SERMON – FAITH LUTHERAN – TRINITY 7 – DEUTERONOMY 30:9-14 – JULY 18, 2010

Dear friends in Christ,

I remember talking with one of the congregation members at the congregation I served in Orofino, ID. She was working as what was called a medical record transcriptionist, I think – she would take doctor’s orders and get them written down for the record. And I remember her talking about how frustrating and very difficult it was many times to do her job – because it involved being able to read the doctors’ handwriting, which oftentimes was atrocious, at the best. And that got us into talking about how easy it would be to make a mistake in a prescription or in a treatment when the original written record was so hard to decipher.

You and I have our true God Himself to thank that we do not have that issue to work through when it comes to what it is that He has to say to us! We do not have a God who has left His Word for us in some unintelligible gibberish. The Word that the Lord has left for us is clear – we know just WHAT it is! And the Word He had given us is not left for us in some place which is difficult to find or almost impossible to access. We know exactly WHERE it is!

These are the truths that we join Moses today in thanking and praising the Lord for – that the Lord has given us His very own Word – that we know WHAT it is and also WHERE it is!

I realize that these things to us are so very basic – almost so basic as to appear childish, and not worthy of time in a sermon. Of course we know what God’s Word is, and where it is! It is all written down in the pages of what we call the Bible. It is there that the very words of God Himself are written down as the Holy Spirit inspired the prophets and apostles to write. As Paul wrote to Timothy – "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." (2 Tim. 3) Almost all of us have, like Timothy, "known them from childhood on."

But take a moment with me to think about what a wonder it is, how special it is, for us to have God’s revelation, God’s very own Word, so accessible to us! You think of all the religions in the world – the Christian faith, built upon the Word of God, is the ONLY faith which has the actual words of its God clearly down in writing!

Now, you may well say, "but Pastor, what about the writings of Buddha – are those not the words of the Hindu gods? Or the writings in the Koran – is that not the writings of Allah? Or what about the writings in the book of Mormon?"

No doubt there are many others as well – many religions have their religious writings. But remember what the truth is about those religions. They are not worshiping the one true God of the Bible – and as a result, their gods are not real – their religion is a complete sham, a creation of the mind of man. And because all other gods and faiths and religions are man’s creation, what is written in Psalm 115:4-7 is true of them – "Their idols are silver and gold, The work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak; Eyes they have, but they do not see; They have ears, but they do not hear; Noses they have, but they do not smell; They have hands, but they do not handle; Feet they have, but they do not walk; Nor do they mutter through their throat."

It is our true God alone who is able to and has revealed Himself in His written record! We are not left doing what other religions do. Since their gods are not real, and really cannot speak, or tell their followers their will directly and clearly, other faiths are left trying to decipher what it is that their god would say. I have learned that in the religion of the Egyptians of the Old Testament, it was the Pharaoh who was proclaimed to be the one who would determine the will of the gods. The Etruscans, a people who lived in Italy at the time of the Romans, believed that the will of the gods was to be found in the four quarters of the skies. It was alone the priests who could decipher and understand the signs emanating from the gods. It was claimed that the Greek god Apollos would make his will known through his oracle, the priestess at Delphi. It is said that she would sit on a tripod over an opening in the earth which emitted a gas, and after she had breathed these vapors in, her ravings would be "translated" by the priests. Peoples in the South Pacific believed their gods "talked" to them through volcanic eruptions – but exactly what the gods were saying through those eruptions was never clear.

That is NOT the way it is with our true God! Moses writes, (vv. 11-14) "For this commandment which I command you today is not too mysterious (too difficult) for you, nor is it far off (beyond your reach). It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it."

God does not leave His Word in some inaccessible place – as Moses says, "up in the heavens, or beyond the sea" – no – WHERE His Word is, is right here with us. And as you hear Moses speak, it is not just that God’s Word is in our hands – on our computers or on our I-Pods and even cell phones – through the faith God has given to us through His Gospel, He has placed His Word right into us – "in your mouth and in your heart."

And knowing WHERE God’s Word is – with God placing it in our hands, our mouths, our hearts, certainly we also know WHAT it is. Those who heard Moses speak knew – (vv. 9-10) "The LORD your God will make you abound in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your land for good. For the LORD will again rejoice over you for good as He rejoiced over your fathers, if you obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this Book of the Law, and if you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul."

God had made His people who they were. As Moses was speaking these words, it had been 40 years since the deliverance from slavery in Egypt, and Moses wanted this next generation to remember what God had done, and continued to do. He had delivered, He had taken care of them through the wilderness – and now as they were ready to enter the Promised Land, "He would make them abound, He would rejoice over them." Their part of the covenant, as the Lord set it up, was to "keep the commandments, to turn to the LORD, to obey Him."

But they failed. Over and over again they turned from the Lord, they disobeyed Him, they followed after other gods – even though they knew exactly WHAT God’s Word was. But in His mercy, the Lord continued to come to them, encouraging, correcting through His prophets, and when they would turn back, He would shower them with His blessings – He would forgive their many sins and bless them in their families, in their crops, in their animals.

You and I are not under the covenant of the Old Testament anymore – because His people failed miserably, God has set up a New Testament in His Son. And we know WHAT that Word is! God demands of us that we keep His Law. But even though we have that Word, and we know that Word, we can’t keep it or obey it perfectly – no better than could those Israelites of old. Just like the Old Testament children of Israel turned away from God and sinned again and again and again, so have we. The failure is certainly not God’s, is it? He has not come up short in making it very clear to us exactly what it is that He demands! The failure is completely ours!

And still – still God loves us! Even though we "often sin much and indeed deserve nothing but punishment," still God "forgives and blesses." It is not because we deserve it, any more than those Israelites. God’s blessings did not come to them or us BECAUSE they or we turned to Him or because of their obeying His commandments, even a little. God’s blessings come to each of His believers simply because He is, as He revealed Himself to Moses, (Ex 34:6-7) "the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin."

That is WHAT God’s Word is – a message of mercy, a message of forgiveness of sins – for YOU! No doubt it is true of you as it is of me, that when faced with doing what is right or wrong, we have taken the wrong way, over and over again. But just as that father in Jesus’ parable welcomed back that prodigal son, so God our heavenly Father welcomes us repentant sinners.

Thank God for giving us His Word – for making that Word accessible to us, placing it in our very hands, hearts, and mouths – and for revealing Himself to us in that Word as a loving and forgiving God! Amen.