Over recent Sundays we have been reading from John’s gospel account of Jesus’ demonstration and teaching of himself as our spiritual food and key to eternal life in God. Last Sunday we were invited to reflect on what it means to dwell in Christ and on the freedom of choice offered to us: to accept this gift of life and to follow Jesus, or to turn away and lose everything. It provided us with an apt lead-in to the season of Creationtide which starts this Sunday, a time in which we focus our celebration on God who is our Creator and the Sustainer of all life, and what it means to be a part of this creation and to receive Spiritual life.
Our first reading this Sunday is taken from Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the ancient Jewish Torah, in which Moses reminded the new generation of Israelites journeying out of the wilderness years about God’s covenant with his people. As the Israelites were poised to enter the land God had promised as their place of dwelling, Moses reminded them of God’s grace and of what it means to be faithful to God, and set out for them again the laws and practices which would distinguish them as God’s people and would XXX.
Our passage, from the start of Deuteronomy chapter 4, begins with an injunction to Israel to listen, to give heed (shema). The word carries the sense of focusing one’s attention, taking note of what one is hearing, and an expectation of responding to what one hears. It is the same word that will be used a couple of chapters later in the great command to Israel:
4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. (Deut 6:4-5)
There is an urgency in our reading this Sunday as Moses sets out to his audience not only the commandments of God but why it matters so much that they should pay attention and respond. Worshipping God alone and following him faithfully is not just for their own life and for their wellbeing as a nation; it is to communicate the wisdom of following God to all the people they will encounter. This wider social expression of WHY we should obey the laws as part of God’s great purpose of justice and community for all in his creation is a noticeable difference between the presentation of the commandments in both Jewish and Christian scripture and the blunter, crime-and-punishment presentation of other ancient law codes.
As the early Israelites were prepared by Moses to dwell in God’s promised land, to abide in the place and mindset that God offered them, they were being urged to hear God’s call and to respond with purpose and enthusiastic hearts to their role as witnesses and carriers of social justice within his creation, to become people of life and carriers of blessing to others. And as we encountered last week, and as Moses pleaded with his audience in the concluding chapters of Deuteronomy, hearing and responding involves a choice. Moses laid this out as the decision between (i) paying attention to God and obeying him, and (ii) between ignoring God’s words and disobeying the Lord. The choice is between life and death, living in God’s blessing or throwing away God’s promise. How we choose is important for us, for the unity of the Church and for the love of all God’s creation.
May your week to come be full of God’s words and blessing.
Lucy G
Image by Matt Ashby free to use from Unsplash.com