WEBVTT 00:01.600 --> 00:03.100 Grace to you and peace from God 00:03.100 --> 00:05.100 our Father and from our Lord and Savior 00:05.100 --> 00:09.600 Jesus the Christ. Our text this morning comes from our Old Testament 00:09.600 --> 00:11.000 lesson, Deuteronomy 00:11.000 --> 00:13.700 30, especially these thoughts. 00:15.300 --> 00:21.300 See I have set before you life and good death and Evil. 00:22.700 --> 00:25.000 Therefore, choose life. 00:28.100 --> 00:34.700 I've reached a point in my life where I can look back with enough time 00:34.700 --> 00:42.000 behind me to do some pondering reflection and evaluation. As I thought 00:42.000 --> 00:44.900 about this morning, I was going to say that I've reached a certain 00:44.900 --> 00:49.300 maturity but my wife and my kids would probably say that word doesn't 00:49.300 --> 00:51.100 apply to me in any sense of the word. 00:51.100 --> 00:54.800 So I'll just say that I've reached this point in life that I can look 00:54.800 --> 00:57.300 back and think about where I've been. 00:58.600 --> 01:05.099 My parents are in their 80s, my four kids are all 20 some things and 01:05.099 --> 01:09.000 that places me, you know, somewhere in between there. 01:12.000 --> 01:15.600 I don't have the experience of Moses. 01:17.000 --> 01:18.400 But my children are grown. 01:20.000 --> 01:23.000 I've served in two very different parishes. 01:24.200 --> 01:29.300 I've served now in two different institutions of higher Ed of the 01:29.300 --> 01:35.400 church. I have enough experience to look back and think and ponder and 01:35.400 --> 01:41.500 reflect as a parent as a pastor as a professor. 01:43.100 --> 01:47.800 I looked at today's Old Testament lesson and it caused me to ponder 01:47.800 --> 01:49.000 and reflect on. 01:50.700 --> 01:51.900 How have I done? 01:54.400 --> 01:56.100 Did I get things right? 01:57.000 --> 02:03.900 Have I with Moses appropriately, challenged my kids, my parishioners 02:04.100 --> 02:10.199 my students to choose life and good. Loving the Lord 02:10.199 --> 02:15.500 their God obeying his voice, listening to his voice and holding fast 02:15.500 --> 02:16.100 to Him. 02:17.900 --> 02:18.900 Have I done this? 02:21.500 --> 02:23.400 I've certainly done my best. 02:24.800 --> 02:29.700 My best to instill in all of those groups, the fear and love and trust 02:29.700 --> 02:30.600 of the Lord. 02:32.100 --> 02:36.800 But from today's text would cause me most to stop and ponder was the 02:36.800 --> 02:37.600 word 02:38.700 --> 02:39.600 choose. 02:41.500 --> 02:45.000 I don't know about you, but I've been indoctrinated in such a way that 02:45.000 --> 02:47.800 the word choose kind of gives me the heebie-jeebies. 02:49.400 --> 02:53.900 From from various experiences all throughout my life but probably 02:54.000 --> 02:56.900 probably beginning most prominently when I transferred from 02:56.900 --> 02:59.700 architecture into a pre-Seminary program. 03:01.800 --> 03:06.500 Pre some guys, typically spend a lot of time trying to get it right 03:06.600 --> 03:09.100 and arguing about what's right. 03:10.000 --> 03:16.600 I learned very early to try to nail it down. And you know, pre-sem 03:16.600 --> 03:22.300 guys and maybe sometimes, even sem guys can can, as they try to get 03:22.300 --> 03:22.900 it, right 03:22.900 --> 03:27.300 get kind of forceful about it and even tried a police others 03:28.300 --> 03:30.600 and how they talk and how they act. 03:30.600 --> 03:35.400 It's all part of the growing and the maturing process but sometimes it 03:35.400 --> 03:38.400 takes rather strident tones. 03:39.400 --> 03:44.100 When you're at 18 to 21 year old male, whose brain is still developing 03:44.100 --> 03:46.100 or so they tell us, right 03:46.100 --> 03:53.500 it's easy to get stuck without a lot of nuance in the way that you 03:53.500 --> 03:59.900 communicate things. For me, add to that some time, in Great Britain, at 03:59.900 --> 04:05.300 an Evangelical college, that was decidedly non Lutheran. 04:07.100 --> 04:09.300 And they're well 04:10.600 --> 04:15.500 crass decision theology wasn't the way everybody thought about it, but 04:15.500 --> 04:20.399 it certainly was the way some talked and thought. 04:22.400 --> 04:27.900 And then a few years later time here, time as a young sponge, trying 04:27.900 --> 04:32.000 to soak it all in, trying to hold it all together, trying to get it, 04:32.000 --> 04:32.600 right 04:32.700 --> 04:36.400 and then on the weekend, heading out to my Field, Ed congregation 04:36.400 --> 04:40.000 where at the end of the Sunday School opening, the kids would all 04:40.000 --> 04:46.800 march off to their classroom shouting and singing I have decided to 04:46.800 --> 04:48.800 follow Jesus. 04:52.100 --> 04:55.600 What does a young seminarian do in say in that instance? 04:57.200 --> 05:00.400 But then vicarage and and Parish experience. 05:01.000 --> 05:06.100 Well, those things taught me that no choosing and decision theology 05:06.100 --> 05:09.100 it's just everywhere. It infects 05:09.100 --> 05:15.400 even some of the most ardent and faithful people in our congregations. 05:16.300 --> 05:21.200 It's real, of course it, is it resonates with our reasonable brains. 05:21.200 --> 05:26.200 Of course, we have to make decisions it, resonates with our penchant 05:26.200 --> 05:26.800 for the law. 05:28.100 --> 05:34.000 I get to do this or that my sinful nature, that wants to take credit 05:34.000 --> 05:37.000 for anything that goes well in my life. 05:38.000 --> 05:41.700 And so, through all of that, yes, the word choose 05:41.700 --> 05:45.900 sometimes gives me the heebie-jeebies, especially when it comes up in 05:45.900 --> 05:48.800 an assigned text for the day. 05:51.000 --> 05:58.500 It smacks of decision theology, whether crass or somewhat disguised. 05:58.500 --> 05:59.800 And and so, we can be 06:00.000 --> 06:04.400 very sensitive to it and have trouble with this kind of language. 06:04.400 --> 06:08.700 When we see it appearing in our texts, the texts of scripture that the 06:08.700 --> 06:10.400 Lord has given to us. 06:12.200 --> 06:13.600 It's pretty hard to get around it 06:13.700 --> 06:18.900 that language in today's text, Moses says it quite plainly I call 06:18.900 --> 06:22.500 Heaven and Earth as witnesses against you today. 06:23.300 --> 06:29.700 I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse, therefore 06:29.800 --> 06:31.800 choose life. 06:34.200 --> 06:40.000 Joshua talks in very similar terms in his farewell address, choose this 06:40.000 --> 06:42.300 day, whom you will serve. 06:43.500 --> 06:44.800 The prophets echoed 06:44.800 --> 06:46.300 this kind of language. 06:46.300 --> 06:50.200 They certainly talk to people about the kind of decisions they were 06:50.200 --> 06:55.800 making. It seems like this language is all over the place again and 06:55.800 --> 07:01.500 again, the Old Testament people exhorted to choose or decide and it's 07:01.500 --> 07:04.100 not just the Old Testament. 07:05.100 --> 07:06.300 We read the New Testament 07:06.300 --> 07:10.900 the same sort of language, confronts us again 07:11.200 --> 07:17.300 and again. And those who are determined to think in this decision 07:17.300 --> 07:21.700 theology kind of way are more than happy to grab, a hold of these 07:21.700 --> 07:24.700 texts and throw them at you. 07:24.700 --> 07:26.200 What do you think about that vicar? 07:27.600 --> 07:28.400 Hey Pastor, 07:28.400 --> 07:30.200 here's another one of those texts. 07:31.200 --> 07:33.600 Listen, Moses said it choose. 07:33.600 --> 07:34.900 You see It pastor? 07:34.900 --> 07:36.200 Choose, choose life 07:36.200 --> 07:37.300 it's a choice. 07:39.300 --> 07:44.600 So it can be hard for us to slow down to slow ourselves down and not 07:44.600 --> 07:49.100 just simply react. To slow ourselves down 07:50.300 --> 07:53.100 aqnd to slow the conversation down. 07:54.200 --> 07:58.200 And get beyond just the simple words as they're bandied about. 07:59.700 --> 08:00.600 Acknowledge it. 08:00.700 --> 08:05.200 Yeah, Moses in Deuteronomy 30 says choose. 08:05.200 --> 08:06.800 There's nothing you can do about that. 08:06.800 --> 08:08.300 It's right there in the text. 08:10.600 --> 08:12.400 But to whom did he say it? 08:14.500 --> 08:17.500 Under what circumstances did he say it? 08:18.800 --> 08:22.100 For what purpose, what was he trying to achieve 08:22.100 --> 08:24.600 when he used this language? 08:27.500 --> 08:30.100 The year about 1406 BC. 08:33.000 --> 08:38.299 The miraculous exit of Exodus event 40 years in the rearview mirror. 08:40.000 --> 08:44.500 Moses is standing on the plains of Moab, you know, just on the Eastern 08:44.500 --> 08:50.800 side of the Jordan River, the trans Jordan. And he knows he won't be 08:50.800 --> 08:54.100 crossing that River and going into the land. 08:55.300 --> 08:59.800 But he's still got work to do. He's getting this people 09:00.000 --> 09:04.900 ready to go into the land that the Lord has promised to give them he's 09:04.900 --> 09:08.900 addressing a new generation of Israelites. 09:11.100 --> 09:12.100 Their parents. 09:13.300 --> 09:14.400 The grandparents. 09:16.000 --> 09:18.600 They've all died in the wilderness. 09:20.700 --> 09:26.400 They've died because standing on the very edge of the Promised Land 09:28.500 --> 09:30.600 in fear, they chose death. 09:32.400 --> 09:37.400 They fearfully chose not to trust the Lord their God and enter into 09:37.400 --> 09:40.400 the land as he had given it to them. 09:42.800 --> 09:47.000 But now, 40 years later this generation stands right on the cusp of 09:47.000 --> 09:51.400 the Promised land at a different location, but on the edge, Eastern 09:51.400 --> 09:53.700 side of the Jordan waiting to go in. 09:55.900 --> 09:56.900 Who are they? 09:58.700 --> 10:00.200 There, a new generation. 10:01.600 --> 10:05.600 And Moses has striven in his sermons, in the book that we call 10:05.600 --> 10:07.300 Deuteronomy to make it clear 10:07.300 --> 10:08.600 exactly who they are. 10:08.600 --> 10:13.500 They are not the goyim, they are not the nation's know, they are not 10:13.500 --> 10:17.900 pagan foreigners, who don't know, Yahweh The God, Who has called them 10:18.200 --> 10:19.600 out of Egypt. 10:19.900 --> 10:23.700 Now these are Yahweh's very own people. 10:26.000 --> 10:32.700 These are chosen people. People who have been redeemed and rescued. 10:32.700 --> 10:37.300 People who have been chosen to represent Yahweh to the other nations. 10:37.400 --> 10:42.600 People who are his segullah, his treasured possession. People about 10:42.600 --> 10:46.700 whom he has said, you are my firstborn son. 10:46.800 --> 10:51.300 Moses is not talking to just some random people setting in front of 10:51.300 --> 10:51.600 them 10:51.600 --> 10:54.800 a choice, inviting them to choose God. 10:58.500 --> 10:59.000 Their God 10:59.000 --> 11:02.100 Yahweh has been faithful to his promises. 11:03.500 --> 11:04.000 Promises 11:04.000 --> 11:08.800 He made to the Patriarchs of old to Abraham to Isaac to Jacob. 11:10.200 --> 11:16.700 He's granted son's where none seemed possible. He's enlarged 11:16.700 --> 11:21.800 the family he has been faithful to rescue them from the famine by 11:21.800 --> 11:24.200 providing food and Egypt. 11:24.200 --> 11:28.000 And when the land of Egypt, the land of Salvation became the land of 11:28.000 --> 11:28.500 slavery. 11:28.500 --> 11:33.700 He was faithful to bring them out of there with his outstretched arm 11:33.700 --> 11:35.400 and his mighty hand. 11:36.700 --> 11:41.000 He brought them out through the waters on the dry ground. 11:42.000 --> 11:45.400 And he covenanted with them at His Mountain. 11:47.200 --> 11:53.200 And in his grace and his mercy, according to his character, he kept 11:53.200 --> 11:55.600 the Covenant and renewed the Covenant 11:55.600 --> 11:58.500 even when they rebelled against Him. 12:00.500 --> 12:04.100 He has fed them and watered them in the wilderness 12:04.100 --> 12:09.700 these 40 years. He has defeated Kings for them their clothes, and 12:09.700 --> 12:12.300 their shoes have not worn out. 12:12.400 --> 12:16.700 And here they are on the edge looking in. 12:16.900 --> 12:22.300 That's who these people are the very people of Yahweh. 12:24.400 --> 12:27.900 And in these sermons in Deuteronomy Moses has laid out for them 12:27.900 --> 12:33.500 very clearly, all this Grace, all this gospel, this good news of all 12:33.500 --> 12:35.900 that God has done for them. 12:37.600 --> 12:44.600 He lays out for them what he calls here, the life and the good. 12:46.900 --> 12:53.300 And given all that Yahweh has done, the choice seems self-evident, 12:53.300 --> 12:54.000 doesn't it. 12:59.000 --> 13:03.000 But if not, this wonderful gospel 13:03.000 --> 13:04.700 proclamation is not clear enough. 13:04.700 --> 13:07.100 He also lays out for them the opposite. 13:07.100 --> 13:12.200 He lays out for them, the death and the evil. 13:14.200 --> 13:19.300 He warns them that if they turn their hearts away from Yahweh, if they 13:19.300 --> 13:24.600 fail to listen if they allow themselves to be drawn away in to worship 13:24.600 --> 13:28.700 other gods, they shall surely perish. 13:32.300 --> 13:33.700 That's the other choice. 13:35.900 --> 13:39.200 And so in light of all of that, what's Moses doing? 13:39.200 --> 13:46.600 Moses is calling them to faithfully respond to God's love and mercy. 13:48.600 --> 13:55.200 To those already chosen by God, those who have received so much from 13:55.200 --> 13:55.900 God. 13:55.900 --> 14:01.500 Moses now calls on those people to choose life and good. 14:03.800 --> 14:08.300 This can't be turned into some crass altar call. 14:09.400 --> 14:14.200 This is not Moses calling on people to receive God into their lives, 14:14.300 --> 14:17.200 or to lay their lives down for Jesus. 14:17.400 --> 14:24.700 No, this is the call to remain faithful to who they have been made by 14:24.700 --> 14:27.600 the word and work of God himself. 14:29.600 --> 14:35.500 He's calling on them to put that faith into practice. To live faithful 14:35.500 --> 14:40.000 lives toward the Lord their God, continually trusting the one who has 14:40.000 --> 14:43.000 done so much for them up to this day. 14:45.800 --> 14:50.400 This day today, there's an urgency in this call today, Moses says, in 14:50.400 --> 14:54.100 fact, throughout this sermon, he repeats it over and over and over 14:54.100 --> 14:54.500 again. 14:54.500 --> 14:58.400 Today, today they are called to respond to this Grace. 14:58.600 --> 14:59.800 Today is the day 15:00.000 --> 15:04.400 of choosing and living. In third article terms for us 15:04.400 --> 15:08.600 the Holy Spirit is calling them again by the gospel spoken by the 15:08.600 --> 15:13.900 mouth of Moses calling for the chosen to choose again today. 15:17.200 --> 15:23.900 Well, that was Moses and the people of Israel, some 3,500 years ago. 15:24.000 --> 15:28.600 God, sent his mouthpiece to his chosen people to call upon them 15:28.600 --> 15:30.500 to choose that day. 15:33.200 --> 15:36.600 But it's not just in the past, God has done this again 15:36.600 --> 15:39.100 and again. He did it through Joshua. 15:39.300 --> 15:43.900 He's done it through the prophets. He's done it through the baptizer 15:43.900 --> 15:51.200 and yes, of course, it's all centered and done by our Lord Jesus 15:51.200 --> 15:55.400 Christ, and his death and his resurrection. And who in our Gospel 15:55.400 --> 15:55.800 lesson 15:55.800 --> 16:00.300 today, we heard calling people to take up their cross. 16:01.900 --> 16:06.600 To remain as salt in the world. 16:08.500 --> 16:11.000 He's called through the apostles. 16:12.200 --> 16:16.800 And now through his church and in even specifically within his church 16:16.800 --> 16:22.000 through his pastors, he calls people to choose again today. 16:23.600 --> 16:24.900 To choose life. 16:26.200 --> 16:27.300 To choose good. 16:30.100 --> 16:35.000 Someone like me who gets the heebie-jeebies over choose should not shy 16:35.000 --> 16:40.800 away from this language just because some will distort it, take it out 16:40.800 --> 16:43.800 of context and make it something 16:43.800 --> 16:50.800 it is not. The chosen people of God, standing in the plains of Moab 16:50.800 --> 16:54.700 needed to hear, Moses call to them to choose. 16:57.700 --> 17:00.000 Today's people of God 17:01.100 --> 17:03.600 chosen in baptism 17:05.000 --> 17:10.700 awaiting the fullness of life in the new heavens and the new Earth. You 17:12.500 --> 17:19.000 and I we the chosen people of God, the new Israel we need to be urged 17:19.000 --> 17:22.500 and exhorted to choose life and good again 17:22.700 --> 17:28.500 today. To love the Lord, Our God, to listen to his voice and to cling 17:28.500 --> 17:29.200 to him. 17:33.700 --> 17:37.100 As I ponder my past. 17:38.600 --> 17:41.300 Honestly, I really haven't decided how I did for my kids, my 17:41.300 --> 17:45.800 parishioners, and my students first was kind of miserable thinking 17:45.800 --> 17:46.300 about it. 17:46.300 --> 17:52.900 Thinking, I certainly didn't use this kind of language with them. But the 17:52.900 --> 17:57.700 more I thought about it and I thought about passages that I did teach 17:57.700 --> 17:59.900 from and passages that the lectionary 18:00.000 --> 18:02.500 challenged me to preach from. 18:03.900 --> 18:08.800 Well, maybe I didn't neglect it all too badly 18:10.100 --> 18:17.100 even if I didn't use the word choose. Of course, as a sinful father, 18:17.300 --> 18:21.100 and pastor and professor, there's plenty of which I need to repent. 18:21.200 --> 18:25.000 And so, I lived a lie at the font and at the table at the foot of the 18:25.000 --> 18:31.000 cross and the empty tomb living in Christ's death and resurrection. And 18:31.000 --> 18:36.900 rather than dwell on how I did or didn't do yesterday, or in the past. 18:36.900 --> 18:37.700 Today 18:37.700 --> 18:39.500 is about today. 18:40.800 --> 18:45.600 And my task today is to stand before you into point today 18:45.600 --> 18:49.000 to God, who loves you in Christ, Jesus, and to all that. 18:49.000 --> 18:53.000 He's done for you in Christ Jesus. 18:54.000 --> 18:59.000 To proclaim to you again today, the life and salvation that you have 18:59.200 --> 19:05.500 in Jesus death and resurrection to call on you today as God's chosen 19:05.600 --> 19:06.300 people. 19:08.500 --> 19:15.600 Yes, God's chosen people to call on you today to choose again, today. 19:17.500 --> 19:20.100 To choose life and the good. 19:21.700 --> 19:23.200 To love your God. 19:24.400 --> 19:29.600 To hear his voice. To cling to him in faith. 19:30.900 --> 19:31.600 Today. 19:33.800 --> 19:37.500 Today, he's brought you to this place. Today 19:37.500 --> 19:40.700 He's heard your confession and forgiving your sins. 19:40.700 --> 19:45.400 Today, he draws you in calls, you to his altar to feed you with his 19:45.400 --> 19:48.300 very own body and blood. 19:50.200 --> 19:55.300 And today he will send you back out into your life of service once 19:55.300 --> 19:55.900 again. 19:58.700 --> 20:04.200 And so with Moses, by the power of the Holy Spirit, working in the 20:04.200 --> 20:05.100 gospel 20:06.600 --> 20:08.000 challenge you today. 20:08.000 --> 20:11.900 Choose life and the good. 20:13.000 --> 20:16.500 Today and everyday in the name of Jesus. 20:17.300 --> 20:17.800 Amen.