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.

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.