This is the last of the Lenten devotionals. We have enjoyed our time of fellowship over the past six weeks.
When you have come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, and you possess it, and settle in it, 2 you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his name. 3 You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and say to him, "Today I declare to the LORD your God that I have come into the land that the LORD swore to our ancestors to give us." 4 When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the LORD your God, 5 you shall make this response before the LORD your God: "A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. 6 When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, 7 we cried to the LORD, the God of our ancestors; the LORD heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. 8 The LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; 9 and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10 So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O LORD, have given me." You shall set it down before the LORD your God and bow down before the LORD your God. 11 Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the LORD your God has given to you and to your house. (Deuteronomy 26:1-11, NRSV)
This is more of the instructions for life in the Promised Land. God has given them the land and when the land gives them something to sustain their lives, this is what they are supposed to do with it. They are to take the first of it and bring it to the sanctuary and put it down. They are to declare that they live in the land that God gave and recite this speech: “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, we cried to the LORD, the God of our ancestors; the LORD heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. The LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O LORD, have given me.” Then the gift is to be shared with the Levites and the aliens, those who do not have land to support them.
They are to retell the national history that brought them to that moment. All the main points of their history are there and they are to recall it, recite it. They were slaves, they were freed, they were brought to this land and given it. It is remarkable how each individual is connected with the history as they bring their offering. By telling the story of the whole people as part of your story, you join who you once were and what you do today. Your personal story and the national story are mixed together. It is like our holiday of Thanksgiving. We remember, if we pay attention, that the holiday is about how we came to this country and were helped through hard early times. We gained our independence, identified our freedom, grew, fought a war that threatened to divide the nation, and went on to become world innovators and leaders. That is what is behind the feast, that God has helped and provided for us throughout our history. And we are prosperous enough today to celebrate with food and rest and travel and festivities. We do that because we are a part of what happened and is happening; we, too, are a part of the national story.
In giving, like the Israelites, we remember where we have come from and, more importantly, that God is behind the fact we have abundance. We remember God’s hand in history, not only of our nation, but our personal stories. We see God’s goodness around us and in our past. We remember that God’s gifts are to be enjoyed and used. The abundance is not reluctantly given away, it is to be celebrated with joy.
There is more to it than that. Fred Rogers, Mr. Rogers of children’s television programming, was asked to write a chapter in an ophthalmology textbook. They looked for his understanding of children to help eye doctors put their younger patients at ease in what can be frightening procedures and exams. He began the chapter, “You were a child once …” and invited the doctors and medical students to understand how they are to act in the present by how they were once young themselves. They were to think back to their pasts so that they could understand others. So, too, the Israelites. They were strangers wandering without a land and God gave them this good land, and now in bringing their gifts they are to provide for those who do not have land. So, too, us. We were strangers once, and someone welcomed us. We were hungry once and someone gave us food. That is why our part of the story is to grow and expand and to include others. That is why we present our gifts. That is why coming into the land is not an end, but a beginning.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Thursday, April 7, 2011
This is last night's devotional. Next week we wrap up the series based on Moses' instructions to the Israelite people right before they enter the Promised Land.
This entire commandment that I command you today you must diligently observe, so that you may live and increase, and go in and occupy the land that the LORD promised on oath to your ancestors. 2 Remember the long way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments. 3 He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. 4 The clothes on your back did not wear out and your feet did not swell these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that as a parent disciplines a child so the LORD your God disciplines you. 6 Therefore keep the commandments of the LORD your God, by walking in his ways and by fearing him. 7 For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills, 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, 9 a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you may mine copper. 10 You shall eat your fill and bless the LORD your God for the good land that he has given you.
11 Take care that you do not forget the LORD your God, by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I am commanding you today. 12 When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, 13 and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, 14 then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, 15 who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, an arid wasteland with poisonous snakes and scorpions. He made water flow for you from flint rock, 16 and fed you in the wilderness with manna that your ancestors did not know, to humble you and to test you, and in the end to do you good. 17 Do not say to yourself, "My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth." 18 But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today. 19 If you do forget the LORD your God and follow other gods to serve and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. 20 Like the nations that the LORD is destroying before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God. (Deuteronomy 8:1-20, NRSV)
“Poor But Honest”
My dad used to joke that he came from a “poor but dishonest” family. Now, I know that explaining a joke makes it even less funny, but it was, of course, not true. Pat and Hattie were some of the most honest people around. Grandma used to say that no honest work was bad work. And, if you think about it, a person who is dishonest and poor is either dumb or lazy. I think why my dad thought it was funny was that it was a parody of many of the biographies of some years back which stressed that the person came from “poor but honest” parents and rose by his or her own abilities to become great and famous. The name for such a person back then was the “self-made man”.
Dad never forgot where he came from. He grew up in the Great Depression and never forgot it. My uncle described their family dinners as potatoes and bologna, potatoes and bologna, potatoes and bologna. People from that era include both folks who, having undergone severe deprivation, went on to spend lavishly on whatever they wanted, never to feel deprived again. And it included others who saved everything because hard times might come again. It was not an easy time and not all the people who lived through it were poor but honest. My dad tells the story of a man who visited a friend at a job site with a bottle of whisky, had a few too many drinks with the friend, then called the boss to report the employee was drunk on the job, then applied for the open position the next day. The experience of poverty tests people. It makes some people kinder, other people meaner.
The reading from Deuteronomy is about the other experience. It is about the experience of prosperity. We might not think that such a condition is dangerous, but the reading cautions the Israelites about it. When they go into the land that God has promised them, they will have new temptations. In the desert they were tempted to doubt God’s care and to forget God’s directions. The wandering in the wilderness was to test what was in their hearts. Arriving in the land will, too.
The Promised Land will have flowing streams, wheat and barley, honey and olives, vines and figs and pomegranates. There will be no scarcity, they will lack nothing, and they will bless the Lord. Then the possibility for trouble begins. The warning is not to forget God in the abundance. It is not to forget God’s commandments. And it is not to exalt themselves, to think that they are self-made people, the source of their own prosperity, when, in fact, it is the gift of God. We don’t like this idea of testing, that there is another hurdle. We like the idea that when we become prosperous, we “have it made” or “have arrived”.
The reaction to poverty tests people. The choices we make when things are going well count every bit as much as those we make when things are not prosperous. We don’t like to hear that. We want to be comfortable and assume that the state of being wealthy is entirely good. Prosperity, or the desire to be prosperous, can distract us and blind us in many ways.
There are some dangers with wealth or with being preoccupied with getting ahead. One is how people can hide in it. They feel free from life’s realities. We can begin to think that money is the meaning of life. Henry David Thoreau went out to the woods near Walden Pond, near Concord, Massachusetts, over 150 years ago. There he lived off the land, as simply as possible in a cabin, as an experiment in living, as he put it: “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear …”
Prosperity can change how we treat others. It can change how we see ourselves. The stories of many successful people emphasize how they achieved success, not where they have come from. They forgot how others helped them and the opportunities that came their way. Prosperity can make some people vain. Prosperity can make people more greedy and fearful. Those are some of the ways prosperity tests us as much as poverty does.
The answer for the Israelites is to recall how they came to the land. They are to remember their path, their story. It was under God’s leading and protection and care. That did not begin on the day they came into the Promised Land. It is also that they are to remember the One who brought them to the land. The Israelites are to remember that they are God’s people. They are not self-made. The land is a gift. Their abundance is to include kindness, generosity, humility, and gratitude. Only then will they live in the land well, and be truly well-off.
This entire commandment that I command you today you must diligently observe, so that you may live and increase, and go in and occupy the land that the LORD promised on oath to your ancestors. 2 Remember the long way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments. 3 He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. 4 The clothes on your back did not wear out and your feet did not swell these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that as a parent disciplines a child so the LORD your God disciplines you. 6 Therefore keep the commandments of the LORD your God, by walking in his ways and by fearing him. 7 For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills, 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, 9 a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you may mine copper. 10 You shall eat your fill and bless the LORD your God for the good land that he has given you.
11 Take care that you do not forget the LORD your God, by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I am commanding you today. 12 When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, 13 and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, 14 then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, 15 who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, an arid wasteland with poisonous snakes and scorpions. He made water flow for you from flint rock, 16 and fed you in the wilderness with manna that your ancestors did not know, to humble you and to test you, and in the end to do you good. 17 Do not say to yourself, "My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth." 18 But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today. 19 If you do forget the LORD your God and follow other gods to serve and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. 20 Like the nations that the LORD is destroying before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God. (Deuteronomy 8:1-20, NRSV)
“Poor But Honest”
My dad used to joke that he came from a “poor but dishonest” family. Now, I know that explaining a joke makes it even less funny, but it was, of course, not true. Pat and Hattie were some of the most honest people around. Grandma used to say that no honest work was bad work. And, if you think about it, a person who is dishonest and poor is either dumb or lazy. I think why my dad thought it was funny was that it was a parody of many of the biographies of some years back which stressed that the person came from “poor but honest” parents and rose by his or her own abilities to become great and famous. The name for such a person back then was the “self-made man”.
Dad never forgot where he came from. He grew up in the Great Depression and never forgot it. My uncle described their family dinners as potatoes and bologna, potatoes and bologna, potatoes and bologna. People from that era include both folks who, having undergone severe deprivation, went on to spend lavishly on whatever they wanted, never to feel deprived again. And it included others who saved everything because hard times might come again. It was not an easy time and not all the people who lived through it were poor but honest. My dad tells the story of a man who visited a friend at a job site with a bottle of whisky, had a few too many drinks with the friend, then called the boss to report the employee was drunk on the job, then applied for the open position the next day. The experience of poverty tests people. It makes some people kinder, other people meaner.
The reading from Deuteronomy is about the other experience. It is about the experience of prosperity. We might not think that such a condition is dangerous, but the reading cautions the Israelites about it. When they go into the land that God has promised them, they will have new temptations. In the desert they were tempted to doubt God’s care and to forget God’s directions. The wandering in the wilderness was to test what was in their hearts. Arriving in the land will, too.
The Promised Land will have flowing streams, wheat and barley, honey and olives, vines and figs and pomegranates. There will be no scarcity, they will lack nothing, and they will bless the Lord. Then the possibility for trouble begins. The warning is not to forget God in the abundance. It is not to forget God’s commandments. And it is not to exalt themselves, to think that they are self-made people, the source of their own prosperity, when, in fact, it is the gift of God. We don’t like this idea of testing, that there is another hurdle. We like the idea that when we become prosperous, we “have it made” or “have arrived”.
The reaction to poverty tests people. The choices we make when things are going well count every bit as much as those we make when things are not prosperous. We don’t like to hear that. We want to be comfortable and assume that the state of being wealthy is entirely good. Prosperity, or the desire to be prosperous, can distract us and blind us in many ways.
There are some dangers with wealth or with being preoccupied with getting ahead. One is how people can hide in it. They feel free from life’s realities. We can begin to think that money is the meaning of life. Henry David Thoreau went out to the woods near Walden Pond, near Concord, Massachusetts, over 150 years ago. There he lived off the land, as simply as possible in a cabin, as an experiment in living, as he put it: “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear …”
Prosperity can change how we treat others. It can change how we see ourselves. The stories of many successful people emphasize how they achieved success, not where they have come from. They forgot how others helped them and the opportunities that came their way. Prosperity can make some people vain. Prosperity can make people more greedy and fearful. Those are some of the ways prosperity tests us as much as poverty does.
The answer for the Israelites is to recall how they came to the land. They are to remember their path, their story. It was under God’s leading and protection and care. That did not begin on the day they came into the Promised Land. It is also that they are to remember the One who brought them to the land. The Israelites are to remember that they are God’s people. They are not self-made. The land is a gift. Their abundance is to include kindness, generosity, humility, and gratitude. Only then will they live in the land well, and be truly well-off.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
This is last week's Lenten devotional. We had to skip a week because of snow and sleet. The weather in Minnesota almost always manages to give us a little surprise.
NRSV Deuteronomy 6:1 Now this is the commandment-- the statutes and the ordinances-- that the LORD your God charged me to teach you to observe in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy, 2 so that you and your children and your children's children may fear the LORD your God all the days of your life, and keep all his decrees and his commandments that I am commanding you, so that your days may be long. 3 Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe them diligently, so that it may go well with you, and so that you may multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, has promised you. 4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. 6 Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. 7 Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. 8 Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, 9 and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
NRSV Deuteronomy 6:20 When your children ask you in time to come, "What is the meaning of the decrees and the statutes and the ordinances that the LORD our God has commanded you?" 21 then you shall say to your children, "We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt, but the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 22 The LORD displayed before our eyes great and awesome signs and wonders against Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his household. 23 He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land that he promised on oath to our ancestors. 24 Then the LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our lasting good, so as to keep us alive, as is now the case. 25 If we diligently observe this entire commandment before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us, we will be in the right."
PASSING IT DOWN
I have a friend who has a relative who is worried about leaving things to her children. That is a way of keeping precious things in the family. That is a good impulse for someone in their later years, but my friend wishes the relative would be more decisive about it. The plan constantly shifts back and forth. The list keeps changing. It is sometimes hard to figure out whether it is going forward or backward. One concern is what they will do with it. Another is whether each gift fits the individual. Decisions are made and unmade.
As we have been considering these weeks of Lent, the Book of Deuteronomy contains the speeches Moses gave the people right before they were about to enter the Promised Land. It is a plan for entering the Promised Land and staying there. The land is their inheritance. God promised it to them long ago and that has not changed. But staying there could be as tricky as getting into it. God makes a covenant with the people of Israel and the land is part of that covenant, so when the people cease to be in the covenant, cease fulfilling their part of the covenant, then their future, their inheritance, their living in the land, is in question. So it is very important that they keep it.
And so, part of this is learning, learning the covenant, learning the relationship with God, again and again, over and over, from generation to generation. It is not just repeating the words; it is finding the meaning of faith. That is why when the children ask they should have an answer for them. We should too. That is what Christian Education is. It is so that our children, like the children of the Israelites, have a faith of their own, like an inheritance, something given to them, but given away, given as we let go of it into their own hands, so that it can be their own. It is it is so they can have lives of faith that sustain them all through their lives.
What we learn in life, even very early in life, is important in who we become and how we see God and ourselves. W. Frederick Wooden tells the story of when he was a boy, not athletic, who could only climb one or two branches of the neighborhood tree. The evening before they moved out of the neighborhood, he made one last attempt. He went to the top and looked around and fifty years later still remembers that. The most important learning is about who we are and what we can do, not what we have.
God is giving a message to Moses. And Moses is giving it to the Israelites about this great inheritance. It is not furniture, not stocks and bonds, or cattle, or antiques, or coin collections, or houses, or something else. It is the knowledge of what is most important and what God is doing and who they are. It is that the meaning of their faith is who God is and who they are and what their relationship to God is. They are to pass this on from generation to generation. How they live according to those things will determine their future. How they teach them, will determine their future’s future.
The most important thing is this: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” And they are to learn the people’s story. “Who are we?” they might ask. “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand to give us the land that he promised on oath to our ancestors.” And what are they to do? “Love God.”
They are to recite the words, to learn them over and over. That is their truth, their story, their inheritance. These great truths are a gift. An inheritance is a gift, to our children and children’s children, and to their children. It is what makes life possible. If there is anything worth passing down it is these. When your children ask.
NRSV Deuteronomy 6:1 Now this is the commandment-- the statutes and the ordinances-- that the LORD your God charged me to teach you to observe in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy, 2 so that you and your children and your children's children may fear the LORD your God all the days of your life, and keep all his decrees and his commandments that I am commanding you, so that your days may be long. 3 Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe them diligently, so that it may go well with you, and so that you may multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, has promised you. 4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. 6 Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. 7 Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. 8 Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, 9 and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
NRSV Deuteronomy 6:20 When your children ask you in time to come, "What is the meaning of the decrees and the statutes and the ordinances that the LORD our God has commanded you?" 21 then you shall say to your children, "We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt, but the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 22 The LORD displayed before our eyes great and awesome signs and wonders against Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his household. 23 He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land that he promised on oath to our ancestors. 24 Then the LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our lasting good, so as to keep us alive, as is now the case. 25 If we diligently observe this entire commandment before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us, we will be in the right."
PASSING IT DOWN
I have a friend who has a relative who is worried about leaving things to her children. That is a way of keeping precious things in the family. That is a good impulse for someone in their later years, but my friend wishes the relative would be more decisive about it. The plan constantly shifts back and forth. The list keeps changing. It is sometimes hard to figure out whether it is going forward or backward. One concern is what they will do with it. Another is whether each gift fits the individual. Decisions are made and unmade.
As we have been considering these weeks of Lent, the Book of Deuteronomy contains the speeches Moses gave the people right before they were about to enter the Promised Land. It is a plan for entering the Promised Land and staying there. The land is their inheritance. God promised it to them long ago and that has not changed. But staying there could be as tricky as getting into it. God makes a covenant with the people of Israel and the land is part of that covenant, so when the people cease to be in the covenant, cease fulfilling their part of the covenant, then their future, their inheritance, their living in the land, is in question. So it is very important that they keep it.
And so, part of this is learning, learning the covenant, learning the relationship with God, again and again, over and over, from generation to generation. It is not just repeating the words; it is finding the meaning of faith. That is why when the children ask they should have an answer for them. We should too. That is what Christian Education is. It is so that our children, like the children of the Israelites, have a faith of their own, like an inheritance, something given to them, but given away, given as we let go of it into their own hands, so that it can be their own. It is it is so they can have lives of faith that sustain them all through their lives.
What we learn in life, even very early in life, is important in who we become and how we see God and ourselves. W. Frederick Wooden tells the story of when he was a boy, not athletic, who could only climb one or two branches of the neighborhood tree. The evening before they moved out of the neighborhood, he made one last attempt. He went to the top and looked around and fifty years later still remembers that. The most important learning is about who we are and what we can do, not what we have.
God is giving a message to Moses. And Moses is giving it to the Israelites about this great inheritance. It is not furniture, not stocks and bonds, or cattle, or antiques, or coin collections, or houses, or something else. It is the knowledge of what is most important and what God is doing and who they are. It is that the meaning of their faith is who God is and who they are and what their relationship to God is. They are to pass this on from generation to generation. How they live according to those things will determine their future. How they teach them, will determine their future’s future.
The most important thing is this: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” And they are to learn the people’s story. “Who are we?” they might ask. “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand to give us the land that he promised on oath to our ancestors.” And what are they to do? “Love God.”
They are to recite the words, to learn them over and over. That is their truth, their story, their inheritance. These great truths are a gift. An inheritance is a gift, to our children and children’s children, and to their children. It is what makes life possible. If there is anything worth passing down it is these. When your children ask.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Here is the Lenten devotional message from a couple weeks ago.
Deuteronomy 4:1 So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the LORD, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. 2 You must neither add anything to what I command you nor take away anything from it, but keep the commandments of the LORD your God with which I am charging you. … 5 See, just as the LORD my God has charged me, I now teach you statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land that you are about to enter and occupy. 6 You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!" 7 For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is whenever we call to him? 8 And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today? 9 But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children's children-- 10 how you once stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, when the LORD said to me, "Assemble the people for me, and I will let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me as long as they live on the earth, and may teach their children so"; 11 you approached and stood at the foot of the mountain while the mountain was blazing up to the very heavens, shrouded in dark clouds. 12 Then the LORD spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice. 13 He declared to you his covenant, which he charged you to observe, that is, the ten commandments; and he wrote them on two stone tablets. 14 And the LORD charged me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy. 15 Since you saw no form when the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire, take care and watch yourselves closely, 16 so that you do not act corruptly by making an idol for yourselves, in the form of any figure-- the likeness of male or female, 17 the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, 18 the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth. 19 And when you look up to the heavens and see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, do not be led astray and bow down to them and serve them, things that the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples everywhere under heaven. 20 But the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron-smelter, out of Egypt, to become a people of his very own possession, as you are now. 21 The LORD was angry with me because of you, and he vowed that I should not cross the Jordan and that I should not enter the good land that the LORD your God is giving for your possession. 22 For I am going to die in this land without crossing over the Jordan, but you are going to cross over to take possession of that good land. 23 So be careful not to forget the covenant that the LORD your God made with you, and not to make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything that the LORD your God has forbidden you. 24 For the LORD your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God.
The instructions to the Israelites about how they are to live once they enter the Promised Land continue. You might say God gives them advice. Advice, the accumulated wisdom from others, comes in many forms. Al McGuire, the great Marquette University Basketball coach, left behind some pieces of it:
Dream big. Don’t be just another guy going down the street and going nowhere.
Congratulate the temporary.
We rush for the stars as we crawl toward our graves.
Anyone who offers to double your money, walk away. If he offers to make you 20 percent, hear him out.
There are probably stories behind some of these statements, especially the last one. These, and other statements, give us wisdom to live in the world. Wise behavior shows wise thinking. Another approach is to establish a set of laws to insure good behavior. And lastly, there is learning from the example of the past. We can learn much from what we and others have done before and how it worked out.
All three of these are in the reading from Deuteronomy. The name of the book is one of the strangest in the Bible. It comes from a word in the Greek translation meaning “second law”, but in fact that is not correct. It is not a second law; it is a retelling of the giving of law in Exodus. The Hebrew name of the book is debarim, meaning ‘words’, because these are the words of Moses and God. When the people of God follow these laws and principles, then they can live in the new land as a community. It is also a summary of their experience.
“Do not forget what your eyes have seen.” God took the Israelites out of Egypt. That is the beginning of the community and the plan for its life together as much as any words given. “Do not forget what your eyes have seen.” They saw how God led them in the wilderness. But there is something else they should see. Before they entered the land they wandered in the wilderness for forty years. They made mistakes. We like to bury or forget our mistakes, but when we do that we can’t learn from them. We do not like how past mistakes make us feel. We do not want anyone to ask us the hard questions that follow after our faults or errors become obvious. Sometimes we only remember part of the past. We might remember, say, how we were wronged, but not what we ourselves did in the situation. Or we would rather try to believe in a false version of the past in which we were always right and we could be right again if we just got back there somehow. We try to forget that real past and then are surprised when the future is only a repetition of the past. Without a past, without the desire to live in better ways than we lived in the past, we end up back where we were. That is a kind of wandering. It definitely isn’t living in the land God gives us.
The Israelites had turned to an idol when Moses was up the mountain talking to God. They did not know when or if he would come down the mountain with the commandments, but they created a golden calf and worshiped it. The word came down from the mountain not to worship idols as they were doing it. There is proof that we need things in words. People do stupid things without guidance. And so later, when they are about to enter the land God tells them again about that time. It is not to embarrass them, but so that they will remember it, learn from it, and live rightly. They are to remember the golden calf so that they do not create any more idols of any sort. God wants to give them a new and better experience than some of the past.
What they are getting by going into the Promised Land is a new beginning, another chance, the gift of a new day. And the question is how they will use it. Gifts can be used or can be squandered and lost. Sometimes we stop valuing what we are given when we forget what life was like before we were given it. But they are not alone in this, they have the words which can guide them. Do not forget. Do not forget.
Deuteronomy 4:1 So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the LORD, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. 2 You must neither add anything to what I command you nor take away anything from it, but keep the commandments of the LORD your God with which I am charging you. … 5 See, just as the LORD my God has charged me, I now teach you statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land that you are about to enter and occupy. 6 You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!" 7 For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is whenever we call to him? 8 And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today? 9 But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children's children-- 10 how you once stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, when the LORD said to me, "Assemble the people for me, and I will let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me as long as they live on the earth, and may teach their children so"; 11 you approached and stood at the foot of the mountain while the mountain was blazing up to the very heavens, shrouded in dark clouds. 12 Then the LORD spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice. 13 He declared to you his covenant, which he charged you to observe, that is, the ten commandments; and he wrote them on two stone tablets. 14 And the LORD charged me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy. 15 Since you saw no form when the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire, take care and watch yourselves closely, 16 so that you do not act corruptly by making an idol for yourselves, in the form of any figure-- the likeness of male or female, 17 the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, 18 the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth. 19 And when you look up to the heavens and see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, do not be led astray and bow down to them and serve them, things that the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples everywhere under heaven. 20 But the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron-smelter, out of Egypt, to become a people of his very own possession, as you are now. 21 The LORD was angry with me because of you, and he vowed that I should not cross the Jordan and that I should not enter the good land that the LORD your God is giving for your possession. 22 For I am going to die in this land without crossing over the Jordan, but you are going to cross over to take possession of that good land. 23 So be careful not to forget the covenant that the LORD your God made with you, and not to make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything that the LORD your God has forbidden you. 24 For the LORD your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God.
The instructions to the Israelites about how they are to live once they enter the Promised Land continue. You might say God gives them advice. Advice, the accumulated wisdom from others, comes in many forms. Al McGuire, the great Marquette University Basketball coach, left behind some pieces of it:
Dream big. Don’t be just another guy going down the street and going nowhere.
Congratulate the temporary.
We rush for the stars as we crawl toward our graves.
Anyone who offers to double your money, walk away. If he offers to make you 20 percent, hear him out.
There are probably stories behind some of these statements, especially the last one. These, and other statements, give us wisdom to live in the world. Wise behavior shows wise thinking. Another approach is to establish a set of laws to insure good behavior. And lastly, there is learning from the example of the past. We can learn much from what we and others have done before and how it worked out.
All three of these are in the reading from Deuteronomy. The name of the book is one of the strangest in the Bible. It comes from a word in the Greek translation meaning “second law”, but in fact that is not correct. It is not a second law; it is a retelling of the giving of law in Exodus. The Hebrew name of the book is debarim, meaning ‘words’, because these are the words of Moses and God. When the people of God follow these laws and principles, then they can live in the new land as a community. It is also a summary of their experience.
“Do not forget what your eyes have seen.” God took the Israelites out of Egypt. That is the beginning of the community and the plan for its life together as much as any words given. “Do not forget what your eyes have seen.” They saw how God led them in the wilderness. But there is something else they should see. Before they entered the land they wandered in the wilderness for forty years. They made mistakes. We like to bury or forget our mistakes, but when we do that we can’t learn from them. We do not like how past mistakes make us feel. We do not want anyone to ask us the hard questions that follow after our faults or errors become obvious. Sometimes we only remember part of the past. We might remember, say, how we were wronged, but not what we ourselves did in the situation. Or we would rather try to believe in a false version of the past in which we were always right and we could be right again if we just got back there somehow. We try to forget that real past and then are surprised when the future is only a repetition of the past. Without a past, without the desire to live in better ways than we lived in the past, we end up back where we were. That is a kind of wandering. It definitely isn’t living in the land God gives us.
The Israelites had turned to an idol when Moses was up the mountain talking to God. They did not know when or if he would come down the mountain with the commandments, but they created a golden calf and worshiped it. The word came down from the mountain not to worship idols as they were doing it. There is proof that we need things in words. People do stupid things without guidance. And so later, when they are about to enter the land God tells them again about that time. It is not to embarrass them, but so that they will remember it, learn from it, and live rightly. They are to remember the golden calf so that they do not create any more idols of any sort. God wants to give them a new and better experience than some of the past.
What they are getting by going into the Promised Land is a new beginning, another chance, the gift of a new day. And the question is how they will use it. Gifts can be used or can be squandered and lost. Sometimes we stop valuing what we are given when we forget what life was like before we were given it. But they are not alone in this, they have the words which can guide them. Do not forget. Do not forget.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
A couple weeks ago I got back from reading ordination exams. Persons who want to be ordained ministers of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) must pass (among other requirements) five exams. One of them is in Biblical Exegesis. That is a test of whether the candidates for ordination can understand the original meaning of an assigned biblical passage and then use its message in a contemporary setting. The candidates can chose an Old Testament passage or a New Testament one. Twice a year the exams are given. So readers are elected (ministers and elders) and gather to read (grade) the exams. I was part of the Chicago Reading Group, part of which you see at work in the photo.
The Old Testament passage this spring was from Deuteronomy, talking about God's instructions to the Israelite people as they enter the Promised Land. That struck me as a good metaphor for Lent, in which we prepare to enter the fullness of God's promise, the resurrection. So here is the first message from our Lenten worship series in Trinity Presbyterian Parish:
Text 1: Deut 3.18-22
Ash Wednesday
NRSV Deuteronomy 3:18 At that time, I charged you as follows: "Although the LORD your God has given you this land to occupy, all your troops shall cross over armed as the vanguard of your Israelite kin. 19 Only your wives, your children, and your livestock-- I know that you have much livestock-- shall stay behind in the towns that I have given to you. 20 When the LORD gives rest to your kindred, as to you, and they too have occupied the land that the LORD your God is giving them beyond the Jordan, then each of you may return to the property that I have given to you." 21 And I charged Joshua as well at that time, saying: "Your own eyes have seen everything that the LORD your God has done to these two kings; so the LORD will do to all the kingdoms into which you are about to cross. 22 Do not fear them, for it is the LORD your God who fights for you."
“IF YOU LIVED HERE”
You might have seen the billboards in the Cities, along the highway, that say: “If you lived here you would be home already.” It is an advertisement for rental properties that says “If you lived in these here apartments, you would not have your long commute. You would save time and money and gas and headache and have cut your daily trip to work short.” It is tempting, very tempting, to make things easier for ourselves.
The passage this evening is from Deuteronomy. It is the account of Moses addressing the people of Israel, just before they were to enter the Promised Land. It is filled with directions, memories of their past, warnings, and reaffirmations of God’s promises. This passage sounds like complicated and outdated instructions. But it is neither. It is a message to us of what God did in the past which shows us again who God is in the present.
God had promised Israel the land and remembered that promise through the generations and it could have gone into that land except that they lacked faith. So they wandered in the wilderness for forty years until all those in the unfaithful generation had passed away. Forty years wandering in the wilderness, without coming to the place that was promised, their home. Now the time had come. We can hardly think of waiting a day for what we want let alone forty years. Now is the time to enter the land.
And here is the way they should enter. All the troops who are going to take the land from the earlier inhabitants are to enter together. Now the land had been parceled out by God to the tribes. And so one could see that together the tribes will cross the Jordan and come into the land assigned to the tribe of Reuben and subdue it. The women and children of that tribe can stay there, but the men of the tribe of Reuben must continue on. Even though those in that tribe have come to the land that will be their home, they cannot stay there now. They are to go on with the men of the other tribes and together they will make sure everyone’s home will be secure. And so it is for the tribes of Gad, the half-tribe of Manasseh, the tribes of Asher, Zebulun, Issachar, Naphtali, Benjamin, Dan, Judah, and Simeon. Only when all are secure can they go live in the territory God has given them. They will work together and they will rest together. No one has life any easier than the others. According to this plan they will have God promise. They can only receive and live in the promises of God together.
Ash Wednesday is the beginning of Lent. It is a traditional time for acts of self-denial. You might have heard of people giving up various things—chocolate, or a pillow, for example, are some from my childhood. It is not that we want to make life harder for ourselves. It is a reminder that it takes some kind of dedication to be a disciple of Christ. And we renew that dedication in this season. Jesus did not take the easy way through life and gives us that example of suffering for a purpose. So that we disciples, are like our master.
Often the purpose is self-improvement. This is not a bad reason. We all have parts of our lives that need attention. It would not be a bad thing to curb some of our desires that might have gotten out of hand. But there is another possibility. It comes from that idea that we are in this together. And maybe a more meaningful Lenten experience or goal would be giving up something that hurts not just us, but also others. The Wisconsin Council of Churches suggested “going green” for Lent. It is not just saving gas to save money, but because we are using up our resources too rapidly and wastefully. Or maybe we give up anger to make our communities a better place. Or maybe we eat less, not to lose weight, but to have more to share with others. Because we are all in this together. This is God’s vision of life, not just for Israel, but for all. We do not take the easiest route, so we all have a home.
Friday, November 5, 2010
The Old Testament readings in worship these past few weeks have been from the book of Jeremiah. He was one of the prophets who spoke for God. Jeremiah 4.11-12, 22-28 gives the message that Israel is going to be judged. But his message does not lack hope; it is that there is life after the judgment. In fact, one of the book’s most memorable passages reminds God’s people that God has good ahead for them:
"For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope." (Jeremiah 29:11)
It is something they need to believe in and wait for in order to experience it. And when it comes along, they are to be a part of it.
It is hope that gives us joy in life and makes the future possible. It is faith that brings us to join in what God is doing. One of the things that was a highlight of the summer for me was the Vacation Bible School that the Lewiston-Altura Ministerial Association held in August, hosted at the Christian Crossings Center. Normally, my schedule is pretty tied up at that time, but this year is was free and I was glad for that. The theme of the week was Noah and the Ark and it was run on the rotation model in which the kids went to different stations (crafts, music, Bible study, games, and snacks) after an opening play. Despite it being the hottest week of the summer, we all had fun. I helped with the first and second graders. I learned that you can glue Fruit Loops and animal crackers to paper.
The highlight of all this was one young fellow who came one evening and seemed sad. While we didn’t have time to help with whatever it was that bothered him, at least we could give him an enjoyable time at VBS. With a little encouragement, he got involved in the activities. I thought of the great opportunity we had there, the chance to learn about God and be together with friends and I ran out to the playing field yelling, “Games! Games!” and behind me was this little guy running and yelling, “Games! Games!”
To enjoy the good things that come our way we have to get involved. There are many opportunities in our churches for fellowship and service, as well as joining together in worship. These are the directions God is leading us and we have to set aside our excuses and reluctance to join in. That will change what we experience. Imagine what church would be like if we all ran up to it yelling, “Worship! Worship!” or “Mission! Mission!”
"For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope." (Jeremiah 29:11)
It is something they need to believe in and wait for in order to experience it. And when it comes along, they are to be a part of it.
It is hope that gives us joy in life and makes the future possible. It is faith that brings us to join in what God is doing. One of the things that was a highlight of the summer for me was the Vacation Bible School that the Lewiston-Altura Ministerial Association held in August, hosted at the Christian Crossings Center. Normally, my schedule is pretty tied up at that time, but this year is was free and I was glad for that. The theme of the week was Noah and the Ark and it was run on the rotation model in which the kids went to different stations (crafts, music, Bible study, games, and snacks) after an opening play. Despite it being the hottest week of the summer, we all had fun. I helped with the first and second graders. I learned that you can glue Fruit Loops and animal crackers to paper.
The highlight of all this was one young fellow who came one evening and seemed sad. While we didn’t have time to help with whatever it was that bothered him, at least we could give him an enjoyable time at VBS. With a little encouragement, he got involved in the activities. I thought of the great opportunity we had there, the chance to learn about God and be together with friends and I ran out to the playing field yelling, “Games! Games!” and behind me was this little guy running and yelling, “Games! Games!”
To enjoy the good things that come our way we have to get involved. There are many opportunities in our churches for fellowship and service, as well as joining together in worship. These are the directions God is leading us and we have to set aside our excuses and reluctance to join in. That will change what we experience. Imagine what church would be like if we all ran up to it yelling, “Worship! Worship!” or “Mission! Mission!”
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Tire Iron
One of the things my father gave me years ago was a tire iron. It is not a very sentimental type of gift, in fact, he found it in the street as I recall, but it is very practical and has come in handy about five times over the years. Even though it was not a very sentimental gift, I have appreciated it very much. Sometimes we get very sentimental about the church and forget to be realistic. We perhaps recall times long ago when others gave to maintain the church. The truth is that you would not get very far if you stopped putting gas in your car. I thried that about twice in my time as a drvier. Cars can be quite down-to-earth. Sometimes we forget to be that sensible about supporting the church. This is a reminder of something very simple: the church only exists with your support.
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