Hear why...

Deuteronomy 5:1-21; 6:4-9

My wife and I were on our way to a family gathering when a Harley Davidson motorcycle pulled up next to our vehicle at the red light. My daughter looked over at the motorcycle and asked why the motorcycle was so loud to which my wife responded “Because it’s a motorcycle”. We should have known that this would become another of her “why” moments. Regardless of the answer that was given the response to that answer was entirely predictable; “Why?”

“Because the engine is on the outside.”

“Why?”

“Because motorcycles always have engines on the outside.”

“Why?”

“Because thats how they are made.”

“Why?”

It went on like that for a while. At the time I thought it was the longest red light of my life. Finally I couldn’t take it any longer, I squeezed my wife’s hand and asked her if I could give it a shot. She welcomed the opportunity for some tag team parenting so I gave it my best shot, explaining to the two year old that,

“Motorcycle engines are loud because the engine releases fuel which is then ignited by means of combustion in turn driving the pistons up and down by creating miniature explosions that creates energy that propels the motorcycle forward and since the engine is not encased these actions appear louder than other engines which are encased under the hood of a vehicle.”

Our daughter, after a long pause finally acknowledged by responding…. “Oh, Okay”

My wife laughed and asked me, “Is that right?”

I advised her that I had no idea but I didn’t much care about the accuracy of my answer only that she would stop asking why. 

Today’s reading introduces us to the book of Deuteronomy. Although we are only reading a small portion of Deuteronomy you’ve heard the short version today. Deuteronomy is a much more in depth look at the ten commandments, taking each commandment one by one and explaining the relevance of each commandment, along with specific ways of putting those laws into action. By far the most intriguing part of the presentation of the ten commandments in Deuteronomy is that it tells us the why before the what.

It tells us why we are given the law.

It tells us why we are to follow the law.

It tells us why we are to see the law as a gift.

We don’t have a tendency to see the law as a gift in our own Christian practice today. We prefer to see it as an accusatory tool, a method of condemning those we believe are failing to keep the law. You don’t have to read too far along to find out that we all seem to fall short of the law. Perhaps if we saw the law as a gift we would use it as a gift rather than a curse? But to see it as a gift we have to explore the why. 

The interesting thing about this “why” is that it isn’t a complicated answer meant to confuse us into a resigned “Oh, okay” response as my answer to my daughter was. It isn’t a riddle, it is an honest expectation. 

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone.You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your being, and with all your might.”

There is only one demand being made in this verse; to hear. Our love is not being demanded here. However, it is expected, which is what we often find so confusing about God when we read the Hebrew scriptures. What we often fail to recognize in our reading of scripture is the manner in which those who receive the love fail to reciprocate that love. 

Consistently throughout the story God’s love is given, freely, graciously, without merit. Yet seldom do we find a fraction of that love returned to God. No matter what gift is given, and always given in love, God is told time and again that those gifts are not only insufficient but unworthy of so much as a thank you. Perhaps a better translation of this verse would be 

Why wouldn’t you love the Lord your God with all your heart? 

Why wouldn’t you love the Lord your God with your whole being? 

Why wouldn’t you love the Lord your God with all your might?

Maybe they should have added; 

“For crying out loud, what more does God have to do to get so much as an I love you?”

But we all know that love is a tricky matter. Love freely given is not always given in return. 

~

In one of the greatest pieces of modern American literature, "A River Runs Through It", Norman Maclean tells a semi-biographical story about his family, with a particular focus on his brother Paul. Norman and Paul, both in the novel and in real life were the sons of a local presbyterian pastor in Montana. Norman returns home following his college education at Dartmouth to find his brother, Paul, living a dangerous life plagued by substance abuse and gambling debts. Throughout the story Norman, along with his family, struggles to find a way to help Paul. 

The sobering conclusion of the story finds Paul brutally beaten to death in an alley. Norman, after sharing the devastating news with his mother and father, that Paul has been killed, is forced by his father to give his honest assessment of what he believed happened to Paul. Norman and his father come to the same conclusion; they loved Paul, they wanted to help Paul, but Paul refused their love or their help. Norman’s father preaches to this point in his own sermon claiming, 

“Each one of us here today will at one time in our lives look upon a loved one who is in need and ask the same question: We are willing to help, Lord, but what, if anything, is needed? For it is true we can seldom help those closest to us. Either we don't know what part of ourselves to give or, more often than not, the part we have to give is not wanted. And so it is those we live with and should know who elude us. But we can still love them - we can love completely without complete understanding.”

Norman Maclean

Norman Maclean’s novel painfully explains the love story between God and God’s people, then and now. God is far more wounded than angry at the failure to respond to a love that is so freely given, so undeserved, so unmerited. Most certainly if we believe that all good things come from God then how can we not fully be consumed by love for … God?

I have days where I cannot help but declare my love for the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Batman, Chicken Wings, Oktoberfest! But how often do I find myself making such public professions about my love for God? I have told complete strangers of my love for peanut butter and vanilla ice cream in the checkout line at the grocery store, but I find myself much more reluctant to share that same love for God. Could that mean that I love peanut butter ice cream more than God? If we seriously consider our public expressions of love for material desires, perhaps we have found the fundamental issue at hand; the truest form of love is the model of love we find in God and that is a form of love that is not in service of the self. 

~

Someone once asked a Lutheran why they were Lutheran, imploring them to convert to their own understanding of proper Christian practice so that this Lutheran could go to heaven and avoid hell. The individual being questioned responded by asking,

“If I love God because I am scared of hell then I am a coward. If I love God because I want to go to heaven then I am selfish. And if I love God for either of those reasons I am a liar because I cannot truly love God unless it is in response to the love given, for that reason and that reason alone.”

Loving God is not a demand made but a natural response. It is the same natural response we long for and hunger for in our daily living. Love is always a risk because love is an investment and it is an investment that we do not take lightly. We expect returns for that investment and if those returns do not multiply our initial investment, well, we stop investing most of the time.

~

On Thursday one such investment dried up. I was wrestling with this sermon when I contacted one of the Marines I served with in Iraq. We spoke about another Marine who had been deployed with us and I came to find out that the Marine we were discussing had been in a motorcycle crash. A police officer attempted to stop him and a chase ensued. It didn’t end well. This Marine that had survived a difficult tour in Iraq was killed as a result of the police pursuit and motorcycle crash.

We still aren’t sure why he fled, but there are suspicions that he may have been intoxicated. Although I didn’t know this particular Marine well, my dear friend and I were troubled by the events that had occurred. He was a spit and polish Marine and I never heard him say or receive a bad word about anyone. Many of us have reached out over the past ten years, attempting to help others to heal from the scars accrued during our time in Iraq. It was what led my friend in his pursuit of a Ph.D. in philosophy. It was part of what led me to seminary. 

One of the reasons this particular Marine and I remain close is because it is in these moments that we feel the greatest despair. Much like Norman Maclean’s family, my friend and I often feel we have failed because those most in need elude us. We weren’t even aware of the struggle he was going through over the past ten years. This is the point at which it is easiest to resign oneself to the simplistic view that there is no use in helping anyone that will not help themselves. 

Just imagine if God took such a stance? Because today's reading is in direct opposition to that prescription for help. We are called to model the love that God has shown us, the love that is unmerited, undeserved, and never reciprocated. It is always a risk and it can come at a heavy price, but it wasn’t a price that God was not willing to pay over and over again. 

The greatest irony in our Christian faith is that we consistently find ourselves calling out for the humanity of God rather than the Godliness of humanity. Because it is in this one command that God calls us to living out God’s model of love, freely given, unmerited, undeserved, with not only God but one another. But it is all too easy to say that such a love is not possible as a people flawed by original sin, it is far too hard, it certainly cannot be done. 

So we call out for the humanity of God and we assume that we see the humanity of God in Jesus Christ when what we are actually seeing is the Godly love in humanity that is modeled in Jesus the Christ. 

I pray that model can reorient us all to love God fully, turning us in love toward one another in Jesus Christ.

Amen. 

 Sources:

Maclean, Norman, and Barry Moser. A River Runs Through It and Other Stories. 1st ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989.

Human Improbability = The Greatness of the I AM

Exodus 1:18-14; 3:1-15

The pastor stepped into the pulpit with the full intention of helping the family of the deceased young man that the funeral was not only a celebration of his life but the assurance of something better. While lifting up the obvious joy that the boy had brought into their community; telling stories of his mischievous actions, the boy’s extreme honesty to the point of a crass frankness, and entertaining disruptions during worship, he also hoped to assure the family and friends that the boy was now better off. The pastor, with his vast knowledge of historical theology, informed the group of friends and family who had gathered that -according to the medieval theologian Peter Lombard- the young boy would be joined to Christ happily resurrected in the prime of his life -30 years of age- free of any impediment, scar, or imperfection to include the "burden" he had faced as a special needs child born with down syndrome. 

The family of the child remained uniquely composed from that point in the sermon on, even at the graveside service, they remained quiet and calm. The next few Sundays came and went and the pastor realized that the family had not been attending worship since the funeral of their son. The pastor, in hopes of ensuring the family was coping with the death of their son and, of course, planning on returning to church, called their home to ask how they were and that they were missed. The conversation was honest and forthcoming, The father shared the highs and lows of the passing few weeks. As the conversation came to a close the pastor asked when they could expect the family’s return to worship. The father advised the pastor that he would not be returning and when asked why he calmly informed the pastor that if God could not recognize his son as a precious gift for who and what he was in life, he had no need or desire to be accepted into such a heaven or find his son in such a place either. 

We all have our own perceptions of what characteristics and traits are useful or good. Appearance, intelligence, athleticism, wealth, charisma, sense of humor, and the list could go on and on. 

Our story for today is about Moses, a man who has risen from the depths of a birth into a life that should have been destined for slavery and servitude. A life that very well may have shortened his life expectancy because of the grueling and tedious nature of the physical labor he would be expected to perform. And we discover in the first chapter of Exodus, he wouldn’t even get a chance to live a life of slavery because the Egyptians had decided to eliminate the threat of rebellion by limiting the numbers of the Hebrew slaves through the execution of their infant children. Moses rises from this morbid destiny, set adrift in the Nile and taken in by the Pharaoh’s own household. Having risen to a noble status, elevated to a position of power, in the prime of his life, he kills an Egyptian who is abusing a Hebrew slave and his future takes a drastic turn. Moses is taken from the most elevated position a Hebrew slave could imagine and with a single action he is betrayed by not only the Pharaoh -who seeks to take Moses’ life- but the very Hebrew people he defended. Informed by a Hebrew slave that Moses has no authority over them when Moses is advised; “Who made you a ruler and judge over us?” Fleeing from Egypt, cast out by both the Egyptians and their Hebrew slaves, Moses resigns himself to a life of Shepherding. Shepherding, the tedious exhausting work of bedouin and tribal people. 

Moses settles in Midian and regardless of his past life of privilege he humbly resigns himself to his new life and new home. Moses is content with how the events of his life have unfolded, he is satisfied with the hand he has been dealt knowing full well that the humble life of a Shepherd, as a member of a humble tribe, in the humble land of Midian will suit him just fine, despite the once great heights he reached, those days are long gone and he is at peace. When God calls out to Moses he is no champion, no hero, no force to be reckoned with. Moses isn't even an underdog. Moses is well past his prime, devoid of any characteristics one would see as useful or good. If this were a Rocky Balboa movie Moses wouldn’t be Rocky, Moses would be Mick and he would be stepping into the ring instead of coaching the underdog. Moses isn’t an underdog, Moses is an impossibility. And Moses is being given a mission to rescue another impossibility; a tribe of Hebrew slaves. 

A people who came to Egypt following another Hebrew that rose to great heights; Joseph. They came seeking food and security. But the Pharaoh has long since forgotten Joseph and enslaved the Hebrew people. They too have risen to great heights only to find themselves sentenced to a life of hardship and hopelessness, groaning and crying out to a God they most certainly have either forgotten or believe has forgotten them. This isn’t an underdog story, this is a story of human limitation. It is a story of the idol we make of human characteristics and traits. 

It is therefore ironic when Moses asks God for a picture ID and a social security number when he asks “What will I tell them when they ask me; What is the name of this God?” Moses knows full well that the god of Egypt has a name, in fact the gods of Egypt have many names; Pharaoh for one, Ra, Horus, Osiris, Ma’at, and many more. If Moses is to win the confidence of the Hebrew people he must prove that he has the authority and power to lead them out of Egypt in the face of the first great superpower the world has ever known. Moses knows full well that is a power and authority that he himself cannot communicate by his own power or charisma. And the only assurance he receives from the God is simply I. AM.

Egypt has risen to a power unrivaled in the known world.They credit the reward of their empire and power to the gods whose monuments rise into the horizon communicating not only the unrivaled power of Egypt but the unrivaled power of their gods. Against this intimidating force and power, Moses, the last guy we would pick for our kickball team shows up with a stick and a God named I. AM.  A name that means, quite simply, you cannot and will not discover the definition of my features, the limit or extent of my power, the nature of my very being, or the very proof of my existence. 

My Hebrew professor once said that in this passage God is simply saying “You can’t bottle me up and sell me like snake oil”

Moses is told to just give the simple assurance that the God, the I AM just…. is? Not exactly the best battle plan is it? If we are quite honest I don’t think very many of us would take up this task, I would certainly need a bit more convincing. But God’s plan is specific; lifting the most unlikely, the greatest impossibility, against the greatest possibility and by far the most likely, according to our own listing of most valued traits. Because God finds strength in the places we define as frail, God finds goodness in the places where we identify the greatest evil, God finds unrivaled power in the pits of mortal existence. God is the One that determines the height of greatness and the places where that greatness will be found in this world. And the reason is quite simple, God, the I AM doesn’t come to us in the form we seek or the places we seek. God cannot be defined by the parameters with which we measure success, power, or greatness. 

Last weekend, as most of you know, I attended my father’s final Sunday as a called parish pastor. I sat through two services. I watched my father preside over the sacraments twice, preach twice, and cry more than twice. I will admit to you, my eyes swelled with pride once at each service; during the meal. Whenever my father presides over the bread and the wine he distributes the elements to the gathered and when the last is served he himself sits behind the altar, bows his head, and receives the bread and the wine from a member of the congregation. With a reverent head bowed and a reverent hand outstretched he receives the bread and the wine as that member stands above him presenting that bread and wine to him. 

Now that is my father’s practice but it is a reflection of a theology I have grown to admire and share with him. It is an understanding of my unworthiness to serve the I AM and an invitation for the I AM to work through any and all means in this world, especially the means I am incapable of calling worthy of that service. Some would call it humility and I have heard others refer to it as piety. 

I would call it an awareness. It is an awareness of not only my own unworthiness but our human inability to fully appreciate the ability of the I AM that exceeds our own comprehension, allows us to exceed our own expectations working in us, through us. The I AM that is revealed in the most ironic and impossible places because we are too incapable of seeing them as anything but a dead end. And when we think we have seen it all, from Noah, to Abraham, to Moses, to Saul, to David we are once again amazed when God picks the greatest impossibility and the most certain dead end to reveal the great I AM

The Christ on the cross. 

Amen