October 18, 2015 The Story: Chapter 6; Deuteronomy 6:20-25; 7:7-9 Road Trip This sermon was preached by Pastor Jim Page at Trinity Lutheran Church

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1 October 18, 2015 The Story: Chapter 6; Deuteronomy 6:20-25; 7:7-9 Road Trip This sermon was preached by Pastor Jim Page at Trinity Lutheran Church Dearest brothers and sisters in Christ, grace and peace be with you. Today, we are in chapter 6 of The Story and I hope you are enjoying how we are engaging with the Old Testament each week. Learning God s story as a part of our story. Last week Pastor Kurt had a great message based on chapter 5 where he stated the prevailing goal of this series: God is in a relentless pursuit of a relationship with people. For God, that pursuit has been far from straight-forward or easy. There s been challenges and unexpected turns where God has had to adjust to the actions of people. Chapter 6 of The Story encompasses the books of Numbers and Deuteronomy; books four and five in the Old Testament. To this point, God s people have been freed from Egypt and God has established a new covenant, a new promise with his people. That covenant was marked by the Ten Commandments given to Moses. They were guidelines for how the recently enslaved people would live first-in their relationship with God and second-in their relationships with each other. Like a marriage based on equality, it was a mutual covenant where God and the people lived together within a new relationship. Now God s people are wandering in the wilderness towards the land God promised to them; they are on a glorified road trip. What I want to show you today is something happened on that trip that we can learn from and in so doing, strengthen our relationship with God and how we live out our faith. Many of you have traveled on trips to nearby destinations, to areas of the country or even to other parts of the world. You can sit and recall the memories of such excursions. The time your luggage got lost between flights; seeing that memorable monument for the first time or going to that vacation spot that is part of your family tradition. How much we travel is effected by our stage of life and if you are traveling with children or not. Some of you know what it was like to travel before electronic devices and TV s were in cars. Kids only had books and whatever else to keep them entertained. When parents are traveling with their young children on long road trips, there is a special phrase that has been passed down through the generations. This phrase is still said today. The kids begin to pester each other. Mom, she s hitting me. Dad, tell him to sit on his side of the seat. Mom-dad are we there yet? The tension builds until the phrase is stated, often yelled out of frustration by dad, If you kids don t settle down, I ll turn this car around! When we travel, we are at the mercy of things beyond our control weather, traffic, airline issues. All of us have lost our composure, to a certain degree, in trying to reach our destination. We like being in control not just when we travel, but in life. When we feel as though we are not in control and things don t go our way, there s a tension we feel. We relieve that tension by finding someone or something to blame. Robert Goddard was the physicist who created and built the first liquid-fueled rocket. He once wrote, To err is human. To blame it on the other guy, that s even more human. We have become a society fixed on blaming others for what happens to us. We blame rather than accept when things don t go our way.

2 Then something significant rattles our lives in a negative way. We hear things like this, Another school shooting. Where is God in all this? The cancer is back, I can t believe it. That family can t support the six kids they have and here we are struggling to have a baby. In those times of significant, negative events we naturally point our fingers and blame, God. Before we know it, our life of faith is like sitting in a car on a long road trip. We become so focused on the negative to the point that the blessings of daily life are overlooked. Our relationship with God is weakened. Our outlook is through the lower story where we see our conflicts and how we forget God. At that point, we simply takes matters into our own hands and when that happens, things never go well. Chapter 6 describes that that is what God s people did in the desert. Moses and God s people are on their road trip. God tells Moses to send 12 men to explore a distant region known as Canaan. They go explore and they return after 40 days. They tell Moses and the Israelite community the land is flowing with milk and honey. The landscape is lush and beautiful; they even show them a large array of grapes that they brought back with them. They said the only drawback is that the people who lived there were powerful, living in large fortified cities. A young man named Caleb stood up and silenced everyone by proposing that they go and take over the land. Then a few of the other men who also went into that region suggested that they shouldn t attack because the people were stronger than they were. Those few then spread the news among everyone that the land wasn t all that great and the people there were too powerful. Similar to learning your flight has been delayed, the people likely sighed in disgust then they grumbled and complained to Moses and Aaron. It would have been better to just die in Egypt! Why are we here? We could die at the hands of those people! They blamed Moses and even proposed choosing a better leader to lead them back to Egypt! A young man named Joshua stood up and spoke to the assembly, If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them. The assembly s response? They wanted to stone him to death. For their rebellion, God ordered all the people to live, wandering in the wilderness for another 40 years. The break that occurred between God and his people came from their lack of trust. What we learn from the scriptures is that God is seeking a realignment where God and us, God and you are together in a loving relationship grounded in trust. Throughout these stories, from Adam and Eve, to Abraham, to Joseph, to Moses and now in the wilderness, God is constantly re-working the trust piece every time. God is saying, I created all that is good, trust me. I delivered you from Egypt, trust me. I am giving you these commandments on how to live your life the best way possible. Trust me. God is constantly wooing people back into faith. Stephen M.R. Covey is the son of acclaimed leadership expert Stephen Covey. He is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the book The Speed of Trust. He writes, Trust in our culture is

3 significantly lower than a generation ago. He goes on, When trust is low it places a hidden tax on every transaction: every communication, every strategy, every decision. It brings the speed of the organization down and sends costs up. We have lost what it means to build trust. Building trust, Covey says, has many benefits such as making organizations more profitable and relationships more energizing. We build trust by commitment, being honest and transparent, listening first, talking straight and being willing to admit a mistake. When we get to the New Testament with Jesus, the trust piece will lead his ministry. The overarching question will be: Will you follow a carpenter s son, born in poverty, with no status who said that I am the Son of God. I will die for your sin and be raised in three days? Following was trusting. What thrills and honors God is our expressions of confidence in Him. It s not that we are being naïve in how we live. It s living with the confidence that something bigger than us is overseeing our lives. A God who we know loves us and wants the best for us. It is because of our trust in God that we are able to exhibit trust across the spectrums of our lives. It reaches a point that our relationship, love and trust in God becomes the standard for how we love and trust others. Can you do that? Can you trust in God? When there are moments in your life when life isn t going well, and that takes on many forms can you trust God? We may not live in a perfect world, but I also believe that tragedy has been present since the dawn of creation. Through it all, I believe and trust that God will leverage the worst for the best. The best may not be seen immediately or for some time. God may not take away the pain but at least we know that a loving God is present with us, never leaving us alone. Why do I believe that? Because of people in God story Abraham, Joseph, Moses, and eventually Jesus all who trusted in God s character and desires. Our dependency on God leads to intimacy with God, with each other and the world. That is what God wants from you saying Trust me. Two simple words spoken from a God who is bigger than all of creation but who know you by name and wants the best for you. A God who forgives you, who adores you, who longs to be with you. Trust me. Simple, life-giving, inspiring words of good news and hope for you today and everyday. Amen.

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