St. Luke’s Evangelical Lutheran Church – Watertown, WI
Pastor Mark Gartner
Sermon for Pentecost 2 – May 26^th and 29^th, 2005

Dear Children of God,

This text follows the celebrations of Pentecost and the Holy Trinity. It is only natural to reinforce the key truth that only through contact with the Holy Spirit’s Word can we come to faith and grow in faith in the triune God’s saving work.

It is also evident from this text that our God’s saving work is meant to have significance for our everyday life. It is not just something extra we think about in life, but it is everything we think about in life. Everything else in life only has meaning when it is considered in the light of what our Lord says about it.

The truth the Lord has passed on to us, we are to pass on to our children. We want them to know the work and the love of their triune God. They are the precious creation of an all-powerful Father, not evolutionary accidents. They are the precious possession of a redeeming Son, not bothersome interruptions. They are the precious stones of a spiritual building constructed by the Holy Spirit, not noisy distractions in the back row. That is what our theme will emphasize today:

The words for our text come from Moses’ farewell speech as the people of Israel had almost completed their 40-year journey in the wilderness. As the people sat on the plain of Moab, just across the Jordan River from the land of Canaan, Moses was telling them what God was expecting from them as they moved into this precious land. He didn’t want any of them to lose sight of what was really important. He wanted them to clearly see that it was God who brought them this far and it is God who will always lead them as long as they look to him. As we travel through our lives, I pray that we never forget who has brought us this far in our lives. We know very well that it is God and his loving mercy that has brought us this far. With this in minds, let’s move on.

Chapter 11 is in the second part of Moses’ three-part farewell address. In these words Moses makes a passionate plea that the Israelites always love and obey their God when they enter the land the Lord is about to give them. These words breathe an intense pastoral care and concern.

"See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse—the blessing if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today; the curse if you disobey the commands of the LORD your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known." I remember the morning well. I went out to the car and tried to start the engine. It didn’t work. As I looked under the hood I soon realize that the battery cable had come loose enough to not be connected to the battery terminal. It was close, but not quite attached to battery. The power couldn’t quite reach the connection. So close, but so far. The Lord has saved us through the gospel message of Jesus. We know, however, that we cannot remain in the faith by ourselves. We need the continued grace of God and power of his Spirit. We receive that through the means of grace—the gospel in Word and s! acrament. When we separate ourselves from that power source, Satan is ready to draw us away from God and his blessings. Even if we think that we no enough and forget to stay connected to God’s Word, that is not enough. The devil daily entices us to follow gods that are not true. Moses made that clear to the Israelites too. He wanted them to know that veering away from the gospel could only result in disaster and the Lord’s curse.

We know from the rest of Old Testament history the many troubles God saw fit to use to call his people back to him and his Word. At the same time, we find many examples of his compassion and mercy, by which the Lord reassured his people again and again that his promises would never fail. Those promises allowed those who believed them—the remnant—to see every trouble and difficulty as loving discipline, meant to direct them to the compassionate, merciful promises of their God.

We have received those same compassionate, merciful promises. Despite our constant sinful wandering and doubtful wondering, the Lord has placed the promised curses upon the promised Savior. And despite our inborn condition of sin and death, the Lord has placed into our minds and hearts a faith that clings to his sinless life and innocent death as our sure hope for admission into the heavenly land of life once we have crossed the earthly river of death.

"Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up." The word fix means "to put, deposit, attach, appoint, or plant" something. Tie means "to bind together" something. Moses told the Israelites to plant God’s Word in their hearts and minds and to bind it together on their hands and foreheads, literally "between the eyes." In other words, the Lord wanted them to go about their lives as if his words were hanging from their hands and foreheads, because they were firmly planted in their hearts and minds.

The only way they could do that was by being in continuous contact with his Word. They needed to think about it, meditate upon it, and receive its warnings and comforts. God’s Word needed to be an everyday part of their lives. They also needed to share it with their children in everyday situations. Moses didn’t want God’s instruction to be something that was just head knowledge, something that was necessary only one day a week, or something that had no meaning for their so-called regular lives. No, Moses was saying, let the covenant of the Lord direct you and guide your every step in day-to-day experiences—in your leisure time, your traveling time, your sleeping time, and your rising time.

Many Jews also took these words literally and actually placed little boxes of Bible verses on the doorframes of their houses. These mezuzahs served as reminders of the importance of having the Word affect them both in their private home lives and in their public lives in the community. Every time they left or entered their homes, they had visual reminders that the Word of the Lord was to go with them.

God isn’t telling us to literally put verses on our houses. He is telling us that God’s Word needs to be evident in all parts of our homes and lives. Our children need to see that God’s Word is the most important thing in our lives as parents. When we come home from work, do we have the energy to be there for our kids? When you are not in church do you model the love of God in your hearts? Are your children sometimes looked at as burdens and the last thing you have time for is to teach them about the love of God that is found in the Bible. As parents have we been making use of every opportunity to teach our children, or are we truly hoping that the Church is doing a good enough job of this in the Day School, Sunday school or Confirmation class? Martin Luther wrote the Catechism first of all for dads and parents. He wanted to give them a tool to help teach God’s Word to their families. There are tools like that for us also.

Moses attached a promise to this exhortation. When these people applied their hearts and minds to the Word, it would result in numerous days in the land God swore to give them. When we look at such a promise, we must not turn it into law and make the blessings of God dependent upon human effort. Instead, God promises that his grace simply multiplies as we adhere to his Word. For the people of Israel, what a blessing to know that the land on the other side of the Jordan would truly become theirs, even if they did look like grasshoppers compared to some of its inhabitants. That was a gift of God’s faithful grace. They did not deserve it at all. In addition, what a comfort to know that God was prepared to extend their days—and the days of their children—in that Promised Land. That too was a gift of grace.

Believers are always treated by God in terms of grace. Sometimes it looks like the days of the faithful are not numerous. Consider the times when God determines a few hours or years are enough, for example, at the time of a premature death of a child or a young adult. No matter how many "many days" the Lord determines are the right number for us, we can be certain that parents obeying God by teaching his Word to their children and children obeying parents by listening to their instruction is a godly recipe for a happy life – one that will last for an eternity in heaven. Amen