+ Fifth Sunday in Lent March 25, 2012
Readings: Jeremiah 31:31-34; Psalm 51:1-12; Hebrews 5:5-10; John 12:20-33
Hymns: 338, 379, 465, 484, 759, 763
“Blessed Forgetfulness”
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
There is a growing fear, nearing hysteria, hidden just beneath the surface of people getting older, of losing their memory. This is not a baseless fear. Most have experienced family members or friends whose dementia or Alzheimer’s disease has taken the person we knew and replaced them with someone who can’t recognize loved ones, can’t recall when or who they married, and can’t remember what they did in their work-life.
There are jokes and funny stories about minor mental mishaps… when we can’t remember what we went into the kitchen for… when we open the refrigerator door and stand there wondering what we were hungering for… when we go to the store for three things (which we didn’t write down) and have to call home to be reminded of the other two!
But funny stories and minor forgetfulness aside, losing ones memory is a disaster waiting to happen.
An article I read last week talked about a pastor going to a family reunion and talking with one of his cousins he hadn’t seen in years. The cousin brought greetings from her father, the pastor’s favorite uncle. The uncle is in the far stages of dementia and lives in a long-term care facility and was not able to come to the reunion. His daughter brought this greeting from her dad: “Tell my family that, although I do not remember them, I still love them.”
A statement filled with poignant grief and quiet gratitude. The grief comes from childhood memories of a beloved uncle with a quick wit and deep and generous wisdom who now has so few of his memories left. Yet, there is a measure of resilient, even defiant gratitude that some emotions, like love, live even beyond our memory. And even though the uncle may have forgotten much he nevertheless remembers that love binds them together. (David Lose, Working Preacher, Love and Memory, 03.18.12)
The reading from Jeremiah today, describing the new covenant and God’s intention to take the matter of Israel’s relationship with God fully into God’s own hands helps us see at least two sides to forgetting. There is the negative side… of losing one’s identity as memory fades… of being distant from conversations because thoughts can’t be tied together… of wondering when the day will come when you can’t remember what you can’t remember.
But there is another side to forgetting, one that Jeremiah makes very clear from the perspective of God’s holy message.
A bit of background in necessary: God had, previous to the time Jeremiah spoke forth God’s Word, made other covenants with the people. There had been the covenant God made with His people at Sinai: I will be your God and you will be my people. But, a great deal of covenantal water had flown under the bridge since the Exodus event. The covenantal promises of choosing life or death by attending to God’s solitary claim on them had gone badly in Israel’s life lived in God’s presence. The prophets are all too clear about the matter. God does not share His marital bed with anyone else. Unfortunately, Israel took to other lovers.
It is in this period of covenantal and relational breakdown between God and His people that Jeremiah announces a word of hope for the future. A day is coming in which a new covenant will be established and the failure of the old covenant made at Sinai will be a distant memory. (Mark Gignilliat, Working Preacher, Lectionary for March 25, 2012)
“The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt – a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord.”
God is doing something brand new! Out of God’s heartache at the inability of Israel to keep faith with God, and, God’s relentless determination to preserve His beloved people, God takes matters into His own hands and announces His love… a love that will not depend on what the people do or don’t do… a love that will enter hearts and be written there!
And this covenant rests on one other thing… in order to make this work God will do one other thing… forget. God will forget Israel’s sinfulness, their betrayal, their infidelity. God does not just pass over, absolve, or forgive this time around, God also forgets, erasing even the memory of the breach in their relationship… “I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.”
Out of love for His people God has developed amnesia, selective amnesia we assume, but amnesia none the less. This might make us uncomfortable. Memory is so central to who we are, which is of course what makes dementia and Alzheimer’s so terrifying. If we lose our memory, we wonder, are we really ourselves? If we lose our memory, what do we have left? If you have a family member who has suffered memory loss from disease or injury you know what this is like.
And yet it sounds like the God of Israel, the One who neither slumbers nor sleeps, chooses to forget. It is a startling, unexpected, and even a somewhat uncomfortable way of talking about God.
We are normally so afraid of losing our memory that it’s almost unthinkable. And yet, if we’re totally honest there are things we wish we could forget. A number of things. Like, for instance, every minor slight and insult we seem to hold onto. Or some painful things we’ve said over the years out of anger or hurt feelings to people we love. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to forget these things and in this way start anew?!
God does what Israel and we cannot: God forgets. In response to Israel’s failures - God refuses to recognize them. In response to Israel’s infidelity -God calls them faithful. In response to their sin and brokenness and very real wretchedness - God’s memory has to be pushed and prodded to find any recollection. God forgets.
God does what we find so difficult… forget where others have wronged us… forget where we have offended others… forget when others have let us down in ways that stagger the imagination.
Remember the pastor’s uncle who has forgotten so much in his dementia? The cousin told the pastor that even though not having her dad around in the robust, witty and fulfilling way has been hard, there is another side to the story. She said her dad now lives with a remarkable calmness, even a tranquility of spirit. This is not to make light of his condition or that of anyone suffering a similar illness. His road to this place has been both difficult and painful for him and for all those who love him. But it is to recognize amid the tragedy something that is occasionally beautiful. He has forgotten most or all of the things that once weighed him down and he is now at peace. And that is a rare gift.
The pastor wondered if his uncle has forgotten so much of himself that he no longer really is himself. Perhaps there is no way to know, but, remember that the uncle has not forgotten what it is to love or be loved, and to the degree that he remembers that, it seems, he remembers the best and most essential part of himself. Further, in these moments of blessed forgetfulness… he finds connection with the God of Jeremiah who actively practices blessed forgetfulness.
“Tell my family that although I do not remember them I love them.” “I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.” It’s hard to know how far apart those statements are… but it is good to know that we have a God who will do, for Israel as well as for you and me, what we cannot do for ourselves. We have a God who will forget all our failings… we have a God who will send His Son… we have a Son who will submit Himself to suffering and the cross… and we have a Savior who, after being “lifted up,” will “bear much fruit.”
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
