Deuteronomy 34; Matthew 22: 34-40

The narrow road home

An Australian writer named Richard Flanagan just won the prestigious Man/Booker prize for literature with his novel “A narrow road to the deep north,” based on his father’s experience on the Burma railroad.  The title of the book is taken from the famous Japanese haiku poet Basho.  Although I have not read the book, the title appealed to me as I was reflecting of the journey of the people of Israel. Moses cannot enter the Promised Land, frail and old as he is. Because the leader is not allowed to go, he is just allowed to see from a distance, is symbolic.  Martin Luther King, in Memphis, appealed to the memory of Moses when he said: ”I have seen the Promised Land, but I may not get there with you.”  I also thought of the comedy in theaters right now and how its title would also be an appropriate reflection title for today.  It is “this is where I leave you.”  Because that is what Moses could say. In fact I can clearly imagine him saying that.   And I can also imagine the people after all their complaining suddenly feeling very insecure without their leader.  It is a clear journey they must take. The landscape lies clearly stretched out before them: they must cross a desert landscape, from the heights across the Jordan down to Jericho, one of the oldest towns and lowest places on earth and then climb up toward Jerusalem and then spread out over the land, each group of descendants of Jacob taking their place.  From there they will live a history that is even more volatile than the history chapter they are closing off.  There will be Judges and three kings under the united kingdom, then the kingdom will split into two, next comes a slow crumbling of the nation, two exiles in the east which will empty the whole country over again.  Then only a small number will return, making another journey home to a land they have never seen and they will settle and rebuild the Temple.   All along they have to keep their eyes on one great commandment: “Love the Lord with all your heart, all your mind and all your soul.” The story of the Old Testament is pretty much the story of how well the people kept his commandment.  Mostly they didn’t keep it, with terrible consequences. 

Friends, we talked earlier about the reformation and about American history and how these histories were also bloody and bitter.  We too have that same commandment to follow: “Love the Lord with all you heart and all your mind and all your soul,” but Jesus adds another commandment to it “and your neighbor as yourself.”  Love for God Who loves us translates into loving our neighbor.  These are the principles we must carry on with, in this land we call America and a Presbyterian church that stands solidly in the Reformed tradition.  But that is a narrow road to walk. It is not easy to do.  Loving a Being we cannot see is hard for most of us.  Loving the neighbors who annoy us isn’t much easier.  But the Bible throws out this challenge: “do these things and you will get it right every time.” And, friends, as Christians our lives are a record of how well we have done that.   You may have seen these ancient posters of the wide and the narrow road. They were a bit silly.  The wide road had all the sinful acts including having lots of fun and parties and the narrow road was a path of sacrifice and prayer. It isn’t like that of course. The Bible doesn’t say we can’t enjoy our lives, but it is still a narrow road. We are constantly losing the trail, veering left and right, high and low.

I try to stop once a week at the school to work with one sixth grade student and last week I found him on a bench at the edge of the playground in the warm October sunshine as kids of other grades were running and exercising all around him. All very distracting for a kid like him.  He was busy writing one line over and over again:” treat others the way you want to be treated. Treat other the way you want to be treated. Treat others the way you want to be treated. ” That’s us friends, on that bench, that’s the story of our lives: having to remind ourselves over and over again that we must treat others the way we want to be treated. We’re finding ourselves on that bench writing that sentence.

And now you may ask the question: ”Aart, how do you do this ‘love the Lord your God thing?’”  My answer would be: start with thinking of God as loving You, totally and unconditionally. Could you love such a Being?  Religious people have filled our minds so much with the idea of the judging God, that we don’t see things in balance.  The judging God is our default image.  But God is at the heart of it loving.  “God so loved the world.” Everything begins and ends with that. May God inspire us.