Themecasting

Those who were here last week remember that we started the journey of Lent together.

Lent is the season before Easter in which we prepare ourselves by fasting and giving up, by studying the bible, and by examining ourselves. Lent officially began last Wednesday, on what is known as Ash Wednesday.

Last week, we said we would try three things to observe Lent: give up, dig in, and look deep. Give up something until the celebration of Easter, and each time we think of it, use it as a reminder to turn to God in prayer. Dig in to the bible, through daily readings prepared for us by Jo Lewis. And look deep; examine ourselves, look at what is really important to us, and see if God is whispering something to us that we ought to change.

The last thing we want to do is make this a legalistic ritual. So, if you forgot, or if you weren’t here last week, we’d invite you to just start in right now! Back at the welcome center you’ll find these bookmarks with the readings, as well as a link to a website that has the readings available to you.

Lent means “spring”…it’s a recurring season set aside for new birth, starting over, asking forgiveness and moving forward. Let’s take advantage of this journey together to set our lives on the right path.

There’s another way we will be observing Lent together in our Sunday worship, and it’s hinted at in our bible passage for today.

Turn with me to Deuteronomy 6: 20. [READ Deut. 6: 20-25]

Moses reminds Israel that they are supposed to pass on to the next generations who God is, and what God has done in their lives. When your kids ask, “What’s the deal with all this religious stuff?”, it’s our responsibility to point them past the stuff to God himself! It’s our responsibility to bring God to life, telling the beautiful stories of how God has been so alive to us.

We are to remember God’s acts and share those stories across the generations.

So each Sunday during Lent, someone from the congregation will be sharing a part of their story, a part of who they have known God to be, just like Gary Fawver did earlier in this service. These “remember-ers” will help us remember and celebrate and bring to life who God is.

So as we continue in worship this morning, as we continue through the journey of Lent…what has God done in your life? How will you share that across the generations?

Think with me for a minute about how hard it is to keep passionate about something.

When I was beginning to learn to play the guitar several years ago, it was so fun, so exciting, so new, that it was easy to stay up late and practice until my fingers hurt. Now…not so much.

The first time we got the computer program Quicken, I LOVED doing the bills and balancing the checkbook, because this new computer thing was just so cool! That didn’t last either.

I’m sure you can add to the list: the utter bliss of the first months of romance, the first days on your new job, the joy of owning your first home when even unclogging a drain line was fun because it was YOUR drain line…that all fades away pretty quickly, doesn’t it?

Sociologists also notice this phenomenon with groups of people, even religious groups of people.

For instance, what does it mean, what does it look like, when I say something that used to be a movement has now become an institution? What does that bring to your mind? [ASK]

Passing things on to the next generation is always a challenge. There’s an old cliché that the church is always one generation away from extinction. The truth behind that cliché is that unless those coming after us capture something of what we have with God, the church will disappear.

Moses knew that well.

The entire book of Deuteronomy is in a sense Moses’ last words, the reminders of an old man trying to help future generations not forget who they are before God. Most of it is a re-hash of the commandments and rules that God had given through Moses before.

Deuteronomy literally means “second law”…it’s the second time Moses is giving the list of things Israel ought to believe and how they ought to behave.

You know what it’s like when someone begins to repeat themselves, don’t you? When they start saying the same story they’ve already told you before?

If you’re like me, you begin to tune them out.

I wonder if in this passage, old Moses is really just a step or two ahead of the younger ones?

Take a look again at Deut. 6: 20. Imagine old Moses, right on death’s door, after having led a rebellious people around the desert for 40 years. They’re finally going to enter the land God has prepared for them, but Moses isn’t going to be joining them. He’s going to die before they enter the land.

He gathers the people, and starts droning on again about the same old stuff…don’t do this, and don’t do that, and clean this, and clean that. Oh yeah, Love the Lord your God, we got that, ok Moses, move on.

And everybody thinks old Moses is slipping…the elevator’s not making it to the top floor any more. So they’re sort of politely smiling, while their minds are going somewhere else.

But then comes verse 20, which I think Moses might be saying with a twinkle in his eye, knowing exactly what everybody is thinking. “When your children, all the young whipper-snappers, come and say, ‘What is the deal with ALL these decrees and rules and blatherings? Why is all this stuff important?’”

I think Moses is trying to get everybody to wake up.

He’s not senile. He’s not stuck repeating things without any meaning. Moses knows exactly what he’s doing.

He wants to pass on a movement, not an institution.

An institution doesn’t really care about questions, about the “why”. An institution just cares about “what” and “how”. What do you believe? How do you do it?

Do you have your beliefs down right? Do you have the “way we’ve always done it around here” committed to memory?

Obviously the “what” and the “how” are important, or Moses wouldn’t be reminding the people again. But movements …and Moses…care about more than just the “what” and the “how”.

Moses cares about the “who” and the “why”.

Why is all this stuff important? Who is this God behind all this stuff, anyway?

Those are the questions that Moses thinks are absolutely essential to pass along to the next generation.

Look at v. 21: “Here’s what you should say when they ask: tell them what happened to you. Tell them what God did for you. Tell them what God is like, how he did great and awesome signs and wonders right in front of our eyes!”

Tell them who God is! Don’t ever let your children think that the God who rescued us and saved us and loved us is only about rules and regulations.

People of Israel, make sure your children know what God has done in your lives! That’s what keeps a movement alive. That’s what keeps life with God real…remembering who God is and what God has done.

Because when we get THAT into place, then the commandments make sense.

When we remember God’s faithfulness to us, how God proved himself more powerful than the greatest powers in the world, THEN we realize that the reason he commanded us to do all these things was…look at verse 24…“for our lasting good, so as to keep us alive, as is now the case.”

See, friends, this is a word to US.

Yes, we must pass along to the next generation what we believe and how things are done. But most important of all, we must pass along who God is and what he has done in our lives!

We must share with each other our experiences, our stories of who God is. We must remind each other how God has moved powerfully in our lives. We must remind each other that God is our rescuer and our savior and our healer and our leader.

That’s how love of God stays alive across the generations!

Do you remember what God has done in your life? Do you remember who God is, who God has showed himself to be?

This is what will hopefully come as we “look deep” during Lent. Looking deep, not just at our past but at our now, looking deep helps us to see who God is and what God is doing.

And Moses’ words remind us that we need to be sharing this with each other. The picture here is families sharing often about who God is and what God is like, telling God’s stories over and over, so that we can live as God intends.

The picture is a faith community that shares with each other who God is, what God has done, and why we follow God.

Let’s remember to “remember” together!

Let’s remember to be sharing not just the how’s and the what’s of institutional church, but also the who and the why of a movement of God!

Part of our journey together in Lent will be to do just that: to remember and to tell who God is and what God has done to each other, so that we catch the “aliveness” of life with God…so that we pass on living faith and not empty rules and regulations.