“God’s Goodness, Part 2: The Law-giver Who Prospers” by the Rev. Don Wahlig, July 10, 2022 - Year C / 6th Sunday after Pentecost - Deuteronomy 30:9-14 and Psalm 25:1-10 • Colossians 1:1-14 • Luke 10:25-37
THEME: God is always ready to give second chances and blessing for those willing to obey him.
Have you ever yearned for a second chance? I’m talking about finding yourself in a horrible, painful situation – maybe even in dire straits. Maybe it was because of something you did or failed to do. And then, desperately wishing – hoping against hope – for a way to make it right?
I think we’ve all had that experience. I can remember as a teenager, my very first car accident. It was a Saturday morning. I was driving home from the University of Delaware where I was auditing a music theory course. I had been out late the night before with friends. I was really tired.
As I approached a traffic light at an intersection, I had become distracted. I didn’t notice that the car ahead of me had stopped and was signaling for a left-hand turn. Only at the last moment did I see them. I hit the brakes, but it was too late. I rear-ended them, almost at full speed.
For a good few moments, I was in shock. I didn’t know what to do. The full gravity of the situation began to hit me when an older couple got out of the othger car. I had no idea if they were hurt or not. They were understandably very upset. The police eventually came. We exchanged information and I was able to get a ride home.
At home, as you can imagine, my mother was none too pleased. As we sat at the kitchen table, all I could think was how badly I had messed up. I just kept thinking about that older couple.
The worst thing was there was nothing I could do about it. It felt like the end of the world. All I could do was wish for a second chance, a chance to do things differently, to get it right.
And I suspect the Jews who are hearing the words I read earlier feel that very same way.
These words come from the final portion of the book of Deuteronomy. The heart of that book is, of course, the Jewish law. It includes the 10 Commandments as well as the other 600-plus statutes that govern the relationship between God and God’s people.
Moses is addressing these words to all the tribal Elders, their families and the foreigners who live among them – in other words, absolutely everybody.
They are standing across the Jordan River from Canaan. But Moses won’t live to make that trip. This is his farewell speech to the people as they prepare to set foot in the land of milk and honey that God promised their ancestor Abraham.
Moses makes clear that the people have a choice to make. They must choose between faithful obedience to Yahweh that leads to a life of blessing, and rebellious idolatry that leads to a life that is cursed.
If they choose to reject foreign gods and instead worship Yahweh alone and obey his commandments, they will prosper in the promised land. There they will live a life of overflowing abundance.
But if they continue to worship foreign gods, as many among them appear to be doing, they will suffer, and suffer horribly. They will be conquered by foreign nations, their loved ones will be killed and they will be taken into exile.
There’s something odd here. Maybe you noticed it. The text makes it clear that this has already happened.
For that reason, many people believe that this portion of Deuteronomy, although purportedly the words of Moses, was actually written much later and addressed to the exiles returning to Jerusalem from Babylon.
Remember them? We focused on them last week. We highlighted God’s gracious, comforting promise to them of a renewed future in Jerusalem - if they are willing to work for it.
This morning, in part 2 of this 4-part sermon series on God’s goodness, we get another picture of God. We see his relentless love for his people that moves him to give them the gift of the law.
You and I, as Christians tend to de-emphasize the Jewish law. That’s because we have been given the new law of love in the person of Jesus Christ. But, when we treat the Jewish law so lightly, we are overlooking what it reveals about God and God’s grace.
The law was much more than just some archaic list of dos and don’ts, of bizarre food restrictions and prohibitions against combining different kinds of fabric. The law was the means by which God’s people could live in loving relationship with him and with one another.
Even further, it provided the mechanism for correcting and mending breaches in those relationships, so that harmonious communal life could resume. In other words, the law gave the people a second chance.
And that includes the exiles. Their persistent idolatry and rebellion against God led to Jerusalem’s downfall and their deportation into exile. Now, as they return, God is giving them a second chance. What they make of it, and the type of community they become, is up to them. They must choose: God or idols? Life or death? Blessing or curse.
Friends, that is a choice you and I must make, too. We have no shortage of false gods in this world. There are some obvious ones: power, money, material goods.
And there are some less obvious ones. Comfort, beauty, and fame. Even good things like sex, education, science and even religious doctrine can become idols when they usurp the devotion that belongs to God and God alone.
If that makes you pause and consider your own life through a critical lens, with perhaps a bit of trepidation, you are not alone. As our theological ancestor, John Calvin, famously wrote, the human heart is a veritable factory of idols.
We are experts at finding other things to love besides God. But, in the end, none of those things can love us back. That’s because they all boil down to the love of ourselves. Every idol we construct is rooted in the love of self that poisons our hearts. It’s the attempt to remake God in our image, when in fact we are made in his.
And the kind of community our self-centered idolatry creates is not a particularly happy one. It’s a community where the rich get richer and don’t care that the poor get poorer. It’s a community where the old and the sick are pitied, but not helped. It’s a community where the strong and the powerful get their way, while the weak and the marginalized suffer.
That is a far cry from the kind of God-centered, other-serving community that he intends for us. And that’s where the law comes in. The law is something practical that the people can do in ordinary, everyday life to show their love and devotion to God by loving and serving their neighbor.
That’s how Jesus summed it up: love God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, and your neighbor as yourself. Do this and you shall live. God promises that, if we turn to him, he will circumcise our hearts, marking us his own and drawing us into his covenant of abundant life.
But what does this actually look like in practice?
Let me introduce you to a man named Neil Volz. As a college student at Ohio State in the 1990s, Neil began volunteering for his local congressman. Within a few years, he became chief of staff. Then, as often happens in DC, he became a lobbyist. He was married, earning $500K/year and living the kind of high-flying life that many people dream about.
But then the bottom fell out. I will let Neil tell you the rest of his story.
[ Ryan: play video: https://youtu.be/7S4DkYKz6Po ]
Neil is right. When people are given a second chance, more often than not, they prosper and the community gets better. But it’s up to them to choose the path that leads to life.
That’s what Neil did. One of the homeless men he worked with in Washington DC suggested that he return to church. He did. And that is what led him to take his second chance. He devoted his life to following Christ by serving his neighbor, especially folks like him who need a second chance.
What about you? Do you need a second chance? Has someone ever given you a second chance?
I got a second chance. The couple I hit were not seriously hurt and I became a much better driver. That wasn’t the only second chance I’ve gotten in life – not by a long shot.
That’s because our God specializes in second chances. In his eyes, there are no lost causes, only people and lives and communities to be redeemed.
He was even willing to become one of us and die for us to give us a second chance at abundant life.
God wants us to prosper. He wants us to help others prosper. That is the covenant into which he invites us in Jesus Christ.
Let’s say yes. Let’s choose obedience and life, and then let’s enjoy his blessing.
May it be so.
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