Deuteronomy 26 : 1 11 Luke 4 : Sermon

Transcription

1 Deuteronomy 26 : 1 11 Luke 4 : 1-13 Sermon When a group of people is working towards a particular goal, they will often have a real drive and a natural sense of unity. Having a a common purpose and a shared desire gives you a strong motivation to work together and to do things well. In that sort of situation, any struggles or difficulties that we face help to focus our attention and they prompt us to want to learn more and to do better. But the question which confronts us this morning is is not about how we cope in times of struggle and striving. The question is about how we cope when we finally get what we want. This was the problem which the people of Israel were going to face. After generations of hope and despair and after forty testing years in the wilderness the promised land was about to be theirs. They were about to get what they had always wanted. But how were they to live once they got it? Before I say more about their situation, I want to be clear that I am also talking about our situation. This may sound surprising and even provocative, but if preaching the gospel the gospel doesn t include some surprises and some provocation then I am probably not doing my job. I want to say that the problem of how to cope when you get what you want is directly relevant for us, because we have got everything we want. I know it may not always feel like it. I know that there s a massive advertising industry which daily tries to convince us that we don't. But if you look at our lives from the outside rather than what they feel like from the inside, I think you will see what I mean. What is it that human beings always wanted? What have we always worked for and struggled for? Actually it is not job satisfaction and a nicer car and a good retirement plan - those are very modern preoccupations. The main preoccupation of human life for the vast majority of our history has been finding food and shelter.

2 Up until very recently these things have been difficult to find and the primary purpose of each day has been to try to find them. Whether we have been hunters and gatherers battling with dangerous beasts, or small scale farmers battling with flood and drought and disease, finding the basics which we need to survive has been our main concern. Well now, dare I suggest, we all have food and shelter. We don t even have to worry about finding them again tomorrow, for it is all secure and we are all going to be provided for. We may take that for granted but we shouldn t. We might imagine it is normal but it isn t. We are enormously well off. Any of the most powerful kings of the ancient world, would have swapped everything they had for a fraction of what we have. We have a choice of food from around the world, homes which are double glazed and centrally heated, the finest entertainers available in our living room at the touch of the button, the ability to speak to anyone, anywhere in the world, wherever we are. We have got everything we want, or at least everything that our ancestors would have wanted, and we have it with a level of choice and comfort that they could not begin to imagine would ever be possible. Indeed, let us not forget, we have it with a level of choice and comfort that most of the world s population today could not begin to imagine would ever be possible. If anyone from any point in our history were asked to describe a land flowing with milk and honey, to describe a perfect lifestyle with everything you could dream of, they could not have begun to get close to what we have. So now we have the problem of what to do when you get what you want. It is a problem because what we discover is that what we wanted is not enough. What we discover is that while we gain much we may also lose something, and whatever it is that we are missing cannot be made up for by any amount of material prosperity. For the ancient truth remains as true as ever; we can t live on bread alone, no matter how much bread we have, no matter how attractive the wrapping, no matter how sophisticated the flavours. We humans are put together in such a way that we need more than just the things which look easily attractive to us. We know that now,

3 because we have everything we wanted and we still feel anxious and unsettled and unsure. As we have read, when the leaders of the ancient people of Israel knew that their people are about to get what they wanted they knew that they were about to face new and different challenges. What do you do when you get everything you want? How do you maintain a sense of unity and keep a strong desire to live well. How do you prevent yourself from becoming greedy and lazy and selfish, from forgetting God and drifting away from his ways? Well here are 3 basic instructions which were given to that ancient people, and I think you will agree they seem as relevant to us as ever they were to them. 1) you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground which you harvest from the land that the Lord your God is giving you and offer it to God The land which they have is land which has been given to them by God, and they must always remember that, if they are to avoid falling for the attractive but dangerous illusion that it is theirs by right, and therefore theirs to do whatever they want with. And to ensure that they remember that they are to take the first and the best of all that their land produces, and offer it to God. This religious practice is going to be very important for them, and it remains an important practice for us. This is why we still teach that the first day of the week be set aside for worship and prayer and holy celebration, why we still teach that the first act in deciding how we spend our income should be to decide what and how we give to the church. It is for the welfare of our souls and the well being of our lives, for if we ever forget that it is God who gifts us with every talent and skill and ability, we will be missing something very important. If we do not want to offer the first and the best of what we have to God, then we may well wonder what we have become.

4 2) When making your offering... 3 You shall go to the priest and say A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien In other words, you shall make a point of regularly remembering and restating who you are and where you have come from. These people had a shared history and it would be important for them to retain their identity and their sense of being a distinct community. This religious practice is going to be very important for them, and it remains an important practice for us. We do not have a shared history to recount to one another as they did, but we do have a shared story. We were all born naked and helpless upon the earth. We have all grown only because food was available to us and because there were adults around us who cared for us. We all make mistakes and we all need forgiveness. And dare not forget who we really are or what we have in common, for if we forget that we fall into the trap of believing in our own self worth, believing that we have created wealth and prosperity for ourselves, believing that we are good enough to have deserved it. This is why, every week in prayer together, we still confess our sins and remember our creator. It is for the welfare of our souls and the well being of our lives, for if we ever forget who we are and how we came to be here we will be missing something very important. If we do not want to remember who we really are then we may well wonder what we have become. 3) 11 Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house. This is a call to celebrate. That ancient people were not just to keep working for more. They were to celebrate all the good things which the Lord their God had given them. And those celebrations were not to be self indulgent. The Levites were to be included. They were the priestly tribe who were not allowed to own land of their own and therefore who had no

5 harvest to celebrate. Aliens were to be included, the foreigners who travelled through the land or who came there as migrant workers. Together, they were to celebrate all the bounty that the Lord their God had given them. This religious practice is going to be very important for them, and it remains an important practice for us. This is why, every week we sing hymns or praise and thanksgiving, and it is why we seek to be a welcoming people who serve our community and reach out with care to the world s poor. It is for the welfare of our souls and the well being of our lives, for if we ever stop doing that we will be missing something very important. If we do not want to be thankful and to include everyone in our celebration of God s goodness, then we may well wonder what we have become. Did these directions help the people who came to live in their promised land? In fact we know that they did not manage very well. The remainder of the Old Testament story will tell us that prophets repeatedly condemn the people for forgetting these commands, for becoming greedy and lazy and selfish. They used their wealth for their own pleasure, they abused foreigners for their own purposes, they built their economy and their military but they let their worship and their obedience fall by the wayside. Ultimately the nation would fall apart and they would become slaves again. This is a danger which is real for us all, as we see people become slaves to greed and anger and fear and anxiety. So we rejoice that we are offered another way, the way of Christ, who despite having the ability to do so many different things, prioritised obeying God and living faithfully, and who by doing that broke every chain that might hold us. In so many ways we have everything want. The question remains how we will cope with that, what we will do with that, how we will live with that. May we never become deaf to the call of God, which reminds us who we are, and how we ought to live.

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