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Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost
Light of Christ Anglican Church
The Rev. Michael Moffitt, September 4, 2016


Why Should We Love God


Text: Deuteronomy 30:15–20

Several months ago I placed copies of The Cape Town Commitment – A Confession of Faith and a Call to Action in the Narthex for anyone to take. I have put more of them out there for anyone who didn’t receive one. It is an excellent devotional and a serious call to a renewal of faith and practice. Part one is a section devoted to what it means to love God and the opening statement says this,

Love is the language of covenant. The biblical covenants, old and new, are the expression of God’s redeeming love and grace reaching out to lost humanity and spoiled creation. They call for our love in return. Our love shows itself in trust, obedience, and passionate commitment to our covenant Lord.

I love a quote from Bernard of Clairvaux, an 11th century Catholic abbott in his book, On Loving God. He wrote,

The reason for loving God is God Himself. As to how He is to be loved, there is only one measure: It is immeasurable!

This morning I want to see what we can glean about what it means to love God according to our passage in Deuteronomy 30 and our Gospel reading from Luke 14. Let’s begin with Deuteronomy 30:15–16:

See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. 16 If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.

Moses is speaking to the children of Israel shortly before they were to cross over the Jordon River into the Promised Land. There they were to receive the inheritance that God had prepared for them as he had promised Father Abraham. Moses was not being allowed to cross over with them and was preparing to die. He had been with them for 40 years and had already seen the first generation (their parents) that had come out of Egypt, continually turn away from covenant faithfulness to God. This generation had seen God perform countless miracles on their behalf ie; the curses that God brought on Egypt to make them free Israel; God holding back the waters so they could cross the Red Sea on dry land, manna, the bread of angels provided for them every morning etc. They had seen God’s mighty power demonstrated on Mt. Sinai and his presence revealed every day in the cloud that followed them and the pillar of fire that rested over them at night. God had more than once provided them fresh, clear, life-giving water from out of a rock. Israel had every reason to trust God and to obey him, so Moses is putting it to them clearly. The choice is yours—life and blessings or death and the judgment of God. Life would be lavished upon them if they would love the Lord their God and obey his commandments. If they would do that they would live and prosper and God would surely bless their land.

Basically it was the same offer that God had made to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, obey my commands and all this that I have created is yours to possess. Adam and Eve failed to obey the command of God, so he later made a covenant with Abraham and in Genesis 17:7 God promised,

I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you.

And then God had renewed this covenant with the people of Israel in Exodus 19:5,

Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine.

In Exodus 20, the very next chapter God gave them the 10 commandments through Moses that began with the command to remain faithful to the one who had faithfully, continually demonstrated His love and compassion for this obstinate and stiff necked people.

The Ten Commandments begins,

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 3 “You shall have no other gods before me 4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

In the last sentence of this the commandment “but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments”, the word used for love is the same word used in Deuteronomy 30:16, is (A hav’) and it is a verb. I actually took the time to look up every verse that referred to how we are to love God and in every case it was a verb. In the New Testament it is the word (Agapao) the verb form of the noun (Agape). It is vitally important that we understand the implications of this. Moses is asking Israel to remember who it is that brought them out of Egypt and sustained them for over forty years and to remember all that he had taught them about their God. Remember that Moses wrote the majority of the Pentateuch (1st 5 books of the Old Testament) while they were wandering the desert for forty years. All that God had done for them and all that they now knew about his law and character should be ample reason for them to faithfully obey his commands. This was how they were to show their thankfulness and reverence by (A hav’) loving their God by their obedience. If they would do that then the nations would learn of the Lord of all creation and they too would be able to bow before Him in faithful obedience. Israel was to be a light to the nations and the promise made to Abraham that through his seed “all the nations of the Earth would be blessed”, would be fulfilled. How would they be blessed, by learning about the God who had created all things and would restore all things again? Israel’s love for God was not a response to how they felt about him but reminding who he was and all that he had done for them. They were preparing to cross over the Jordon River to take possession of the land that God was giving them but it was a land that was occupied by pagan nations and they weren’t going to simply move out. Israel would need to go at the command of God and in his power and glory. Their success depended on their willingness to follow God no matter what. Moses had told them stories of their forefathers and how God tested and tried their faith as a means of teaching them to be faithful and they needed to be reminded that their God was to be feared, honored and obeyed.

Moses knowing their hearts and how easily they turned away from God tells them what would happen if they failed to love God and obey his commands,

But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, 18 I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. 19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, 20 loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

Not only had God showed his amazing compassion and love but he had revealed that he was the living God, not a myth or the product of someone’s imagination. They were to tell the stories of his love, mercy and power to their children and to their children’s children continually throughout all generations. His reward for their faithful obedience was that they would get much more than land; they would have a continual relationship with their God and King. That’s what God wanted for them and for himself and after all that he had done to reveal himself to them and the patience he had shown them, for them to turn in rejection of his offer was unthinkable and would be met with death and judgment. You know the stories, the historical accounts of Israel’s failures to obey God and their turning to idols and the filth of other nations and cultures. It was tragic and yet God did not give up on them completely.

Let’s turn to our gospel reading for this morning from Luke 14:25–35. I want to start with verses 25–27.

Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them,26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple."

Here Jesus, like Moses is laying out what it means to follow him as a disciple. He uses a very strong word here (hate) to let them know that the love he is offering them once received must be reciprocated by total commitment. Actually the word hate is best translated as love-less. A good example is in Genesis 29:31–33 where Jacob is said to love Rachel but he hated Leah. Most translations other than the King James and the Hebrew text translate the word “love-less” and I think that is what Jesus is going after here to. The point is that no other relationship can be first for the disciple of Jesus. A disciple is a student who must learn to follow the teacher without fail. Jesus knew that this loyalty was crucial because there was much rejection and persecution ahead for those who followed Christ. If followers cared more about family than Jesus then they were not worthy of following him. Those who were to follow Jesus did so because they understood who he actually was, the Son of God—Messiah. They were not to make the same mistakes that Israel had made but were to follow Jesus no matter what the circumstances. They weren’t following him because it insured that everything in life would be smooth sailing but because he was God’s promise of redemption and transformation for all of creation. Like the Father, the Son was willing to pay the ultimate price of his own life to purchase salvation for those who would come to him by faith and repentance for sin. To reject that offer was to spit in the face of God and would bring his sure judgment and wrath.

To further clarify what it would meant to follow him Jesus he adds, “Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” Learning from Jesus means following him, experiencing his rejection and bearing the cross like him, being prepared to walk the path of obedience no matter where it led. I’m afraid that often in the zeal of evangelism many fail to tell the truth of the cost of following Jesus Christ and present it like the ultimate life enhancement.

Evangelist and author Ray Comfort likens it to a pilot approaching a passenger and advising him to put on a parachute in the middle of the flight and telling him it will make the flight much more pleasant. After putting on the parachute and being very uncomfortable not to mention being made fun of by other passengers, he eventually takes off the parachute and decides that the pilot is either delusional or just a liar. However if the pilot had gone to the passenger and confided in him that the plane was having mechanical problems and it was likely that he would have to parachute out of the plane from 20,000 feet, so he needed to put on the parachute. Well, this time the passenger has the same discomfort and the same amused looks from other passengers who rejected the advice to put on a parachute but he doesn’t care what they think because he isn’t wearing the parachute for flight enhancement but to prepare for the coming jump.

And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. Hebrews 9:27–28

In our gospel passage Jesus gives illustrations of counting the cost of discipleship.

For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him

He’s making the point of the importance of understanding what it means to follow Jesus. It comes with incredible blessings of relationship with God and a joy and peace that pass all understanding. Plus the point of escaping the fires of God’s judgment is a real plus too. The promise is to inherit eternal life in the presence of God and being able to live in the beauty and comfort of a restored creation. However, Jesus is pointing us to the here and now. Right now it is spiritual warfare and his disciples must count the cost of following him. I may cost you everything here including your life but if you really know who he is and have experienced his love then the cost is worth it.

Napoleon Bonaparte was fascinated with Jesus Christ and once wrote this:

I know men and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between Him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creation of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded His empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for Him.

Why would they die for him? They had counted the cost and found it worth paying.

The second picture that Jesus gives is of a king who finds his forces outnumbered as he considers going into battle. After calculating the cost in terms of life lost and destruction of his kingdom he decides that appealing for peace is a better idea. Some would take this as merely another example of considering whether or not you could finish what you have started. In the first example the building the tower the decision must be made by the builder as to his resources but in the second example the decision is to be made by the king concerning his strength. Only a foolish king would come against a much stronger foe and perhaps Jesus is pointing out that the stronger foe here isn’t Satan but God. It is wise to count the cost of facing him. There are benefits to in allying ourselves with God rather than having him as a decidedly stronger enemy. Jesus finishes this analogy with this:

So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.”

This could not be clearer, Jesus is to be first in the lives of his disciples and those who decide that this is not acceptable should count the cost.

So what should be our take away this morning? I think it’s this: Adam and Eve had a job to do that required that they receive the love of their creator and respond to him with loving obedience. They were to take God’s creation, raise up children made in God’s image like them and to subdue the earth and have dominion over it by making it a place for God’s own dwelling. They kingdom of Heaven would come to earth and it would become just like in Heaven. They failed.

Basically, God extended the same offer to Israel. They were to reveal the creator God to all the nations that God once again would build a relationship between the Creator and His creations—so that the Kingdom of Heaven could be on earth like it was in heaven. It would require their loving obedience to the commands and plan of God but they failed.

God sends Jesus Christ, His only Son be make a way for the Fathers original design for His creation to be restored. God comes down in the flesh to pay the price of man’s sin and rejection of God’s plan by giving his life as a sacrifice for our sin. This is still God’s plan and it still requires that we respond to God in faithful obedience to his plan and will. The question is: Will we fail and will we see the offer for what it is and bow down to God because of who he is. The job is still to take the good news of God’s love and mercy to all men and women in all places. We must be committed to that plan and to the word that he has provided for us in the Bible. This must be of first importance and everything else and everyone one else that would stand in the way of that must be seen as much less important than Jesus. This is our mission and should be our passion. This should be how we pray, “Lord open our eyes and our hearts to all that you want from us. Show us what it means to walk in love of you.” In Jesus Name.

©2016 Rev. Mike Moffitt

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