God-centered worship
Commentary
The book of Deuteronomy provides us with our first lesson for this day and that book is also quoted in both the second lesson and the Gospel. Deuteronomy is a book about a journey and, so, an appropriate text for beginning the Lenten season. The journey from bondage to promised land that is the subject for reflection in that book parallels the Lenten journey from Ash Wednesday to Easter, from death to life.
The most prominent connection between the lessons is that all explore the meaning of worship. The first and second readings present confessions of faith, while the Gospel explores the meaning of a central confession of faith, that which identifies Jesus as "the Son of God." All three readings reveal that true worship and faith is God-centered: offering what we have to God, confessing Jesus as Lord, recognizing that God alone is to be worshiped. In addition, all three lessons reveal that true worship and faith are inclusive of others and directed to the needs of those we might regard as "aliens among us."
Deuteronomy 26:1-11
Chapters 5 through 28 of Deuteronomy present Moses' second address to the people of Israel at Sinai, an address that began with the declaration of the Ten Commandments. Within this (long) sermon, 25:17--26:15 deals with the behavior of the people when they enter the land that God will give them. Our text is central to this section. It belongs to what scholars call the "priestly material," outlining the proper ritual for celebration of an annual harvest festival at the Feast of Weeks.
Liturgically, the text is fascinating, for it provides a rare glimpse of actual worship in ancient Israel. Von Rad believes the harvest festival was integral to the development of Israelite religion at a very early stage. The creed that comes at the center of this text (vv. 5-10a) is the oldest confession of faith in the history of religion. We see, though, that the ritual involves not only confession but action (vv. 1-4, 10b-11). Specifically, it involves physical and literal divestment of material possessions. Stripped to its barest essentials, Judaeo-
Christian worship is left with, not Word and Sacrament, as Lutherans would have it, but Creed and Offering. Our rich tradition of worship began with the offering. A creed was added. Then, who knows? Some hymns, some prayers, a sermon? Eventually, they'd have scripture to read. But to start with ... there was just the offering.
Perhaps the most amazing thing about this text, however, is the content of the creed that accompanies this offering. For a Harvest Festival, we would expect it to deal with the revelation of God in nature, to be replete with themes of creation and fertility. But these come in only at the very end (v. 9). Mostly, the creed speaks of God revealed in history. It rehearses the migration of the people and the story of their bondage and deliverance. The faith of Israel is grounded in history but transcends it. Worshipers are expected to identify themselves with the characters in the biblical story and confess that what God did for them, God did (and does) for us. So, Christians view God's historical act of salvation in Jesus Christ as having timeless (eternal) consequences.
Finally, the last verse of the text offers an incredible surprise. The festival concludes with a great celebration -- no doubt, a feast -- and those who are currently "aliens" are all invited to participate. This is not evangelism. Non-Israelites are to share the bounty of the land as aliens, that is, as non-
Israelites. Their presence and participation in the festival as aliens is essential to the festival as insurance that God's people, now free, do not enslave others. Israel is always to remember ... "so once were we." Those who have been homeless or enslaved ought to cherish security and freedom and realize that the value of these qualities is universal.
Romans 10:8b-13
The first lesson for today contains the earliest creed for Judaism and this second lesson contains the earliest Christian creed. It was very short: "Jesus is Lord!" Most liturgical scholars think that this was, originally, the only confession employed in Christian worship. It said all that needed to be said, and still does, rightly interpreted. But there's the catch. The Apostolic, Nicene, and Athanasian expansions of this simple creed resulted from struggles with heresy. People would say, "Jesus is Lord," and then go on to say strange things about him. Lines had to be added, ruling out one notion or another, specifying who this Jesus was, explaining why he was Lord, and indicating what that meant. Still, at the heart of Christian theology, these words, "Jesus is Lord!" say all that needs to be said.
I was sitting in the food court of one of our local shopping malls not too long ago and was approached by two people with a clipboard who wanted to ask me some questions. They pretended to be taking a survey but actually they were "witnessing" to the masses. After a few innocuous questions ("Are you a member of a church?"), they asked the big one: "If you were to die tonight and God asked you, 'Why should I let you into heaven?' how would you respond?" (This is of course the "Kennedy Plan" of evangelism out of Florida, with which I am quite familiar). My answer, for what it's worth, was just a little bit sacrilegious, but I hope not blasphemous: "I would tell God that, after all Jesus went through for us, I am frankly shocked and disappointed to discover that my eternal salvation depends on my being able to pass a pop test in theology administered under stressful conditions."
Paul says, "If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Period. It is always striking to me how few Bible-believing Christians believe this verse. Paul does not say, "If you believe the Bible is the word of God, you will be saved," or, "If you believe that Jesus died for your sins, you will be saved." He does not say, "If you are baptized, or if you repent, or if you ask Jesus to come into your heart, or if you have some sort of an experience, you will be saved."
The power of salvation lies in the word, Paul says, and in this case "the word" is the message of the resurrection. If we believe Christ is raised, then we believe he is lord over death, and that, Paul says, is saving faith.
We note in passing the use of the word will (future tense). My colleague Wally Taylor says that Paul consistently speaks about salvation in the future tense. Paul doesn't say that we were saved or even that we are saved, but that we will be saved. I haven't checked this, but I believe Professor Taylor, because he knows about as much about Paul as anyone since Timothy. Of course, he leaves out of consideration verses like Ephesians 2:8 on the presumption that Paul did not write Ephesians. The point would be (and you can check Romans 5 on this) we are currently reconciled with God or justified by faith. We have peace with God now, but something still remains, something even better: salvation from a still evil world, transformation from life that involves suffering to life that does not.
Only the really extreme "J's" (Myers-Briggs) will worry about the semantics. If people want to use the word "salvation" to refer to what Paul called "justification," I would let them -- the author of Ephesians did it. The point is recognizing that there is a distinction, and that distinction is especially significant for the church's Lenten journey. To ignore it leads to what Luther denounced as "theology of glory." Even those who confess faith in the risen Christ experience a lack of salvation in the here and now. Salvation remains a future (though certain) hope. The experience of anticipating such a salvation is not unlike the drama we rehearse each year during this season.
Finally, let us underscore the reference in this text to "no distinction between Jews and Greeks," for it repeats the theme of "aliens among us" from Deuteronomy. Paul has discussed the ultimate salvation of Israel in the preceding chapter and now he wants to restate his claim that Gentiles are saved through the same gospel. Paul's vision actually surpasses that of Deuteronomy, for he sees "no distinction." In Christ, the aliens are not even viewed as aliens anymore.
Luke 4:1-13
Pastors might enjoy a humorous short story by Mark Twain called "The Man Who Corrupted Hadleyburg." The gist of the tale is that temptation is necessary for growth and maturity. Those who never face temptation never develop any spiritual muscle. So, in Luke's Gospel, the Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness where he is tempted by the devil and Jesus emerges from the experience enlightened and strengthened.
The notion of Jesus learning or growing spiritually strikes those who tilt toward docetism as odd. But it is biblical, especially Lukan -- see 2:52! Are we supposed to think that he "grew in wisdom" only as a child, that he quit learning after he became an adult?
Luke ties the baptism, the temptation, and the Nazareth sermon together, and the Spirit is the connecting cord. First the Spirit comes upon Jesus at his baptism, where he is proclaimed to be the Son of God (3:21-22). Then, this same Spirit leads him into the wilderness, where Satan presents him with temptations concerning what it means to be the Son of God. Finally, he returns "in the power of the Spirit" to Galilee, stands up in the synagogue at Nazareth and declares publicly why the Spirit came upon him (at his baptism). The reason, he says, is to empower him for service to others -- the poor, the captives, the blind, the oppressed (4:14-19).
This is the context for understanding the temptation scene, for it is here that Jesus comes to understand what he later declares in Nazareth. Notably, the devil does not tempt Jesus to do naughty things. The devil tempts Jesus to construe his baptism, his status as a spirit-filled child of God, in terms that will benefit him rather than in terms related to mission or service. Luke deliberately tells this story as a paradigm for Christians.
Pastors often use this text to exhort Christians to resist the many temptations to sin that abound in this world: teenagers are tempted to use drugs or have sex; their parents are tempted to cheat on their taxes or have sex with other people's parents, and so on. Such moral injunctions are ultimately related but they are also ultimately relative. The fundamental point is, "What does it mean to be a baptized child of God, one who has received God's Holy Spirit?" The devil presents three temptations, with reference to 1) physical needs, 2) worldly power, and 3) status or recognition. In each case, the temptation is to regard baptism as leading to a privileged lifestyle. Because we are God's children, the devil wants us to think, we do not need to experience the hunger or humiliation that is otherwise common to this life. Here is the theology of glory that Paul seeks to avoid with his careful semantics of salvation.
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Achtemeier
Deuteronomy 26:1-11
Our biblical, Christian faith is basically a response to a story, to the story of what God has done in human history. It is not as if Christians through the ages have looked at the natural world and decided that there must be a God who created it. They have not thought up a picture of God and designed worship to go with the picture. Nor have they adjusted to their changing cultural and social situations simply by drawing up their own rules for the ethics and morals by which we should live. There are some forms of faith in our day that are such products of human imagination and construction. But that is not true of the biblical faith of the Christian Church. No, our faith is a response to a history of God's words and deeds, a history that is now preserved and passed on to us in the scripture.
So it is that when we confess our faith in the Apostles' Creed, for example, we tell the story on which that faith is based, and the story is the history of what God has done: "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth ... I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son our Lord, who was born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. On the third day he rose again from the dead...." On that basis, then, we respond and say "I believe."
God's acts always come first, you see. We did not construct our faith out of our own thoughts and desires. Rather, God did particular deeds and said particular words, and we say, "Yes, I believe God did those things and spoke those words," and then we work out our response of faith in accord with what the deeds and words have revealed to us about God. Thus, in our epistle lesson, Paul writes that whoever believes and confesses that God raised Jesus from the dead and made him Lord will be saved. Faith and salvation rest on God's prior act in Jesus Christ.
So it is, too, in our text for the day. This text embodies one of the oldest practices and confessions of faith found in the Old Testament, probably dating back to the twelfth century B.C. It tells of bringing the first fruits of all crops to the sanctuary as an offering to God (cf. Exod. 23:19; 34:26), in recognition of the fact that God is the Owner and Giver of the promised land to Israel. And when the worshiper brings those first fruits, he tells why he is doing so by reciting the confession of faith that is found in verses 5-9.
What that confession of faith is, however, is the basic story of God's acts that are recorded for us in the Hexateuch, made up of the books of Genesis through Joshua. The confession tells of the patriarch, Jacob, going down into Egypt; of the multiplication of the Israelites, in accord with God's promise to Abraham; of their enslavement by the Egyptians; of God's delivery of them out of slavery "with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror, with signs and wonders" (v. 8); and of the gift of the land to them in the time of Joshua, again in fulfillment of the promise to Abraham. The worshiper is bringing the gift of the first fruits, because God has done all of those things, in fulfillment of his promise. The worshiper's act is a response to God's act. He believes the sacred story, and he responds in confession and practice.
The notable thing in this confession, further, is that all of those acts of God in Israel's life are not considered by the worshiper to be acts done just in the distant past for his forbears. Rather, they are acts done also for him. "The Egyptians treated us harshly," he says, "and afflicted us." "We cried to the Lord." "The Lord heard our voice," "saw our affliction," "brought us out of Egypt," "gave us this land." God's acts of salvation were done not just in the past, but also for each new generation of Israelites, who reap the benefits of those acts in the present.
We have a sacred story of God's acts of salvation in the past too, don't we? And it is very much like Israel's story. We too were slaves once -- slaves to sin and death, but God sent us a Deliverer to redeem us out of our slavery and to give us a new life in the "glorious liberty of the children of God." As with Israel at Mount Sinai, God entered into covenant with us also by means of that Deliverer, and he gave us his commandment to love one another as he has loved us. Like Israel trekking through the wilderness, we too set out on a journey toward a promised land that still lies before us. And like Israel we are accompanied every step of the way by the One who said that he is with us always.
None of that is simply history in the past, however, any more than Israel's story was just in the past. No. Those are all things that God has done and is doing for each of us this day. This day, by the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are delivered from sin and death. This Sunday or on the Sunday when we sit at the Lord's table, we enter anew into covenant with him and are given his commandments of love. This day, you and I are journeying toward a promised land that is known as the Kingdom of God. And this day, Christ is with us on the journey, and promises to be with us always. All of that sacred story from the Bible is our story. And if we believe that story with all our hearts and confess it with our lives and act accordingly, we too shall be saved
Two further things should be said. The worshiper in our Deuteronomy text knows the story. He knows his people's history of what God has done in their lives, and the result is that he can tell the story, not only there at the sanctuary, but also to his children and grandchildren. Can we do the same? Do we know the biblical history, that is given us in the scriptures, so well that we can tell it to others and to our offspring? Do we know the accounts of God's deeds and words in New Testament and Old? Or are they rather hazy memories from past years in Sunday School or occasional Bible classes? Our faith is a response to God's acts and words, preserved for us in the scriptures, but if we do not know the scriptures, we have no solid basis for our faith. In this Lenten season, perhaps the one thing we should all do is read the Bible every day.
Second, our text tells us that the Israelite worshiper, when he brings his offering, can rejoice "in all the good which the Lord your God has given to you." His worship can be joyful, because he knows the wonderful deeds that God has wrought on his behalf. And the same is true for us. If we know what God has done for us, if we know the benefits of his deeds and words, there is simply no other response we can make in the worship of this church than to rejoice. In the words of our text, we can rejoice because God has heard our voice, and seen our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. We can rejoice because he has delivered -- and delivers us daily -- from our slavery to the sin of this world and from the terrible defeat that death would mean. We can rejoice because our Lord is with us here, accompanying us on our journey. And we can rejoice because there lies before us his kingdom of good and love and eternal life.
The most prominent connection between the lessons is that all explore the meaning of worship. The first and second readings present confessions of faith, while the Gospel explores the meaning of a central confession of faith, that which identifies Jesus as "the Son of God." All three readings reveal that true worship and faith is God-centered: offering what we have to God, confessing Jesus as Lord, recognizing that God alone is to be worshiped. In addition, all three lessons reveal that true worship and faith are inclusive of others and directed to the needs of those we might regard as "aliens among us."
Deuteronomy 26:1-11
Chapters 5 through 28 of Deuteronomy present Moses' second address to the people of Israel at Sinai, an address that began with the declaration of the Ten Commandments. Within this (long) sermon, 25:17--26:15 deals with the behavior of the people when they enter the land that God will give them. Our text is central to this section. It belongs to what scholars call the "priestly material," outlining the proper ritual for celebration of an annual harvest festival at the Feast of Weeks.
Liturgically, the text is fascinating, for it provides a rare glimpse of actual worship in ancient Israel. Von Rad believes the harvest festival was integral to the development of Israelite religion at a very early stage. The creed that comes at the center of this text (vv. 5-10a) is the oldest confession of faith in the history of religion. We see, though, that the ritual involves not only confession but action (vv. 1-4, 10b-11). Specifically, it involves physical and literal divestment of material possessions. Stripped to its barest essentials, Judaeo-
Christian worship is left with, not Word and Sacrament, as Lutherans would have it, but Creed and Offering. Our rich tradition of worship began with the offering. A creed was added. Then, who knows? Some hymns, some prayers, a sermon? Eventually, they'd have scripture to read. But to start with ... there was just the offering.
Perhaps the most amazing thing about this text, however, is the content of the creed that accompanies this offering. For a Harvest Festival, we would expect it to deal with the revelation of God in nature, to be replete with themes of creation and fertility. But these come in only at the very end (v. 9). Mostly, the creed speaks of God revealed in history. It rehearses the migration of the people and the story of their bondage and deliverance. The faith of Israel is grounded in history but transcends it. Worshipers are expected to identify themselves with the characters in the biblical story and confess that what God did for them, God did (and does) for us. So, Christians view God's historical act of salvation in Jesus Christ as having timeless (eternal) consequences.
Finally, the last verse of the text offers an incredible surprise. The festival concludes with a great celebration -- no doubt, a feast -- and those who are currently "aliens" are all invited to participate. This is not evangelism. Non-Israelites are to share the bounty of the land as aliens, that is, as non-
Israelites. Their presence and participation in the festival as aliens is essential to the festival as insurance that God's people, now free, do not enslave others. Israel is always to remember ... "so once were we." Those who have been homeless or enslaved ought to cherish security and freedom and realize that the value of these qualities is universal.
Romans 10:8b-13
The first lesson for today contains the earliest creed for Judaism and this second lesson contains the earliest Christian creed. It was very short: "Jesus is Lord!" Most liturgical scholars think that this was, originally, the only confession employed in Christian worship. It said all that needed to be said, and still does, rightly interpreted. But there's the catch. The Apostolic, Nicene, and Athanasian expansions of this simple creed resulted from struggles with heresy. People would say, "Jesus is Lord," and then go on to say strange things about him. Lines had to be added, ruling out one notion or another, specifying who this Jesus was, explaining why he was Lord, and indicating what that meant. Still, at the heart of Christian theology, these words, "Jesus is Lord!" say all that needs to be said.
I was sitting in the food court of one of our local shopping malls not too long ago and was approached by two people with a clipboard who wanted to ask me some questions. They pretended to be taking a survey but actually they were "witnessing" to the masses. After a few innocuous questions ("Are you a member of a church?"), they asked the big one: "If you were to die tonight and God asked you, 'Why should I let you into heaven?' how would you respond?" (This is of course the "Kennedy Plan" of evangelism out of Florida, with which I am quite familiar). My answer, for what it's worth, was just a little bit sacrilegious, but I hope not blasphemous: "I would tell God that, after all Jesus went through for us, I am frankly shocked and disappointed to discover that my eternal salvation depends on my being able to pass a pop test in theology administered under stressful conditions."
Paul says, "If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Period. It is always striking to me how few Bible-believing Christians believe this verse. Paul does not say, "If you believe the Bible is the word of God, you will be saved," or, "If you believe that Jesus died for your sins, you will be saved." He does not say, "If you are baptized, or if you repent, or if you ask Jesus to come into your heart, or if you have some sort of an experience, you will be saved."
The power of salvation lies in the word, Paul says, and in this case "the word" is the message of the resurrection. If we believe Christ is raised, then we believe he is lord over death, and that, Paul says, is saving faith.
We note in passing the use of the word will (future tense). My colleague Wally Taylor says that Paul consistently speaks about salvation in the future tense. Paul doesn't say that we were saved or even that we are saved, but that we will be saved. I haven't checked this, but I believe Professor Taylor, because he knows about as much about Paul as anyone since Timothy. Of course, he leaves out of consideration verses like Ephesians 2:8 on the presumption that Paul did not write Ephesians. The point would be (and you can check Romans 5 on this) we are currently reconciled with God or justified by faith. We have peace with God now, but something still remains, something even better: salvation from a still evil world, transformation from life that involves suffering to life that does not.
Only the really extreme "J's" (Myers-Briggs) will worry about the semantics. If people want to use the word "salvation" to refer to what Paul called "justification," I would let them -- the author of Ephesians did it. The point is recognizing that there is a distinction, and that distinction is especially significant for the church's Lenten journey. To ignore it leads to what Luther denounced as "theology of glory." Even those who confess faith in the risen Christ experience a lack of salvation in the here and now. Salvation remains a future (though certain) hope. The experience of anticipating such a salvation is not unlike the drama we rehearse each year during this season.
Finally, let us underscore the reference in this text to "no distinction between Jews and Greeks," for it repeats the theme of "aliens among us" from Deuteronomy. Paul has discussed the ultimate salvation of Israel in the preceding chapter and now he wants to restate his claim that Gentiles are saved through the same gospel. Paul's vision actually surpasses that of Deuteronomy, for he sees "no distinction." In Christ, the aliens are not even viewed as aliens anymore.
Luke 4:1-13
Pastors might enjoy a humorous short story by Mark Twain called "The Man Who Corrupted Hadleyburg." The gist of the tale is that temptation is necessary for growth and maturity. Those who never face temptation never develop any spiritual muscle. So, in Luke's Gospel, the Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness where he is tempted by the devil and Jesus emerges from the experience enlightened and strengthened.
The notion of Jesus learning or growing spiritually strikes those who tilt toward docetism as odd. But it is biblical, especially Lukan -- see 2:52! Are we supposed to think that he "grew in wisdom" only as a child, that he quit learning after he became an adult?
Luke ties the baptism, the temptation, and the Nazareth sermon together, and the Spirit is the connecting cord. First the Spirit comes upon Jesus at his baptism, where he is proclaimed to be the Son of God (3:21-22). Then, this same Spirit leads him into the wilderness, where Satan presents him with temptations concerning what it means to be the Son of God. Finally, he returns "in the power of the Spirit" to Galilee, stands up in the synagogue at Nazareth and declares publicly why the Spirit came upon him (at his baptism). The reason, he says, is to empower him for service to others -- the poor, the captives, the blind, the oppressed (4:14-19).
This is the context for understanding the temptation scene, for it is here that Jesus comes to understand what he later declares in Nazareth. Notably, the devil does not tempt Jesus to do naughty things. The devil tempts Jesus to construe his baptism, his status as a spirit-filled child of God, in terms that will benefit him rather than in terms related to mission or service. Luke deliberately tells this story as a paradigm for Christians.
Pastors often use this text to exhort Christians to resist the many temptations to sin that abound in this world: teenagers are tempted to use drugs or have sex; their parents are tempted to cheat on their taxes or have sex with other people's parents, and so on. Such moral injunctions are ultimately related but they are also ultimately relative. The fundamental point is, "What does it mean to be a baptized child of God, one who has received God's Holy Spirit?" The devil presents three temptations, with reference to 1) physical needs, 2) worldly power, and 3) status or recognition. In each case, the temptation is to regard baptism as leading to a privileged lifestyle. Because we are God's children, the devil wants us to think, we do not need to experience the hunger or humiliation that is otherwise common to this life. Here is the theology of glory that Paul seeks to avoid with his careful semantics of salvation.
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Achtemeier
Deuteronomy 26:1-11
Our biblical, Christian faith is basically a response to a story, to the story of what God has done in human history. It is not as if Christians through the ages have looked at the natural world and decided that there must be a God who created it. They have not thought up a picture of God and designed worship to go with the picture. Nor have they adjusted to their changing cultural and social situations simply by drawing up their own rules for the ethics and morals by which we should live. There are some forms of faith in our day that are such products of human imagination and construction. But that is not true of the biblical faith of the Christian Church. No, our faith is a response to a history of God's words and deeds, a history that is now preserved and passed on to us in the scripture.
So it is that when we confess our faith in the Apostles' Creed, for example, we tell the story on which that faith is based, and the story is the history of what God has done: "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth ... I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son our Lord, who was born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. On the third day he rose again from the dead...." On that basis, then, we respond and say "I believe."
God's acts always come first, you see. We did not construct our faith out of our own thoughts and desires. Rather, God did particular deeds and said particular words, and we say, "Yes, I believe God did those things and spoke those words," and then we work out our response of faith in accord with what the deeds and words have revealed to us about God. Thus, in our epistle lesson, Paul writes that whoever believes and confesses that God raised Jesus from the dead and made him Lord will be saved. Faith and salvation rest on God's prior act in Jesus Christ.
So it is, too, in our text for the day. This text embodies one of the oldest practices and confessions of faith found in the Old Testament, probably dating back to the twelfth century B.C. It tells of bringing the first fruits of all crops to the sanctuary as an offering to God (cf. Exod. 23:19; 34:26), in recognition of the fact that God is the Owner and Giver of the promised land to Israel. And when the worshiper brings those first fruits, he tells why he is doing so by reciting the confession of faith that is found in verses 5-9.
What that confession of faith is, however, is the basic story of God's acts that are recorded for us in the Hexateuch, made up of the books of Genesis through Joshua. The confession tells of the patriarch, Jacob, going down into Egypt; of the multiplication of the Israelites, in accord with God's promise to Abraham; of their enslavement by the Egyptians; of God's delivery of them out of slavery "with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror, with signs and wonders" (v. 8); and of the gift of the land to them in the time of Joshua, again in fulfillment of the promise to Abraham. The worshiper is bringing the gift of the first fruits, because God has done all of those things, in fulfillment of his promise. The worshiper's act is a response to God's act. He believes the sacred story, and he responds in confession and practice.
The notable thing in this confession, further, is that all of those acts of God in Israel's life are not considered by the worshiper to be acts done just in the distant past for his forbears. Rather, they are acts done also for him. "The Egyptians treated us harshly," he says, "and afflicted us." "We cried to the Lord." "The Lord heard our voice," "saw our affliction," "brought us out of Egypt," "gave us this land." God's acts of salvation were done not just in the past, but also for each new generation of Israelites, who reap the benefits of those acts in the present.
We have a sacred story of God's acts of salvation in the past too, don't we? And it is very much like Israel's story. We too were slaves once -- slaves to sin and death, but God sent us a Deliverer to redeem us out of our slavery and to give us a new life in the "glorious liberty of the children of God." As with Israel at Mount Sinai, God entered into covenant with us also by means of that Deliverer, and he gave us his commandment to love one another as he has loved us. Like Israel trekking through the wilderness, we too set out on a journey toward a promised land that still lies before us. And like Israel we are accompanied every step of the way by the One who said that he is with us always.
None of that is simply history in the past, however, any more than Israel's story was just in the past. No. Those are all things that God has done and is doing for each of us this day. This day, by the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are delivered from sin and death. This Sunday or on the Sunday when we sit at the Lord's table, we enter anew into covenant with him and are given his commandments of love. This day, you and I are journeying toward a promised land that is known as the Kingdom of God. And this day, Christ is with us on the journey, and promises to be with us always. All of that sacred story from the Bible is our story. And if we believe that story with all our hearts and confess it with our lives and act accordingly, we too shall be saved
Two further things should be said. The worshiper in our Deuteronomy text knows the story. He knows his people's history of what God has done in their lives, and the result is that he can tell the story, not only there at the sanctuary, but also to his children and grandchildren. Can we do the same? Do we know the biblical history, that is given us in the scriptures, so well that we can tell it to others and to our offspring? Do we know the accounts of God's deeds and words in New Testament and Old? Or are they rather hazy memories from past years in Sunday School or occasional Bible classes? Our faith is a response to God's acts and words, preserved for us in the scriptures, but if we do not know the scriptures, we have no solid basis for our faith. In this Lenten season, perhaps the one thing we should all do is read the Bible every day.
Second, our text tells us that the Israelite worshiper, when he brings his offering, can rejoice "in all the good which the Lord your God has given to you." His worship can be joyful, because he knows the wonderful deeds that God has wrought on his behalf. And the same is true for us. If we know what God has done for us, if we know the benefits of his deeds and words, there is simply no other response we can make in the worship of this church than to rejoice. In the words of our text, we can rejoice because God has heard our voice, and seen our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. We can rejoice because he has delivered -- and delivers us daily -- from our slavery to the sin of this world and from the terrible defeat that death would mean. We can rejoice because our Lord is with us here, accompanying us on our journey. And we can rejoice because there lies before us his kingdom of good and love and eternal life.
