29 May 2005
Sermon: Deuteronomy 11:18-21, 26-28 (Proper 4 A)
The Rev. Robert C. Lamborn, Rector
NRSV Deuteronomy 11:18 You shall put these words of mine in your heart and soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and fix them as an emblem on your forehead. 19 Teach them to your children, talking about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. 20 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21 so that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the LORD swore to your ancestors to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth. 26 See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: 27 the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I am commanding you today; 28 and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn from the way that I am commanding you today, to follow other gods that you have not known.
How many times have you heard these words? A leader embarrasses himself and his family, not to mention the state he serves, by his personal behavior. News commentary calls him “all too human.” A soldier misuses his or her power over those in custody, acting out under the stress of living in a combat zone. “It’s only human,” we think. A corporate executive exploits the company for personal gain, lying to employees and deceiving stockholders. When the stock price crashes, the executive has already sold his shares, but employees and stockholders are left out of a job and with their life savings wiped out. “It’s just human nature,” we may lament. We tend to talk about humanity in the negative, and with good reason. All around us we can see the results of sin, and the very word human–like hummus--reminds us of the earthly nature of humanity. “You are dust, and to dust you shall return,” we hear each Ash Wednesday, reconnecting us to Adam, who God created from the ground. All around us we can see the results of human sin, but is that sin a result of human nature, or of something else?
At each stage of the creation, we read in the first chapter of Genesis that God pronounces it good; good, that is, until God creates humankind. After creating human beings, God doesn’t pronounce the creation good; God pronounces it very good! Human nature as God created it is very good, but what we tend to call human nature in a negative sense is human nature distorted by sin. Theologian William Placher writes that trying to understand human nature by looking at ourselves is like trying to figure out how a machine works after it’s broken.[1] Placher suggests that in trying to understand human nature, we should start with the one who got it right; we should start with Jesus. Great! so real human nature is defined by the love we see in Jesus and not by the way we see parents in discount stores sometimes treat their children. Jesus defines human nature, but since we live human nature as distorted buy sin, how do we bridge the gap?
How do we have a chance to live true human nature? The good news is that even though true human nature has been distorted by sin, God still acts to redeem it, to redeem us to live the very good human nature we were created to live. “You shall put these words of mine in your heart and soul. . . .” we heard from Deuteronomy, “Teach them to your children. . . . Write them on the doorposts of your house.”
Since that reading started, “You shall put these words of mine. . . .” the first questions are, “What words?” and “Whose words?” Moses is doing the talking, but he’s speaking on behalf of God, and the words are words of covenant with God. The people of Israel are right on the verge of entering the promised land, and God wants to make sure that when they do enter the land–when they get settled and prosperous–they won’t forget their relationship with God. These words are the words of covenant with God, words that define the relationship between God and the people, and in order not to forget them, “Put them in your heart and soul; bind them to your hands and foreheads, teach them to your children; talk about them all the time; write them on your doorposts and gates.” If the technology had been a little farther along, God might’ve said, “Write them on Post-it notes and stick them to your bathroom mirrors; have your children draw pictures about them and put them on your refrigerators with magnets; enter them into your PDAs!” Don’t forget the covenant with God. Why? Because covenant is one of the chief ways God has sought to restore human nature from what it has deteriorated into back to what it can and should be.
Now the covenant God makes with the people just before they enter the promised land does involve commandments: ten for starters, and plenty more after that to cover specific situations. Sometimes those commandments are called laws, and like human nature, law is something we too often look on negatively rather than positively. “Don’t do this; don’t do that,” or maybe we think, “Don’t get caught doing this or that!” And yet obedience to the covenant, to the commandments, to the law, helps us return to human nature as created by God, or do we really think that God created us to covet, lie, steal, murder, be unfaithful, dishonor our parents, work 24/7/365, swear falsely, worship things made by our hands, and look around for something we can call a god who won’t have such high expectations of us? Covenant is not about avoiding getting caught; it’s about continuing to become more and more the not just good but very good people God created us to be. We may think of obedience as a burden, but God gives it to us as a blessing–a blessing that puts our houses on solid rock rather than shifting sand.
If human nature is truly defined by the one who got it right– by Jesus, then how about calling our leaders “all too human” when they act with integrity and compassion? How about saying, “It’s only human,” when soldiers call on their brains and hearts in dealing with people in difficult and hostile situations? How about calling it human nature when a business owner continues to pay his employees after his business burns down, rather than laying them off until it’s rebuilt? Yes, we are created from the dust of the earth, but what makes us different from the dust of the earth is that God’s Spirit fills our lungs and enlivens our souls. Sin tends to choke off that Spirit, but God’s gracious covenant offers us the opportunity again to breathe freely, empowering us to lead lives more closely in alignment with the human nature God created not just to be good, but to be very good.
[1]William C. Placher, Jesus the Savior: The Meaning of Jesus Christ for Christian Faith (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster/John Knox Press, 2001), 33.