"Choose Life. Choose Love." (sermon)

Two Rivers Pastoral Charge

Sunday February 12, 2022

Scripture:  Deuteronomy 30:11-20

(The Harper Collins strike that I mentioned in my last post has been resolved, and so I have resumed my normal practice of linking the bible reading from Bible Gateway, a site run by Zondervan, a Harper Collins imprint.)

 

 

I’m going to say something that may shock you.  I love the book of Deuteronomy.  (Though I think that I’ve said this here before, so it may not be as shocking to you as it would be to people who didn’t know me!)

 

Like Leviticus, which we’re reading in Bible Study right now, Deuteronomy can be a bit of a slog to get through if you try to read it from beginning to end – when I took a course on Deuteronomy at AST and part of our homework for the first week was to read the book, I chose to listen to it on my bible app to keep my eyes from glazing over and skipping over large chunks of it.  Most of the book is filled with a great long list of “thou shalt do this’s” and “thou shalt not to that’s” and it’s really easy for my eyes to start skipping around on the page.

 

There is also a lot of the book that is not in keeping with our 21^st Century worldview, which makes it challenging to read – we generally don’t believe in stoning people these days; and fathers aren’t paid for their daughters.

 

So with all of this, why do I love the book of Deuteronomy?  It’s definitely not because of stoning people, and it’s definitely not for its great plot.  I love this book because of where it stands in the overall story of the Old Testament.

 

Remember the story.  Remember that the Ancient Israelite people, the descendants of Jacob, were slaves in Egypt.  Remember that Moses encountered God in a burning bush in the middle of the desert.  Remember that God told Moses to go to Pharaoh and demand that Pharaoh “let my people go.”  Remember that after a whole host of plagues descended on the land, Pharaoh did let the people go.  Remember that God worked through Moses to part the waters of the Red Sea so that the people could cross over to safety and freedom.  Remember that Moses met with God on the top of Mount Sinai where God gave Moses the 10 Commandments and the rest of the law.  Remember that God guided the people through the desert wilderness, traveling with them like a pillar of cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night.  Remember that God fed them there in the desert with manna and with quail, and that God made fresh drinking water flow from a rock for them.

 

Remember that for 40 years, God was with the people in the desert, feeding them, hydrating them, guiding them, and keeping them safe.

 

All of this is the prelude, the prologue to the book of Deuteronomy.

 

At this point in the story, the people have reached the Jordan River, and they are ready to cross over into the Promised Land – to cross over into the land that God had promised to their Ancestors – to cross over into a land that, in contrast to the desert, would be metaphorically flowing with milk and honey.

 

They are about to cross from a land of scarcity into a land of abundance, and God doesn’t want the people to forget the lessons that they have learned in their 40 years in the wilderness.  God doesn’t want them to forget that they depend on God for everything – for food, for water, for protection, for guidance.  Even though God’s provision will be less obvious in the promised land where it will seem like food just appears before them, it will still be God who makes the rains fall and the ground fertile and the seeds to germinate.  And God doesn’t want the people to forget this.

 

And so this is why the first 29 chapters of Deuteronomy consist of Moses reciting the law for a second time.  The people have done very well keeping their side of their covenant with God out in the desert, and so here is one final reminder of their obligations before crossing the river.

 

And here in Chapter 30 we come to God’s exhortation – choose life.  Out there in the desert, they had no choice but to choose to follow God, but once they cross the river, they will have a choice.  They will be able to choose to turn away from God and not face immediate starvation or thirst, but God wants them to know that choosing that pathway won’t allow them to flourish; won’t allow them to experience the fullness of life that God wants for them.

 

God wants them to choose to be in relationship with God, since that is the only way that we can flourish.  Here at the end of Deuteronomy, on the banks of the Jordan River, God pleads with them, “Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying God, and holding fast to God, for that means life to you and length of days so that you may live in the land.”

 

And how do we choose life?  Well, Jesus gave us a pretty good summary of God’s law when he taught that the two most important commandments are to love God with our whole being, and to love our neighbours as we love ourselves.  When we choose this way of love, then we are choosing life.

 

And God tells us that all of this is in our reach – we don’t need to ascend to heaven or cross to the other side of the sea – instead this promise is in our mouth and in our hearts for us to claim.  The Holy Spirit is in each one of us, empowering us to choose God’s way of love and life.

 

Living in a time and a place of abundance as we do, it can be easy for us to forget that God is the source of all of that abundance. It is easy to take for granted that fresh water will continue to flow down the river.  It is easy to take for granted that we can walk into a grocery store and buy a carton milk.  It is easy to take for granted that when we take a breath in, oxygen will fill our lungs and pass into our blood.

 

I wonder if sometimes we face the same challenges as our ancient ancestors did, when they crossed into the promised land.  When there is abundance, we aren’t always able to see God as the source of that abundance.  Maybe we need a Deuteronomy movement – a reminder that even when we can’t immediately see it, God is the one who provides for us.

 

I wonder if I can take that one step further, and ponder whether or not we can use the past couple of years as a wilderness time, like our ancestors wandering in the desert.  I don’t know about you, but I find that I don’t take things for granted as much as I did 3 years ago.  I don’t take it for granted that we can gather together in this place and open our mouths – safely shielded by our masks – and sing together.  I don’t take it for granted that I can hop on an airplane to celebrate Christmas with my family.  I don’t take it for granted that the grocery store will have everything on my list.  And because I don’t take these things for granted, I find that I appreciate them all the more, and I give deep thanks to God for all of these everyday blessings.

 

And as we notice these things, God implores us:  Choose life.  Choose love.  Let the Holy Spirit turn our hearts to see God and to follow God’s ways.

 

And I think that God gives us Deuteronomy moments all through our lives to help to sustain us on the way.  We are given moments when we can pause; moments when we can remember; moments when we can choose the fullness of life and choose love; moments when we can choose to journey with God.  Moments when God jumps out at us and reminds us, “I’m here!”

 

For me, sometimes these moments come when I’m listening to a piece of music, or singing with a choir and the harmonies are just right.  Sometimes they come when I’m talking with someone and we are sharing from our hearts and I can sense the presence of the divine in the space between us.  One time, around this time of year when I was living in Halifax, I was given a reminder of God’s presence when I was sitting on the bus and there was a ledge that was about eye-level with where I was sitting, and someone had written in the fresh snow on the ledge, “Love > Fear.”

 

These moments, like the Ancient Israelite people pausing before crossing the river, cause me to pause and remember God’s presence with us, closer to us than our very breath; and they remind me of God pleading with us to choose the way of love and life.

 

We are coming close to the season of Lent, which will begin on Ash Wednesday, February 22 this year.  The theme that we are going to be following through Lent this year is Encountering Jesus.  In worship, we will be reading stories from the bible about people whose lives were changed by an encounter with Jesus.  At our Wednesday evening Lenten gatherings, we will have time to meditate and perhaps encounter Jesus ourselves.  And at the beginning of our worship services each week in Lent, there will be a space for all of us to share (in-person or online) times and places in the week before when we have noticed God present in the world around us.

 

So this is your 2-week notice to begin looking for those God-moments!  It’s an invitation to keep your eyes and your ears and your heart open for those times when God reminds you, “I’m here. I’m with you. I love you. Love the world.”

 

And together, we listen for God’s reminder, and then we choose the fullness of all that life has. And we choose love.

 

 

 

Crossing from a dry and barren desert

to a land flowing with milk and honey.

Choose life. Choose love.

Photo Credit:  orientalizing on Flickr