Sermon Notes – Sept 8,2013
September 8, 2013
Scripture: Deuteronomy 30: 9-20
The Lord will delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your ancestors, if you obey your God and keep the decrees that are written in this Book of the Law, and turn to your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.
See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.
But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.
This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For God is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Sermon Notes
by Rev. Doreen Oughton
– Moses’ farewell sermon, travelling the wilderness for 40 years, some have passed on, children born into and raised in this nomadic way of life, still some who remember what they left. All have heard Moses’ preaching along the way.
– The trip has been challenging. The people have complained, disobeyed. Moses played go-between with God and the people several times. He won’t be with them, so is telling them what they need to do to please God & so prosper in the new land.
– If they disobey, if their hearts turn from God, they will surely be destroyed. They have a choice, life or death, blessings or curses.
– Encounter with JW,
– There is no freedom when there is punishment for a “wrong” choice. I believe in a God who offers us freedom.
– People always try to make meaning, understand why bad things happen, find some agency. Feels safer than to accept that bad things can happen to anyone. And bad things can happen to anyone, but that doesn’t mean they are random
– Not punishment, but natural consequences. Laws, if you will. (gravity, impact, -i.e. cousin’s death). Paying attention to the laws, knowing them equips you to make more informed choices.
– God, who is creator of everything, understands fully all these laws, all these consequences, and so can foresee the results of choices that we make. Seeing them and warning about them is not the same as imposing them on us. And perhaps Moses had great insight into likely consequences, and could foresee that if these people did not stick together, did not stay in community, caring for each other, trusting each other, that they would be destroyed. They may turn on each other, fighting for resources, or they may assimilate so much into the culture of the land they are entering that they lose what makes them a people set apart. They are destroyed, not as a punishment, but as a result of choices that they make.
– First thing in making a choice is to know what we want. Once you know what you want, you look at how to produce that thing, that feeling, that situation that you want. You consider the impact, the effects of bring that about because nothing operates in a vacuum. And still it is hard, as we have seen this week as our nation grapples with how to bring about something we want – a world where people resolve differences without chemical weapons. Personally I wish they’d shoot higher if you will, and try to create a world where people resolve differences without any weapons at all.
– John Van de Laar ponders: How do we begin to speak about doing the right thing in our world today? When the cost of doing right is high, and often offers little short-term gain, how do we do what is right? When our leaders are faced with fickle voters, partisan misrepresentation and opportunism, and pressure from interest groups that threaten to jump ship if they don’t get their way, how are they supposed to choose what is right? When business is measured quarterly and the stock market punishes anything but short-term gain-making strategies, how are corporations supposed to do the right thing? When we need power now, how do we what is right by our planet? When we want the foods we love now, how do we grow and distribute food ethically? When we want to feel safe now, how do we negotiate and resist the temptation to go to war? When we need to grow the bottom line, how do we investigate labor practices of suppliers, or ensure raw materials are mined sustainably? In a world of instant gratification, media scrutiny and results-addiction, eternal reward and long-term results that benefit the least can be hard to sell. If we are to commit ourselves to being people who do the right thing, we will know the benefit – we will find life that is abundant and sustainable and good, and we will encounter God in our daily living. But, we will also know the cost – the sacrifice of some of our comforts, the misunderstandings and cynicism of those who stay committed to expediency, the anger of our leaders and peers as we challenge “the system”. But, if we will not pay the cost, what hope is there for us and our world?
– He further notes: Doing the right thing comes down to the small details of our lives as individual Christ-followers and as communities of faith. It is in the choices we make that God’s goodness is reflected to the world. When we turn our faith into just another strategy for personal gratification then we deny ourselves the power and joy of God’s abundant life, and we fail to proclaim the power of the Gospel of Jesus. But, when we are prepared to pay the cost – to live a life of loving, serving and caring for the least, the outcast and the unlovely – the Gospel message shouts from our lives.
– Making choices is hard, but our freedom to do so is God’s gift to us. God won’t take back that gift no matter what we do with it, but will allow us to experience the natural consequences of the choices we make, individually and collectively. God has set before us the ways of life and the ways of destruction – our own and that of others. What would it mean for us to choose life? What changes would we have to make? What would we have to give up? Is there something we can work on together, one small way to choose differently, and thus make a difference?
– Freedom is God’s gift to us, but God also does not leave us alone figure things out for ourselves. God is always with us, not to judge, not to punish, but to witness, to guide us, to rejoice in us, and most of all, to love us. May it be so.
