The stumbling blocks of failure should not stop us

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/030720.cfm
Deuteronomy 26:16-19
Matthew 5:43-48

Once again we are faced with directives in scripture that seem familiar to us, and even logical. When we hear where they come from — 3,500 years ago from Moses, and 2,000 years ago from Jesus — we wonder how these things were so shocking at the time. The gift of faith prepares us for God's voice. We can imagine that God himself said these things. 

Modern day Christians, who are all in that is, are used to knowing that God acts in a certain way. We’ve had so much information and teaching on the matter. When we accept that God is who he is, the things that God says begin to fall into place. Plus, vast libraries and commentaries allow us to study who God is and confirm what we're hearing. Not everything is clear to us, but over time we build up a trust that God does speak to us. 

The media and documented support in the years of our ancestors were scant. Their faith, though, surely built upon a daily string of interactions that helped seal their beliefs. On the very day, however, that the directives in today's scirpture were explained we are told that they sounded severe, odd, and probably dangerous to those who were to follow them. 

Moses lived in 1,400 BC. We read about he and his nomadic people, forced to travel for 40 years in a circuitous route of a desert. They heard these words of God for the first time in the middle of sand. They were a poorly treated people. God had a captive audience.

From the text in Deuteronomy, we hear Moses passed on to his people  an agreement between God and the Hebrews. They already had a long history as a collection of tribes by this time. From Abraham to Jacob's sons the 12 tribes had been formed by God. Their collective name was Israel.  In this agreement made by Moses the people were to “walk in [God’s] ways,” and to “hearken to his voice.” If they did this for God, then they would be rewarded “above all other nations.” Among all the nations that God had already made they were to be first.

“… and you will be a people sacred to the LORD, your God, as he promised.”
(Deuteronomy 26:19)

This agreement, complete with expectations in what they should do, are known to us because as Christians have been raised on these biblical directives. Our religious culture in the United States, indeed the Western philosophies of the last several hundred years, have incorporated the ancient history of the Hebrew people. They later became a remnant largely made up of the Tribe of Judah, now called the Jews. We have heard many times that to follow in God's ways, and to heed his voice they would be sacred to God. As we know, they didn't maintain that intimate relationship. Over time, their featly to God disintegrated.

Christians also have heard the New Testament directive by Jesus, provided to us from Matthew. “But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.” If we do this, if we pray for those who mean us harm, then we too have a promise.

“… that you may be children of your heavenly Father.”
(Matthew 5:45)

Over time, Christians have also faded in their fealty. We sometimes realize that we're the same faulty believers that the Jews eventually became. The shift from a sacred people (Hebrews) to children of our heavenly Father (Christians) don't really seem that far off. Both have a holy marker to them. We're used to these words, too. In fact, we don't really separate them into two covenants. They follow one after the other. We understand God as Trinity from the first days of our conversion. The Jewish nation thought of God as one, but not in a Trinitarian way. The development of one promise (sacred) into another (children of God) took place only because of the expected Messiah becoming an unexpected person of God. We see the progression. The Jews did not.

The scriptural promises are not so easily remembered. We mostly concentrate only on the directives, the to-do's. Follow God’s ways, and hearken to his voice. Love your enemies. That’s usually as far as we get. These directives are hard and soak up our focus. The promise of being a sacred people and children of our heavenly Father are wonderful, yet untouchable. The expectation of being holy in our ways and loving in our relationships, even to our enemies, sound good, but who could do it? I think the difficulty is a subconscious one. We don't think we're going to measure up, because we haven't. 

Pray for our enemies. Love people who don’t like us. Greet strangers as if they were our brothers and sisters. The Jews weren't that successful in their day. Neither are we. The consequences for our eternal life seem assuredly in jeapordy. But that is not so. 

Because most of us never get beyond hearing about the difficult directives we doubt our worthiness. We suffer over the practical consequences of giving up our judgment of others and dropping our guard in the face of strangers. Jesus, however, is quite clear that we are forgiven, even in our necessary continual repentance. Our fear of failure should not keep us from walking in God's ways and hearing his voice. 

When we review the lives of the Jewish people we see failure. Their ancestors constantly failed, too. Many of the Jewish people, however, were faithful. At any one time faithfulness probably took place more often than not. This is not to say that we are forgiven without repentence. We still must operate from the directives, even as, and maybe especially as, we fail to live by them.

The Jewish nation was to be a beacon on a hill, and a witness to God’s power and love for his people. We Christians are in the same situation. We are to be a witness of God’s power and love, lighting up the world by not judging but praying for those who seek to do us harm.

Jesus’ words are encouragement revealed to us in a partnership that we have with God. We are a sacred people as his Church, and can rely upon an intimacy with God as his children.