remembering only the painful and the shameful, and you do not recall the mercies of God, you too will have missed the wonderful grace of God. Either way, you have missed the grace of God. Either way, selective memory is a deep, deep spiritual issue.
III
But do you know what? The good news is that God too has selective memory! God too has selective memory. Yes, He does. God has provided a way through which He will choose to remember selectively. The Scripture puts it, “He will remember our sins no more.” God’s selective memory is an occasion of grace for us.
Listen to Isaiah’s passionate prayer. Isaiah prayed that God would remember His people. He prayed that God would remember that He is our father, and that, even though we have forgotten Him, He would not forget us. “Look down from heaven and see ... where are your zeal and your might, the yearning of your heart and your compassion? They are withheld from me. ...... Turn back, turn back, for the sake of your servants, for the sake of the tribes that are your heritage.” Isaiah is crying, Lord, remember that You are our father, and that though we have grieved Your holy spirit, can You not remember Your love for us? Can You not remember Your compassion for us? O God, remember the joy that was in Your heart when each and every one of us was created? O God, remember! Isaiah’s passionate prayer was that God would remember what He had seemed to forget.
Here is the good news. Here is the occasion of grace. God did remember. God did remember, selectively. God came in Jesus Christ and shed His blood in our sin so that no longer would man’s blood be shed in judgment. God came in Jesus Christ and through His cross, His suffering and His death, paid the price for our sin, so that we can go ahead and remember it, we can confess it, we can lay it all before Him. And wonder of wonders, once the Spirit of God has heard that confession in the presence of the shed blood of Christ, He will remember our sins no more! He will put it behind! God’s selective memory, an occasion of grace.
Don’t be afraid this morning to remember everything. Remember and confess the painful and the shameful. God will hear it and forgive it, if you will look to Christ, and then He will forget about it. He will put it away, and you won’t have to remember it again. Don’t be afraid to remember everything now so that God can take it away.
Remember, too, the joyful and the wonderful. Remember how God has been gracious. Remember how God has given life and life abundant. Remember and be thankful.
And then come to this Table, unashamed and unafraid, here to remember the Lord’s death until he come again. Remember!
“Look, Father, look, on His anointed face; and only look on us as found in Him. Look not on our misusings of Thy grace, our prayer so languid and our faith so dim. For lo, between our sins and their reward we set the passion of Thy son, our Lord.”
