If Your Heart Turns Away...

 

Sermon – 02/12/2023

Matthew 5:21-37

As of this past Wednesday I was not scheduled to preach today and therefore had paid little attention to the lectionary readings for this week. However, after my conversation with Fr. David late that afternoon, it became evident that I needed to quickly develop a sermon and to be ready to impart some small piece of theological wisdom to you all this morning.

Of course, my first step was to have a look at the readings. I did so and said to myself, “Wow.” These are long and complicated readings. How do I sort through them quickly and discover that one phrase that says to me “You can preach on this.”

Luckily, I love the Old Testament, and I especially love Deuteronomy. That, I determined, would be my starting point.

First off, I turned to my hero Walter Brueggemann, a definitive theologian and scholar of the Old Testament who has posted many, many of his lectures on YouTube. As I suspected, I found one on today’s Deuteronomy reading. It was nothing short of excellent. Next, I took a look at Deuteronomy as a whole in my old study bible. The one that I used as I prepared for my ordination. There I found a few excellent notes from my Old Testament professor, another well informed scholar.

Well-armed with information from scholars and scripture and filled with inspiration blessedly given by the Holy Spirit, I began my sermon writing process.

The Book of Deuteronomy takes place just as the Israelites, encamped on the plains of Moab after 40 years in the desert, finally stand poised to enter the promised land. Moses as Deuteronomy’s speaker calls the people together and delivers a series of three speeches. These speeches are grouped together and presented as a long farewell address as he prepares to die. In this long and detailed address Moses reviews Israel’s history, recounts their laws, and instructs the people about the importance of loyalty to God.

Deuteronomy is an extremely complex narrative that was written from three distinctive viewpoints over the course of three time periods, each separated by hundreds of years. They reflect the ongoing development of the theology of Israelite’s story in the preexilic, exilic, and postexilic points of their history. In the book’s final chapters these three viewpoints operate simultaneously and present in detail the covenant that God made with Israel. These final chapters reflect a complex interplay developed over hundreds of years of Israelite history, Israelite Law, and the importance of Israel’s loyalty to God.

These final chapters, which include today’s reading from chapter 30, also focus on the details of a formal ratification ceremony that involved the swearing of an oath to accept the penalties for transgressing God’s covenant with Israel.

The basics of the covenant were outlined by Moses in chapter 28, just preceding today’s reading. Moses said, “The Lord will establish you as his holy people…if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways…But if you do not obey the Lord your God by diligently observing all his commandments…then…curses shall come upon you and overtake you.”

Following up by referring to this covenant, in today’s reading Moses proclaims “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, that I am commanding you today…then you shall live and become prosperous. But, if your heart turns away and you do not hear but are led astray…I declare to you today that you shall perish…Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him.”

I don’t know about you, but I do believe that God’s plan for us could not be any more straightforward: Love the Lord, obey him, and hold fast to him.

So, the phrase that almost instantly popped out at me and said, “You can preach on this,” was “But if your heart turns away and you do not hear but are led astray…”

“If your heart turns away and you do not hear.”

Walter Brueggeman claims that these passages from Deuteronomy call us to the “ongoing project of listening;” we are called to hear God continually actively and openly. And in our continued active and open listening we are called to give mindful consideration not only to God’s covenant with Israel but also to the summary and further development of that covenant that was given to us by Jesus just prior to his death on the cross. Namely, to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, and with all our souls, and with all our minds, and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

And, as we pray, through the process of active and open listening, with these two commandments in mind, we must seek to hear God. Hear what he has to say now to us, now, in this present day, in this present moment. What do these Great Commandments heard through our prayerful listening to God require of us now in this troubled and much challenged world?

Today’s psalm, 119, which refers in detail to hearing God’s Word and carrying forward his commandments is traditionally paired with the Chapter 30 Deuteronomy reading, as is today’s Gospel reading from Matthew.

The psalmist wrote:

Happy are those whose way is blameless,
   who walk in the law of the Lord.
Happy are those who keep his decrees,
   who seek him with their whole heart,
who also do no wrong,
   but walk in his ways.
You have commanded your precepts
   to be kept diligently.
O that my ways may be steadfast
   in keeping your statutes!
Then I shall not be put to shame,
   having my eyes fixed on all your commandments.

Happy are those who keep his decrees, who seek him with their whole heart. The psalmist understood the critical importance of actively and open listening as the only way to hear God’s voice. The psalmist understood what Moses had to say as he imparted his final words of wisdom to the Israelites as they stood poised to enter the promised land: “If your heart turns away and you do not hear.”

In today’s gospel reading Jesus uses the familiar teachings of Deuteronomy on murder and adultery and expands on them for his listeners. Jesus’ teachings no longer apply strictly to acts of murder and adultery. Instead, they become doorways into the examination of the thoughts and actions of everyday life that lead to such acts. The laws that the Israelites heard that day on the plains of Moab had not changed. What did change through Jesus’ teachings was the helpful addition of understanding the ways in which laws are broken by us in our daily lives and what we must do if we are to seek God’s way for us. What we must do to follow the instruction given to us through the language of the Great Commandments.

What is the process that we must engage in if we are to listen for God’s word actively and openly? If we are to hear God voice? If we to avoid the path of going astray.

I would suggest that continual and disciplined prayer is “the way to go.”

To bring us up to date on how prayer and following God’s commandments works in today’s world, I want to refer to the life Elisabeth Elliott, a beloved missionary and prolific author. The resounding theme of Elliot’s life was the boundless love of Jesus, and her greatest commission was to tell others of His saving grace. This costly call led her into the Amazonian jungle of Ecuador where her husband, Jim Elliot, was one of five missionaries speared to death in 1956 while attempting to contact members of the Auca/Waodani tribe. Elisabeth, along with her young daughter Valerie, later returned to Auca territory to live among and minister to the people who killed her husband. Familiar with suffering, Elliot wrote, “The deepest things that I have learned in my own life have come from the deepest suffering. And out of the deepest waters and the hottest fires have come the deepest things I know about God.”

Elliott also observed, "Prayer lays hold of God's plan and becomes the link between his will and its accomplishment on earth. Amazing things happen, and we are given the privilege of being the channels of the Holy Spirit's prayer."

Through the ages, no matter where or when; as taught by Moses, the psalmists, Jesus, Elisabeth Elliott and so many others like her, prayer has been and continues to be the ongoing project of listening and being in a mindset that is actively open to hearing God. Prayer is about the life of Jesus coming alive in us. Prayer is about absolute fidelity, faithfulness, and obedience to God’s word. And finally, Prayer is about the joy in keeping God’s Covenant with us.