Sermon

Sermon # 1043
May 29, 2011
Deuteronomy 8:1-20
Dr. Ed Pettus

“Remembrance and Gratitude”

This weekend our nation recognizes Memorial Day, a day to remember those who have given their lives for the sake of country, freedom, and all that serving one’s country means as well as all that serving God means. Remembering those who have given their lives is crucial to the on-going life of our country. When we forget those who have died, we also forget why we are who we are as Americans. We forget the blessings of freedom and service and hope. Memorial Day is a day to remember and to give thanks.
For Christians, Memorial Day can also be a reminder that God calls us to remember and give thanks. As the people God delivered out of Egypt were about to cross the Jordan River into the promised land, Moses reiterated the importance of keeping commandment and remembering their deliverance. Moses tells the people that they must diligently observe the commandments. The commandments are crucial to their very existence. These first ten verses of Deuteronomy eight acknowledge the providential care of God during their forty years in the wilderness. The danger is that the people might forget that God cared for them. The message is that they are to remember: “Remember the long way that the Lord your God has lead you these forty years” (8:2).

The memory is one of lessons learned: a memory of humility, testing, dependence upon God, so that they would learn “That one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that come from the mouth of God” (8:3). Ultimately Israel was to come to understand that they were dependent upon God for their daily bread, for their daily existence, and that life is not sustained just by bread and water, but by God’s very word. In this word is our life. We can eat all the bread we want everyday, but if we are not “eating” of God’s word we will be malnourished in spirit. The prophet Jeremiah said, “Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart” (15:16). It is in God’s word where we find joy and delight.

These people have wandered for forty years in the wilderness learning the lessons that will sustain them for the rest of their life as they prepare to enter into a new land. This land will not be like Egypt where they had lived as slaves. This land will not be like the wilderness where they were fed manna daily – not too much, not too little. This land is a land of abundance: A land with flowing streams, a land with springs and under ground waters, a land of wheat, barley, vines, figs, pomegranates, olive trees, honey – a land without scarcity – without the scarcity of the wilderness. This land will have more than enough water, food, and things like iron and copper. Verse ten concludes with: “You shall eat your fill and bless the Lord you God for the good land that he has given you.”

This could easily be a metaphor for our life. When we come to know Christ as Lord and Savior we are no longer subject to the wilderness of sin and bondage, but set free to a “promised land” of abundance.

We eat our fill most of the time, that is, when we are not over eating beyond full! And we are called to bless the Lord for the gifts of food and goods and home and money – for it is God who has given us the good life, just as God had given Israel the good land.

Deuteronomy 8:11-20 then takes on virtually the same themes but with more of a warning for Israel. Once Israel enters the land, eats its fill, builds its homes, multiplies its goods and livestock – then Israel will have a new temptation they had not encountered before. “When you have eaten your fill…when your herds and flocks have multiplied…then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God” (8:12-14). “Do not say to yourself, ‘My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth’” (8:17). The temptation in a land of abundance is to forget God! The temptation in a land of plenty is to forget – to forget soldiers who gave their lives, to forget God who blesses us, to forget God’s Word that brings joy and delight. The temptation is to believe that we have gotten what we have by our own means, by our own power and work and resources. Moses reminds Israel and us: “But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors” (8:18). The warning to Israel is if they forget God and follow others gods they would surely perish. There are no guarantees that they will continue to be forgiven, but the covenant is conditional, dependent upon Israel’s willingness to learn from the wilderness lessons – to depend on God, to humble themselves, and to understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
We do not live by our power alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
We do not live by our material wealth alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
We do not live by our wits alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
You get the message.

Our gratitude comes from remembering that all we have is from God. In the scarce times of the wilderness or in the abundance of the promised land – we are grateful. The temptation is to believe that we did it ourselves: we acquired our wealth, our homes, our cars, our abilities and skills all by ourselves. The call to remember keeps us along the right way of commandment, of story telling, discipline, and proper perspective. Therefore, we practice a lifetime of gratitude, for gratitude reminds us of the lessons learned in the wilderness, in our own lean times of life. We are dependent on God in good times and in bad. The words “thank you” imply that someone else has done something for us. An affluent society has trouble remembering that.

I’ve worked with teens from wealthy families and teens from poor families, and those from poverty were the most receptive to hearing the gospel because they were in the wilderness. Those who had all they needed and more did not think the gospel had anything to say to them. They had no need for a savior – they had no need for anything. That is the temptation of abundance and wealth, to think you have done it all yourself and you have no need, no dependence on God, no need for God’s word.

I think that is why Jesus spoke about the difficulty of a rich person getting into the kingdom of heaven. One lesson from Deuteronomy eight is that riches often bring amnesia. You know how it is when someone becomes famous or wealthy quickly – their friends tell them: “Don’t forget where you come from.” Riches are not the problem, but when we say that we are the source of those riches, when we forget God, we forget where we have come from. That is why it is hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven, because riches tempt us to forget where the riches really came from – from God. Riches are not the problem, after all, God gave Israel great riches in the promised land: flowing stream, wheat, barely, vines, figs, and land where they would lack nothing! As long as we remember that such blessings are from God and we use those blessings in gratitude to God, God will indeed continue to bless. That’s the good news.


Israel was reminded to practice a lifetime of gratitude and remembrance.
A lifetime of gratitude is the continuing discipline of memory - overcoming our amnesia.
A lifetime of gratitude is the continuing dependence on God - overcoming autonomy as a way of life.
Gratitude is demonstrated in obedience to every word that comes from the mouth of God. Giving thanks through material means, visual, quantifiable means that show our gratitude. But even the material marks of gratitude are spiritual in nature. They are spiritual because God gives everything we have. Nothing we own is outside of God’s provision and being connected to God makes all the gifts we own and share and give and acquire, visible expressions of spirituality and gratitude.

Today we give thanks for this memory of abundance, for these words from God, and particularly on this weekend, for those who gave given their lives for the sake of liberty. So, we express our gratitude and remember! Remember. It is the message of Memorial Day; it is the message of God’s word. Remember and give thanks. Amen.