Word to the Wise
Saturday, February 16, 2008 - Saturday in the First Week of Lent
[Deuteronomy 26:16-19 and Matthew 5:43-48]Today you are making this agreement with the Lord: he is to be your God and you are to walk in his ways and observe his statutes, commandments and decrees, and to hearken to his voice. And today the Lord is making this agreement with you. you are to be a people peculiarly his own, as he promised you; and provided you keep al his commandments, he will then raise you high in praise and renown and glory.....and you will be a people sacred to the Lord.
What kind of a deal is this? Is it familiar? Is this the "covenant" we each have with God? We do what God wants and God takes care of us? It certainly seems familiar to me. Deuteronomy represents a period in the history of the Chosen People when they were trying to reform their entire religious lives by returning to the original covenant and leaving behind the "gods" of the surrounding cultures. This "reform" element can be missed simply by reading the text as given for today. There is a process at work that should be kept in mind. There is first a conversion and then a covenant! Simply put, there's no point in trying to make a covenant with God if we aren't ready to change our way of living. Otherwise why bother to get in contact with God at all? If we want to leave our former way of life behind as having been a dead end and we want God's help, we have to understand that this means doing what God asks of us. There's an old story about a mountain climber who is foolish enough to climb a sheer cliff face by himself. He gets nearly to the top when he loses his grip and at the last minute grabs hold to a small bush growing out of the face of the cliff. There he hangs between the top which is near and the bottom which is far below him. So he yells at the top, "Is there anyone up there who can help me?" Silence. Again, "IS THERE ANYONE UP THERE WHO CAN HELP ME?" A voice says, "I CAN HELP YOU!" The climber cries: "GREAT! Who are you?" Reply: "I AM GOD!" Climber: "WONDERFUL! WILL YOU HELP ME?" God: "I WILL HELP YOU BUT YOU MUST DO EXACTLY AS I SAY!" Climber: "ANYTHING! JUST GET ME OUT OF THIS!" God: "LET GO OF THE BUSH!" Silence....... Climber: IS THERE ANYONE ELSE UP THERE WHO CAN HELP ME?" Nope! There's nobody else. AMEN
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