Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity

Deuternomy 10:12-21

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, in our Old Testament lesson today God reveals to the Israelites who He is in all his power, glory, majesty and might, and it is a wondrous passage for us to pause and consider who our God is and what He has done for us. Here Moses speaks to the Israelites about what it means that God is their God and because of what He has done that they ought to be mindful of him. He also calls them to circumcise their hearts of the stubbornness that dwells therein. Now this is spoken towards the end of their time in the wilderness, and there is much in this passage for us still today to learn and treasure.

The time in the wilderness has been difficult to say the least. the Israelites have made many mistakes, and suffered for it. However, God was keeping his promise to them to bring them into the promised land. So here God lays out what he requires of them, which we know as the law. That they are to love him with all their heart and soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes which the Lord is laying before them. But why should they listen to him? Well look what it says. He is the God to whom belong the heavens, which means the sky both day and night, and He also owns the heavens of heavens, the earth, and all things. Furthermore, out of all the people on earth, God choose the Israelites. He rescued the Israelites out of Egypt, not because they were the greatest nor the best of people but they were the ones that he chose to love. That’s the Gospel there.

God saved them from their slavery rescued them from their distress and brought them through the wilderness to the promised land. And so He calls upon them to circumcise their hearts. This is of course a difficult thing. It has been a struggle for the Israelites throughout their entire time in the wilderness. God knows this and Moses knows this but they still call the Israelites to do these things because they desire the salvation of the Israelites. And look at the wonderful language that he uses when he talks about the Israelites,he says that the Lord set his heart on them. And he also chose their offspring. Now that references back to Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden when God promised to eve that her offspring would overcome the devil,and that is the same offspring that was promised to Abraham. It is a reminder of God’s grace.

But in this what we find is that God chose them not based upon anything that they were or anything that they had accomplished but purely out of grace and mercy and love for them. There you see what God does he executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, he loves the sojourner and gives them food and clothing. Just as He provides for people who are in need just as the Israelites were in need when they were in Egypt.

It is tragic that although they are reminded of all the great and miraculous things that God did in their sight. They were witnesses to miraculous events that would make most envious. Food provided everyday, water coming from a rock, the sea parting, the plagues on the land of egypt, and as they cross into the promised land they will see more. They will not do what Moses asked them to do.In fact if you know the history of the Israelites they will come into the land and they will listen for a little while. However by the time of Moses grandsons are grown up the Israelites will have already began to fall away. It doesn’t take long to fall away from the faith and even though there were people who could remind the younger generation of the great and miraculous things that God had done they’ve fallen back into their old ways.

How could this happen? Can the heart of man really be that stubborn? Can the corruption and blindness of sin really be that great? It sadly is, from the days of our youth our hearts are twisted away from God and set on sin. This is not naturally known, but we learn it through the Word of God.

The commandments reveal to us the state of our hearts, that we are by nature sinful and unclean. As you learn more about sin that infects the hearts of all men, it is daunting. Consider how great is the sin inside of mankind, and how blind our hearts are, that it isn’t just the Israelites who were brought out of egypt had problems even Jesus faced this issue.

Jesus, he was being challenged by those who knew he was performing miracles. They had seen him perform numerous miracles and yet they still sought to tear him down and watch for Him to slip up. Even though they had witnesses who saw His miracles, had heard his teaching, and knew that He even had the power to raise people from the dead. The great tragedy in our gospel lesson today is when Jesus tells them that they are to love the Lord their God with all their heart and soul and mind, do you realize that he is telling them they need to love Him. And they don’t.

But same command applies to you and I as well that we are to love him for that is what it means to have no other gods before Him. That God alone is the one that you love, but who here can say that we have done it? Or have we lived lives that have not put him first, that we have turned our backs on his gifts that when we had time to read even just a portion of His Word, we turned to other distractions instead. We too are called to circumcise our hearts.

Now I know what I thought when I first heard this, and I was young and optimistic and a bit on the defensive. I thought this would be so easy if I had been there. If only I had seen Jesus, if I had been with the Israelites surely, then I wouldn’t have fallen, I would have listened to the Lord. The miracles would have been enough to convince me, I was doing what Adam did there. Because what I was saying was Lord, you made me at the wrong time, what makes me think I am so different, what makes any of us so different from those people who had seen it with their own two eyes. Did not the Father at Transfiguration tells us to listen to Jesus, why are the Words of God and His commands not enough for us to perform the Law? We are sinners and are hostile to God and His commands try to set the terms and conditions on why we will or will not love him.

But you know what? God’s words here to the Israelites that He chose them are words that are also meant for you. Now you might think well I’ve never been to Egypt, how could God rescue me out of that place? The Father did not rescue you from Egypt, but he did save you from a land of darkness, a land of slavery, the kingdom that ruled by the devil himself and where ever man woman and child was enslaved.

The reason that Jesus became flesh and entered into this world was to do for all mankind what had been done for Israel. Christ came to rescue the world and rescue us from slavery not to an earthly government, but to slavery to sin and bring us into the promised land. If anyone asks what has God done for you? What great and terrible things have your eyes seen that show His love for you and Him choosing you? Look there upon the Cross, and see His great love for you that there on the Cross is his only-begotten son, who by His patient suffering death and by his holy and innocent blood saved you from eternal death. Are you any different from the Israelites? No, but the Father set His heart upon you, and has called you His own. He has set you apart as a holy people, a royal priesthood and chose to save you.

Why stubbornly refuse His word, when He has done all of these things for you. When He has set you free from sin, and death why would you want to be slaves again? God didn’t save you because you first loved him, God loved you first and that is what motivated Him to save you and bring you into His kingdom. He then calls you to go forth and love your neighbor, return that Love that He has for you, cherish His Word and His gifts, for He is your Savior.

But in truth, God doesn’t need your good works, but your neighbor does, and so go forth and love them. When you run into a neighbor and you think to yourself, even this one? Did God look at you and say, ugh, not this one. Put him back and get a different one. No. He chose you in Christ before the foundation of the World. Not because of anything you have done, but because of his great love for you.

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ we have a great and wonderful God whose majesty is far beyond what we have ever considered or known, who chose to save you while you were apart from him and while your heart was against him. So be no longer stubborn, for what are you resisting and opposing, the one who knit you together in the womb, the one who rescued you from everlasting death and damnation, the one who did not even withhold his only begotten son for your sake. Rather receive the forgiveness and peace of God which surpasses all hearts and minds and guards us in Christ Jesus. Amen.