13 February 2011
Deuteronomy 30: 15-20

There is something life giving about living the other side of denial.   Choosing life in today’s messy world is harder than Moses promised. Religious idolatry makes it even harder. Chapter 29-30 of Deuteronomy emphasizes in liturgical fashion the Covenant aspect of the Deuteronomic Law, delivered to the people of Israel, according to this tradition, by Moses himself.

After recounting what God has done for Israel in the Exodus, he led them up out of Egypt, delivered them from slavery, to the brink of the Promised Land. In the wilderness they were fed with Manna from Heaven, their sandals didn’t wear out, and they defeated all their enemies. The writer reminds the people this day they stand before God to enter into the covenant that He proposed.

The writer-liturgist reminds the people that God will keep his end of the covenant if you people keep your end. He goes on to cite the curses of the Covenant which follow on the breaking of the Covenant, which are written in the Book of the Law.

Disobedience, breaking of the Covenant by the people means that they will be rooted out of their land of milk and honey which was the promise God made to the people if they keep His Commandments, and hold up their end of the Covenant.

This is a reminder of a very present command; it is here and now; it offers them the choice between death and life. The moment of decision is at hand - now- this moment.

Therefore says the liturgist, “Choose Life”.

The scene described in this part of Deuteronomy gives every evidence of being a liturgical recitation of the history and the destiny of the children of Israel. Chapter 30 is a liturgical re-enactment of the action of God establishing a Covenant with the people of Israel wherein each partner in the Covenant has his/her clear responsibilities: God raised the people out of slavery with a mighty hand; the people must keep their end of the bargain. The theology of the Covenant requires the people to keep the Laws of God laid down in the Deuteronomic Code.

The perils of idolatry, breaking the Codes, means the disruption and displacement that follow disobedience.

After repentance and exile in Egypt, God will restore them again to their land providing they keep their end of the bargain.

God’s will in the Law is present here and now. Even as it was when God delivered it to Moses. God’s will is in the peoples’ mouths and hearts, so there is no pretending it is not at hand. Therefore, now is the time of decision. Choose now between life and death, everyday. And the liturgist admonishes the people to choose life, that they may dwell in the peaceable kingdom which God has promised.

All Israelite traditions can be traced to historical events. These passages refer back to Moses and they are material that was used in a ceremony of Covenant renewal, the origin of which was Moses himself receiving the terms of the Covenant from God himself.

To recapitulate the story thus far:

• God in the Covenant has made an offer to Israel
• The decision is one of free choice for the people
• The alternatives are sharply drawn, and clear: Life or Death

God’s terms are:

• Loving the Lord your God with all your heart and all your mind and all your soul
• Obeying His voice
• And cleaving to Him daily

Failure to keep the Covenant, disobedience, takes the form of idolatry.

Nothing could be clearer: Choose Life or Death.

If we want to get inside this tradition, we are required to make a commitment to this Covenant. The Bible plainly teaches that belief without commitment is belief without faith. Faith in God and His Covenant.

Belief without Faith always leads to idolatry. When people have belief without faith, they manufacture their own gods. And worship them. This is idolatry, not the Covenant.

As it was in olden times, so it is today. Especially in America. How easy it is to worship other gods, those in the prevailing culture   -status, wealth, success. But the Bible teaches us that the choice we have daily is Life or Death, God or Idols of our own making.

In addition to the Israelite Covenant Law … to which we owe everything, we owe much in today’s world to popular atheists. Several popular books have helped us clear the air a little. In an America whose prevailing “religion” is wealth and consumption, --I don’t mean the sneering atheists like Christopher Hitchens, although he is clever, but rather thinkers like Professor Dawkins --atheists who have helped to clarify Idolatry.

That’s why honest atheists are so helpful to us Christians. According to the Biblical faith, there is one sin that God will not tolerate, and that is worshipping anyone but Him.

Atheists help liberate us from preoccupations with idols such as God on our currency, prayer breakfasts, purveyors of our “Christian values”, lip service to God by politicians, and the alleged primacy of God in our national life. (When was the last successful atheist politician? In 1892, General Robert Ingersoll, hero of the battle of Gettysburg, was nominated on the Republican ticket for Vice President. Can you imagine that happening today!

Soren Kierkegaard --a famous Christian thinker and existentialist from Denmark-   reminded us as long ago as 1848 that “ when all are Christians, simply by virtue of being born in a “Christian Society”, Christianity does not exist.”

Liberated then, from the whole popular paraphernalia of God, we can experience anew what Jesus brings to us from the Jewish tradition: Jesus said, “He that has seen me has seen The Father”, and St. Paul said in Philippians, “He made himself of no reputation.”

Intimidating as it may seem we must be rid of our narrow, idolatrous beliefs before we can receive the gift of Faith. St. Paul reminds us that faith is a Gift, the gift of God in Christ Jesus. When you have received the gift of Faith from the Holy Spirit, your beliefs come alive, nurtured by Jesus himself, about whom Paul so trenchantly said, “You are dead, and your lives are hidden with God in Christ.” That’s biblical theology. Yes, there is something life-giving about living on the far side of denial: our human inventions about God are denied and we are open to receiving the gift of faith -- the life-giving Faith that will smash our beliefs in whatever idols the culture is currently peddling. Then, by Him and Him alone, we can love the Lord our God, and obey His voice, and cleave to Him forever and ever.

Amen.