Sermon Index
September 4, 2022, The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Today’s Old Testament Reading is from the Thirtieth Chapter of Deuteronomy. After forty years of wandering in the wilderness, the Israelites are about to enter the Promised Land. At this time, Moses calls the people together to renew their Covenant Promise to the Lord God. At Mount Sinai, Moses brought the words of the Covenant down from the mountain. We call them the “Ten Commandments.” But in the Bible, it reads like a contract between God and Israel. God makes a promise and so does the People of Israel. Exodus 20:2-3 reads like this: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of he land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.” God promises to be the god of Israel, which means, he will guide them and protect them and prosper them. And the people promise to be loyal to God and to follow his directions for their lives. Those directions are the other nine Commandments. These Commandments are how the people are to live together in society, without killing each other, by not lying and stealing and cheating each other, and to enjoy the blessings of God.
During the forty years, sometimes the people broke their promise. They murmured against the Lord, they doubted that He was keeping His promise to provide them with food and water. Sometimes they even worshiped false gods. At such times, God would show his loyalty and punish the people who broke the covenant. This showed that God really did care about the behavior and welfare of His people. It showed God’s love.
And so, after forty years in the wilderness, right before entering the Promised Land, Moses encourages the people to renew their covenant promise to God. Moses said, Deuteronomy 30:15-20,
“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore, choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”
“Choose life.” Choose to “love the Lord your God.”
In the New Testament Gospel Reading for today, Jesus speaks to those who might want to be his disciples. Luke 14:27, “Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” “To bear the cross” can mean to die for Jesus. It can mean to bear suffering for Jesus. It can mean living according to the Gospel of Jesus. Jesus further said, “33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” And so, “to bear the cross” means get rid of anything that hinders following Christ, even if that means your own family or your own life.
Count the cost. The price of being a Christian is high. Know this from the very beginning. Don’t become a Christian and then drop out of the church. Jesus says that is like a man who starts to build a tower but does not have money or resources to finish. People will make fun of him. Jesus says we should be like a wise king who knows he cannot defeat an army twice as large as his own and so 32 “sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.” Count the cost. Think carefully before becoming a disciple.
Moses would say, “Look at all that the Lord God has done for you since the Exodus. Trust Him.” Choose life.”
Preachers say, “Look at all that the Lord Jesus has done for you. He died and rose for you and has forgiven your sin. He has answered your prayers. Trust Him. Choose life.”
At Mount Sinai, the Lord God made a Covenant with Israel. We call it “The Ten Commandments.” It was a contract of what God would do and how the Israel would live as a nation.
At the Last Supper, Jesus Christ made a Covenant with his disciples. We call it “The Lord’s Supper.” It was a contract that Christ would die for our sin and we would remember that and live as Christians. The word “testament” is the same as “covenant.”
Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night when He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to the disciples and said: “Take, eat; this is My () body, which is given for you. This do in remembrance of Me.”
In the same way also He took the cup after supper, and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them, saying: “Drink of it, all of you; this cup is the new testament in My () blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
At the time of Baptism or Confirmation, we ask people to confess their faith and to renounce the devil and all his works. In the Confirmation service there is this question: “Do you intend to continue steadfast in this confession and Church and to suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from it?” “I do, by the grace of God.”!
It is the commitment that both Moses and Jesus demanded. Which is, that we remain steadfast in faith and life. Why do we and why can we do this? It is because the Lord God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit is our God who has given us salvation is forever faithful to the Covenant Promise.
Amen.
Prayer of the Day
O merciful Lord,
You did not spare Your only Son but delivered Him up for us all. Grant us courage and strength to take up the cross and follow Him, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Michael Nearhood, Pastor
Okinawa Lutheran Church