(Psalm 137)

In 587 Jerusalem was destroyed and the Israelites taken into exile. Psalm 137 poses the question to the Israelites of what the significance is of their previous life in Jerusalem. How do their memories of Jerusalem shape the understanding they have of themselves and what role do these memories play in their new life in Babylon? The psalmist asks this as both a theological and a therapeutic question. It is theological because the Israelites no longer have access to the Temple in Jerusalem and they have to learn new ways of worshipping Yaweh. It is therapeutic because the psalmist is distraught. There is a brutal, ghastly prose, within the psalm, singing to God for deliverance, but also wanting to be made happy by killing the children of his enemies. Verses of expectation, longing and love hold within them the apparently opposite sentiments of hate, revenge, and bloody-mindedness. The two are not mutually exclusive.

If they forget Jerusalem then they become absorbed into the Babylonian culture. Their memories of Jerusalem are precious to them precisely because they couldn't have it any more but if they cling to memories of Jerusalem then they do not engage with the Assyrian culture. They are unable to get on with their lives and do what Jeremiah asks which is to seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which God has taken them into exile (Jeremiah 29:7).

Jerusalem becomes a subversive and dangerous (Brueggeman) memory reminding the Israelites that although they are a part of Babylonian culture, they still do not belong because they have a distinctive identity as the people of God. Remembering and drawing strength from their past traditions recasts and transforms how they understand their position in exile. They are not simple a vanquished and scattered Diaspora - just as things have been different in the past, so too they will be different in the future. Remembering their past is key to retaining their identity as the people of God.

The issue of remembering is the same for us on Remembrance Day as it was for the Israelites in exile. The same question of learning how to sing in a strange land is as relevant to us as it was to them. What is the significance of us remembering war and conflict? How does this history and for some these memories shape the understanding we have of ourselves and of the world we live in.  We face the same dilemma as faced the Israelites. If we try to take refuge in self-denial and pretend that the wars never happened then we become a half-society shutting our minds to our history and heritage as a country. We put our heads in the sand and repeat the same mistakes made by previous generations. If we glorify in our imperialistic past then we lose our ability to engage with a new world order. The trauma of war means that the same strand of tight violence expressed in the psalm remains close to the surface for us as well – emotion and principle remain close to the surface.

Memories become subversive, even dangerous when they remind us of how things were in the past – if they were different then, they can be different again. It is remembering the past that enables us to interpret the present. The idea that we forget and move on is a half-life denying the experiences that have made us who we are as people and as a country. Christianity is not about forgetting but about remembering well. Forgiveness does not mean pretending that nothing has happened. It means acknowledging, understanding and then forgiving.