Intro The Old Testament book of Deuteronomy gets its name because it was the second time that God gave His Ten Commandments to His people. An entire generation was now alive who were not around when God earlier delivered His Law to His people. Why was that the case? It was because the Israelites had wandered in the wilderness for 40 years and one generation had died and another was now alive.
Main Body So, after Moses gave to them the Ten Commandments, for the second time, he went into a long farewell address. That’s most of Deuteronomy: A long goodbye from Moses to help prepare the Israelites as they were getting ready to cross the Jordan River and enter the Promised Land. So, Moses reminded the people who they were. He said in Deuteronomy, chapter 7: It wasn’t because you outnumbered all the other people that the Lord loved you and chose you, for you were the smallest of nations. It was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath that he swore to your fathers. So he brought you out with a mighty hand and freed you from the house of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. [Deuteronomy 7:7-8] God did not choose the Israelites because they were special. They were special because God had chosen them. Then when Moses gets to Deuteronomy 29, he reminds the people again of God’s grace and mercy. Moses told them that God’s power and might brought them out of Egypt and delivered them from their enemies. Moses said that it was God’s steadfast love that upheld them in the wilderness, even though they deserved to die. Then right before our Old Testament reading for today, the Israelites heard what God promised to them as His people: “The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live (Deuteronomy 30:6). Circumcision was something that God had commanded to bring someone into His family in the Old Covenant. But circumcision was more than an outward act; faith in the heart also accompanied circumcision. That sounds a bit like baptism in the New Covenant, doesn’t it? (Colossians 2:11-13). It was then as God’s people, whom God had already chosen, where Moses urges them to choose life or death. This idea of choosing life or death, after God has already chosen you, is really the choice to remain in the faith or walk away from it. This choice to remain in a covenant relationship with God is one that rings throughout Scripture: [God told the Prophet Jeremiah to tell the people of Jerusalem,] “This is what the Lord says: ‘Look, I am setting before you the way of life and the way of death.’” [Jeremiah 21:8] St. Matthew recorded Jesus saying: “Enter through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the road is broad that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and few find it.” [Matthew 7:13-14] And even the earliest New-Testament Church taught this in a 1st-century document called the Didache. That was a document the early Church put together to show Gentile converts what living the Christian life looked like. And the Didache started out with these words: “There are two ways: One of life and one of death, and great is the difference between the two ways” (Didache 1:1). God, through Moses, was calling the people to have a lifetime of walking in the way of life. The last verse in our Old Testament reading makes that clear: “Love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and remain faithful to Him.” Moses was not asking for a one-time decision. He wanted a life-long response of faithfulness that would continue with the people of Israel long after he had died. And so God the Holy Spirit, through the Scriptures He inspired to be written, affirmed two truths. One: God is one who brings us into a relationship with Him (Deuteronomy 30:6). Two: But we also have a responsibility in living out the faith given us (Deuteronomy 30:19). Earlier, we heard that God circumcises our hearts. And that is true: God is the one who works faith in your heart. Yet, we also heard God say, “Choose life so that you and your descendants may live.” Don’t we hear words like that also in the New Testament? Philippians 2:12-13 says: “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who is working in you, enabling you both to want and to live out his good purposes.” So, from our perspective, the Christian life involves choices that we make. But from God’s perspective, He is the One who creates the faith (and the choices) in His people. On this side of heaven, we can’t fully resolve the two. But we know it to be true. So, how do we “choose” when we are already God’s chosen? That can be perplexing for us, can’t it? Well, God helps us out with words He gave to Moses earlier in Deuteronomy, chapter 30: Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not in heaven, as if one must say, “Who will go up to heaven to get it for us so we can hear it and do it?” And it is not across the sea, as if one must say, “Who will cross over to the other side of the sea and get it for us so we can hear it and do it?” No, the word is near you, even in your mouth and in your heart, so that you may follow it. [Deuteronomy 30:11-14] God not only chooses us as His own; He also gives us the power to “choose life.” For the Word that enables that in our lives is in our mouths and in our hearts. So, the next question then is, “How do we get that Word in our mouth and in our hearts?” In the Old Covenant, God’s people went to the Temple, where sacrifices were offered, and God forgave His people through the shed blood of those sacrifices. In one particular sacrifice, the Peace Offering, both the priest and the people ate part of the sacrifice. God even “ate” His part in what was offered and burned on the altar. So, even in the Old Covenant, God had set up a way for His people to eat with Him, to have a communion with Him. Through such eating, God was with them, even in their eating, in their mouths. In the Old Covenant, God’s people also went to the synagogue to hear the read and preached Word. Through such a word from the Rabbi’s mouth, which the people heard, the word made its way into their hearts. But for those of us in the New Covenant, our lives now look different. After all, Jesus fulfilled the Old-Covenant--and so synagogue worship is no more. Instead, in its fulfilled form in the New Covenant, Synagogue worship has now become the Service of the Word. That’s the first part of our worship service, where the Scriptures are read and where you hear the preached Word. Through such a word from the Pastor’s mouth, which you hear, the word makes its way into your hearts. Old-Covenant Temple worship, that is all those sacrifices, in its fulfilled form became the Service of the Sacrament: The Lord’s Supper. For Jesus fulfilled all the Temple sacrifices by dying on the cross for us, becoming THE sacrifice for our sins. But Jesus did more than that. He also instituted His Supper, calling it the “New Covenant,” as the way to bring His cross-won forgiveness to His people today. In the Old Covenant, by faith, the Israelites went to where God gave out His forgiveness for their sins. By faith, they went to hear the read and preached Word, pointing them to the Messiah to come. Through those ways that existed in the Old Covenant, God created and strengthened the faith of His people. And in such faith, they “chose life,” that is, they chose the ways of God over the ways of the world. In the New Covenant, by faith, we go to where God gives out His forgiveness for our sins in His Supper. By faith, we go to hear the read and preached Word. Through Word and Sacrament, the two main parts of the worship service, God creates and strengthens the faith of His people. And in such faith, like God’s Old-Covenant people, we “choose life,” that is, we choose the ways of God over the ways of the world. God, our Father, continues to nourish this work of choosing life within us. This happens when our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, comes to us in His Holy Supper and strengthens us each day to walk in His ways and serve Him faithfully. Equipped through Word and Sacrament, we can boldly go into a world of temptation and testing, into a world full of many evil choices. Through God’s means of grace, He strengthens us to “choose life” in a world filled with death. In a sense, we don’t really have, or don’t want, any other choices. We choose to follow God and His ways and turn aside from the many voices of the devil, the world, and our flesh. For to do otherwise, is to walk away from God. God called Israel of old to be a light to the nations, by faithfully following Him and His ways. God also calls us to the same. He calls us to be a new people going forth into a world clouded in darkness, needing to see His light of life and salvation. Conclusion As we continue to gather around God’s Word and Sacraments, God the Holy Spirit will continue to strengthen us to “choose life” amid this world of death. Indeed, it’s as Jesus tells us: “You did not choose me, but I chose you. I have appointed you to go and produce fruit--fruit that will last” (John 15:16), even into eternity. Amen. -- Rich Futrell, Pastor Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, Kimberling City, MO http://sothl.com Where we receive and confess the faith of the Church (in and with the Augsburg Confession): The faith once delivered to the saints, the faith of Christ Jesus, His Word of the Gospel, His full forgiveness of sins, His flesh and blood given and poured out for us, and His gracious gift of life for body, soul, and spirit. _______________________________________________ Sermons mailing list [email protected] http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
