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The Eighth Sunday After Pentecost, 08/04/2019
The God Who Turns That We May Re-turn
Sermon on Deuteronomy 30:9-14.18-20, by Samuel Zumwalt
Deuteronomy 30:9-14 © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers]
A lesson from Deuteronomy: 9 The Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your cattle and in the fruit of your ground.For the LORD will again take delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers, 10 when you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, when you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 11 “For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. 12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 14 But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.
THE GOD WHO TURNS THAT WE MAY RE-TURN
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Today’s first lesson offers a strong argument for bringing your Bibles to worship or for borrowing one from the cart as you enter into the nave. Our lessons are called pericopes, which means a portion of a biblical text. Because the Old Testament lessons have been chosen to complement the Gospel reading for the day, we often don’t have a sense of the context of the reading. This is especially true today.
Those of you devoted to Bible study already know that Deuteronomy functions as Moses’ goodbye sermon to the generation of those born in the wilderness who will enter the Promised Land without him. Moses has repeatedly warned them of the impending dangers of prosperity and of assimilating into the existing culture of the Canaanites. His message can be summarized as: “Because the LORD God has made you His by grace, having rescued His people from bondage in Egypt, therefore you are to keep covenant with Him. Those who do God’s good and gracious will receive blessings. Those who do not receive curses.” Now, near the end of Deuteronomy, Moses has told them God’s people will be scattered as a result of their disobedience, but He reminds them that God is ready always to bless those who “re-turn” to worship (to serve and to live with) Him. Moses reminds His hearers that the question is never “if” we will worship but rather “Who” we will worship.
God Hasn’t Moved
11 “For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off.”
The Hebrew word translated “far off” is “rachoq” (raw-khoke). This talk of nearness and farness is relationship language, as in, “For better, for worse; for richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health; to love and to cherish.” In other words, God isn’t talking about “commandment” as some impersonal law which one can keep or not keep without consequence. It’s not even like when Interstate 40 begins 8 stoplights from here and you set the cruise control 5-7 miles over the speed limit and hope not to get pulled over. In other words, it’s not about how much you can get away with before you get caught – like when you stupidly flirt with or maybe text someone other than your spouse, because you’re angry or selfish or bored or just need to feel someone finds you attractive.
God is never onlyfar off. God is never onlydistant. And the Word of God (in Hebrew “dabar”) is not an “it” to be regarded or disregarded according to one’s mood or whim or will. The Word of God isGod. He is neverabsent. It is we who distance ourselves from Him. Unlike God, we can’t be two places at once. Unlike God, we can’t be both far (transcendent) and near (immanent). If we are near to God, we aren’t far off. If we are distant from God, we aren’t near. And with that spatial truth about us creatures comes logical consequences. We should not be surprised that choices have consequences.
Let’s think for a moment about an issue on everyone’s minds. If I point a gun at someone, I should not be surprised if I am shot or arrested by police or killed by someone else with a gun. It is a logical consequence of my choosing to carry a weapon, to place a weapon in my hand, to threaten with a weapon, or to fire a weapon. Guns don’t jump off of shelves or out of the trunks of cars, then load themselves, or fire themselves. Guns don’t magically disappear if they are suddenly made illegal. We may get angry about violence, especially against those not carrying weapons, but our anger and frustration and imagining a violence-free world does not affect in any way those who choose violence. I do not believe that all police officers, most, or even many, want to shoot innocent people.
Within the context of today’s reading, Moses assumes that once God’s people are living in the land which God gave them, they will be seduced by their prosperity and seduced by the other gods of the Canaanites. As a result of choosing to worship and serve other gods, including the one in the mirror, God’s people will consequently be far off from the God who is very near. Not listening to God – which is disobedience – will result in the curses that come by choosing other gods over the one true God. In other words, God will always let us have our own way even if that results in death. And it does! God will always let us have our own way even if we choose separation from Him!
Re-Turn To The LORD
10 ...when you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
In grace, God chose Israel to be His own through no effort or merit of their own. There was nothing about Abram and Sarai that was more winsome or lovely. They were idol-worshipers from a long line of idol-worshipers. Israel in Egypt worshiped idols, and, even after God rescued them and brought them to the base of Sinai, there they worshiped a golden calf. And that history is the history of humankind and even of us Christians.
At the right time (in Greek “kairos”), God sent His Son, the Word made flesh, to draw near first to His own and then to the Gentiles, that all might be reconciled to God and to each other. He does what we cannot do. God’s Son Jesus lived the perfectly obedient life none of us can live and died the perfectly innocent death none of us can die, that we might be made His own through our Baptism into His death and resurrection. As Paul wrote to the Colossian: “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (1:13-14). From the first Christian Pentecost until today, Baptism is the necessary rebirth by which we are joined to Jesus’ death and resurrection. Repentance, which is re-turning to God (in Hebrew “shub”), is the daily practice of Baptism – dying to myself and other gods and rising with Christ to a new life.
Paul wrote in Romans: Who will deliver me from this body of death (7:24)? It keeps on distancing me from the God who loves me. I cannot be delivered by choice or will or reason. God Himself must deliver me again and again, or I will not be delivered!
14 But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.
By the Lord Jesus’ own promise, He, the very Word of God, is near (in Hebrew “qarob”). Wherever two or three are gathered in His name, He is near in His Word and in the Sacraments, which are His Visible Word, the Word we can see. Think again how God’s Word became Visible in Bethlehem’s manger. When the Holy Spirit does His work of claiming us in the washing of Holy Baptism, the Word of God is very near. When the Holy Spirit does the work of proclaiming God’s forgiveness, the Word of God is very near in the written and spoken Word. When the Holy Spirit does the work of feeding us with the true Body and most precious Blood of Jesus in the Host and the Cup, the Word of God is literally in our mouths. From there, the eternal Life and Love of God claims our hearts, our minds, our bodies, and our spirit. Where Jesus is present in us, we can do all things through Him who strengthens us – even keeping His commandments (in Hebrew the word for keeping is “shamar”). Jesus comes to keep us near to His Father.
9 ...For the LORD will again take delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers...
As a result of his own disobedience, Moses, the servant of God, was not able to lead God’s people into the Promised Land. He died in the wilderness, and God buried him. Recognizing the logical consequence of his disobedience, Moses tried to impress upon the younger generation of God’s people the dangers of prosperity and of other gods.
As with all God’s true prophets, Moses pointed to God’s faithfulness to His people without fully understanding how God Himself would have to do what we cannot do. By the gift of His own Son, we know that God takes delight in prosperingHis people, which in Hebrew is “tov” literally giving us His goodness. This is not mere prosperity but the gratitude that comes when we know Whose we are and Who is the source of all good!
When we love someone, we want to spend time with that person. The relationship itself is the gift. Love is not what we get from the relationship. Love is giving not getting. The LORD God has a passion (eros) for His people, but He chooses to give His own life (agape) even though we do not deserve it and cannot earn it by our own giving to Him!
Dear ones, here’s the “so what” of today’s lesson. Recognize the the source of the blessings (“tov”) God has already given you and how He richly continues to place His blessings in your hands. Serve the LORD by worshiping Him faithfully and by daily acknowledging both His nearness to you and your farness from Him. Pay attention to the dangers of prosperity and your own worship of other gods including the people in your life! Pay attention to those in need around you with whom you can share God’s blessings. Sign up to serve at the food bank or to serve the homeless families that stay with us for a week each quarter. Remember the persecuted Church in prayer and consider making a gift to Voice of the Martyrs (www.persecution.com).
Sisters and brothers, gratefully call upon the name of the LORD daily. He is your strength and your Help. Surround yourself with those who also call upon the name of the LORD and use what God has placed in your hands to glorify Him and not yourself!
In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.