Sunday, September 2, 2018
When
I arrived at Fort Benning, Georgia for army basic training in the 1989, the
first stop was the reception station. We
were there a couple of days. There recruits
learn how to stand at “attention” and “parade rest.” We got our closely cropped hair cuts and
received our uniforms. We were taught
the very rudimentary basics of how to act in the military, but we were also
warned of how intense life was about become once went “down range,” to our
training platoons. We learned to dread
the phrase “down range.”
On
about the fourth day, we loaded onto cattle trucks for the ride to our homes
for the next 12-13 weeks, our basic training company. On arrival, red-faced, yelling drill
instructors greeted us with four letter words and the order to “drop” at the
slightest infraction. “Drop” meant, push-ups,
a lot of push-ups. As intimidating as
that welcome was, we adjusted to life in Alpha Company of the 2nd
Battalion of the 54th Infantry regiment.
With
a 4 AM wake-up, we did a lot of pre-5AM running and push-ups and sit-ups. We fired automatic weapons, threw hand
grenades, painted our faces with camouflage (that is hard to wash off and
leaves a rash), and became intimately acquainted with the M-16 rifle. After the field training exercise, training
for chemical warfare, and the 14-mile rucksack march, we graduated. We were no longer trainees. We were soldiers.
That
experience came to mind as I read and re-read the opening verse of Deuteronomy
chapter 4. “Give heed to the statutes
and ordinances … that you may live … and occupy the land the Lord … is giving
you. You must neither add anything to
what I command you, nor take anything from it” (Dt. 4:1, 2).
Moses is with the nation of Israel on the East bank
of the Jordan River when he speaks these words.
These are the descendants of those who had been slaves in Egypt. Led by Moses, they passed through the Red
Sea, which God opened for them. In the wilderness
on Mount Sinai Moses received the 10 commandments. After disobeying God, the people wandered in
the wilderness for 40 years. All who
came out of Egypt died in the wilderness.
Now in Deuteronomy, Moses instructs their children
and grandchildren on how to live as the people of God. When he finishes giving this law, at the end
of Deuteronomy, he too will die, and Joshua will lead the next generation into
the land to live there as God’s holy people on earth. At the Fort Benning reception station, the
message drilled into us trainees was “welcome to military life. This is
how it is.” We were not invited to
make suggestions. We conformed. If we resisted, we pushed the earth until we
were ready to get with the program.
In Deuteronomy, Moses tells the people, “You have
been called to be the people of God.
This law shows you how it is. Live by this law, and the rest of the world
will see not only you, but the God who called you. Live by this law, and you will draw people to
worship God.”
We come to Deuteronomy as followers of Jesus
Christ. Jesus is our lens. We understand the law through Him. He said, “Do not think that I have come to
abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill”
(Mt. 5:17). Followers of Jesus must be familiar with the Law of Moses.
Of course, we don’t worship in a tabernacle or
temple. The coming of Jesus shifted
worship to a focus on sending the community out into the world. We don’t do animal sacrifice in worship. We take communion as a remembrance of Jesus –
the one final sacrifice. He paid the penalty for sin with his death on the
cross. No sacrifice is ever needed
again.
This in no way alters the ethical teachings of the
law or the call to holiness found throughout the law. In Christ, we are to conform our lives to
God’s ways, to walk the path God sets before us. If we don’t like it, we do not demand that
God give us another path more suitable to our tastes. Deuteronomy 4:2 is clear. We “must neither add anything to what has
been commanded nor take away anything from it.”
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, “Until heaven and earth pass
away, not one letter of the law, not one stroke of a letter, will pass away
until all is accomplished” (Mt. 5:18). The
same note sounds in the final chapter of the Bible, Rev. 22:18, “I warn
everyone who hears the words of the prophesy of this book: if anyone adds to
them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book; if anyone
takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take that
person’s share in the tree of life and the holy city.”
The scriptures can be studied, parsed, wrestled
with, analyzed critically, and re-read.
We must use every scholarly discipline available to deepen our
understanding of God’s word. But, we
must also conform. Even if we cannot
satisfactorily answer “why” God has unfolded things as He has, we must still
submit to His lordship and live by His word, which we find in the Bible. This is how it is.
Do we realize that when we fully surrender, and give
ourselves completely to God’s vision for humanity, we enter the very deepest
joy and most satisfying life possible?
Moses connected the law with a life of right, joy-filled relationships
with each other and with God. “Give heed
to [this word] … that [we] may live!” As
Jesus fulfills the Law of Moses, He expands our grasp of Moses’ words. Moses offered life. Jesus says, “I have come that you might have
life and have it abundantly.” From God’s perspective, the abundant life is
one lived in rich, truly loving relationships, and one that is attuned to the
voice of the Holy Spirit. That’s the
life Jesus has for us.
We are to demonstrate love, compassion, and justice
in a way that attracts the world. As we
commit ourselves to prayer, to study of the word, to the spread of the Gospel,
and to actively working for justice and the uplift of the poor, we mature. We become more responsive to promptings of
the ever present Holy Spirit. As a
trainee develops his skills and becomes and more disciplined until he is ultimately
a soldier, we grow in faith to the point we become more and more like Christ. No longer newborn believers, we graduate to
become disciples.
Both testaments show instances that reveal how
flawed disciples are. David, Jonah,
Peter, Paul – they all failed many times.
Followers of Jesus make mistakes and fall off the path. Yet, when we keep our eyes on Jesus, he draws
us back, picks us up, cleans us off, and gives us another chance. For our part, we grow as we submit to God’s
authority and conform our lives to the life the scriptures lay out before us.
My own experience is that we discover the deepest
blessings of God in our relationships.
Heidi Ann Russell is professionally trained theologian who also has a
deep interest in science. Her reading in
the area of quantum theory has given her analogies for the way life unfolds
when we abide in Christ and order our lives by the scriptures.
One analogy comes from the notion of
entanglement. Electrons in two different
spaces effect each other. When one acts,
the other entangled with it will have to re-act. Similarly, when we are in Christ, we find
ourselves as not simply individuals, but members of a single body: the body of
Christ. First Corinthians chapter 12
uses this metaphor. I experience
something: joy, pain, loss, blessing.
Whatever it is, it happened to me, but the entire community of believers
feels the effects. The church family
comes around me to rejoice with me, cry with me, or to try to help me.
Relationships might not be what comes to mind when
you think of the Law of Moses. Perhaps
the first inclination is to hear in our heads a stern voice “You shall not”
over and over. Yes, the law includes
some “do’s” and “don’ts.” But those
specific commands exist in the service of the two great overarching commands: “love
the lord with all your heart,” and “love your neighbor as yourself.” The specific laws guide us in living into
what we are to be, a community of self-giving love.
I studied family systems for three years in my
doctorate of ministry program. A
foundational principle in the philosophy I learned was that no individual
exists independent of a system. If
someone in a church family complains constantly, we don’t just isolate that
person. We look at the entire church
family because we all bear that person’s struggles and dysfunctions. Heidi Ann Russell notes that we exist in a “field
of relationships.”[i] We cannot know ourselves apart from who we
are in relationship to others and to God.
This is as crucial to being a disciple as mastering the workings of the
M-16 is for trainee becoming a soldier.
“This is how it is” can sound like an uncompromising
imperative. Deuteronomy 4:5-6 says, “I now teach you statutes and ordinance; …
you must observe them diligently.” We
are tempted to imagine a life of neurotic worry. Am I
breaking the law here? Did I sin there?
This is not what God intends. Rather, these
words of law from Moses, are, in light of Jesus, an invitation into a life of
love relationship with other followers of Jesus. When we successfully live in love and share
Jesus’ love outside the church, those who are not followers will become
curious. Instead of us worrying, we’ll
be diligently working on relationships, forgiving, helping, and laughing
together.
Those on the outside will want what’s in here. Verse 6, [those outside the kingdom] will say
“Surely this great nation is wise and discerning.” Conforming our lives to the path laid out in
the word of God brings us peace and draws lost people to Jesus.
From calling to salvation to submission to the law
to living in relationships and sharing of our faith: this is how it is when our
lives built on following Jesus.
My prayer is we will do exactly do that: exist as a
people who live in the love of Jesus and share that love with the world.
AMEN
[i] H.
Russell (2015), Quantum Shift:
Theological and Pastoral Implications of Contemporary Developments in Science,
Liturgical Press (Collegeville, MN), p.68.
She takes the phrase “field of relationships” from Anthony Kelly.
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