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My name is Vanessa Erickson and I am in the Alameda Parish.
This is a reading from the book of Deuteronomy, verses 11 to 19.
Now, what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.
It is not up in the heaven so that you have to ask,
who will ascend into heaven to get it and to proclaim it to us so that we may obey it.
Nor is it beyond the sea so that you have to ask,
who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so that we may obey it.
No, the word is very near you.
It is in your mouth and in your heart so that you may obey it.
See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction.
For I command you today to love the Lord your God,
to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees, and laws.
Then you will live and increase,
and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.
But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient,
and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them,
I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed.
You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.
This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you,
that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.
Now choose life so that you and your children may live
and that you may love the Lord your God.
Listen to his voice and hold fast to him.
For the Lord is your life,
and he will give you many years in the land.
He swore to give your fathers,
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
It just reminds me of Isaac,
and how many times we heard him share God's word,
primarily with his parents.
The grass withers and the flowers fade,
but the word of our God stands forever.
Amen.
So let me also say good morning, Christchurch.
Good morning.
And thank you, Pastor Jonathan, for inviting me to preach this today.
I must say that this is very unusual for me,
since English is not my language at all.
So bear with me if I make a lot of mistakes.
But I'm very happy to be here.
Since we have family, my wife and I,
Gabriel is our son,
and we have our grandchildren here.
And when we are in Sweden,
we always think,
it's wonderful to have grandchildren,
but why so far away?
So we try to make it once in a while.
And now since we have had this corona business going on,
it hasn't been possible to see each other that much.
So we're very happy about
the technical possibilities to at least communicate.
It's, of course, a privilege to be here to preach
and to do this in the concluding sermon
in the long series of very important texts
that I know that you have gone through this fall.
I have not been able to listen to the entire series,
but I have listened to a couple of sermons.
And I'm impressed from what I've heard.
You have done a wonderful journey
through the book of Deuteronomy,
and I hope it has deepened your appetite
for studying the Old Testament.
And I hope it has enlarged your knowledge
about the relevance of this part of the Bible.
And hopefully you have also understood
that this rather anonymous book,
at least judging from what my students in Sweden used to say.
I hope that you have realized
that this was a favorite of Jesus in Scripture,
together with Psalms and Isaiah.
But before going further into the text in more detail,
let us once more pray together.
Dear Heavenly Father,
we pray today that you would open our eyes,
our ears, and our minds
so that we can see, hear, and perceive your voice
in your own word.
Help us listen to and follow your commands.
Help us honor, love, serve, and obey you in everything.
And let us, with your help, always choose life.
Your life.
The gift of eternal life.
And we pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
The portion of Scripture that we just listened to
comes at the end of a long speech by Moses.
The entire book of Deuteronomy is, of course,
in a sense, the last will of the man
who led the Israelites
through the 40 years in the wilderness
after coming out of Egypt.
And now his mission has come to an end.
He has done what he should do.
And he summarizes his message to the people.
And that is what we find in the book of Deuteronomy.
His words are not new to his listeners.
They've heard all of it before.
And we may notice that Moses is not afraid
of repeating himself.
The final words of the paragraph
preceding today's reading
was the exhortation,
Turn to the Lord your God
with all your heart and with all your soul.
Turn to the Lord your God
with all your heart
and with all your soul.
And now today's text
deepens the meaning of this
in three steps.
It's all about how to mature and grow
as part of God's people.
To mature and grow
as part of God's people.
The first step
is to remember
that God's word
is accessible.
The introductory words
are quite revealing.
It is by no means difficult
to understand
and do the will of God.
It is by no means difficult
to understand
and do the will of God.
God's commands
are accessible.
His will
is no secret
to anyone.
And Moses
underlines
what he says
by using two
proverbial sayings.
It is no need
to search high
going to heaven
or far away
going beyond the sea
in order to find out
what God expects
from his own people.
Moses,
the word of God
is very near you.
It is in your mouth
and in your heart
so that you may
obey it.
The substance
of the commandments
is that the will
of God
is both
reachable
and doable
for anyone
who has turned
to the Lord
with all his
or her heart.
To again quote
Moses.
because anyone
who turns
to the Lord
is also eager
to learn
by heart
the word of God.
This is part
of religion
of faith
in practice.
Reading,
memorizing,
meditating
on the word of God.
It is letting
God's word
fill mind
and heart
but never
letting it
stop there.
To know
the will
of God
through his word
is a good thing
but it is not
enough.
It is not
enough.
The meaning
of it all
is that his word
should lead
to action.
The rule
is very simple.
To know
and to do.
To know
and to do.
And if I
pause there
for a moment
and add some
comments
to this first
part of today's
reading
and I
will try
to relate
it more
directly to us.
My first
observation
from my
experience
is that
many of us
seem to
complicate
things
when it
comes to
understanding
the word
of God.
In the
scholarly world
where I
have spent
much of my
adult life
it seems
we have
many times
complicated
the reading
and interpretation
of scripture
to such
a degree
that we
have lost
the directness
of the word.
We have
lost
to understand
the possibility
or the will
to understand
the simple
meaning
of the words
of the Bible.
Well I know
that there are
difficult passages
in the Bible
but most
of what we
read
is not
difficult
to understand.
It might
be difficult
to agree
upon
or act
upon
since we
live in a
much more
secularized
society
than that
of the Bible.
We are
influenced
by so many
ideas
and thoughts
which are
very foreign
to the
word
or to
the
biblical
thinking.
But the
word of
God is
not
necessarily
hard
to
understand.
That is
my first
observation.
My second
observation
has to do
with the
understanding
of the
words
in Deuteronomy
in the
New Testament.
When the
apostle Paul
comments on
this passage
in Romans
10,
he knows
that by
letting
Christ,
who is
the word,
into your
heart,
this gives
you salvation.
And letting
Christ,
the word,
into your
heart,
is simply
becoming a
Christian
and believing
in Christ.
That gives
you salvation.
salvation.
Christianity
is not
only a
matter of
knowledge,
it is a
matter of
faith.
Knowing
Christ is
good,
but it's
not enough.
Knowing
Christ in
your heart,
which is
another word
for faith,
is necessary.
That is
what gives
salvation.
To quote
Paul again
in Romans
10,
for it
is with
your heart
that you
believe and
are justified.
so then
the first
step to
mature and
grow as
part of
God's
people is
to never
forget,
never forget
that God's
word is
accessible and
that it is
accessible and
then to
practice it by
reading,
memorizing,
and meditating
on it in
order to
act according
to the
word.
Lord.
So that
is the
first step
I wanted
to point
out.
The second
step, and
if you follow
in your
Bibles, that
is from
verse 15
to 18,
the second
step is
to make a
decision to
obey the
Lord.
When
Moses
instructed the
Israelites how
to think and
act after
arriving in
the promised
land, he
put before
them a
choice between
life and
death.
His words
are sharp,
seemingly
without
compromise.
It is a
matter of
life and
death,
prosperity and
destruction.
Verse 15.
Moses is
well aware
of the
dangers in
life, not
least in a
situation and
community where
there are
other
religions
present.
And that
the Israelites
knew from
Egypt, and
they will
know it
when they
come into
Canaan.
And we,
of course,
know how
right Moses
was.
The history
of Israel
is a
history of
constant
idolatry,
a history
of forgetting
constantly who
is the true
Lord and
God.
But it
is also a
history of
God's constant
calling of the
chosen people to
repent and to
return to
their Lord.
So the
speech of
Moses is
revealing and
prophetic.
And just
like the
other prophets
in the Old
Testament,
Moses exhorts
the people to
keep to the
Lord in
all circumstances.
In a
sense, he
summarizes what
is meant by
fearing the
Lord and
what the
benefits of
this fear
are.
It is to
love the
Lord, walk
in his ways,
and keep his
commandments.
Verse 16.
All this
leads to a
blessed life.
Idolatry,
on the
contrary,
leads to
destruction.
And we
can see that
Moses even
foresees that
in the future
the promised
land will
be taken
away from
the people.
Not because
of God's
will, but
because of
the disobedience
of God's
people.
life is
not
now, thinking
of ourselves,
we know that
life is not
totally black
and white.
And we
know from
other parts
of the
Bible, and
probably from
our own
experience, that
life is not
always easy
to live.
Blessing
cannot be
ordered,
but it can
be prayed
for.
blessing is
no automatic
phenomenon
that simply
comes as a
result of
obedience.
But we
do know
that
disobedience
very seldom
has any
good results.
That we
know, and
history
confirms our
knowledge.
What we
have here
in the
words of
Moses is
in a
sense a
guide for
how to
relate to
God as
part of
his people.
And it
can be
summed up
in four
simple
words.
To
honor or
fear God.
The Hebrew
word is
double in
meaning.
Fearing God
is more
giving honor
to him than
being afraid
of him.
Even if
there are
times
when there
is good
reason also
to fear in
the sense
of being
afraid.
But honor
is mainly
giving,
honoring is
the basic
meaning of
the word.
That is the
first word.
The second
word is to
love God.
And love
in the Bible
is less a
matter of
very special
thrilling
emotions and
more a
matter of
loyalty and
faithfulness.
We know
that.
The third
word is to
serve God.
And serving
God is
paradoxically
often to
serve people
in need.
And it
has rightfully
been said
that we
as his
people are
the hands
and the
feet of
the Lord.
And the
fourth word
to obey,
to obey
God.
And this
is of
course
stressed in
today's
Bible
reading.
And I
will return
to it in
a moment.
We have
the words
like,
to walk
in his
that is
the Lord's
way and
to keep
his
commandments,
decrees,
and laws.
Verse 16.
So as
Christians,
we are
called to
walk in
God's
ways and
obey the
will of
God.
What that
is, we
know from
him who
himself is
the way
and who
was obedient
to his
father until
death.
I think
that St.
Paul sums
up our
calling in
the letter
to the
Philippians
in the
simple
sentence,
your
attitude
should be
the same
as that
of Christ
Jesus.
Your
attitude,
your
and mine,
should be
the same
as that
of Christ
Jesus.
And then
he continues
by describing
the life
of Jesus
from his
being with
the Father
in the
heavens.
And then
coming
down,
giving his
life on
the cross,
and followed
again by
God's
exaltation
of him
back to
his heavenly
throne at
the side
of the
Father.
where he
now is
praying for
us.
And it
is, of
course, no
coincidence that
Paul, in the
letter to the
Romans, writes
about the
Christian faith
in terms of
obedience.
Obedience.
When he, in
the beginning of
the letter, talks
about his own
mission as an
apostle, he
says that it
is to call
people from
among all the
Gentiles to
the obedience
that comes
from faith.
So the
second step
to mature
and grow
as part of
God's people
is to learn
obedience,
obedience to
the Lord,
and to make
a decision to
follow him
by honoring,
loving,
and serving
him.
God's
life.
That leads
me to the
third step,
mainly seen
in the two
last verses
of today's
reading.
conclusion.
Concluding his
long speech
or sermon
to the
Israelites,
Moses once
more challenges
his listeners
to make a
choice.
And again,
and he repeats
himself,
it is a matter
of life and
death.
In a sense,
what he says
is again nothing
new.
It is a
repetition of
what he has
already said,
but it
underlines the
message he's
conveying to
the people.
The importance
is further
underlined by
the fact that
he this time
takes heaven
and earth
as witnesses
against the
people.
And heaven
and earth,
of course,
meaning everything
that comes from
the creator
of it all.
So what he
is doing is
that he's
taking God
himself as
a witness.
And the
alternatives are
distinctly
stated.
Life and
death,
blessing,
and curse.
And we
could add
belief or
unbelief.
The choice,
says Moses,
is up to
the people.
And what
they choose
will have
consequences
not only for
themselves,
but also for
their children.
The people
are given a
choice.
from the
side of God,
the decision
is already
made.
He has
chosen them
to be his
people.
Now they
are challenged
to do their
choice,
a choice
which will
show itself
in the way
the people
think and
act.
therefore they
are urged
to love
the Lord,
listen to
his voice,
and hold
fast to
him.
In the
last verse,
this only,
this only
will lead
to life,
for the
Lord is
your life,
as Moses
says.
So the
message also,
this last
part of
the text
is clear.
Choose the
Lord to be
your God.
Choose life.
And I
think that
this message
is as
important
today as
it was
when it
was first
presented.
We,
all,
the people
of God
today,
we also
need to
make the
same
choice
over and
over again.
We know
that life
at large
is filled
with small
and big
choices we
have to
make.
Some of
them are
more important
than others.
Some are
easy to
make,
others are
more difficult.
But there
is one
choice,
there is
one choice
which
determines
more of
our life
than anything
else.
and going
back in
my own
life,
I learned
about this
decisive
choice early
in my
life.
I grew
up on a
farm in
the northern
part of
Sweden,
in a
small rural
community.
My parents
were Christians
and my
siblings and
I were
brought up
in that
faith.
When I
was in
my
teens,
I was
part of
a youth
group in
our
church.
We were
not a
very large
group,
but we
met once
a week
for singing,
Bible study,
and different
programs.
And I
must admit
that most
of what we
did I
have forgotten.
Isn't
that life
too?
But there's
one thing
that I
remember.
It was a
song that
we often
sung.
And I
won't sing
it for you
because that's
not my
gift.
But in
translation it
says,
choose now,
choose Jesus,
and choose
for life.
Choose now,
choose Jesus,
and choose
for life.
preparing this
sermon back
in Sweden,
those words
have been
ringing in
my head.
Choose now,
choose Jesus,
and choose
for life.
And looking
back on my
life, I
realize that
the choice
I myself
made as a
teenager to
follow Jesus
has had an
enormous effect
on my life.
and it
has affected
my entire
life
to something
good.
So when
we read
and listen
to the
words in
today's
Bible
reading,
and the
theme of
this sermon,
we can
actually forget
most of
what has
been said.
God
will
stay in
your mind,
or to
speak
biblically
in your
heart.
Choose
life,
choose
Jesus.
And doing
so,
you will
experience
that Christian
belief,
or choosing
to believe,
is actually
dependent
on the
fact that
God
himself
first
chose
us.
And I
quote from
the Gospel
of John,
Jesus'
own words,
you did
not choose
me,
but I
chose you,
and appointed
you to go
and bear
fruit.
John
chapter 15,
verse 16.
So our
choice
is in
reality
an answer
to God's
or Jesus'
choosing of
us.
The Lord
is always
a step
ahead of
us.
And the
life we
are urged
to choose
is the
eternal
life,
since
it is
a life
given by
him who
is himself
eternal.
So that
was the
third step
in this
text,
and it
summarizes
what I
wanted to
say today.
So let
me conclude
with two
short
quotes from
the text
in Deuteronomy
30.
The
Lord,
and here
we can see
that the
meaning of
the Lord
is both
God
and Jesus.
Jesus,
the Lord
is your
life,
the Lord
is your
life,
and then
the words,
now
choose
life.
Choose
now,
choose
Jesus,
and choose
for life.
God
is your
life.
That, I
think, is
today's message, and a greeting from God himself to all his people, including us,
who are gathered here at Christ's church today.
Amen.
ope Amen.
Amen.