“So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you” (Deut. 4:1).
Experts tell us that Lincoln’s Gettysburg address was one of the shortest consequential speeches in history. Lincoln gave it in 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, in the same place where a bloody battle had been fought a few months before. You know the speech, which begins: “Four score and seven years ago…”. Lincoln was there to dedicate a cemetery for the fallen soldiers, and in just two hundred and seventy-one words he managed to sum up the history of the nation and its hope for the future. Lincoln’s words weren’t really even a speech, more like concluding remarks, but at a crucial point in American history they defined the moment and gave it meaning.
In our first reading today, from Deuteronomy, it’s a similar critical moment in the life of ancient Israel. The People have escaped from slavery in Egypt; they have wandered in the wilderness for forty years; they have contended with foreign armies and defeated them. Now they stand on the brink of the river Jordan, on the highlands of Mount Pisgah, ready to pass over into the promised land. At this crucial juncture, their leader Moses speaks to them, reminding them of their past experiences and preparing them for the future ahead.
Superficially, Deuteronomy is very different from the Gettysburg address. At thirty-four chapters it’s not the longest book in the Bible but it’s long enough: certainly much longer than Lincoln’s brief remarks. But in other ways they are alike. Both are the words of leaders to their people; both are speaking at critical times; both are summing up the past and plotting the future.
Most significantly, both leaders are speaking in the midst of conflict. One perspective on biblical faith is that it arose in the crucible of war: ancient Israel first learned to trust in God under the pressure of deadly peril. They say there are no atheists in foxholes, and maybe there’s some sense in that.
Deuteronomy, for its part, is an extended exhortation in time of war: some commentators believe that it took its final form after Moses’ death when the People of God themselves were threatened by foreign invasion. In their crisis they looked back in their history to how they had first entered the land; to their leader Moses and to the God who had been faithful to them in the day of battle.
Deuteronomy itself tells us, in the twentieth chapter, that before the hosts of Israel went forth to war, the priest was to preach to them. He was to say, “Hear, O Israel… Do not lose heart, or be afraid, or panic, or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you, to fight for you…” (Deut. 20:3-4). When Moses, in our reading this morning, reminds the People that they are to occupy the land, he’s telling them that God will be with them in the fray. He’s preaching his own sermon before the army moves out.
Of course, this tells us something of faith’s origin, born in the crisis of war in the time of ancient Israel, but there is more to be said. Our reading today gives us Moses’ exhortation to go up and occupy the land, but in the same breath Moses reminds them that faith requires obedience. “So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you” (Deut. 4:1). Living the life of faith requires careful attention: taking care and watching closely, as our reading says (Deut. 4:9). It requires going deeper.
Deuteronomy takes up and repeats the law and commandments that were given on Mount Sinai: it’s a refresher course for the People. In fact, Deuteronomy means “copy,” and itself advises in the seventeenth chapter that the king keep “a copy” of the book with him at all times. It is not by possession of the land that Israel will be God’s People, but by attentiveness and faithfulness to the statutes and ordinances of God.
If faith begins with trust in God, it is formed in us by attention to God’s call and commandment. That word to us is spoken most fully in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, whom he raised from the dead. Here again, Deuteronomy comes to our aid, as Moses tells the People that “God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people: you shall heed such a prophet” (Deut. 18:15). Jesus is that prophet foretold by Moses long ago.
Here today, at the Church of St. James the Less, Jesus is the one who invites us to re-affirm our faith in him: to take care (as it says in our reading) and to heed him. It’s an invitation to go deeper. Jesus confirms our faith as we come forward to the altar to receive him in the sacrament of his body and blood. He stands in our midst, as the one who breaks the bread and drinks the cup, inviting us to be formed in the faith and to share in the feast.