Going Home
Sermon
Walking With God
Cycle A First Lesson Sermons for Proper 23 through Thanksgiving
Object:
At the end of a long trip, home always looks appealing! Turning the corner and seeing the house you left days or weeks earlier can sometimes provide the best snapshot of the whole trip. The word home has a pleasant ring to it, and it's a particularly beautiful word to hear after being away from it for a while.
While such an assertion makes sense after a weeklong vacation at a theme park, it makes even more sense after the long journey called life. For Christians, coming to the end of life's journey doesn't have to prompt a sense of dread and fear. Because of what we know about God's love for us and his gift of eternal life in heaven, the end of our journey here can foster an invigorating awareness that home's just around the corner.
Deuteronomy 34 gives us the moving story of Moses when he went home at the end of his journey. He had finished his life's work. What a life he lived! Neatly divided into three segments, each spanning forty years, Moses' life included growing up in Egyptian royalty, working as a shepherd in the wilderness, and serving as the leader of God's people from slavery to liberty.
The last forty years of his life had been most eventful. From the day his curiosity drew him to a burning bush until the last day alive, he had been on quite a remarkable journey. He heard God call him to a task that he knew he could never complete by himself. God showed him along the way that God could be trusted. He would give Moses what he couldn't give himself to finish the work to which he had been called. Accordingly, Moses got to hear Pharaoh give the order to let God's people go so they could leave Egypt. He got to watch as God's people worshiped him through the first Passover meal in preparation for the journey across the desert to the promised land. He got to see God separate the Red Sea so the people could cross over into safety. On the freedom side of the Red Sea, he had the rare and -- many times -- painful privilege of beholding God as he worked with his people to grow them into the holy nation God knew they could become. He got to be a part of such a grand transformation project that would forever be heralded as one of God's greatest miracles. By using Moses, God delivered his people from bondage and guided them to the promised land. A remarkable journey for Moses, but now it was coming to an end. Soon he would be going home.
According to the story, God took him to a mountain so he could get a good look at the land he had promised his people generations earlier. You could say that it was a fitting place to end his work. Interestingly enough, his work started on a mountain, so ending it on a mountain seemed to be appropriate. From his perch on the mountain, Moses got to see the land that God would give to his people. First Moses looked north, then west, and finally south in order to take in all of what God planned to give the children of Israel. Moses must have felt a sense of accomplishment as he soaked in what God showed him.
Some people would say that Moses probably felt that God cheated him out of the joy of crossing over with the people into the land. After all, he had poured out his life in leading them across the desert, which turned out to be a forty-year obligation. The best part of the journey involved what happened at the beginning of it. When the people determined that they couldn't take the land early on in the journey, God led them back into the desert to die. Doing so would give the next generation an opportunity to obey him as courageous followers who would be loyal to him. In the meantime, Moses had the heavy responsibility for keeping the nation focused until the next generation would be ready to take the land.
Even though he remained loyal throughout the four decades of his leadership, the Lord disqualified him from going into the land himself. According to Deuteronomy 1:34-39, God decreed that nobody in Moses' generation would enter the promised land because fear of the obstacles to taking it paralyzed them (see Numbers 13-14). In God's decree, he mentioned Moses by name. Like everyone else except Joshua and Caleb, Moses passed on the opportunity to speak up for God and to encourage the people to take a step of faith forward into the promised land. Because his fear paralyzed his tongue, he would have to suffer along with everyone else in his generation.
God's ways defy explanation at times, but so does his goodness. For Moses, not being able to make his home in the land flowing with milk and honey must have certainly disappointed him. He tried to get God to change his mind about his decree, but to no avail. Not only did God turn down his request, but he also told Moses not to bring it up ever again (Deuteronomy 3:23-29). Years later, however, being able to go to the home God prepared for him must have exhilarated him. Across the years, perhaps Moses had a change of heart when he thought about the location of his home.
Helen looked forward to going home. She lived in the house that she and her husband had built in 1964, but the home she had in mind was in heaven with her husband. She and Bobby had been married for 55 years when he passed away suddenly just a year or so earlier. Ever since his death, she talked about the glad day when she would be able to see him again in heaven. When she talked about heaven, she described in rich detail the features of a home that Bobby would appreciate. For that reason, she described lavish scenery with flowers and shrubs in perennial bloom. Bobby loved gardening. So for her, going to heaven meant living in a cottage near a superbly manicured garden full of budding trees and flowering shrubs. That's where she would find Bobby in heaven, and that's where she wanted to go. She could hardly wait to get there.
Ben's mom suffered from a form of dementia that got noticeably worse not long after she celebrated her eightieth birthday. He watched her forget where she had put her glasses, and then in due time she forgot how to use glasses altogether. The pride and joy of her life, her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, somehow faded away in her mind. She couldn't remember their names at first, and over time she didn't know them at all.
She could always remember the home of her childhood. She would often talk about her mom and dad, her brothers and sisters, and the good times they had at home together. Before long, she got concerned about her parents, who had died decades earlier. Ben would catch her gathering up her belongings and heading for the front door. He would ask her where she was going in such a hurry. Every time he asked, she would give the same reply, "I'm going home so I can see Mama and Papa. I need to check on them." She missed her parents, and she longed to see them again. Consequently, nothing would have pleased her more than being able to go home.
For Moses and all of God's people, when we get ready to go home, nothing else really seems to matter. From that perspective, going home doesn't feel like punishment; it's more like a reward.
Something else about God and his relationship with his people comes to light in the story in Deuteronomy 34 that certainly captures our attention. Notice God's remarkable way of taking care of his choice servants. When the time came for Moses to bring his journey to an end, God didn't vanish from the scene. Quite the opposite, God accompanied Moses to the mountain and stayed with him until he took his last breath. Then God buried Moses' body himself somewhere on the mountain.
God's care for Moses on the mountain makes an important statement about him that we don't want to overlook in his relationship with us. The psalmist affirmed that the Lord considers the death of his children to be precious (Psalm 116:15). We wouldn't be surprised to know that God considers our lives to be precious to him. With our lives we serve God, but what value can a dying person have for God? We can no longer serve him, and we can no longer go out and do what he commands. From our perspective, death doesn't have the same value.
The Lord has a different perspective on the death of his children. We matter to God when life surges within us, and he cares about us just as much life leaks out of us. While we live, we enjoy his presence. When we die, we can count on the blessing of his company then as well. He considers us just as precious in dying as he does when living. Whether living or dying, we are precious in God's sight.
Perhaps the care provided by hospice organizations across the country reflects God's attitude about us when we face death. Hospice caregivers work with terminally ill patients and their families as death approaches. Along with providing medical care to the patient as he or she fades away into eternity, they encourage the family members. They teach them how to treat their loved one with care and dignity. They show how death can be understood as something valuable and a person dying as an individual to be honored and not discarded.
As the story in Deuteronomy 34 also shows us, going home involves leaving a legacy. For Moses, the legacy that lived on after him included what people said about him, his death, and his life among them. What they remembered about him spoke volumes about the man he had become in their eyes.
Did Moses set out to leave a legacy of tremendous accomplishment and unflappable trust in God? Probably not. Follow his footsteps in the stories about him in the Bible, and you draw that conclusion that he didn't care that anyone would remember him. He only wanted to served the Lord by accomplishing the task to which he had been assigned.
Like all young pastors, Brian had his heroes. One of them served as the pastor of a church in Brian's hometown. Brian had watched the church grow deep and wide. In other words, the membership increased steadily across the years, and the members grew spiritually so they could carry out some fairly incredible kingdom tasks together.
When Brian heard that his pastor hero had announced his retirement, he asked for an appointment with him. He wanted to spend a little time with the pastor who had mentored him without even knowing it.
Nervous about meeting his bigger-than-life hero, Brian had some questions written on a note pad that he carried with him into the pastor's office. After a few pleasantries, Brian got right to work, asking one question after the next.
He asked one question in particular that triggered an unexpected answer from his mentor pastor. He asked, "What do you want to be remembered for when it's all said and done?"
"I don't want to be remembered for anything."
Shocked by the reply he received, Brian pressed, "Aren't you concerned about your legacy?"
"Absolutely not. I'm just the messenger of the Lord. I don't want to leave a legacy of my own. I only want to please him with my life."
Perhaps that's how Moses might have felt about all the hullabaloo that accompanied his death. The people of Israel who had followed him all of their lives honored him for his investment in them, but he may not have been so impressed with his life. After all, he knew the mistakes he had made, the shortcomings he had to deal with constantly, and the spiritual and organizational frustrations he experienced along the way as he led God's people to the land God had promised them.
The people certainly didn't see his life and his death that way. For an entire month they grieved his loss. As they grieved, they came to the conclusion that God made a sovereign decision to take Moses home. Otherwise he would have still been alive. Although he was 120 years old, they said to each other, he had the vigor and stamina of a much younger man. Apparently God pulled him out of the picture in keeping with what was best for Moses and God's people.
Maybe that's why God wouldn't give anyone a clue as to where he buried Moses. Who knows what they may have done. If they knew where his body was laid to rest, they may have gone to the spot, exhumed the body, and put it in a tomb. Then they would live with the temptation of venerating his body instead of trusting in the Lord as they stepped into their future.
But listen to them as they talked about Moses after he went home. Imagine what they must have said to one another when they brought up the stories about the man who had finished his work so well.
"Do you remember the time Moses got water out the rock? My dad told me the story more than a few times. He said that Moses was so close to God that he was able to do things like God alone could do them."
"I remember well my grandfather telling me about watching Moses part the Red Sea by calling on the name of the Lord. Papa told me more than once that Moses was one of a kind. He always talked about how God kept the waters back while Moses took the people through to safety."
"I was just a kid when I first heard about Moses. My parents had the greatest respect for him. They said that he was one of God's choice servants, and we were lucky to have him as our leader. They never could get over the way Moses seemed to talk with God like friends carry on a conversation with each other. They could never remember a time when Moses didn't change the atmosphere of a room when he entered it."
All of us will go home one day. Through Jesus Christ, we can look forward to it, and we can rest in the assurance of God's presence when our time comes to leave here and go there. After we're gone, the legacy of a life well lived will be passed along when we live in a way that shows our devotion to him. Amen.
While such an assertion makes sense after a weeklong vacation at a theme park, it makes even more sense after the long journey called life. For Christians, coming to the end of life's journey doesn't have to prompt a sense of dread and fear. Because of what we know about God's love for us and his gift of eternal life in heaven, the end of our journey here can foster an invigorating awareness that home's just around the corner.
Deuteronomy 34 gives us the moving story of Moses when he went home at the end of his journey. He had finished his life's work. What a life he lived! Neatly divided into three segments, each spanning forty years, Moses' life included growing up in Egyptian royalty, working as a shepherd in the wilderness, and serving as the leader of God's people from slavery to liberty.
The last forty years of his life had been most eventful. From the day his curiosity drew him to a burning bush until the last day alive, he had been on quite a remarkable journey. He heard God call him to a task that he knew he could never complete by himself. God showed him along the way that God could be trusted. He would give Moses what he couldn't give himself to finish the work to which he had been called. Accordingly, Moses got to hear Pharaoh give the order to let God's people go so they could leave Egypt. He got to watch as God's people worshiped him through the first Passover meal in preparation for the journey across the desert to the promised land. He got to see God separate the Red Sea so the people could cross over into safety. On the freedom side of the Red Sea, he had the rare and -- many times -- painful privilege of beholding God as he worked with his people to grow them into the holy nation God knew they could become. He got to be a part of such a grand transformation project that would forever be heralded as one of God's greatest miracles. By using Moses, God delivered his people from bondage and guided them to the promised land. A remarkable journey for Moses, but now it was coming to an end. Soon he would be going home.
According to the story, God took him to a mountain so he could get a good look at the land he had promised his people generations earlier. You could say that it was a fitting place to end his work. Interestingly enough, his work started on a mountain, so ending it on a mountain seemed to be appropriate. From his perch on the mountain, Moses got to see the land that God would give to his people. First Moses looked north, then west, and finally south in order to take in all of what God planned to give the children of Israel. Moses must have felt a sense of accomplishment as he soaked in what God showed him.
Some people would say that Moses probably felt that God cheated him out of the joy of crossing over with the people into the land. After all, he had poured out his life in leading them across the desert, which turned out to be a forty-year obligation. The best part of the journey involved what happened at the beginning of it. When the people determined that they couldn't take the land early on in the journey, God led them back into the desert to die. Doing so would give the next generation an opportunity to obey him as courageous followers who would be loyal to him. In the meantime, Moses had the heavy responsibility for keeping the nation focused until the next generation would be ready to take the land.
Even though he remained loyal throughout the four decades of his leadership, the Lord disqualified him from going into the land himself. According to Deuteronomy 1:34-39, God decreed that nobody in Moses' generation would enter the promised land because fear of the obstacles to taking it paralyzed them (see Numbers 13-14). In God's decree, he mentioned Moses by name. Like everyone else except Joshua and Caleb, Moses passed on the opportunity to speak up for God and to encourage the people to take a step of faith forward into the promised land. Because his fear paralyzed his tongue, he would have to suffer along with everyone else in his generation.
God's ways defy explanation at times, but so does his goodness. For Moses, not being able to make his home in the land flowing with milk and honey must have certainly disappointed him. He tried to get God to change his mind about his decree, but to no avail. Not only did God turn down his request, but he also told Moses not to bring it up ever again (Deuteronomy 3:23-29). Years later, however, being able to go to the home God prepared for him must have exhilarated him. Across the years, perhaps Moses had a change of heart when he thought about the location of his home.
Helen looked forward to going home. She lived in the house that she and her husband had built in 1964, but the home she had in mind was in heaven with her husband. She and Bobby had been married for 55 years when he passed away suddenly just a year or so earlier. Ever since his death, she talked about the glad day when she would be able to see him again in heaven. When she talked about heaven, she described in rich detail the features of a home that Bobby would appreciate. For that reason, she described lavish scenery with flowers and shrubs in perennial bloom. Bobby loved gardening. So for her, going to heaven meant living in a cottage near a superbly manicured garden full of budding trees and flowering shrubs. That's where she would find Bobby in heaven, and that's where she wanted to go. She could hardly wait to get there.
Ben's mom suffered from a form of dementia that got noticeably worse not long after she celebrated her eightieth birthday. He watched her forget where she had put her glasses, and then in due time she forgot how to use glasses altogether. The pride and joy of her life, her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, somehow faded away in her mind. She couldn't remember their names at first, and over time she didn't know them at all.
She could always remember the home of her childhood. She would often talk about her mom and dad, her brothers and sisters, and the good times they had at home together. Before long, she got concerned about her parents, who had died decades earlier. Ben would catch her gathering up her belongings and heading for the front door. He would ask her where she was going in such a hurry. Every time he asked, she would give the same reply, "I'm going home so I can see Mama and Papa. I need to check on them." She missed her parents, and she longed to see them again. Consequently, nothing would have pleased her more than being able to go home.
For Moses and all of God's people, when we get ready to go home, nothing else really seems to matter. From that perspective, going home doesn't feel like punishment; it's more like a reward.
Something else about God and his relationship with his people comes to light in the story in Deuteronomy 34 that certainly captures our attention. Notice God's remarkable way of taking care of his choice servants. When the time came for Moses to bring his journey to an end, God didn't vanish from the scene. Quite the opposite, God accompanied Moses to the mountain and stayed with him until he took his last breath. Then God buried Moses' body himself somewhere on the mountain.
God's care for Moses on the mountain makes an important statement about him that we don't want to overlook in his relationship with us. The psalmist affirmed that the Lord considers the death of his children to be precious (Psalm 116:15). We wouldn't be surprised to know that God considers our lives to be precious to him. With our lives we serve God, but what value can a dying person have for God? We can no longer serve him, and we can no longer go out and do what he commands. From our perspective, death doesn't have the same value.
The Lord has a different perspective on the death of his children. We matter to God when life surges within us, and he cares about us just as much life leaks out of us. While we live, we enjoy his presence. When we die, we can count on the blessing of his company then as well. He considers us just as precious in dying as he does when living. Whether living or dying, we are precious in God's sight.
Perhaps the care provided by hospice organizations across the country reflects God's attitude about us when we face death. Hospice caregivers work with terminally ill patients and their families as death approaches. Along with providing medical care to the patient as he or she fades away into eternity, they encourage the family members. They teach them how to treat their loved one with care and dignity. They show how death can be understood as something valuable and a person dying as an individual to be honored and not discarded.
As the story in Deuteronomy 34 also shows us, going home involves leaving a legacy. For Moses, the legacy that lived on after him included what people said about him, his death, and his life among them. What they remembered about him spoke volumes about the man he had become in their eyes.
Did Moses set out to leave a legacy of tremendous accomplishment and unflappable trust in God? Probably not. Follow his footsteps in the stories about him in the Bible, and you draw that conclusion that he didn't care that anyone would remember him. He only wanted to served the Lord by accomplishing the task to which he had been assigned.
Like all young pastors, Brian had his heroes. One of them served as the pastor of a church in Brian's hometown. Brian had watched the church grow deep and wide. In other words, the membership increased steadily across the years, and the members grew spiritually so they could carry out some fairly incredible kingdom tasks together.
When Brian heard that his pastor hero had announced his retirement, he asked for an appointment with him. He wanted to spend a little time with the pastor who had mentored him without even knowing it.
Nervous about meeting his bigger-than-life hero, Brian had some questions written on a note pad that he carried with him into the pastor's office. After a few pleasantries, Brian got right to work, asking one question after the next.
He asked one question in particular that triggered an unexpected answer from his mentor pastor. He asked, "What do you want to be remembered for when it's all said and done?"
"I don't want to be remembered for anything."
Shocked by the reply he received, Brian pressed, "Aren't you concerned about your legacy?"
"Absolutely not. I'm just the messenger of the Lord. I don't want to leave a legacy of my own. I only want to please him with my life."
Perhaps that's how Moses might have felt about all the hullabaloo that accompanied his death. The people of Israel who had followed him all of their lives honored him for his investment in them, but he may not have been so impressed with his life. After all, he knew the mistakes he had made, the shortcomings he had to deal with constantly, and the spiritual and organizational frustrations he experienced along the way as he led God's people to the land God had promised them.
The people certainly didn't see his life and his death that way. For an entire month they grieved his loss. As they grieved, they came to the conclusion that God made a sovereign decision to take Moses home. Otherwise he would have still been alive. Although he was 120 years old, they said to each other, he had the vigor and stamina of a much younger man. Apparently God pulled him out of the picture in keeping with what was best for Moses and God's people.
Maybe that's why God wouldn't give anyone a clue as to where he buried Moses. Who knows what they may have done. If they knew where his body was laid to rest, they may have gone to the spot, exhumed the body, and put it in a tomb. Then they would live with the temptation of venerating his body instead of trusting in the Lord as they stepped into their future.
But listen to them as they talked about Moses after he went home. Imagine what they must have said to one another when they brought up the stories about the man who had finished his work so well.
"Do you remember the time Moses got water out the rock? My dad told me the story more than a few times. He said that Moses was so close to God that he was able to do things like God alone could do them."
"I remember well my grandfather telling me about watching Moses part the Red Sea by calling on the name of the Lord. Papa told me more than once that Moses was one of a kind. He always talked about how God kept the waters back while Moses took the people through to safety."
"I was just a kid when I first heard about Moses. My parents had the greatest respect for him. They said that he was one of God's choice servants, and we were lucky to have him as our leader. They never could get over the way Moses seemed to talk with God like friends carry on a conversation with each other. They could never remember a time when Moses didn't change the atmosphere of a room when he entered it."
All of us will go home one day. Through Jesus Christ, we can look forward to it, and we can rest in the assurance of God's presence when our time comes to leave here and go there. After we're gone, the legacy of a life well lived will be passed along when we live in a way that shows our devotion to him. Amen.
