3 His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
4 Thus he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust, and may become participants of the divine nature.
5 For this very reason, you must make every effort to support your faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge,
6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness,
7 and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love.
8 For if these things are yours and are increasing among you, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 For anyone who lacks these things is nearsighted and blind, and is forgetful of the cleansing of past sins.
10 Therefore, brothers and sisters, be all the more eager to confirm your call and election, for if you do this, you will never stumble.
11 For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you.
12 Therefore I intend to keep on reminding you of these things, though you know them already and are established in the truth that has come to you.
13 I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to refresh your memory,
14 since I know that my death will come soon, as indeed our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.
15 And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.

We agree that faith in God’s grace is the means of justification – of being in right relationship with God.  Salvation is a gift of God and it is through God’s grace, not through our own works, that we are saved.  This is central to not only our understanding of God’s covenantal love for his creation, but of the very reason for the incarnation, the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Then we read a passage such as today’s lesson scripture or James 2:14-17 and we wonder, “Is faith alone sufficient?”

The other question goes to the heart of our beliefs as well.  It came up in the context of living a life of good works, of doing justice to the command to love our neighbors as ourselves.  In discussing the “divine nature”, we talked of examples such as Mother Teresa and other saints.  Some mentioned the example of a soldier being willing to give up his life for his comrades.  Some brought up Gandhi and others wondered about the peasant who has never heard of the Gospel, but lives its essence every day.  So, who is saved?   Those who have faith in Christ and Christ alone?  Those whose faith is backed up by works?  Those who are participants in the “divine nature” by whatever means and by whatever path?

My belief is that we are saved by God’s grace through faith in Christ alone.  This should manifest itself in good works – in those virtues listed in verses 5-7 of today’s lesson scripture, but this is a personal matter between each repentant and God.  What is manifest for one person, may not be manifest for another.  My concern is for my own works, my own struggle to particpate in God’s divine nature and, in doing so, to serve my fellow beings.  As for those who are not Christians, I only know this: that the Good News is that Christ came, lived as God in human form, died and returned from the dead and will come again.  That God did this out of love for all of humankind, so that everyone should have access to eternal life.  This is what I know through faith.  This is what I am instructed to share with all the world at all times – when necessary using words.

Danny pointed me toward Karen Sudduth’s wonderful site today. If you subscribe to our church’s daily devotional, you’re familiar with some of Karen’s writing. When I read the devotional that our church emailed us today, I knew who the author was within the first few sentences. There’s not many people that I can recognize through their writing that quickly – but she’s that good (and her artwork is too).  I could share more with you about Karen’s journey, but I’ll let others who know her comment here.  Better yet, take a trip to her site and learn for yourself.

Anyway, thanks to Danny for pointing us to Karen’s site.  It is a blessing.

Moses didn’t bother with the “why” – he simply stated that God had chosen Israel and then answered the question, “What does being chosen require of you?”  The answer, echoed by Micah some centuries later, is simple. 

10 I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, as I had done the first time. And once again the Lord listened to me. The Lord was unwilling to destroy you.
11 The Lord said to me, “Get up, go on your journey at the head of the people, that they may go in and occupy the land that I swore to their ancestors to give them.”

12 So now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? Only to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,
13 and to keep the commandments of the Lord your God and his decrees that I am commanding you today, for your own well-being.
14 Although heaven and the heaven of heavens belong to the Lord your God, the earth with all that is in it,
15 yet the Lord set his heart in love on your ancestors alone and chose you, their descendants after them, out of all the peoples, as it is today.  Deut 10:10-15 (NRSV)

God doesn’t choose us for what we’ve done – he chooses us out of love and we can repay that love by what we do.

17 I know, my God, that you search the heart, and take pleasure in uprightness; in the uprightness of my heart I have freely offered all these things, and now I have seen your people, who are present here, offering freely and joyously to you.
18 O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our ancestors, keep forever such purposes and thoughts in the hearts of your people, and direct their hearts toward you.
19 Grant to my son Solomon that with single mind he may keep your commandments, your decrees, and your statutes, performing all of them, and that he may build the temple for which I have made provision.”  1 Chron 29:17-19 (NRSV)

We’ve never been able to do this on our own.  The first step to a lasting relationship is to prayer for his help.

5 Then I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor with you, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my ancestors’ graves, so that I may rebuild it.” 
11 So I came to Jerusalem and was there for three days.
12 Then I got up during the night, I and a few men with me; I told no one what my God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem. The only animal I took was the animal I rode.
13 I went out by night by the Valley Gate past the Dragon’s Spring and to the Dung Gate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that had been broken down and its gates that had been destroyed by fire.
14 Then I went on to the Fountain Gate and to the King’s Pool; but there was no place for the animal I was riding to continue.
15 So I went up by way of the valley by night and inspected the wall. Then I turned back and entered by the Valley Gate, and so returned.
16 The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing; I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, and the rest that were to do the work.
17 Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, so that we may no longer suffer disgrace.”
18 I told them that the hand of my God had been gracious upon me, and also the words that the king had spoken to me. Then they said, “Let us start building!” So they committed themselves to the common good.
19 But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they mocked and ridiculed us, saying, “What is this that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?”
20 Then I replied to them, “The God of heaven is the one who will give us success, and we his servants are going to start building; but you have no share or claim or historic right in Jerusalem.”  Neh 2:5, 11-20 (NRSV)

Of course, the problem isn’t the ultimate goal – it’s how we get there.  Nehemiah shows us that careful measurement and contemplation of the task, together with prayer for God’s guidance, is necessary before we commence to rally support.  There is a lesson in the reaction of the people as well.  We must also be mindful of keeping open minds toward the leadership of others.  We could scoff with the Sanballats, Tobiahs and Geshems of the world, but it is better to lay our hand to the work; to say “Let us start building!”

21 Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might deny ourselves before our God, to seek from him a safe journey for ourselves, our children, and all our possessions.
22 For I was ashamed to ask the king for a band of soldiers and cavalry to protect us against the enemy on our way, since we had told the king that the hand of our God is gracious to all who seek him, but his power and his wrath are against all who forsake him.
23 So we fasted and petitioned our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty.  Ezra 8:21-23 (NRSV)

So the Ezra proclaimed a fast.  Wesley tells us that fasting is one of the means of grace – of setting aside the world to come closer to God.  As I read today’s scripture I thought of Ezra, but I thought as well of what it would have been like to have been one of the people following his lead.  We don’t know the names of all of those people who accompanied him back to Jerusalem – but God did.  I wonder what it would have been like.  I wonder if my faith would have been up to the task.

7 Some of the people of Israel, and some of the priests and Levites, the singers and gatekeepers, and the temple servants also went up to Jerusalem, in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes.
8 They came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king.
9 On the first day of the first month the journey up from Babylon was begun, and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, for the gracious hand of his God was upon him.
10 For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach the statutes and ordinances in Israel.  Ezra 7:7-10 (NRSV)

When I read these verses today and then came back to them this evening I thought of the fact that when Ezra returned to Jerusalem he wasn’t leaving a place to return “home”.  His home was Babylonia.  The Jewish population in exile was by this time well established there and Bablyonia was Ezra’s home.  He was actually traveling as a missionary to Jerusalem, which had lost its connection to the law when most of the scribes and priests were taken into exile a generation and more ago.  Then I thought about Wesley sending Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury to a New World to spread the Gospel.  That had to seem like something of an exile to these men – leaving the England they had known for a strange new land.  It wasn’t a forced exile like that of Judah, but it was a journey from which they knew they might well never return to England.

Now, we send missionaries to Europe – to England.  Just like Ezra returning to Jerusalem.

1 Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
2 Happy are those to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
3 While I kept silence, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long.
4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah
5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not hide my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah Psalms 32:1-5 (NRSV)

Adam Clarke comments on “four evils” mentioned in the first two verses of the psalm – transgression, sin, iniquity and deceit:

The first signifies the passing over a boundary, doing what is prohibited. The second signifies the missing of a mark, not doing what was commanded; but is often taken to express sinfulness, or sin in the future, producing transgression in the life. The third signifies what is turned out of its proper course or situation; any thing morally distorted or perverted. Iniquity, what is contrary to equity or justice. The fourth signifies fraud, deceit, guile . . .

He then discusses three actions that take place in removing these evils: forgiving, covering and not imputing.  Forgiving is to take away our transgression through sacrifice – the sacrifice of priests in the Old Testament, with the ultimate and perfect sacrifice coming through Christ on the cross.  Covering is to place or sin out of sight – to allow us to see God, our vision no longer obscured by our sin.  Not imputing is to remove our iniquity from God’s books of account.

Who would not long for the happiness in verses one and two?  The next three verses tell us what comes before forgiveness.  We must communicate with God, we must acknowledge our sin.  Forgiveness cannot happen without confession.  It just can’t.  This is something that may be hard to do, which is strange when you consider that God already knows our sin, our transgressions and our iniquity.   Deceit – we think we’re hiding our sin from God, but we’re really only deceiving ourselves.  It requires faith in God – that God perceives all – to be able to acknowledge the weight of our sin and then free ourselves of it.  It requires faith in God – that God can forgive us what we’re too often unwilling to forgive ourselves – to be able to cast away the burden of our transgressions.  It requires faith in God – that he will aid us in repenting – to be able to truly change our direction and travel with God instead of away from him.

When we do this, we are happy.  When we do this, we join with Adam Clarke who said, “This is all true; I know it; I felt it; I feel it.” — Selah

14 Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian; I hereby commission you.”
15 He responded, “But sir, how can I deliver Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”
16 The Lord said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike down the Midianites, every one of them.”
17 Then he said to him, “If now I have found favor with you, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me.
18 Do not depart from here until I come to you, and bring out my present, and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay until you return.”
19 So Gideon went into his house and prepared a kid, and unleavened cakes from an ephah of flour; the meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the oak and presented them.
20 The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock, and pour out the broth.” And he did so.
21 Then the angel of the Lord reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes; and fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes; and the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight.
22 Then Gideon perceived that it was the angel of the Lord; and Gideon said, “Help me, Lord God! For I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.”
23 But the Lord said to him, “Peace be to you; do not fear, you shall not die.”
24 Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord, and called it, The Lord is peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites.  Judges 6:14-24 (NRSV)

When Gideon actually had his proof, however, he found it even more frightening.  I wonder if that’s not how we would react as well.  I mean, if we actually knew that “still, small voice” urging us to do what is right and avoid what is wrong was really and truly the eternal Creator of the universe . . . doubt would be erased, but fear would follow but for his words, “Peace be to you; do not fear, you shall not die.”

God’s Word for us.

6 But Moses said to the Gadites and to the Reubenites, “Shall your brothers go to war while you sit here?
7 Why will you discourage the hearts of the Israelites from going over into the land that the Lord has given them?
8 Your fathers did this, when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to see the land.
9 When they went up to the Wadi Eshcol and saw the land, they discouraged the hearts of the Israelites from going into the land that the Lord had given them.
10 The Lord’s anger was kindled on that day and he swore, saying,
11 ’Surely none of the people who came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, because they have not unreservedly followed me—
12 none except Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua son of Nun, for they have unreservedly followed the Lord.’
13 And the Lord’s anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness for forty years, until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the Lord had disappeared. Num 32:6-13 (NRSV)

Moses thought that the people of Gad and Reuben were repeating the same mistake that the people had made a generation earlier: refusing to cross over the river into Canaan for fear of failure . . . for lack of faith in God’s plan.  In the verses following today’s scripture, the tribes of Reuben and Gad come back to Moses and submit that they don’t wish to discourage the others, they simply desire the lush pasture lands to the east of the Jordan for their cattle.  They propose, and Moses accepts, that they be allowed to leave their families and livestock east of the Jordan – that they be given this land as their inheritance – and that their men march in the vanguard with Israel as the conquest of Jordan moves forward.

Often times we look at this chapter and the preceeding chapters (and those that follow) as a story of conquest in the name of God with which we are uncomfortable in today’s society.  Of course, it wasn’t too many years ago that the concept of “Manifest Destiny” would have made these verses seem much closer to the heart’s desire of Christians.  But both could very well be wrong: the 19th century Christians for believing that the Bible was justifying the conquest (and extermination) of a people already in possession of the land) and the 21st century Christians for ignoring if not outright rejecting these passages.  The early church fathers considered the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God.  Christ preached from and said he came to fulfill these scriptures.  The work of the Church – of all Christians – is to discern with the help of the Spirit and each other – what God’s Word has to say to us.

As the title of today’s lesson implies, the point is not about conquest – it’s about following the will of God without reserve.  What do you hold in reserve when you promise to follow God?  When you pray, “thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven”, do you mean to really pray, “thy will be done – with the following exceptions as noted in Appendix A annexed hereto – on Earth as it is in Heaven – with the proviso, that we’re still not exactly sure how your will is exercised in Heaven, and so we reserve the right to revoke this prayer for non-conforming expectations and for breach of implied warranties of blessings and happiness”.

Before we criticize the people of Israel for failing to follow the Lord we need to look carefully in the mirror and see how easy it is for us to abandon our reserve.