This is the penultimate sermon in the preaching series "Calling All Disciples." It felt like it worked.
“A Higher Calling” Deuteronomy 30: 15-30; SAPC, Denton; February 5, 2023; Calling All Disciples series Richard B. Culp
See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. 16If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. 17But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, 18I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. 19I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, 20loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the Lord swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
Introduction: We continue our preaching series “Calling All Disciples” and the invitation to reflect on our own sense of what God is calling us to do.
Two weeks left.
Move 1: To follow your call means to make a decision about that next step.
a. the story we read in Deuteronomy is about making decisions.
1. Part of Moses’ farewell address.
2. he is looking at the future for God’s people as they are about to enter the Promised land, knowing he will not go with them.
3. and he is looking back over his life and the history of the Israelite people and recognizes that his life has been a series of decisions he makes about following his calling.
4. Remember, Moses was an Israelite baby saved by his sister and mother from being killed as an infant and then raised by Pharaoh’s daughter.
5. AS his life unfolds from that point, Moses has to make a series of decisions.
As a young man, he has to decide if his loyalty was with his Israelite people or with his adopted Egyptian upbringing and stature.
then, when Moses encounters the burning bush with God’s request that he go back and lead god’s people, Moses has to make a choice - go back and lead God’s people out of Egypt or do something else.
Throughout the journey in the wilderness, Moses has multiple moments in which he can choose to follow God’s leading, or turn away.
3. Likewise, Mose can look over the history of God’s people and see where they have made decisions to follow God’s calling and other times when they have ignored God and chosen a different path.
b. As we read this story, we are reminded that following God’s call for our lives means making particular choices at particular times in our lives.
1. As we move down our life’s journey, decision points come along the way.
3. interesting point about this story we read in Deuteronomy - it describes a time in the life of the Israelites when they had to make a big decision, it was a story that was told often in the 6th C BCE when the Israelites were in Babylonian captivity.
In both settings the shape of Israel’s future was uncertain and this word from God was intended to assure God’s people that a future of life in the land of promise was certainly in view. At the same time, how the people responded to the word of God would shape the nature of that future.(https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-23-3/commentary-on-deuteronomy-3015-20-3; Terence E. Fretheim)
4. The point being made is that the Israelites’ journey as God’s people will have multiple decision points about how they follow their calling.
5. Like the Israelites in the wilderness, we may misread our calling at times or like Moses try to avoid God’s call for our lives, but the good news is that God is ever before us, giving us opportunities to change directions again or finding ways to redeem the call we have chosen.
4. Answering God’s call for your life is not a one-time event, but a series of decisions we make as our lives change and the world around us changes.
move 2: The story from Deuteronomy also gives us the important reminder that We do not choose our call as a way of earning God’s love or our salvation.
a. Scholars point out that when Moses sets up this moment of decision-making, the people had already been redeemed by God (see Deuteronomy 7:7-8).
1. God has already chosen them.
2. they do not have to answer God’s call correctly to earn God’s love.
3. Instead, making decisions about their calling is a response to their experiencing God’s saving grace.
b. As you consider how to answer God’s call for your life, it is not about you having to do something to earn God’s love
1. God has already chosen to love you.
2. Following God’s call is your response to God’s gracious love.
move 3: the story we read from the Gospel of Matthew also reminds us to think about our call in aspirational terms.
a. Notice how Jesus talks to the gathered crowd.
1. this passage follows up Jesus’ teaching that we know s the Beatitudes, sort of his instructions for how we are to approach our lives.
2. in a series of comments, he takes the letter of the law and pushes it to a higher standard.
3. We are not called to act in ways that settle for the lowest standard we can get by with, but to push for ways that reveal God’s grace and god’s love.
b. As you ponder where God is calling you in your life, do not settle for the easiest things that come along that may or may not fit what you are sensing God is calling you to do.
1. Be aspirational.
2. Consider how and where God is sending you that pushes you and calls you to give of yourself in meaningful ways.
Move 4: Final thought - as you consider your calling, remember Moses’ words - choose life
a. Interestingly enough, the way Moses uses this phrase is very unique in the Old Testament.
1. This is the only time in the Old Testament that this Hebrew word for “choose” (behar) has human beings as subject.
2. (usually God “chooses”).
3. Perhaps this emphasizes the importance of choosing to follow God and how in doing so it is life-giving.
b. years ago as I contemplated my own sense of call, one of the pivotal moments was listening to a sermon.
1. I still remember the sermon title: “I’d Rather Be Fishing.’
2. I actually heard it twice - Friday night at the final worship service at Synod Youth Workshop, where I was an adult leader, and then again two days later in Houston where I was about to start law school and decided to worship at the church where the keynoter from Synod Youth Workshop served as pastor.
3. He didn’t write a new sermon.
he preached his Friday night sermon again.
i guess I needed to hear it twice to get it.
4. the preacher’s main illustration that led to the sermon’s title was a bumper sticker that adorned many cars at the time that said, “I’d rather be fishing.”
5. The minister suggested that too many people chose to do those things that we thought we were supposed to do, or that the world told us to do, or that we thought we should do because of all the rewards that might come with doing it, instead of listening for and then following God’s call for their lives.
6. He suggested if you follow God’s call, you will never need
a bumper sticker that says, “I’d rather be fishing!”
c. As I responded to that sermon then and have reflected on it through the years, it seems to me that he was saying follow your call that is life-giving to you.
1. sometimes the call we choose to follow may be difficult;
2. sometimes, it may feel like the wheels have been greased because everything flows so nicely.
3. either way, our calling should be life-giving to us and bring opportunities for us to give life and meaning to others.
4. the God who gives us life by blowing the breath of life into the mud calls us to places and tasks that breathe life into us and others.
5. That is who God is; that is what God desires for us.
Conclusion: The Israelites are at a place where they know their world is about to change drastically as they enter the Promised Land.
Moses reminds them at this critical moment: “follow God’s call and choose the path that is life-giving.”
You may not be at such a critical moment in your life’s journey, but Moses’ words still ring true: “follow God’s call and choose the path that is life-giving.”
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