Moses is coming to the end of his final sermon. He has laid out before Israel the whole of the law, including its covenantal blessings and curses (28:1-68). He has reminded the people that, if they lose their way, the repentant will be ever-welcomed back into God\u2019s mercies (30:1-10). And, by way of conclusion, he speaks the words we read today: \u201cSee, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity\u201d (v.15).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But lest God\u2019s people then or now misunderstand him, Moses defines what true life, true prosperity, is. It is not a ten-figure bank account, a dream-come-true romance, or a secure and stable future. Instead, it is \u201cloving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him\u201d (v. 20). The Lord is our life, and even amidst trouble and trial, \u201cholding fast to him\u201d is our prosperity. It is true God has promised to bless obedience, but the core of this blessing is union with God. All other blessings come as fruit from this union. To \u201cdwell in the land\u201d (v. 20), therefore, is primarily to enjoy the special presence of the Lord, from whom all blessings flow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Throughout Psalm 119, we see two contrasting figures: those happy people who keep the law faultlessly and delight in doing so, and the writer of the psalm, who wishes he was one of the people he describes. It is not that the psalmist has no desire to walk the narrow and righteous way of the Lord. On the contrary, he wants nothing more. After describing the ways of the obedient with overwhelming reverence, he writes, \u201cOh that my ways were made so direct.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But instead of either promising what he will never be able to produce, or excusing himself from a seemingly impossible way of life, he speaks both a pledge and a plea: \u201cI will keep your statutes; do not utterly forsake me\u201d (v. 8). He cries out in the only posture we frail creatures can rightfully take before an almighty and perfect God. He expresses his longing to be the Lord\u2019s in heart and soul and mind and body\u2014speaks it, in fact, as if it were already the case\u2014and then pleads for the Lord\u2019s assistance, for the Lord alone can accomplish what the psalmist has dared to request.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All of us at some point or another have heard someone\u2019s actions be excused with the acknowledgement, \u201cThey\u2019re only human.\u201d The excuse is understandable. Despite the modern world\u2019s discomfort with the word \u201csin,\u201d most would admit that people aren\u2019t perfect; we\u2019re bound to make mistakes and argue, bound to gossip and complain, bound (at least every now and then, we say,) to act on our lower impulses rather than our more noble ideals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paul, however, knocks that excuse flat on its back when it stumbles out of the mouths of the new Christians in Corinth. According to Paul, the follower of Christ who \u201c[behaves] according to human inclinations\u201d (v. 3) and acts as if he or she were still \u201cmerely human\u201d (v.4), is a contradiction. For \u201cwe know that our old self\u201d\u2014our \u201conly human\u201d self\u2014\u201cwas crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin\u201d (Rom 6:6). With that in mind, \u201cjealousy and quarrelling\u201d (v. 3) aren\u2019t to be excused as the inevitable outcome of any gathering of people, but they are to be mourned and repented of as sins which mar God\u2019s holy temple. The Church is called always to repent of its sins and to put itself each day anew into the hands of God who both purifies and brings to maturity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In ages long past, a servant stood on a mountaintop with a God wrapped in fire, in order to receive the holy law. In our text today, other servants stand on a mountaintop with the same God, now wrapped in flesh, in order to receive a second law which affirms and intensifies the first. Murder has always been forbidden; now unchecked anger is revealed as the heart\u2019s intent to kill. Adultery was never acceptable; now adultery with the eyes and mind is shown to be as evil as adultery with the body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But how to fulfill such a law, and why even try? We are not saved by works. And yet, Jesus said not only to hear his words, but to do them (Mat 7:24). We are not saved because we are righteous, but we are saved that we might become righteous. Through Christ\u2014who fulfilled the law (Mat 5:17)\u2014anger has no power in us, lust has no dominion. These and every other evil have been taken down to death, and through union with Christ, they are killed daily in us as well. We are called into a higher life\u2014Jesus\u2019 life\u2014and we are given his Spirit to carry on God\u2019s good work in us to the day of its completion, when we are at last made one with Christ (Phil 1:6).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Deuteronomy 30:15-20 Moses is coming to the end of his final sermon. He has laid out before Israel the whole of the law, including its covenantal blessings and curses (28:1-68). He has reminded the people that, if they lose their way, the repentant will be ever-welcomed back into God\u2019s mercies (30:1-10). And, by way of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":201221,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[23,32,52,3],"tags":[258],"class_list":["post-766984","bible_study","type-bible_study","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bible-studies","category-epiphany","category-sermons-that-work","category-worship-and-prayer-menu","tag-epiphany-6a"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":23,"label":"Bible Studies"},{"value":32,"label":"Epiphany"},{"value":52,"label":"Sermons That Work"},{"value":3,"label":"worship_and_prayer_menu"}],"post_tag":[{"value":258,"label":"Epiphany 6A"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":[],"comment_info":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bible_study\/766984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bible_study"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bible_study"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bible_study\/766984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":951969,"href":"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bible_study\/766984\/revisions\/951969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=766984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=766984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=766984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}