Deuteronomy 11:18-21, 26-28, Romans 3:21-25a, 28, Matthew 7:21-27, Psalm 31

 My brothers and sisters in Christ, pray for me, that the words that I say may be the words that God wants us to hear.

 The themes in today’s readings stress to us the importance of the quality of the relationship we have with God, and how we live our lives as a reflection of that relationship.

 The Old Testament lesson is from Deuteronomy. This book of the bible presents itself as an address by Moses to the Israelites, just before they cross the Jordan to enter the promised land. Scholars believe this book was written much later than the time of Moses as a way for the teachings of Moses to confront the social crisis of that time, a time when people were more interested in being powerful, wealthy, and secure than in caring for the poor or following the commandments.  In this passage we hear the voice of Moses telling us to live the commandments he is giving us, so that God’s providence will cause abundance in the land. The commandments, especially the commandment to Love the Lord Your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength, is to be incorporated into your heart, and soul, and life.

 Ways of remembering these commandments are to be incorporated into your daily life. You wear them, fixed upon your forehead and bound upon your hand. You mark all your doors and gates with reminders of them. You tell your children about them, not just on special occasions or holidays, but every night when you lie down and every morning when you get up. You talk about them when you are at home and when you are away from home. You are to be absolutely steeped in them.

 Moses says if you choose to live a life obedient to God, you will be blessed. This makes a lot of sense to me. Living in such a way that you love God with all your heart, you mind, your soul, and your strength, putting God before everything else, would be a blessed life indeed.

 Moses also says that if you choose not to obey the commandments, but make other things more important, basically turning to other “Gods”, you choose “the curse”. I don’t know about you, but something about this makes me uncomfortable. Does this mean that if you don’t do everything Moses commanded you, the whole law, God isn’t going to love you anymore?

 Well, we have to remember that Moses gave the law to the people of Israel, and to him following the law was more important than anything. But we are from a different time, and have known a different kind of faith…the faith that comes through the reconciling acts of Jesus.

 This brings us to today’s Epistle. Paul is writing to the church in Rome, which contained Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians. They were trying to hash out just how to live together, and how are they to relate to God. The Jewish Christians believed in Jesus, but had always followed the commandments of Moses. The Gentile Christians didn’t see any reason to observe Jewish customs, since their relationship with God was based solely on faith in Jesus. Paul is saying that neither group has the advantage before God. All have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God. Their justification before God does not come from the works prescribed by the law. It comes as a free gift of grace from God, through the redemptive acts of Jesus. All that is needed is faith in Jesus to be justified before God.

 Which brings us to today’s Gospel, which starts with Jesus telling us that “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord Lord’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only those who do the will of God.  He goes on to point out some other things that will not get you into heaven, in and of themselves: prophesy, casting out demons, deeds of power…done in the name of Jesus. These sound like pretty important, Godly things to me. What gives?

 First of all, let’s look at this passage in context. Jesus is just finishing the sermon on the mount. In the passage right before this one, he is talking about false prophets. He says you will know them by their fruits. Just as a bad tree doesn’t bear good fruit, a false prophet won’t bear true, good fruit. You will be able to tell whether what they say comes from a true gift of God, or whether it is from a need to be in control, on center stage, wielding power. You will know them by their fruits.

 So here, Jesus is warning us against hypocrisy. He insists that, when deeds are done in his name, appearance, intent, and action must correspond.

 I would like to read this same passage to you from “The Message //Remix, the bible in contemporary language, by Eugene Peterson. He paraphrases from the Greek texts in order to give modern expression to ancient texts. This is the way he puts this passage: (Jesus is speaking here, and he says)

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“Knowing the correct password—saying ‘Master, Master’ for instance—isn’t going to get you anywhere with me. What is required is serious obedience—doing what my Father wills. I can see it now—at the Final Judgment thousands strutting up to me and saying, ‘Master, we preached the Message, we bashed the demons, our God-sponsored projects had everyone talking’ and do you know what I am going to say? ’You missed the boat. All you did was use me to make yourselves important. You don’t impress me one bit. You’re out of here’.

 These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock. But if you just use my words in bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards.”

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 So, we have it from Moses and from Jesus. Your faith can’t be a matter of mere words. You can and should study the word of God, that is a good thing to do. If you want to do some homework today, you might go home and read Matthew, chapters 5 through 7, which is the whole sermon on the mount. You can spend a couple of hours listening to Jesus and thinking about what he is saying to you.  But you must also stick what he says into your life…use reminders and symbols and holy habits, not to show others how faithful you are, but to remind YOU who you are and to whom you belong. Weave reminders into every aspect of your life to help you remember. Work those words of Jesus into your life, share them with the people you care about, and use them to bring Jesus into your relationships with others. And don’t forget to teach your children about God’s love for them, and about how much God wants a loving relationship with them, too.