What better way to begin...
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What better way to begin our Lenten journey than with a reminder from the old book of
Deuteronomy. The book's theme is a reaffirmation of the covenant between God and the
people of Israel. Little new material is found in Deuteronomy. It is a second reading -- a
reminder -- there are some things we have to keep coming back to again and again. In
today's text, the whole history of the Hebrews is recounted lest they forget. What better
way to begin the Lenten season than to come back to the story that never grows old?
They kept rehearsing that story to remind them that God was in their story, too. Thomas
Mann said of great literature, "It is, it always is, however much we try to say it was." For
the old writer in Deuteronomy the was-ness becomes the is-ness. Once
upon a time becomes the here and the now. Tell the story and let the people that come
make their own connections.
