“Stories of Faith: Loving God with Your All” Deut 5: 1-21, 6: 4-6

When we think of where the great stories of faith in the Bible are written we think of places like Esther, Ruth, Genesis, the Gospels and Acts. Rarely do we think about the book of Deutoronmy, which we usually equate with telling us all the rules. In fact, when folks approach me to ask for a plan to read the Bible from cover to cover, I often tell them not to read it straight through because inevitably people get captivated by the stories of Genesis and Exodus, but then come the laws found in Numbers and Leviticus, and folks rarely make it Deuteronomy. But this particular book in the bible - the last of the five that every young boy in ancient Israel had to learn, is unique, for its a mix of both rules and stories about why the rules matter.

In this mornings scripture we encounter the story anew that is first found in the book of Exodus - the giving of the ten commandments. Let’s set the scene. The Israelites had been held captive for years as slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt. God came to Moses, who once resided in Egypt as the adopted son of Pharaoh’s daughter, out in the wilderness and told him to command Pharaoh to let God’s people go. Let the people that were Moses birth family go. After a less than successful time presenting that message to Pharaoh, Moses did eventually though the acts and grace of God, lead the Israelites to freedom… sort of. It wasn’t quite the freedom that folks envisioned, which they made known both to Moses and God, which led them to wander in the wilderness for forty years before they finally reached the promised land.

Part of that wandering, was taking out of them their old expectations of the way things should be. To introduce them to a new pattern of life, a new way of living, as God’s people set free from the bondage of slavery. So God met Moses on the top of Mount Horab and gave to him the basic laws that would govern their way of being. Which is where we pick up in this morning’s scripture. These were the laws that would be an outward sign of their inward covenant with God. Never before had God made such a laid out covenant with the people, remember that before the covenant was made before God and Abraham and was basically, I will be your God and you will be my people. I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars. I will make a nation out of you. That type of covenant is very one sided - God is doing all of the work. There weren’t really many rules surrounding it, and as a result the people wandered. To the point that at the beginning of the book of Exodus, the people had forgotten their story as God’s people. 

Now under this new covenant, there would be basic expectations. Now, I know that tends to make people nervous when we start to talk about expectations in Church. Let me be clear - God gave us basic rules or ways of living for our benefit, not for God’s. Its sort of like the rules we each had growing up in our homes. Think back - what was the purpose of those rules? For your protection! For creating the best possible environment to grow up in. So it was with the ten commandments, they were the basic rules of this new society, made of God’s chosen people, for their protection.

Before the law was even given, God boldly told them their story. “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” Before they were living under Pharaoh’s laws - that was their story, but now, now they were living under the law that marked them as God’s chosen people. In fact, the first four commandments, speak directly to their relationship with God. You shall have no other gods before me. You will not worship idols. You will not misuse the name of the Lord. You will set aside the day of Sabbath, the day of rest, to worship God. It is only after God gives the basic parameters around the people’s relationship to the Holy Lord, the Lord who led them out of slavery and made them a people of freedom, that they are even given the commandments that relate to how they treat each other as fellow pilgrims on this journey.

There are multiple hymns in our hymnal that talk about story. The one that kept ringing through my mind while writing this sermon was “I love to tell the story. T’will be my theme in glory. I love to tell the story of Jesus and his love.” While I appreciate the hymn writers words, I think there are two ways that we misuse them. First, we have forgotten our story so we don’t know exactly what to tell. The Jewish people know their story, they retell it every Passover when they repeat the words from generation to generation around the table, proclaiming “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”

We, as Christians, have a story just as powerful to tell about being rescued from our slavery to sin and death. Being set free from that bondage by the love of Jesus Christ. Only we seem to forget the love of Jesus part. I am an avid church sign reader - but I often find myself getting upset at the signs, signs that are supposed to tell our story, the story of Christ love, instead often find witty ways to tell people they are breaking the law of God. Now don’t get me wrong, if we learn anything from this passage of scripture it is that the law of God is important, but it is important because it re-orients people to the new life they are living in the freedom given to them by God. And it reminds them of their story - that they once were slaves under someone else’s rule, but now are the people of God. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in the law that we try to make it into our story instead of using it as a powerful reminder of who we are under God’s rule. Big difference!

The second way this hymn can lead us astray is by misrepresenting the idea that we are only going to need to proclaim our story in heaven. No! We have a story to tell now. A story to testify to about who God is and how Christ’s love has changed us and continues to change us each and every day! Pastor James Moore in his book the Power of Story, reminds us that we learn about the power and love of Christ through story. The stories of the scripture and the stories that we tell each other. We proclaim that story with our actions! We have the power to attract or repel people form the story, folks. And that has eternal consequences, so we certainly can’t wait to tell the story until we get to Heaven. It’s not a story that is meant to be contained! 

Moore tells the story of how it was raining one day, and he, a new pastor in town, saw a little girl who fell off her bike, which was loaded with groceries. He asked if he could help her, and they loaded the bike and the sopping wet grocery bags into his car and he drove her home. The mother was so appreciative until she found out that he was the new pastor. Her husband had been deeply hurt by pastors in the past, and as a result, he refused to let pastors in his home. In fact, when the dad came home he threw Rev. Moore out. But wouldn’t you know, he showed up in church the next Sunday, and then again the next. When the dad was asked why he showed up, he replied “You were kind to my little girl - that got my attention”. Its our actions that get people’s attention enough that we can share our story - God’s story - not throwing the law at them. 

Which leads us to the second part of the story in Deutoromy. God doesn’t just leave the people with the law or a list of rules. God leaves them by telling them to have the commandments written on their hearts. It’s like God is saying, you are mine, and have that mark of identity written on your hearts and proclaimed with your lips. 

I often listen to Klove, the Christian music station, when I’m driving around Philipsburg. One of the songs that keeps play proclaims: “Hello, my name is child of the One True King.” What a bold proclamation of our story, our identity. The identity that is deeply written on our hearts. The identity that gives us hope and proclaims life abundant. Not life from the law, but life the law of God gives us boundaries to protect. May we go froth form this place and tell our story. The story of God’s love that brought us to the place of freedom. Amen.