Reformation Sunday
Preaching
Preaching and Reading the Old Testament Lessons
With an Eye to the New
Israel has been encamped at Shittim in the territory of Moab on the Eastern side of the Jordan River opposite Jericho. Now they prepare to cross over the river and to enter into the promised land, in fulfillment of God's promise to them. Moses has died and Joshua is now the leader.
The stories that we have in Joshua 3--5 somewhat parallel the accounts that we had of Moses, with the miraculous crossing of the water, the circumcision of the people, and the celebration of the passover. Joshua 5:4--7 tells why the repetition of the events is necessary. The first generation of Israelites that came out of Egypt, with the exception of Joshua and Caleb, died in the wilderness because of their sin against the Lord. Now their children, in the second generation, must experience the mighty acts of God as the basis of their faith.
The biblical faith must be handed down from generation to generation. Earlier in the Bible, Deuteronomy emphasizes the necessity of teaching our children what God has done. In Joshua, those children, now grown, must experience God's deeds for themselves, and so it always is. We must teach our children about the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But the marvelous fact is that when we tell about Christ and worship him, the story of our Lord remains not only a past event for our offspring, but becomes present reality for them. They experience for themselves the forgiveness, the new life, and the certain hope of the resurrection given in Christ. They can therefore live, not only on the basis of their parents' faith, but on the basis of their own experience of the facts of that faith.
In our text, the ark of the covenant once again becomes important in the story. Exodus 25:10--22 detailed the construction of the ark on Mount Sinai and is the only description we have of it. It was a rectangular box about 50 x 30 x 30 inches in size, overlaid in gold. It had rings on its corners with poles through the rings, so the ark could be carried. On top was a slab of gold called the "mercy seat," and at each end of the mercy seat, facing one another, was a cherub with outspread wings. Most important, however, the ark was considered to be the base of the throne of the Lord, who was enthroned invisibly above it (1 Samuel 4:4). Therefore, where the ark was, the Lord was present, and there Moses could meet with God to receive his commandments for the people (Exodus 25:22). When in our text Joshua commands the priests to carry the ark into the ford of the Jordan, the thought is that God is entering the water ahead of the people, and it is God who causes the waters to gather in a heap so the people may cross over on dry land, just as it was God who rolled back the waters of the Reed Sea at the time of the exodus. This is God's majestic working over the forces of nature. Indeed, God's command of the waters is the sign to the Israelites that their Lord is among them (v. 10).
Certainly throughout the scriptures, God's working in the natural world is a testimony to the power of God, as it should be a testimony also to us. The God who raised up the Rocky Mountains and who ignited the sun has unimaginable might. But we should note carefully: the God of the Bible is not in nature or identified with it. Rather, he is Lord over nature and can do with it what he will. And that serves as an assurance to the Israelites in our text that God has the power also to defeat the enemies whom they will meet in the promised land (v. 10). He is Lord not only of nature but also of nations.
If we did not have the biblical accounts of God's working in the history of Israel and supremely, in Jesus Christ, however, we would never correctly read the testimony to him in the world of nature. We would turn him into a nature god, as many have done, or believe him only a God of power. And we would never know him above all as a God of love. But pure, undefiled, merciful love he is, and so in our text, he leads his covenant people safely across the Jordan and into the land that he has promised them.
Lutheran Option: Jeremiah 31:31--34
Our text for this Reformation Sunday in our church year is Jeremiah's famous announcement of God's promise of a new covenant with a new, reunited Israel and Judah. The time is 588 B.C. when Jeremiah delivers this promise. Jerusalem is under siege by the armies of the Babylonian Empire. Her surrounding territory has been lost, just as the ten northern tribes were much earlier lost to Assyria. The situation within the city's walls is desperate, with rationing of food and water. Shortly the walls will be breached, the temple will be destroyed, the city ravaged, and all but the poorest peasants will be carried into Babylonian exile. All will take place as God's punishment for Judah's idolatry and injustice and forgetfulness of her covenant with her Lord. In the holocaust of exile, God will deal with Israel's sin against him.
Judgment, however, is never God's last word. Into the midst of Israel's desperate situation, God injects his word by the mouth of his prophet. There will come a time, the Lord promises, when he will restore the whole of Israel and make with her a new covenant. Israel broke the Sinai covenant, despite God's tender love toward her through all her history. But God will reestablish a new relationship with his people by writing the words of a new covenant on her heart. Once again God will be Israel's God, and she will be his people (the covenant formula), willingly following his commandments and trusting him from the depths of her heart. All will know him and obey him willingly, and all their past sin will be forgiven in the joyful new relationship with their God.
As is the case throughout the Bible, new life and communion with God involves the transformation of human hearts. Our sinfulness starts within our hearts and festers there and breaks forth in corruption of the life of neighborhoods and societies and nations. To be God's faithful people, we must be made new from the inside out, so that we freely and joyfully follow God's ways and not our own. And sadly, we cannot work that transformation by ourselves. Our wills to new life are too feeble, our satisfactions with our old life too deep, our selfishness and pride too persistent to lead us to purify our thoughts and actions. Only God can recreate us and make us good. And the promise of this text is that God will do so, not only for Israel, but for all of us.
The question then is: Did God ever keep his promise? Did he in fact make a new covenant with us sinners? Did he give us the possibility of goodness and righteousness, of love and joy and peace with him and our neighbors? The answer is an unqualified "Yes." When Jesus Christ reclined at table on the night he was betrayed, after he had given the bread symbolizing his death for our sins on his cross, he also took the cup, and when he had blessed it, he gave it to his disciples and said, "This is the new covenant in my blood. All of you, drink of it." And then he sealed that covenant with his cross and resurrection.
More than that, after his ascension to the right hand of the Father, Christ poured into our hearts his Spirit, and by that Spirit, writes Paul, all of us are being transformed into Christ's likeness (2 Corinthians 3:18), so that we can love as he loves, obey as he obeys, trust as he trusts, serve as he serves. "If anyone is in Christ, he (or she) is a new creation" (2 Corinthians 5:17). The new life of the new covenant is given us by our Lord, by his Spirit dwelling in us and making us new.
The stories that we have in Joshua 3--5 somewhat parallel the accounts that we had of Moses, with the miraculous crossing of the water, the circumcision of the people, and the celebration of the passover. Joshua 5:4--7 tells why the repetition of the events is necessary. The first generation of Israelites that came out of Egypt, with the exception of Joshua and Caleb, died in the wilderness because of their sin against the Lord. Now their children, in the second generation, must experience the mighty acts of God as the basis of their faith.
The biblical faith must be handed down from generation to generation. Earlier in the Bible, Deuteronomy emphasizes the necessity of teaching our children what God has done. In Joshua, those children, now grown, must experience God's deeds for themselves, and so it always is. We must teach our children about the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But the marvelous fact is that when we tell about Christ and worship him, the story of our Lord remains not only a past event for our offspring, but becomes present reality for them. They experience for themselves the forgiveness, the new life, and the certain hope of the resurrection given in Christ. They can therefore live, not only on the basis of their parents' faith, but on the basis of their own experience of the facts of that faith.
In our text, the ark of the covenant once again becomes important in the story. Exodus 25:10--22 detailed the construction of the ark on Mount Sinai and is the only description we have of it. It was a rectangular box about 50 x 30 x 30 inches in size, overlaid in gold. It had rings on its corners with poles through the rings, so the ark could be carried. On top was a slab of gold called the "mercy seat," and at each end of the mercy seat, facing one another, was a cherub with outspread wings. Most important, however, the ark was considered to be the base of the throne of the Lord, who was enthroned invisibly above it (1 Samuel 4:4). Therefore, where the ark was, the Lord was present, and there Moses could meet with God to receive his commandments for the people (Exodus 25:22). When in our text Joshua commands the priests to carry the ark into the ford of the Jordan, the thought is that God is entering the water ahead of the people, and it is God who causes the waters to gather in a heap so the people may cross over on dry land, just as it was God who rolled back the waters of the Reed Sea at the time of the exodus. This is God's majestic working over the forces of nature. Indeed, God's command of the waters is the sign to the Israelites that their Lord is among them (v. 10).
Certainly throughout the scriptures, God's working in the natural world is a testimony to the power of God, as it should be a testimony also to us. The God who raised up the Rocky Mountains and who ignited the sun has unimaginable might. But we should note carefully: the God of the Bible is not in nature or identified with it. Rather, he is Lord over nature and can do with it what he will. And that serves as an assurance to the Israelites in our text that God has the power also to defeat the enemies whom they will meet in the promised land (v. 10). He is Lord not only of nature but also of nations.
If we did not have the biblical accounts of God's working in the history of Israel and supremely, in Jesus Christ, however, we would never correctly read the testimony to him in the world of nature. We would turn him into a nature god, as many have done, or believe him only a God of power. And we would never know him above all as a God of love. But pure, undefiled, merciful love he is, and so in our text, he leads his covenant people safely across the Jordan and into the land that he has promised them.
Lutheran Option: Jeremiah 31:31--34
Our text for this Reformation Sunday in our church year is Jeremiah's famous announcement of God's promise of a new covenant with a new, reunited Israel and Judah. The time is 588 B.C. when Jeremiah delivers this promise. Jerusalem is under siege by the armies of the Babylonian Empire. Her surrounding territory has been lost, just as the ten northern tribes were much earlier lost to Assyria. The situation within the city's walls is desperate, with rationing of food and water. Shortly the walls will be breached, the temple will be destroyed, the city ravaged, and all but the poorest peasants will be carried into Babylonian exile. All will take place as God's punishment for Judah's idolatry and injustice and forgetfulness of her covenant with her Lord. In the holocaust of exile, God will deal with Israel's sin against him.
Judgment, however, is never God's last word. Into the midst of Israel's desperate situation, God injects his word by the mouth of his prophet. There will come a time, the Lord promises, when he will restore the whole of Israel and make with her a new covenant. Israel broke the Sinai covenant, despite God's tender love toward her through all her history. But God will reestablish a new relationship with his people by writing the words of a new covenant on her heart. Once again God will be Israel's God, and she will be his people (the covenant formula), willingly following his commandments and trusting him from the depths of her heart. All will know him and obey him willingly, and all their past sin will be forgiven in the joyful new relationship with their God.
As is the case throughout the Bible, new life and communion with God involves the transformation of human hearts. Our sinfulness starts within our hearts and festers there and breaks forth in corruption of the life of neighborhoods and societies and nations. To be God's faithful people, we must be made new from the inside out, so that we freely and joyfully follow God's ways and not our own. And sadly, we cannot work that transformation by ourselves. Our wills to new life are too feeble, our satisfactions with our old life too deep, our selfishness and pride too persistent to lead us to purify our thoughts and actions. Only God can recreate us and make us good. And the promise of this text is that God will do so, not only for Israel, but for all of us.
The question then is: Did God ever keep his promise? Did he in fact make a new covenant with us sinners? Did he give us the possibility of goodness and righteousness, of love and joy and peace with him and our neighbors? The answer is an unqualified "Yes." When Jesus Christ reclined at table on the night he was betrayed, after he had given the bread symbolizing his death for our sins on his cross, he also took the cup, and when he had blessed it, he gave it to his disciples and said, "This is the new covenant in my blood. All of you, drink of it." And then he sealed that covenant with his cross and resurrection.
More than that, after his ascension to the right hand of the Father, Christ poured into our hearts his Spirit, and by that Spirit, writes Paul, all of us are being transformed into Christ's likeness (2 Corinthians 3:18), so that we can love as he loves, obey as he obeys, trust as he trusts, serve as he serves. "If anyone is in Christ, he (or she) is a new creation" (2 Corinthians 5:17). The new life of the new covenant is given us by our Lord, by his Spirit dwelling in us and making us new.
