Gracious Father, grant us the grace to go now, with courage in you.  My we declare the message of the Gospel which our Lord Jesus entrusted to us, and in wholehearted love for God and for others, share not only the message, but our very selves.  Most loving God, be our refuge; Christ Jesus lead us into love; Holy Spirit nourish the work of our hands and fill our days with joy as we go to love and serve the world.  We pray this through Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit; One God, now and forever.  AMEN.

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Readings for the week:

Deuteronomy 34:1-12
Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17
1 Thessalonians 2:1-8
Matthew 22:34-46

Painted Prayer Book

Deuteronomy 34:1-12

With a background in theatre and a call to preach, I see much in Scripture through the lens of a storyteller.  It is after all God’s story.  This conclusion to the Torah is a very conflicted ending.  It’s a bit like watching a movie that gives you no catharsis, but requires the audience to work out the catharsis after the credits roll.

Moses finally gets his people to this land of promise: it’s just on the other side of the river!  After 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, suffering endless complaints, doing his best to obey God (though sometimes failing in that), being misunderstood by the people he’s trying to lead, going to bat for those people with God when God gets angry … after all this Moses only gets to see the promised land and then die.  It seems so unfair.  But as we turn the page and see the struggles Joshua has in leading the people once in the promised land, I wonder if it isn’t a blessing that Moses doesn’t have to endure anymore.  I can’t imagine how disappointed Moses would be to discover that these self-seeking group of “YHWH’s people” still whine and complain and fear and don’t believe even when they arrive in the promised land.  Or, maybe I can imagine it …

There’s also something here of how Moses equipped the next leader.  While Moses was still the leader, he spent a ton of time with Joshua.  Joshua was prepared for leadership.  Perhaps the people complained, “Moses spends all his time with Joshua, and Aaron, and that crowd … Why doesn’t he visit our tent too?”  What they did not understand is that Moses was pouring his time and energy into good soil that was willing to be equipped for the future good of the people.

Another note on this text … The people mourned Moses’ death for 30 days and then the time of mourning was over.  They moved on.  They didn’t force Joshua to walk around in Moses’ shadow.  Any pastors in the organizational church out there feel like your predecessor is still around because you here said predecesor’s name all the time?  Thought so.  The Church can take a cue from our sacred history here as to how we are to grieve the loss of former leadership and move on to embrace the new.

Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17

In our current culture of US America, it seems we whole-heartedly embrace the notion of individual entitlement from birth (life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and so forth).  The Psalmist here reminds us that such a narrative has no place in the Christian story.

We aren’t owed happiness and stress-free life.  We are God’s.  And as God’s people we will flourish and wither; we will suffer and experience joy.  It’s a both/and reality, not an either/or.

I wonder how many local parishes are missing the divine life of Christ because they refuse to endure withering and suffering?  Will we walk through life with our eyes wide open to our call to Christ’s passion?  Will we embrace the God of night so that we can realize the God of day?  Will we suffer as little-Christ’s or despair that our suffering isn’t “fair?”

We can see how Moses endured, walking close to God through disappointment, sacrifice, discouragement, suffering, misunderstanding, disobedience, and eventually his death.

1 Thessalonians 2:1-8

Paul’s letters to the church at Thessalinica are powder kegs for leaders.  Paul pushes back against allegations falsely made of him.  He endures the suffering inflicted by others’ pride, selfishness, or ignorance; but he still lets them know that they are not acting like Christ’s church.

It’s unfortunate that accusations of deceit and the absence of equitable respect for labor are not limited to the early church.  Yet, even when we contemporary leaders find ourselves in these shoes, we have Paul’s example (follow me as I follow Christ).  He continued to preach the truth of the Gospel, even if the people refused to hear it or except it.  Paul then determined which churches and leaders were good soil (that is to say, who would embrace the paradoxical and uncomfortable truth of the Gospel) and put his energy into them.  Do you see a trend here?

Finally, our efforts to share the gospel in word and deed must be motivated by love of God and love of others.  The false requirements of institutions (numbers, money, prestige, toeing the line, etc.) must be dismissed in light of the truth of the Gospel.  And, unfortunately, this will require suffering for those who endeavor to do so.

Matthew 22:34-46

If we Christ-followers could encourage each other to live like this text demands, we might see the world turned upside down!  But oh, how hard it is (once again) to acknowledge that all of God’s story hinges on loving our Lord with our everything and loving our neighbors, too.

Why not pose this open-ended statement to those in your faith community:

If I love you as myself, I would …

Ask someone to make that statement and end the sentence.  Do it yourself.

Let’s get real … being the Church hinges on one simple request: Love God and love others.  That’s it! So in this present world financial crisis, what would loving God and loving others look like?

• Maybe we downsize our homes and vehicles so that we can support others’ needs.
• Maybe we live well under our means with the goal of blessing our neighbors as much as possible.
• Maybe a few of us get together and decide to stop tithing to a building program, or an organization, or an institution, but we decide to live off half our income and give the other half away to the poor, the disenfranchised, the ignored.

Hey, I’m convicted by these statements, so don’t think I’m suggesting what I’m already doing.  But I am seeking to let my whole life (and that means my family finances) speak to the reality of Christ and the truth of the Gospel.

At the least, when we focus so much energy on others, they might just know God by our outpouring of love … and we might become a little less stuck on our lives, our stuff, our agendas, our desires … on us!

——

Brian Niece
www.brianniece.com

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