In Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park, Fanny Price makes a chilling declaration:
“If any one faculty of our nature may be called more wonderful than the rest, I do think it is memory.” “The memory,” she says, “is sometimes so retentive, so serviceable, so obedient; at others, so bewildered and so weak; and at others, so tyrannical, so beyond control!”
Another way to say it is this: memories are so powerful—so influential—that we often have no clue how to deal with them.
In the Old Testament lesson appointed for today, from the book of the prophet Isaiah, God Himself chimes in on the topic of memory. Speaking to His own people, who were in exile at the time – who were forced into slavery and despair – God describes what will ultimately happen to their memories – what happens to our memories – when we reach that glorious, eternal vision of the New Jerusalem – the final act of God’s eternal plan of love and redemption. “The former things shall not be remembered nor come to mind.”
And this is good news—even fabulous news— because you don’t have to be in exile in Babylon to know that many of the memories we carry around all day aren’t all warm and cuddly – they’re not all Easy-Bake Ovens of “sunshine, lollipops and rainbows.”
About ten years ago, I remember attending a fiftieth wedding anniversary celebration. It was very grand, and I knew the couple extremely well. I knew all their “dirty laundry,” as the saying goes. And they had many loads of it, and it was all very public, unfortunately.
But their children insisted on surprising them with a live band at their anniversary bash. After the always awkward, but well-meaning toasts, the children had mom and dad stand up and dance as the band started playing Nancy Sinatra’s version of “Memories.”
Do you remember that one? It’s the pinnacle of overly romanticized sappiness. It was written for Elvis, but Nancy dusted if off and forced us to hear it again:
“Memories, pressed between the pages of my mind.
Memories, sweetened through the ages just like wine.
Sweet memories.”
News flash, Nancy: not all memories are “sweet!”
The prophet Isaiah isn’t talking about “sweet” memories today. He’s talking about the memories we desperately want to forget, but can’t seem to shake.
I believe everyone has at least someone, or some past memory, she or he would love to forget about altogether.
Isn’t it amazing that we often can’t remember where we put our car keys, or cell phone – or even someone’s name when we really need to – but we never (never ever!) forget that jerk who lied to make us lose that promotion – or that guy, or girl, who broke our hearts.
I can still tell you what was in my lunchbox on the very day when a certain fifth grade girl in Linden, Alabama passed the love note back to me that I had just cleverly passed to her.
I made what I thought was a straightforward, irresistible proposition: “Will you be my girlfriend forever? Check ‘yes’ or ‘no.'” When the note returned, she had quickly added an additional box, and checked it. It read “never in a million years.” I was devastated, and I haven’t forgotten the rejection one bit! Thank God Malacy came along and eventually adopted me!
George Jones, the great country crooner, was trying to tell us in 1980 that memories can make you go crazy:
“He said “I’ll love you till I die”, she told him “You’ll forget in time”
He kept her picture on his wall, went half-crazy now and then
Kept some letters by his bed dated nineteen sixty-two
He had underlined in red every single “I love you”
Country music never lies!
Just last week I struck up a conversation with a guy at a restaurant in Miami, and we began discussing musical tastes, and he told me that classic country was a dark genre. Jokingly, he asked me, “What do you get when you play a country song backwards?” I said, “I don’t know.” He said, “You get your house back, get your wife back, get your dog back, get your truck back…and so on.”
What he was saying unwittingly, however, is that he’s struggling to delete some memories. Hello!
And, please, for the sake of all that is good and holy, don’t tell me the very same lie I’ve told hundreds of time. We all hear it at least once a week, and it’s even worse than one southerner telling another “bless your heart.”
And it is this: “time heals all wounds.” That is simply not true. Time may help us eventually suffer from memory loss so we think less about it, and we may get distracted along the way with busyness, but chronological distance from a memory doesn’t make it go away any more than time heals cancer.
We need a plan, and it really can’t wait for the New Jerusalem – we’ll go nuts in the meantime!
There’s been a ton of stuff in the media lately about Kanye West’s recent, and sudden, conversion to Christianity. If you don’t know Kanye, trust me, he’s a big deal; he has twenty-one Grammys, and he’s on the cover of every pop-culture magazine every other day. I can hear my mother in my ear right now: “Charleston, if you’d just read People Magazine, you’d have something interesting to talk about at dinner parties.”
Anyway, not only is Kanye married to Kim Kardashian (whoop-de-doo!), but He recently released an album entitled “Jesus Is King.” This is earth-shattering. And you can feel the tectonic plates shifting because heretofore Kayne’s music was a collection of predatory, misogynistic titles like “Drunk, Hot Girls,” and his life story consisted of one long string of debauchery and depravity that would make even the most committed narcissist blush.
As we might expect, there’s been no shortage of life-long Christians publicly questioning Kanye’s sincerity. Upon further review, this might be because so-called “church-folk” often project the false piety of the Pharisee over the truth that all of us are tax collectors. But that’s for another homily.
Here is what Kanye said, in his own words:
“I tried it my way; it’s not working out. Everything is in shambles. My public standing is in shambles. I’m not in good shape. I’m having ups and downs with my health. People calling me crazy. People not wanting to [even] sit with me.’ I had to just give it up to God.”
What he really said is that he had to give up his own memory of himself. What he really said is that grace transformed even his memories.
What is grace again? Grace is the undeserved, unmerited – yet constant – love of God freely given to unworthy sinners for life and salvation.
“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).
Sermon preached by the Rev. Charleston D. Wilson
Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota Florida
23rd Sunday after Pentecost
17 November 2019