Cascades Fellowship
Deuteronomy 6:20-25
A Family History: This Is Who We Are
Rachel and I have a tradition we follow every time we go back to the hills of West Virginia. We like to take a little time out of each visit to go and pray with my grandmother. When my grandfather was alive, he and grandma prayed together every night before going to bed, so she enjoys having someone to pray with her. Rach and I will go and spend a while talking to her and then as we prepare to leave, we pray with grandma.
During one Christmas break, we went to visit and began talking to her about the good ol’ days. I had never learned much about my family history because as I was growing up, my family always lived away from West Virginia. Dad was in the military so we only visited during the summer. But that evening, Grandma drug out this old folder bulging with papers. In it were handwritten pages, some with grandma’s hand-writing, some with others, full of the names and dates of my ancestors. There were birth and death notices, short little blurbs about major events in the family and the name of the original five brothers who left Lanham, Maryland in the early 1800’s to settle in Appalachia. I also heard about my maternal great, great, great grandfather, William "the Pioneer" Currence, who married Lydia Steele in Philadelphia and after having ten kids, moved to the Tygart Valley in West Virginia. He built the first mill in the area and Fort Currence. Shortly after finishing all this, he was killed in an Indian raid.
I was so fascinated by all the stories and names and dates. They gave me a connection to the past -- to all the fish that swam in my gene pool. I began to get a sense of who I was, where I came from and what sort of heritage I had.
Now, I realize, that for you this history is nonsense. It may be interesting, but it has no real connecting point with your life. It doesn’t speak about Jackson or Cascades Fellowship or even the Christian Reformed Church. But to me, this information is priceless. You know why? Because it’s my story. It tells me who I am and how I came to be. Without these stories, I don’t exist.
In the same way, Israel does not exist without her stories. Our passage this morning concentrates on the story of Israel. It tells us a little bit about who she is and how she came to be. In working through our passage this morning, we’re going to look first at the history behind the passage. The second thing we will look at is why telling the story is important. Finally, we will talk about how we should hear the story today.
To understand what is happening at this point in the story of Israel, we must remember at what point they are in their journey toward the land -- where they are in the exodus from Egypt. By this time in the story, the first generation of Israelites to come out of Egypt have died. Only Moses, Joshua, and Caleb remain from that first generation. So the people addressed here by Moses are ones who never tasted the slavery of Egypt. Sure they have heard the stories and the promises, but they were not around to see the plagues destroy Pharaoh and Egypt. They did not walk across the dry bed of the Red Sea or see the cloud settle on Mount Sinai where God met with Israel and delivered the Ten Commandments. So for them, the sting their parents felt when God turned them away at the Jordan for their disobedience and lack of faith is but the dull ache of a long journey. This generation is part of the second exodus -- the second wandering through the wilderness. And their wanderings are about to come to end. As the nation of Israel approaches the boundary of the promised-land for the second time, Moses is busy preparing them. In chapter five, he gives the Israelites the Ten Commandments again. He reminds them of the covenant God made with them at Sinai. Now in chapter six he tells them why it is important to pay attention to the things he is telling them. Look at v. 3.
Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, promised you.
Note how Moses names God. "The God of your fathers." He’s making a statement here. He’s pointing Israel back to her history. He wants her to see that the God who led Abraham out of Ur is the same one who led their parents out of Egypt and is the same one who is leading them into the promised-land. Now why do you suppose this is so important? Take a look at vv. 20-25.
In the future, when your son asks you "What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the Lord our God has commanded you?" tell him: "We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Before our eyes the Lord sent miraculous signs and wonders -- great and terrible -- upon Egypt and Pharaoh and his whole household. But he brought us out from there to bring us in and give us the land he promised on oath to our forefathers. The Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the Lord our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive as is the case today. And if we are careful to obey all this law before the Lord our God, as he commanded us, that will be our righteousness.
Notice how the father begins his answer to the son’s question in v.20. "We were slaves in Egypt.…" What’s he doing? Why is he answering the child with a history lesson? Well, what he is doing has to do with the way covenants were formed in the Ancient Near East. You see, in the Near East at that time when a king or royal figure made a covenant with a vassal or servant, the covenant began with a narration of the kindness the king has shown toward his vassal -- a rehearsal of his mighty and kind acts in the history of their relationship. These acts of kindness were recited to inspire allegiance and gratitude in the vassal. God is the mighty King and Israel is his vassal. So what the father is doing here, is rather than simply saying "Out of gratitude," or "Because he is God and he says we must," the father rehearses the terms of the covenant God has made with Israel at Sinai. In doing so, he is helping the child recognize that he has a part in the covenant and is leading him to think of his obedience as gratitude.
Now, while that explains what the father is doing, it doesn’t completely explain why God wants a parent to answer in this way. Why it is so important? To understand this a bit better, I want to look at Genesis 15, when God made his covenant with Abraham. Notice how God identifies himself in v.7 of that chapter. "I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you the land to take possession of it." Now, look over in Exodus 3 v. 6 when God is speaking to Moses. "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Again in Exodus 20 at the giving of the Ten Commandments, v.2 "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery." And again, looking at Deuteronomy 6:3 when God is referred to as "the God of your fathers."
In each of these cases, God identifies himself or is identified not so much by name, but by what he has done in the past. The knowledge of God is revealed through the experience of his acts of kindness in history. We come to know God by seeing what he has done in our past. So, to know God one must look at the history of redemption -- all of the history of redemption -- and see what God has done.
So why is it important to tell the story? Because it tells us two things. The first and most important thing that it tells us is about the God that we serve. Unless we remember what God has done for us previously, we will have no idea about who we worship. When someone asks you "How do you know God exists?" What do you tell them? Because this is what God has done for me. What do you tell your kids when they ask why church is more important than sleep on Sunday? Or why you read the Bible each night after dinner as a family? You talk about their baptism as a sign of their part in the people of God and the promises you made to do all you could to make sure they grow up knowing who he is.
Do you see what is happening here? Even in our sacraments we are rehearsing our covenant with God. How? By retelling the story of how God included us in the covenant.
Believe it or not, one of my favorite Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes has a scene in it that illustrates this point exactly. The scene portrays a discussion between an elder and a child. They were Klingons. For those who are not trekkies and don’t know what a Klingon is, it is an advanced culture of war-like people who hold traditions sacred even as they seek to advance technologically. Understand, however, that their first loyalty belongs to the tradition, not progress.
At any rate, the elder Klingon was reciting one of the stories of his people when the child became bored saying he had heard it all before. The elder’s response revealed his passion. He began to tell the child how important the stories were because they forged the identity of a Klingon. Everything that a Klingon believed about himself, his family, his race, and his planet found its core in the stories they told to one another. The stories were important because they told a Klingon who he was. Without the stories, no Klingon exists.
That is the second reason why telling the story is important. Without the stories we don’t exist. They tell us who we are by outlining for us our relationship with God. The stories reveal God’s gracious disposition toward his people. They reveal that unless God does great things, Israel – the church – cannot exist.
You see, telling the story is so important because without it the people of God do not exist. We need our stories to know our God. We need to know our God to know ourselves. How can we be the covenant people of God unless we know who we are in covenant with? And the only way to know is to do what the father does in vv. 21-25 -- rehearse the terms of the covenant.
Before I move on to talking about how we are to hear the story today, I want stop for a moment and pick up this idea about the sacraments retelling the story. Last Sunday, we celebrated the Lord’s Supper. I want us to stop and think for a moment about what we are actually happened as we celebrated Communion. We rehearsed the story of Christ’s death. We retold the story of Calvary as the defining moment of the church. The church exists because the Cross happened. Without it, without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins, there is no resurrection -- there is no church. Don’t miss that. If you take away the cross, you take away the church. You see, celebrating the Lord’s Supper is so much more than just remembering that Christ died for your sins. It is remembering who we are. It is remembering that with his blood Christ purchased a people for God -- a peculiar people, a nation of priest. It is the retelling of how God in Christ made us one Body, who has one Lord, through one baptism, to the glory of one God and Father of all. It is retelling the gracious acts of God in Christ for his people.
As you know from my introduction, William "the Pioneer" Currence was significant figure in my family history. But for you, he is at best a curiosity. He has no organic connection to your past. But there is a story we share -- an organic connection between us. We have a past together that extends throughout history and pre-history. A part of that history is retold for us in our passage this morning. "We were slaves of Pharaoh...."
Look again at verse v.21. How is the father to begin his answer? "We!" He does not say -- "Well, my mom and dad were slaves in Egypt under Pharaoh, and God came and rescued them, so we now worship God because of what he did for our parents." To say that would have been to distance himself from the covenant. To distance himself from God.
Instead, when Israel retold the Exodus story, she was to proclaim her deliverance in the language of first person. "We." Even though the person saying "we" was not even born during the time when they left Egypt, he was yet to understand himself as having a part in it. They understood God’s acts of kindness in the history of their people as acts of kindness done for them personally. In other words, God’s deliverance was for them as well as their parents and grandparents.
Just as Israel then was to hear the story first person -- as if she actively participated -- so Israel today. We, the church, are to remember the Exodus as if we walked across the Red Sea between the towering walls of water. That’s our story -- our family history, it is who we are. When we read the Exodus story -- when we talk about the plagues that swept over Egypt -- we should be saying that God led us up out of Egypt with a mighty hand, with many miraculous signs and wonders to bring us into the land.
Similarly, when we hear the words of the institution of the Supper "This is my body, given for you...." we should hear these words as if Christ himself were speaking them to us. As we take the bread and the cup we should have all the giddy feelings of the disciples realizing that we are getting in on the ground floor of a great movement of God. People God hear me and rejoice. When you take the bread and cup you are participating with all the saints down through the ages in inaugurating the New Covenant. At that moment you stand at the pinnacle of redemption and you are witnesses -- you profess its reality -- by eating and drinking. It is as if you are shouting loud and clear -- Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again. You are rehearsing our story.
Our lives are shaped and governed -- or at least should be -- by an over-arching narrative. It is the story of redemption -- of Israel. Like Paul in Philippians 3, let me remind you that your citizenship is in heaven. You belong to Israel. That is your story, your heritage. It does not matter whether you are white, black, red, brown, purple green, Dutch, German, African, Egyptian, Jewish, English, Irish -- whatever. The day you professed Christ as Lord, you became a citizen of the New Jerusalem. And the story of that city is now your story. A story that you share with believers all over the world and through all times -- a story which should govern the way you think and act.
When we hear the story the way we should, it changes us. It shapes our responses. The Heidleberg Catechism is separated into three sections -- sin, salvation, service. What the writers of the catechism understood -- and what is reflected in the answer the father gives the son -- is the recognition that when we hear the story, claim it as our own, our hearts should be so filled with gratitude that we feel obliged to obey what God has commanded us.
Let me ask you one last question. Why is the response of gratitude so important to our story? Because that’s how Deuteronomy 6 says we should respond? Well, sort of. What is Israel? A nation of priests? Yes. But she is also to be a blessing to the nations -- remember the promises made to Abraham in Genesis 12. All the nations will be blessed through you. The nature of Israel is to be a blessing to all those around her. She is to live a life of gratitude that visibly demonstrates the power, majesty and grace of God. That is her purpose – our purpose. We are called to nothing less than to be a light to the nations.
This is why we need to remember our stories. This is why we need to impress our stories upon our children. Why we need to talk about them when we walk along the road or sit at home. Why we need to declare them to one another when we lie down and when we get up. We need to tell them to one another constantly lest we forget who we are. Israel, a nation of priest chosen by God -- sinners redeemed by Christ. We need to rehearse them lest we forget where we were. We were in the land of slavery -- in bondage to sin -- but God led us out with a mighty hand into the land of promise -- the history of redemption. We need to recall them so that we may be faithful to the mission of Israel -- to be a blessing to the nations -- to manifest the glory of God among the nations. To proclaim the good news that Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again.
The Star Trek episode taught me a great deal. Granted, I probably should not rely on a television show about the progress of humankind to reveal great truths to me. But this time I found a diamond among the coal. I was reminded that just like a Klingon without his stories, without the stories of God’s gracious action in history, Israel doesn’t exist. When we forget that the covenant didn’t begin with us, but includes billions of people through thousands of years, our concept of ourself and our God becomes small -- we have little reason for gratitude or obedience. We cease to be the light of the world.
How is it with us? Do our children know the stories of the faith? Do we impress them upon them? Do we tell and retell the stories to one another in our homes and our fellowship? If we don’t, we should. Our stories as a community of faith -- as those who stand in the history of blessing, as part of the covenant -- are what teaches us about our God and ourselves. They inspire us to obey him out of gratitude. And on top of all that we have such a cool -- an awesome -- story to tell.
