Choose What You Remember
Introduction
Memory is strange. There are some things I would prefer not to remember but find difficult to forget. There are other things that I would love to remember that are all too easily forgotten.
There are some things that are important for societies as a whole not to forget. All over the world, we see war memorials with the names of those who have died for their country. Often in Britain these memorials feature the words ‘Lest We Forget’. A plaque at Auschwitz Concentration Camp reads, ‘The one who does not remember history is bound to live through it again’ (George Santayana).
We do have some control over our memory. There are some things we are told in the Bible to ‘forget’. There are other things we are repeatedly called to ‘remember’. You can make choices about what you choose to ‘forget’ and what you choose to ‘remember’.
The word ‘remember’ in its various Hebrew and Greek forms occurs over 250 times in the Bible. It is so easy to forget all that God has done for you. It is important to look back at your own life as well as the history of the church, both local and global, to remember all that God has done.
At the Last Supper, Jesus instituted the service of communion so that we would not forget the central events of world history – the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Psalm 45:10–17
10 Listen, daughter, and pay careful attention:
Forget your people and your father’s house.
11 Let the king be enthralled by your beauty;
honour him, for he is your lord.
12 The city of Tyre will come with a gift,
people of wealth will seek your favour.
13 All glorious is the princess within her chamber;
her gown is interwoven with gold.
14 In embroidered garments she is led to the king;
her virgin companions follow her—
those brought to be with her.
15 Led in with joy and gladness,
they enter the palace of the king.
16 Your sons will take the place of your fathers;
you will make them princes throughout the land.
17 I will perpetuate your memory through all generations;
therefore the nations will praise you for ever and ever.
Commentary
Remember Jesus always
Generations come and go but the name of Jesus will be remembered for ever.
The New Testament applied this psalm to Jesus (Hebrews 1:8ff). The early church saw its own relationship with Christ reflected in the relations between the bridegroom and the bride as they are described here.
Jesus loves the church: ‘The king is enthralled by your beauty’ (Psalm 45:11a). We are to honour Jesus; he is our Lord (v.11b): ‘I will perpetuate your memory through all generations; therefore the nations will praise you for ever and ever’ (v.17). Jesus the King will be remembered for all time. Every nation will worship him for ever and ever (Revelation 5:13).
Prayer
Lord Jesus, I worship you today. Help us to perpetuate your memory through all generations, that all the nations might praise you for ever and ever.
Luke 16:19–17:10
The Rich Man and Lazarus
19 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20 At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24 So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’
25 “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’
27 “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, 28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’
29 “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’
30 “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
31 “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”
Sin, Faith, Duty
17 Jesus said to his disciples: “Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come. 2 It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble. 3 So watch yourselves.
“If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. 4 Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.”
5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”
6 He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.
7 “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? 8 Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? 9 Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? 10 So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”
Commentary
Remember the poor
If you have food to eat every day, own a pair of shoes and have a roof over your head you are rich in comparison to most of the rest of the world. And if you own a car, or even a bicycle, you are very rich in comparison to the rest of the world.
This passage is a challenge to me personally as I look at our situation compared with much of the poverty around the world. It is also a challenge to our society, as we look at our global neighbours, for example in Africa, who as a result of television and other forms of global communication are now ‘at [our] gate’ (16:20).
The great nineteenth-century preacher D.L. Moody often took as the title of his talks the words: ‘Son, remember…’ (v.25). This parable is a warning. (It is a parable and therefore it is not a complete teaching about life after death.)
The words of Abraham to the rich man, who had ‘[wasted] his days in conspicuous consumption’ (v.19, MSG), are haunting: ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things’ (v.25). The rich man was judged for his failure to act on behalf of the poor. I live in Western Europe, which is one of the wealthiest parts of the world. Relative to most of the world I live ‘in luxury every day’ (v.19).
The rich man was aware of the poverty of Lazarus because he was laid at his gate ‘covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table’ (vv.20–21a). Modern media makes us increasingly aware of global poverty. Now is the time to act. I have even less of an excuse than the rich man. In the Old Testament the people were called to act upon the word of Moses and the Prophets (v.29). We are called to remember and to live out of the death and resurrection of Jesus (v.31).
Yet this parable is not merely an attack on being rich. After all, Abraham was exceedingly wealthy and he is pictured in heaven (v.22). The rich man’s love of money reveals his spiritual state and lack of relationship with God based on repentance and faith.
When he realises his mistake, he says to Abraham, ‘If someone from the dead goes to [my five brothers] they will repent’ (v.30). Abraham replies, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead’ (v.31).
If the rich man had listened to Moses and the Prophets, he would have repented and put his faith in God. Luke, in recording this parable of Jesus, is of course confronting the reader with the fact that we have even less of an excuse now that we have the evidence of Jesus rising from the dead. We are challenged to repent and put our faith in Jesus.
Underlying all the sections of today’s New Testament passage is the common theme of a relationship with God based on repentance and faith.
This continues in the next section (17:1–4). Jesus calls us to watch our lives carefully to avoid either causing others to sin or falling into the traps set by others. Live a life of constant forgiveness. Forgive even those who sin against you seven times a day (v.4).
The disciples realise that this is only possible with great faith. They say to Jesus, ‘Increase our faith!’ (v.5). Jesus replies, ‘If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, “be uprooted and planted in the sea,” and it will obey you’ (v.6).
It is this faith that leads to humility. Whatever you do in service of God, you can never put God in your debt. Everything we do is simply out of gratitude for what he has done for us. All we can say, at the end of the day, is, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty’ (v.10).
Faith is a muscle that grows by stretching. One of the ways you increase your faith is by doing something God asks you to do.
If you want to avoid hearing those haunting words, ‘Son, remember...’ in the future, now is the time to respond in repentance, put your faith in Jesus and live out your faith, especially in your response to the poor.
Prayer
Lord, have mercy. Forgive my sin. Help me always to forgive. Increase my faith. Open my eyes to see the needs of those around me and to act now.
Deuteronomy 23:1–25:19
Exclusion From the Assembly
23 No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the LORD.
2 No one born of a forbidden marriage nor any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, not even in the tenth generation.
3 No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, not even in the tenth generation. 4 For they did not come to meet you with bread and water on your way when you came out of Egypt, and they hired Balaam son of Beor from Pethor in Aram Naharaim to pronounce a curse on you. 5 However, the LORD your God would not listen to Balaam but turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the LORD your God loves you. 6 Do not seek a treaty of friendship with them as long as you live.
7 Do not despise an Edomite, for the Edomites are related to you. Do not despise an Egyptian, because you resided as foreigners in their country. 8 The third generation of children born to them may enter the assembly of the LORD.
Uncleanness in the Camp
9 When you are encamped against your enemies, keep away from everything impure. 10 If one of your men is unclean because of a nocturnal emission, he is to go outside the camp and stay there. 11 But as evening approaches he is to wash himself, and at sunset he may return to the camp.
12 Designate a place outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourself. 13 As part of your equipment have something to dig with, and when you relieve yourself, dig a hole and cover up your excrement. 14 For the LORD your God moves about in your camp to protect you and to deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy, so that he will not see among you anything indecent and turn away from you.
Miscellaneous Laws
15 If a slave has taken refuge with you, do not hand them over to their master. 16 Let them live among you wherever they like and in whatever town they choose. Do not oppress them.
17 No Israelite man or woman is to become a shrine prostitute. 18 You must not bring the earnings of a female prostitute or of a male prostitute into the house of the LORD your God to pay any vow, because the LORD your God detests them both.
19 Do not charge a fellow Israelite interest, whether on money or food or anything else that may earn interest. 20 You may charge a foreigner interest, but not a fellow Israelite, so that the LORD your God may bless you in everything you put your hand to in the land you are entering to possess.
21 If you make a vow to the LORD your God, do not be slow to pay it, for the LORD your God will certainly demand it of you and you will be guilty of sin. 22 But if you refrain from making a vow, you will not be guilty. 23 Whatever your lips utter you must be sure to do, because you made your vow freely to the LORD your God with your own mouth.
24 If you enter your neighbour’s vineyard, you may eat all the grapes you want, but do not put any in your basket. 25 If you enter your neighbour’s cornfield, you may pick the ears with your hands, but you must not put a sickle to their standing corn.
24 If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, 2 and if after she leaves his house she becomes the wife of another man, 3 and her second husband dislikes her and writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, or if he dies, 4 then her first husband, who divorced her, is not allowed to marry her again after she has been defiled. That would be detestable in the eyes of the LORD. Do not bring sin upon the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.
5 If a man has recently married, he must not be sent to war or have any other duty laid on him. For one year he is to be free to stay at home and bring happiness to the wife he has married.
6 Do not take a pair of millstones—not even the upper one—as security for a debt, because that would be taking a person’s livelihood as security.
7 If someone is caught kidnapping a fellow Israelite and treating or selling them as a slave, the kidnapper must die. You must purge the evil from among you.
8 In cases of defiling skin diseases, be very careful to do exactly as the Levitical priests instruct you. You must follow carefully what I have commanded them. 9 Remember what the LORD your God did to Miriam along the way after you came out of Egypt.
10 When you make a loan of any kind to your neighbour, do not go into their house to get what is offered to you as a pledge. 11 Stay outside and let the neighbour to whom you are making the loan bring the pledge out to you. 12 If the neighbour is poor, do not go to sleep with their pledge in your possession. 13 Return their cloak by sunset so that your neighbour may sleep in it. Then they will thank you, and it will be regarded as a righteous act in the sight of the LORD your God.
14 Do not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether that worker is a fellow Israelite or a foreigner residing in one of your towns. 15 Pay them their wages each day before sunset, because they are poor and are counting on it. Otherwise they may cry to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin.
16 Parents are not to be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their parents; each will die for their own sin.
17 Do not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge. 18 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you from there. That is why I command you to do this.
19 When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. 20 When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow. 21 When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow. 22 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. That is why I command you to do this.
25 When people have a dispute, they are to take it to court and the judges will decide the case, acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty. 2 If the guilty person deserves to be beaten, the judge shall make them lie down and have them flogged in his presence with the number of lashes the crime deserves, 3 but the judge must not impose more than forty lashes. If the guilty party is flogged more than that, your fellow Israelite will be degraded in your eyes.
4 Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.
5 If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her. 6 The first son she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel.
7 However, if a man does not want to marry his brother’s wife, she shall go to the elders at the town gate and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to carry on his brother’s name in Israel. He will not fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to me.” 8 Then the elders of his town shall summon him and talk to him. If he persists in saying, “I do not want to marry her,” 9 his brother’s widow shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, take off one of his sandals, spit in his face and say, “This is what is done to the man who will not build up his brother’s family line.” 10 That man’s line shall be known in Israel as The Family of the Unsandaled.
11 If two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes to rescue her husband from his assailant, and she reaches out and seizes him by his private parts, 12 you shall cut off her hand. Show her no pity.
13 Do not have two differing weights in your bag—one heavy, one light. 14 Do not have two differing measures in your house—one large, one small. 15 You must have accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you. 16 For the LORD your God detests anyone who does these things, anyone who deals dishonestly.
17 Remember what the Amalekites did to you along the way when you came out of Egypt. 18 When you were weary and worn out, they met you on your journey and attacked all who were lagging behind; they had no fear of God. 19 When the LORD your God gives you rest from all the enemies around you in the land he is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you shall blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!
Commentary
Remember what God has done for you
Throughout this passage the people of God are told to ‘remember’ (24:9,18,22; 25:17). In particular, they are to remember that they were slaves in Egypt and the Lord their God redeemed them (24:18–22). Indeed, the passage for today ends with the words, ‘do not forget!’ (25:19).
Again, there is a link with the poor. Because they were slaves in Egypt, they should remember those who are suffering: the lonely, the fatherless and the widow (24:21). They are to look after the poor and needy (v.14).
Generosity towards the poor was not a matter left to each individual’s conscience – it was a matter of law. It is surely right for a society to have laws to provide for the needs of the poor. But it should not stop there. It is also the calling of every Christian.
As the people of God in the Old Testament were called to remember that they had been slaves in Egypt and that God had redeemed them, we remember that at one time we also were enslaved to sin. Jesus redeemed you from that slavery.
Constantly remember what Jesus has done for you. That is one of the reasons the service of Holy Communion is so important. Jesus said, ‘do this in remembrance of me’ (Luke 22:19).
The purpose of the Christian calendar is to remember. At Christmas we remember and celebrate the incarnation. At Pentecost we remember and celebrate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Supremely, at Easter we remember and celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus. The resurrection is the peak of the Christian calendar. From the very earliest days, Christians have remembered the death and resurrection of Jesus in a service of celebration involving bread and wine taken in remembrance of Jesus.
Prayer
Lord, thank you for the body of Jesus that was given for me and his blood that was shed for me. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, your word and sacrament, may my thoughts and memories be focused on you.
Pippa adds
Luke 16:19-31
As I look at the rich man and Lazarus story, I find myself thinking, what a terrible man the rich man was! I am not like him, I am okay. But then I have to ask myself, ‘How much do I really care for the poor?’, and I realise how far short I fall (16:19).
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References
The Bible with Nicky and Pippa Gumbel (commentary formerly known as Bible in One Year) ©Alpha International 2009. All Rights Reserved.
Compilation of daily Bible readings © Hodder & Stoughton Limited 1988. Published by Hodder & Stoughton Limited as the Bible in One Year.
Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version Anglicised, Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 Biblica, formerly International Bible Society. Used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton Publishers, an Hachette UK company. All rights reserved. ‘NIV’ is a registered trademark of Biblica. UK trademark number 1448790.
Scripture quotations marked (AMP) taken from the Amplified® Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)
Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from The Message, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.