Text: Deut. 30:15-20
15 “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. Deut 15
19 ...Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, Deut 19b
God’s word tells us that prosperity and life is found in following the Lord and his ways rather than our own ways.
God’s chosen people Israel had been fond of following ways other than the Lords. We see this from the beginning with Adam and Eve and the eating of the forbidden fruit, to “Why oh why did you bring us out into this wilderness?” Or, “let us make for ourselves a god in the likeness we prefer … maybe a golden calf!” To the ultimate grumbling: “Manna … again … really?” … and on and on and on.
In the verses that precede our reading for today God speaks of blessings and curses that are set before his scattered people who are dispersed among the nations saying:
2 and when you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, 3 then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you.
No matter how bad their sin, no matter how far they have fallen, no matter how distant they find themselves from God and his people … God promises that:
6 The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts [referring to having a pure heart separated unto God] and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.
Repentance and forgiveness is always part of the Lord’s plan for his people Israel and it is for you and me as well.
Without repentance there is only a furthering distance and gulf fixed between God’s people … and his peace. God even has given us his promise that he is both the source and means of our repentance and forgiveness.
By the word of his commands we know what he expects and how we measure up. Unlike every other religion of the world that places God above and out of reach and gives us the work that is necessary for us to do to get to him and reach him, God himself tells us otherwise saying:
12 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?” 13 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?”
It is not of our will but of God’s will.
In the verses that precede our reading for today God speaks of blessings and curses that are set before his scattered people who are dispersed among the nations saying:
2 and when you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, 3 then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you.
No matter how bad their sin, no matter how far they have fallen, no matter how distant they find themselves from God and his people … God promises that:
6 The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts [referring to having a pure heart separated unto God] and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.
Repentance and forgiveness is always part of the Lord’s plan for his people Israel and it is for you and me as well.
Without repentance there is only a furthering distance and gulf fixed between God’s people … and his peace. God even has given us his promise that he is both the source and means of our repentance and forgiveness.
By the word of his commands we know what he expects and how we measure up. Unlike every other religion of the world that places God above and out of reach and gives us the work that is necessary for us to do to get to him and reach him, God himself tells us otherwise saying:
12 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?” 13 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?”
It is not of our will but of God’s will.
14 No, [the Lord says to the children of Israel], the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.
Ill.
In our study of Martin Luther during this 500th anniversary of the Reformation, in both our Thursday Adult Bible Study group and now in our monthly Men’s Breakfast Bible Study group we see the emphasis on God’s word … the importance of it or problems when it is mistranslated or misunderstood. This led to the selling of indulgences and the paying of a price to reduce the time in Purgatory for loved ones or even for yourself.
God’s word was not readily available to the people. They didn’t have a means to read it for themselves or understand what God’s true intent was and how it was being applied by the church.
In Luther’s day the Mass was in Latin with responses parroted by the people having little understanding of what they were saying so that the - favor dei propter christum - or the favor of God on account of Christ might remain foreign to those who heard the word of God but didn’t fully understand it.
As far back or as near to our time as the late 1950’s and early 1960’s Latin was still the language of the Liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church I was raised in, and though the Priest gave his sermon in English the responses of the people were largely Latin … and for me not really understood.
The Priest would say:
Verbum Dómini. - The Word of the Lord.
And all would reply:
Deo grátias. - Thanks be to God.
Or the priest would say :
Dóminus vobíscum. - The Lord be with you
And the reply would be:
Et cum Spíritu tuo. – And with your spirit
Even when my cousin David and I, when we as 9 and 10 years of age and were at Mass which had been changed and was now recited in English found great joy and value especially when the sermon was a bit long … in replying with our heads down … in mock exaustion ... “Thanks … be … to … God!”
Luther gave the word of God to the people in their common language. This opened the scriptures to the people enabling them to understand God in a way not previously available. It made known to them true repentance or a turning back to God, instead of doing penance … which is something that we do to receive forgiveness and God’s favor.
But, you and I dear friend have God’s word. It is here in our Liturgy and it is available in our Bibles, and it is sung in our hymns, and it is available on our computers, and even on our smart phones … if you happen to have one.
But do we use it? Is God’s word important in our lives, and do we seek it and the peace and comfort it provides?
That brings us to our epistle reading for today.
15 “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil.
Sin is real and the consequence of sin is real, but so is forgiveness and God’s rescue that brings life and good because the Gospel really is Good News.
16 If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you today, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.
Obeying the commandments and loving the Lord your God is all that is required. That’s it! And as the apostle Paul says: That which I want to do I don’t do and that which I don’t want to do I continue to do … oh wretched man that I am. (Romans 7) So, if the apostle Paul can’t do it where is hope for you and me and those who God spoke to in the Old Testament? Our hope and theirs is in God and his rescue through Christ Jesus our Lord.
For he also says:
17 But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them,
Whatever that is and whomever that is … that pulls you away from God and his forgiveness … work, hobbies, family, sports, “I’m too busy!” you fill in the blank
18 I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. That too is God’s promise for his children who fall away.
So the reality of following God has a blessed outcome and the turning away has a disastrous outcome. One leads to life the other death.
So here God gives the directive and it is not given to those outside that faith. It is not directed to those who do not know the Lord but to those who are his children and all who have been brought to faith by God through his word and sacrament s and are of his sheepfold.
I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live,
The choosing of life is simple repentance. It is a turning back to God by his word and working of the Holy Spirit in you.
It is for you and for all who have been marked as one redeemed by Christ the crucified. It is for your children who have forsaken the fellowship of believers gathered here it is for you who may find the gathering together less than loving as we all bring our own sin baggage with us when we come. Maybe it is just that life has given you suffering in one way or the other and at times you feel that God has abandoned you. Why me? Why now? Why this? Why Lord?
Because: 20 loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, is his promise to you for he is your life and length of days, It was for his children then and it is for his children now. It is God’s redemption and that rescue is in his Son Jesus for you. Receive the Good News and encourage those loved ones who have forsaken the gathering together so that they by the working of the Holy Spirit choose life and live.
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
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