Our Story of Faith Deuteronomy 26:1-11

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1 Our Story of Faith Deuteronomy 26:1-11 One of the trademarks of anytime my family gets together is storytelling. No matter what the occasion, whether it s a birthday party or a Christmas celebration, all family gatherings at some point will transform into a festival of storytelling. My parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles will all take turns telling their favorite story. The stories they tell could be about something funny my cousins did last week or some great adventure my uncles had as kids. My favorite part of all of this is that only a few of the tales we tell are actually new. Most of them are family stories I have heard a thousand times. In fact, I have heard them so many times that I feel like they re my own memories. Like the time my grandfather left the house to run an errand and told my dad and his two brothers to water the lawn. This simple chore quickly escalated into a water fight and in order to get on higher ground, my father climbed up on the roof with the garden hose. Needless to say, my grandfather wasn t too excited to return home to find parts of the lawn flooded and others barely touched as the boys ran around the house. My grandfather yelled at my dad telling him to get off the roof right that instant. My father, taking the statement literally, jumped off the roof and promptly broke his leg. (He would later go on to make better decisions.) Clearly, I wasn t there for this moment. But I can picture it in my mind as if I was and I retell the story as if I watched it happen. Much in the same way that family members will talk about the time my dad and I fashioned a mini-scuba diving air pump out of a leaf blower and a garden hose. Or the time my cousins lost a pet snake in my aunt s car (that story doesn t end with us finding the snake, by the way). These are stories that everyone in my family can tell by heart because they are no longer my story or my parent s story; they re our story. These stories have formed a type of anthology that tells you what it means to be an Almaguer. Maybe you have some family stories like this. The tales you ve heard so many times they ve become a part of you. Stories that make you laugh, stories that inspire you, stories that remind you of who you are and where you come from. They are the memories that shape us and so we tell and retell them over and over again. But stories aren t good just for the laughs, they are also important ways we pass on the lessons learned by previous generations to those alive today. So it should be no surprise to us that the Bible is filled with its own family 1

2 stories meant to teach the community of faith. Our reading from Deuteronomy takes place as the Israelites wandering in the wilderness is coming to an end. After forty long years, they will finally be able to settle in the Promised Land. But before they enter, Moses teaches the community about God s covenantal way of life and the blessings of a land flowing with milk and honey. 1 The Israelites are commanded to make an annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem to give thanks for the new life God has provided in the harvest. But as the people come to the Temple carrying bundles of wheat and baskets of fresh vegetables, they also come carrying their memories. As the first fruits are laid at the foot of the altar, every Israelite remembers all the events that have shaped who they are as a people. It is a memory shared by the whole community, one the Israelites tell and retell so often that it has become a part of each of them. A communal memory declaring the saving works that God has done on behalf of Israel. 2 From their wandering Aramean ancestor Jacob, to God s act of liberation in the Exodus, to the journey to the Promised Land, this is the memory of the people that stays with them where ever they go to remind them of who they are. 1 Menn, Esther. Commentary on Deuteronomy 26:1-11, Working Preacher, < 2 Miller, Patrick. Deuteronomy, in Interpretation (Louisville: John Knox Press, 1990), The retelling is intentionally kept concise, made easy to remember so it can be passed down for generations. As mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, grandparents and grandchildren gather together in the Temple each year, they all tell of God s promise and deliverance. It s important to have this story because as they strain their eyes across the river Jordan to peer into the Promised Land, they see a land that seems filled with giants. A land filled with problems they are not big enough to solve. But on the banks of the unknown, they remind themselves that it doesn t matter if giants exist because they know that giants can be beaten. 3 God is with them as God has always been with them in this journey. Each time the memory is remembered and retold, the people become a part of the story anew. The history of Israel s journey becomes his story and her story; it becomes your story and my story; it becomes our story. I watched a talk about storytelling the other day given by the famous filmmaker Andrew Stanton. You might not recognize his name, but you are probably familiar with his work. He s the writer of popular movies like Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and Monsters, Inc. Stanton began his talk by saying, We all love stories. We are born for them. We all want affirmations that our lives 3 Gaiman, Neil. Coraline.

3 have meaning. And nothing does a greater affirmation than when we connect through stories. It can cross the boundaries of time: past, present and future. 4 Stories have a way of making connections from events that would otherwise be meaningless. Without them, our lives would be fragmented moments laid out randomly on the timeline of our lives. We might begin to convince ourselves that our lives are just collections of facts, piles of data that can be stored in profile pages on Facebook and Twitter. But stories refuse to let life be so dull. They refuse to let us believe that our lives are a series of unconnected episodes. Stories affirm that our lives have meaning and purpose. But that doesn t mean that every scene in our lives plays out like our favorite Pixar movie. Every episode isn t a comedy; they don t all have happy endings. Some memories are difficult to tell because they remind us of past suffering or current pain. Our lives can take so many plot twists that they become hard to follow. What we had hoped would be an epic journey now feels more like wandering in the wilderness. If we re not careful, we can find ourselves allowing the wrong stories 4 Stanton, Andrew. The Clues to a Great Story. TED.com < tml>. 3 to define us. A hopelessness that we will never end our meaningless wandering creeps into our lives. We despair that perhaps happy endings are just for kids movies. But the Bible has a very different message--a message written not by the hand of pain and suffering, but written by God. A loving and gracious God who chose a wandering people, who heard the cries of the oppressed and delivered them; the God who is faithful to fulfill all promises. The memory of the people in Deuteronomy is one that speaks of a God who continues to rewrite the ending to every tragedy. Who brings new hope where hope seems lost, joy where only sorrow is found and peace where there is only chaos. Truly this is the story of the Gospel: that we who were once wandering, strangers to the covenant of salvation have been brought near to God through Jesus Christ. 5 We have been given a new story, not just for a salvation far off in the Heavens but a new story for today. So we must begin to ask ourselves, What story are we listening to? There are few people who have shown me the power of the Gospel as clearly as my friend Marco. Marco is a gentle giant, towering over everyone at about 6 4 with the build of a linebacker. Yet Marco is also one of the most caring, 5 Ephesians 2:12-13, NRSV.

4 loving, and gentle people I ve ever met. His smile and laughter are so contagious that those who know him call him by the nickname Big Fun. True to the name, Marco always has a smile on his face and some encouraging words to share. I met Marco when I served as a prison chaplain in New Jersey. We met at a Bible study held in the maximum security facility Marco has lived in for over a decade and will likely live in for the next decade. He lives in a world where one particular narrative is given to him. A fiction that tells him he is a danger to society, something like a wild animal that needs to be caged. He is daily reminded no one cares about his life; no one is concerned for him. Just move here, go there, stand up, sit down, do what you are told. The prison demands he listen to a fable of hopelessness. But all that changes when Marco comes to worship on Sunday morning. At the church service, Marco hears a very different message. A story that says he matters. He matters not because of anything he has done or can do, but because God loves him. Because God loves you, loves me, loves all of us. Marco has worth and dignity because God never abandons God s people no matter how far we wander into the wilderness. Marco has heard a Gospel story that washed away years of anger, pain and sorrow so that he could be filled with faith, hope and love. Now, when I think of Marco, I don t think about an inmate I met in prison. I think of my friend, the Head Deacon and loving presence of New Beginnings Baptist Church in Trenton, New Jersey. We are people of stories. What story are you listening to? Are you listening to myths that have defined you simply by the mistakes of your past, how much money you make, the color of your skin, or some other cruel standard? Are you listening to fables that have defined you and your situation as hopeless? Because today there is a very different message for us to listen to. A Gospel story that rewrites the ending to every tragedy, redefines who we are and what we can accomplish; a story that transforms our understanding of who we are. A Gospel that invites us to join in the rewriting of old chapters and the writing of new ones. The wandering generation in Deuteronomy retold God s mighty works in a chapter that ended with their first steps into the Promise Land. But we know that there are many more chapters to be written. Chapters about Joshua and Jericho, about David and Goliath, about a crucified Messiah and an empty tomb. Chapters about judgment and redemption, about pain and healing, about sorrow and hope. And so we find that our church is part of a much larger story passed down 4

5 from generation to generation telling of God s endless mercy and love. But God is not finishing writing new chapters for us and for the church. We allow the memory of the past to shape our present and help form our future. Or, as my mother always tells me, you won t know where you re going if you don t know where you ve been. The story of faith tells us where we have been as the people of God in order to guide us in following the Spirit to new places. But we will only be reminded of God s work in our community if we retell our stories. This is why next Sunday we will gather together for Vision Day. This day we will sit with one another to share our stories of how God has transformed our lives here at Wilshire. We will talk about the memories that have shaped us as a community of faith. We will tell and retell the stories that remind us of what God has done so that we can dream of what God has yet to do in the land just across the river. I hope you ll join us for that day. I hope you ll come and share. Because the story of our church, much like the story of faith, belongs to everyone. It belongs not to just to the people who feel like they re on the mountain top, but to everyone who feels like they re in the wilderness. It belongs, as one pastor put it, to wandering Arameans and other confused types; to folk who live in a 5 strange land and find themselves oppressed by hard taskmasters; to folk who feel trapped in impossible situations yet find themselves, surprisingly, delivered; to folk who are struggling clumsily to say thank you with their lives. 6 The story belongs to the God who never abandons us on the journey and is bountiful with blessings. So let us tell and retell the story of our faith. Let us remember together so your story can become my story; my story can become your story; and our story of faith can continue to write chapters of hope for generations to come. Amen. 6 Currie, Thomas. Deuteronomy 26:1-11, Theological Perspective, in Feasting on the Word (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009), 30.