Sermon + Obey God

Pastor Brian Campbell's sermon for February 14's Church at Home service on Deuteronomy 30:9-20, Moses' farewell address. Moses told the people of Israel to choose God. Pastor Brian connected this command to Bonhoeffer's call for costly grace. Both views mean that we need to put God first in our lives.

Grace, peace, & mercy to you from our God, our Creator, our Christ, & our Counselor. AMEN.

 

·  If you could give younger you advice, what would you say?

o  Would you warn yourself who or what to avoid, or what to pursue?

§  Maybe suggest buying some stock in some funny sounding computer companies?

o  That is what some Biblical scholars believe is happening in this part of the book of Deuteronomy.

§  The Hebrew Bible, what we have referred to as the Old Testament only began to appear in written form while the people of Israel were in exile in Babylon. They wrote it down to preserve it. They were afraid they and their culture were on the edge of extinction, and so they recorded and wrote down their stories and histories so that may live beyond them.

·  The legend is that Moses wrote the first five books of the Hebrew Bible; those books are known as the Torah. Here at the end of Deuteronomy, on the verge of the people of Israel entering into the land promised to Abraham and Sarah, he gives a long, powerful speech. Then he dies.

§  The exiled people of Israel wrote what had words of Moses had been handed down, but they also took the opportunity to give advice.

·  They wrote the exhortations that they wanted to hear if they ever got to go back to that Promised Land, and put them in the mouth of one speaking to those who were first entering that Promised Land.

·  They had Moses tell those entering the Promised Land to choose life over death.

o  But what does that mean?

·  To choose life is to choose God. To choose life is to choose to obey God and God’s commands.

o  To choose life is to choose to do God’s work.

o  To choose life is to follow the Shema. I’ve referred to the Shema before. It is a restatement of the first commandment, said in the form of an oath or prayer.

§  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. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart.  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. [a]

§  By following the Shema, by loving God with all of their heart, soul and might, they would obey God’s laws and commandments and do what God would want them to do.

§  By following the Shema, they and their work would be blessed. Their results would be abundant and through these blessings, Israel would be a blessing to the world.

·  This is an understanding that we should embrace as well, but from a slightly different angle.

o  Many theologians have explained the Lutheran understanding of obeying the law, but my favorite is Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

§  We don’t believe obeying God’s law and receiving God’s blessings of grace and mercy have an IF/ THEN, or causal relationship. It isn’t IF we obey God, THEN God blesses us.

§  We believe that God has blessed us the grace and mercy through the life, death and resurrection of God’s only child, Jesus Christ. Since we have been blessed, therefore, we should live in obedience to God’s commands.

·  We don’t have an IF/THEN relationship with God. Were this the case, we have the first move and everything is dependent upon us.

·  We have a BECAUSE relationship with God; it is a SINCE/THEREFORE relationship.

o  Since God loves us and forgives us when we stray, stumble and sin, THEREFORE, we show our love and appreciation to God by obeying God’s commands and doing God’s work.

o  There is a promise at the start of the Shema. You shall love the LORD your God.

§  Bonhoeffer called this relationship Costly Grace. Cheap grace is taking God’s gift of grace and not being impacted or changed by it.

·  Costly grace changes our lives because in response to that grace we show God our love with all of our heart and soul and might.

·  As Bonhoeffer wrote in his book, Discipleship, Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. [b]

·  It means putting the word, the work and the ways of God front and center; to put God first in our lives, and everything and everyone else second.

§  Putting anything else first is idolatry.

·  While we know and agree intellectually that we need to put and keep God first, we get distracted and put other things first.

·  Quoting a Biblical scholar, Even within the church, we may act as if church buildings, particular theological tenets, or keeping the “right people” in or out is more important than the worship of God alone. [c]

·  The way we practice idolatry most often is putting our wants in place of God’s will.

o  We do what we think is right, rather than taking the time to pray and asking God what God wants.

·  Choose life. Obey God. Do God’s will, not just what we want. Put God first.

o  Live out the promise God made to our ancestors.

AMEN.

 

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[a] Deuteronomy 6:4-7.

[b] Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Discipleship DBW Vol 4 (Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works) (p. 45). Fortress Press. Kindle Edition.

[c] Howard, Cameron B. R. Commentary on Deuteronomy 30:15-20, Working Preacher website (https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/sixth-sunday-after-epiphany/commentary-on-deuteronomy-3015-20-5)

 

Hebrew Bible Text +  Deuteronomy 30:9-20