Sunday, September 7th 2025
Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Series C (Proper 18)
Text: Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Sermon Audio
As we gather… On this education Sunday, we reflect upon our reading from Deuteronomy 30. The Lord is clear to the Israelites in this passage, there is the way of life and the way of death. Following His commandments leads to life and disobeying them leads to death. The way of life that God is calling us to lead is not something we do because they’re random things God thought would be a good idea, the way of life that God calls us to lead is the path to life. Unrepentant sin ultimately leads to death. The good news is that Jesus is the way the truth, and the life, as we follow Him through His Word and Sacraments, we too will live. As we re-start Sunday school for the fall, we gather to learn the Bible not merely as a list of helpful stories or dos and don’ts, but rather as the Words of Eternal life. Making time to teach yourself and your family the Bible is a way we follow Jesus on the path to eternal life.
Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil.” Moses is addressing the people of Israel as our Old Testament reading begins. These are some of the last words that Moses would speak before his death. This is right before the Israelites would enter into the Promised Land. He commands them to see. What are they supposed to be looking at? Moses just spent many chapters reviewing the last 40 years of their lives. Let’s start looking there.
The God of our fathers led the people of Israel through the Red Sea on dry ground. The LORD raised up Moses as the means by which He would deliver them from their captors, Pharaoh and the Egyptians. But why? Was it because the Israelites made some grand decision to follow the one true God? No, God remembered the covenant that He made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God heard the pleas of His people. The people He chose to be His special people, through whom would eventually come the Salvation of the world. They pleaded to God while in captivity, because they remembered the covenant which God had made with their fathers. God delivered His people from the Egyptians because of His promise. God’s Word will always hold true. The LORD did not deliver His people in a way that they could claim that they had anything to do with their rescue. He led them through the waters, bringing them salvation and destroying their enemies. He showed that the one true God rescued them. He used His prophet and water to deliver them in a truly miraculous way. Behold the great and mighty works of the LORD!
It was only after the LORD had delivered them from their captors through water that He gave them the Ten Commandments. They have seen the great and mighty work of the LORD and have been given faith and trust in Him. Now, having faith, they are given the roadmap to stay in His life. God knew that evils of the world would bombard them when they reached the Promised Land. Despite their faith, the Israelites were rebellious as they travelled. They complained against God and Moses. Yet God was patient with them. He disciplined them; but God would not forget His promise to His stubborn people. He uses Moses to remind them of the great salvation that God gave them through water. He provided manna from heaven, a bread that no one had ever seen before, to sustain them. God patiently provided His people with their earthly needs, and their heavenly needs, as they wandered in the wilderness; in ways only God could. The LORD was teaching them to trust in Him above all things. He used His prophet and bread to sustain them in a truly miraculous way. Behold the great and mighty works of the LORD!
Now Moses stands before God’s people and proclaims to them, “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil.” Moses has brought to their remembrance that the one true God is the only source of life just before they go into the Promised Land. They are to remember the LORD’s promises to them and trust that He will give them everything that He has sworn to them and their fathers. The Canaanites, and all of the other -ites that are in the land, will be defeated. If God’s people cling to life, to the LORD, and avoid the world’s idols, they will be blessed. The Israelites are to be a beacon of the one true God in a pagan world. Evil can’t stand before the true God. If they choose not to destroy pagan idolatry, false gods would gain a hold on their heart. If their hearts turn away, they will no longer serve the LORD, they will no longer have faith and trust in Him, and they will perish. God wants His people to remain faithful as they await the Prophet that will be even greater than Moses.
The Israelites started out strong in Jericho, but soon the people would let their hearts turn to the pagan gods. After God gave them the land, they forgot the great and mighty works of the LORD. The false gods of the wicked nations would continue to plague God’s Old Testament people. They would eventually be taken captive by Babylon because of their rampant idolatry. Yet God would be faithful to His promise. He would return a faithful remnant of His people to the land. He preserved them so the Prophet greater than Moses would come. None other than the one true God incarnate, Jesus Christ.
Jesus came in a way that only God could come. He left no doubt to whether or not He was truly God taking on human flesh. He was born of the virgin Mary. Only God can bring life to a womb that has never known a man. He lived a life truly obedient to God’s commands, in every way. No mere man can be perfect in this fallen world. The proof was in His deeds. He spoke with authority, as if He Himself was the author of Scripture. He performed many signs and wonders that only God could. He left no doubt that He was truly God incarnate. The greater Prophet continued His great deeds by being lifted up on the cross. There our crucified LORD defeated our enemies; sin, death, and the devil. He continued to prove that He did in fact defeat these enemies when He was raised on the third day. Here the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob put His stamp of approval on a new covenant. The covenant that is sealed in the blood of the incarnate Christ. Only the one true God brings this salvation. Behold the great and mighty works of the LORD!
The message that Moses lays before the Israelites sounds awfully familiar to our lives today. The crucified and living Savior of the world has delivered life and salvation on the cross so that all could be saved in Him. He didn’t stop there. In your baptism He placed that salvation on you and gave you the Holy Spirit. He led you through water while your enemies of sin, death, and the devil drowned behind you. He placed you in the care of one of his pastors and a community of believers to call to your remembrance the saving work of Christ. He reminds you of your baptismal inheritance while in this earthly wilderness. He feeds you an even greater bread at this altar. Christ’s very body and blood are given to you for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation; to sustain you in Him while you wander here. He has laid out the Promised Land before you. Behold the great and mighty works of the LORD! You now are set loose in this pagan world bearing the image of Christ as you wait on Him to return on Judgment Day. So I give you the same message as Moses. “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil.”
Just as all of the -ites of the Old Testament had their Baals, we deal with our own false gods in America. It seems obvious to us to stick to Christ, sitting here in church. It probably seemed obvious to Israel when Moses spoke to them too. We know the world has nothing to offer us compared to God’s eternal kingdom; but false gods still surround us. Greed, entertainment, and sexual depravity just to name a few. To choose these is to choose death. We know better. We have been given the Holy Spirit and freed from sin, death, and the devil so we are able to call Jesus LORD and choose good. To call Jesus LORD is to trust in all that He has done for our salvation and to choose to do His will, which the Holy Spirit has empowered us to do by faith. Our sinful flesh can only choose evil without the Holy Spirit working within us. We can choose to do good because God has created a new Spirit within us. Doing good gets harder when worldly temptations hit close to home. The hard teaching of Jesus from the Gospel reading today shows us this. We should hate our family and ourselves to be His disciple. God clearly says all over the Bible to love others, so what could this mean?
We should not love anything more than Jesus. Jesus is to be our LORD. The devil, the world, and our sinful flesh don’t make it easy. When our friend stops going to church to pursue the American dream of self made riches, is it easier to make the worship of money seem ok? When our child makes the baseball team, does a sports complex become our place of worship? Instead of paying homage to our Savior we bow down to our children and their hobbies. When our sibling comes out as gay and leaves the church, does it become easier to try to rationalize a way that a person can serve the gods of lust and somehow Christ as well? Making our family our idol is easy to do. We don’t want to imagine eternity without them. We must cling even more to Christ our LORD and His mighty works. Stand firm in His truth and lovingly be a beacon of Christ’s love for sinners, calling them to repentance, rather than embracing worldly idols. We plead with God to remember the covenant He made with them in their baptism. We proclaim to those who have fallen from the faith the good news of the mighty deeds of Jesus for their salvation. Reject evil and cling to His good.
This message is ever important on this day, education Sunday. Hear the Word of the LORD as spoken by Moses, “Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.” We have been tasked to raise up our children in the faith. Parents, bring your children to church so they can hear God’s word and be strengthened in their faith, but also cherish Him in your home above the world. The idols of the world surround us. Safeguard your homes. Walk in Christ’s way in all aspects of your lives. He is the only sure defense against evil. He has already defeated your enemies on the cross. Staying in Christ, is how we choose life and teach our children to choose life. We should encourage these parents and one another to forsake our idols and cling to the crucified and living Christ.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, the LORD has made you His in your baptism. He continues to come to you in His preached word, and sustain you in His body and blood. Behold the great and mighty works of the LORD! To choose life is to remain in Him who has chosen you from before the foundation of the world. Without Christ there is only cursing and death; in Him there is blessing. He is life. In Christ we have more than an earthly Promised Land. In Christ we have the eternal Promised Land, His heavenly kingdom. This is the blessing set before those who cling to Christ, the only source of life and good. This is your eternal blessing. Thanks be to God.
The peace of God which passes all understanding guard and keep you in the true faith unto life everlasting. Amen.