"...they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it..." Exodus 32:8

This past Sunday, the confirmation class at Redeemer began lessons on the Ten Commandments. I was privileged to facilitate the opening discussions. For a moment, we talked about the commandments in the context of the Exodus narrative in which faith, doubt, miracle, and idolatry almost compete with one another constantly. 

Lord, we were promised milk and honey, yet our mouths are parched and our bodies famished. So we turned from you. Even asking why did you free us from slavery only to wander endlessly? But God does not leave us to journey alone. He accompanies us. 


The commandments are in many ways a response to the wilderness of sin in our own hearts, separating us from God and one another. At the heart of them is testimony that God and God alone is the Source of Life. God alone in Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit is worthy of our praise and adoration.

"See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. 16If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the LORD your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. 17But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, 18I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. 19I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, 20loving the LORD your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the LORD swore to give to your ancestors." - Deuteronomy 30:  15

This week's Old Testament lesson are words that Moses shares with the Israelites who have been wandering for more than a generation while waiting to enter the land promised to their ancestors.  It's a pivotal moment.  It's as if God is saying to them through Moses, "Now that you're about to receive what you've been looking forward to all these years, it's gut check time.  You need to know that your choices will make a difference as to how this all plays out."

"When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." -- Luke 14:12-14

I will admit it: While I claim to love movies -- and I really, really do! -- I am almost equally a sucker for a good TV show. And almost nothing is better than having an entire season to binge-watch over a matter of days. Recently my husband Justin and I did such binge-watching with not one, not two, but three seasons of the very popular "Game of Thrones." For those who are not familiar with this TV show, "Game of Thrones" is a fantasy drama series by HBO, based on a series of novels by George R R Martin. The show takes place in a different time and a different world, where magic and dragons exist, and a civil war is constantly being waged between several noble families, all fighting for the highest position of power, the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms.

Hebrews 12: 28  Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe.

"Awesome" is one of those words that was so overused in the 90's and beyond that it doesn't mean much of anything anymore.  If it does mean something culturally these days, it means "good."  I made an "A" on my test!  "Awesome!"  Good.

Awesome means more than that.  Ironically, this word that we exclaim for "very good" comes from the same root as the word "awful."  "How do you feel?"  "Awful."  As opposed to "Awesome!" 

Hebrews has been clipping along through chapters 11 and 12 with an urging to keep the faith for listeners who have struggled mightily.  We reach in the passage above one of the several "therefores."  We are receiving a kingdom (of God) which cannot be shaken, the author proclaims, so our response is to give thanks.  How?  By offering to God an acceptable worship, with reverence and awe.  Worship that is wholly other, that is awe-inspiring.  Awesome!

Note that worship is always directed to God.  How easy it is for me and for many of us to make worship yet another consumer product.  I like this hymn, this liturgy, that preacher, that time-slot, and so on.  This can easily morph into "I insist on this hymn, this liturgy, etc." Worship becomes all about me, and only secondarily about God.  "What did I get out of it?" becomes my sole measuring stick.  Look again at what Hebrews says.  "We offer to God an acceptable worship."

Hebrews 11: 1-3   Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. 3By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.

20th-century theologian Paul Tillich said that doubt isn't the opposite of faith.  Far from it!  Doubt, he insisted, is a necessary element of faith.  I couldn't agree more.  Faith requires doubt in the same way that courage requires fear.  Courageous people would be simply foolish if they faced unbelievable odds and danger and were not afraid.  No, the whole point is that they ARE very afraid, yet they act boldly despite their fear to pursue or defend or rescue what they most deeply value. 

Doubt means that we cannot prove something.  We cannot know in the same way that we know that the world is round or that gravity will cause the object I'm holding to fall to the ground when I release it.  Believing without doubt, like courage without fear, is utter foolishness.  Faith means moving forward, hoping, trusting, not knowing where we go, not being able to prove anything and yet with conviction  that there is purpose and hope and promise and fulfillment beyond my limited understanding. 

 "Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wonderful works to humankind. For he satisfies the thirsty, and the hungry he fills with good things..."  [Psalm 107:8-9]

This week, some youth of our congregation embarked on an in town mission. They ministered to the hungry who seek daily bread on our premises. They served and learned from our brothers and sisters at the Lutheran Towers. I was blessed to join them, albeit briefly, for an evening devotion. We reflected on how we pray and on how our prayers often move us into a far greater imagination than we think capable. Consider our opening litany: "in peace, let us pray to the Lord..." In these prayers to God the Father through Jesus Christ, we not only pray for ourselves but we pray for "the peace of the whole world..." In doing so, we believe that the God whom we worship in Spirit and Truth (John 4:24) not only created all things but is able still to move us and all things into action. These are powerful prayers to an All Mighty God. Yet, this powerful God out of love came down from heaven for our sake. In Jesus, God gave up all power for the powerless (Philippians 2:5-11). The youth of our congregation-who go into the world-encounter the face of Jesus in the least of these. And in doing so, they/we see that our prayers for peace move not only our hearts and minds but our very feet into action.

Luke 11: 1-4   He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples." 2He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name.  Your kingdom come.  3Give us each day our daily bread.  4And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.  And do not bring us to the time of trial."

If we Lutherans are right that "we are captive to sin and cannot free ourselves," and if Martin Luther was on target with his definition of sin as "curved in on ourselves," then it's little wonder that we are consumers.  Consumers with voracious appetites.  Feed the self!  It's all about me! 

Though our spiritual growth and maturity point us to the two great truths in the universe, namely 1)There is a God and 2)You're not it,  our all-consuming consumerism creeps into our religious life as well.  We equate church "membership" of a church with certain privileges and perks such as image and status in a community, not to mention entitlement to baptisms, weddings, funerals, and pastoral care.    

Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers - all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together... It is he whom we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.  

Colossians 1:15-17,28

  

What do you want to be when you grow up?

"What do you want to be when you grow up?" is a question often asked of children, young adults and even those searching for a career change.  While "What do you want to be ?" is a reasonable question as it relates to career choice a more important consideration is "Who do you want to be when you grow up?"  What kind of person do you seek to become?  I came across one answer from novelist Jodi Picoult.  She writes: "My mother... she is beautiful, softened at the edges and tempered with a spine of steel. I want to grow old and be like her.  Perhaps you, as well, have someone you'd like to emulate.  Perhaps you know someone who represents maturity of character and spirit,-a real grown-up by many standards.

WEEKLY DEVOTIONAL BY PASTOR TIM SMITH

Luke 10:33-37 But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, 'Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.' Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?" He said, "The one who showed him mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

I don't know my neighbors, at least not in the sense that I think of  "neighbors" and neighborhood from my childhood.  We would play outside all day all summer, and the whole neighborhood was our playground.  The village reared its children, and the most dreaded phrase adult neighbors might evoke to pull us into line was, "Do I need to call your mother?"  Yes, I now live in a very different setting, an apartment complex in Atlanta, but I gather that the whole country, even rural and suburban, has changed drastically.  Play date?  What's that?  The neighborhood was our perennial play date!   

WEEKLY DEVOTIONAL BY PASTOR SEYWARD ASK

The Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest." Luke 10:1-2

I find it interesting that over this holiday weekend in which we celebrate our independence, we hear from Jesus a reminder about the importance of working and being together. We live in a society in which individualism is lifted up and encouraged. If we seem to need other people, seem to depend on others, we come across as weak and vulnerable, attributes that are not looked upon favorably in today's culture. But wanting to stand out as an individual and do everything on our own is one of our greatest weaknesses.

The independence we celebrate, the individualism we lift up, is not as independent as it seems. The pilgrims who first settled in this land we call America deeply depended upon one another for survival. They established colonies -- the first towns, really -- in order to live close to each other. They called these places "commonwealths," in other words, places where one person's gifts were used for the common good of all.