September 8, 2019
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
[PRAYER]
One Wednesday morning a few months ago as I was doing my early morning setup for our Farmers Market, I was listening to a Podcast interview of David Brooks. Now for those of you who may not know, David Brooks is an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times and appears regularly on the PBS Newshour as well as NBC’s Meet the Press. He is also a New York Times Best Selling Author and his latest book, The Second Mountain, The Quest for a Moral Life formed the basis for the Podcast Interview I was listening to that morning.
I must confess I have never been a fan of David Brooks, so I wasn’t exactly thrilled that he was the interviewee. Yet, something was calling me to listen to him that morning and I’m glad that something did and I’m equally as glad I listened. From the very beginning of the interview I knew this person talking was not the David Brooks I had come to avoid. This person sounded completely different as though he had experienced a transformation of some sort. A transformation of soul, not just the head. This person I was listening to was talking about life after the wilderness and how the meaning of such a life can only be found in service to others and not self. What I discovered through this interview was that this new, transformed, David Brooks was being asked about, and was therefore, explaining through his answers his writing of his latest New York Times #1 Best Selling Book The Second Mountain, The Quest for a Moral Life.
As I listened, I knew I would be reading that book and in fact, I chose it as our latest Staff Book study for the members of our church staff. Our gatherings to discuss the book have resulted in a slower reading pace than normal, fun type reading, but each chapter discussion between the three of us has, at least for me, been both eye opening and thought provoking. And even though we started before summer, when we last met with each other our discussion revolved around Chapter 5 of Part one entitled The Wilderness.
Call me crazy but I’m completely drawn to authors who write about the wilderness experience and I believe it’s because I personally know so much about the wilderness. In all of my reading on this painful topic, I’ve never gotten the sense that the author was trying to give me a road map on how to overcome and get past my experience. Instead, I’ve always felt a sense of relief and hope because in their willingness to share I had proof that overcoming and getting past the wilderness was possible.
I do recognize that for most people talking about their wilderness experiences is profoundly difficult. In fact, most might choose to have a limb sawed off instead of talking about and opening up about their pain and suffering experienced in their wilderness. Luckily, though, there are people like David Brooks, and Parker Palmer, who choose to show their strength by being vulnerable enough to speak about the wilderness moments in their own lives and speak about them on such a large scale. It is because of their willingness to do so, that the rest of us who might share similar feelings and similar experiences, know we are not alone.
So, on this chapter about his own suffering in the Wilderness, David Brooks writes, “… in moments of suffering … stand erect ... Wait. See what it has to teach you. Understand that your suffering is a task that, if handled correctly, with the help of others, will lead to enlargement, not diminishment.”
He then writes, “The valley is where we shed the old self so the new self can emerge. Dying to the old self, cleansing in the emptiness, resurrecting in the new.” And while all of that sounds so good to those of us who know or have known the wilderness, the truth of the matter is that dying to the old and cleansing in the emptiness are some of the most difficult tasks any of us will ever undertake. So difficult, that most opt for, or choose, to stay right where they are. Most choose to build a hard shell around their life to cover their fear and insecurities so they can win the approval of others or some amount of perceived success. Sure, we want the new that resurrection promises but do we really have to fully die to the old? Do we really have to sit in the emptiness of the in-between? Can’t we choose a different way to get to our new life?
************************************
I believe it is safe to say Moses knew a lot about wilderness experiences. It is also safe to say the Israelite's who followed Moses knew a lot about the Wilderness. After all they had spent the vast majority of their lives to that point trekking through the wilderness to get to the promised land. Many experiences were had during those wilderness years. Many lessons taught, and the question, it seems, at this point in their journey was whether or not those experiences and those lessons would be remembered when they finally reached that promised land. You see, the exiting of that wilderness phase meant they all would face choices. That’s always what happens. And the choices were straightforward and direct, you can either choose life, or you can choose death.
Like any good teacher, Moses seems worried about the choices the students will make as they move forward without him to guide them. And if the choices they made during the wilderness time are any indication, he has good reason to worry. When he is no longer there, will they continue to choose adversity and death or have the lessons he taught, and the experiences they had taken hold? What have the experiences in the wilderness done to their view of the world and their place in it? Moses knows, maybe better than they do, how important their choices are as they are coming out of the wilderness. Moses knows that as they move forward, they will be free to choose a liberated life and they will be free to choose a captivated death. The choice is theirs.
And like a loving parent speaking to their child as he/she heads out the door, Moses feels compelled to offer some final instructions. Here’s the way I hear Moses’ instructions, As you head out to make your way, I want you to know and remember that right before your very eyes will be life and prosperity and death and adversity. Not one or the other, but both – life and prosperity and death and adversity. I’ve done the best I can to teach you. Your wilderness experiences have taught you too. So, when you are out there let those lessons and experiences guide you to choose life. If I could I would choose it for you, but that is not how this works. The choices are yours to make.
I know this wilderness trek has been tough, even miserable at times which is why your choices going forward are so important. You see, you don’t have to stay in the wilderness. That is not the life God wants for you. You don’t have to continue living in wilderness captivity. If you do then you are choosing death and adversity and I want you, God wants you, to choose life and prosperity.
***********************
I think it makes sense that even today I feel as though I hear Moses because the fact of the matter is his instructions about choices weren’t only meant for those Israelite's. The instructions are meant for every generation. These choices come to every generation. God, I believe, longs for every generation to choose life and prosperity. God, I believe, longs for every generation to choose God, because choosing God is choosing life. “Choosing God—living in obedience to God—means living in ways that put others’ interests before our own. It means proclaiming God’s justice especially on behalf of those not invited to be a part of the discussion and radiating God’s love in the wildly indiscriminate way God shows love to all people.”[1]
This is what shedding the old, cleansing in the emptiness and resurrecting in the new looks like. And before David Brooks called it The Second Mountain, Moses called it choosing life and prosperity. The good news is that even today we can learn these same lessons. And when we do, may we let them guide us to choose life and prosperity instead of death and adversity.
Amen!
[1] Fair, Fairfax F., https://www.christiancentury.org/blogs/archive/2014-02/hard-work-choosing-life
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
[PRAYER]
One Wednesday morning a few months ago as I was doing my early morning setup for our Farmers Market, I was listening to a Podcast interview of David Brooks. Now for those of you who may not know, David Brooks is an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times and appears regularly on the PBS Newshour as well as NBC’s Meet the Press. He is also a New York Times Best Selling Author and his latest book, The Second Mountain, The Quest for a Moral Life formed the basis for the Podcast Interview I was listening to that morning.
I must confess I have never been a fan of David Brooks, so I wasn’t exactly thrilled that he was the interviewee. Yet, something was calling me to listen to him that morning and I’m glad that something did and I’m equally as glad I listened. From the very beginning of the interview I knew this person talking was not the David Brooks I had come to avoid. This person sounded completely different as though he had experienced a transformation of some sort. A transformation of soul, not just the head. This person I was listening to was talking about life after the wilderness and how the meaning of such a life can only be found in service to others and not self. What I discovered through this interview was that this new, transformed, David Brooks was being asked about, and was therefore, explaining through his answers his writing of his latest New York Times #1 Best Selling Book The Second Mountain, The Quest for a Moral Life.
As I listened, I knew I would be reading that book and in fact, I chose it as our latest Staff Book study for the members of our church staff. Our gatherings to discuss the book have resulted in a slower reading pace than normal, fun type reading, but each chapter discussion between the three of us has, at least for me, been both eye opening and thought provoking. And even though we started before summer, when we last met with each other our discussion revolved around Chapter 5 of Part one entitled The Wilderness.
Call me crazy but I’m completely drawn to authors who write about the wilderness experience and I believe it’s because I personally know so much about the wilderness. In all of my reading on this painful topic, I’ve never gotten the sense that the author was trying to give me a road map on how to overcome and get past my experience. Instead, I’ve always felt a sense of relief and hope because in their willingness to share I had proof that overcoming and getting past the wilderness was possible.
I do recognize that for most people talking about their wilderness experiences is profoundly difficult. In fact, most might choose to have a limb sawed off instead of talking about and opening up about their pain and suffering experienced in their wilderness. Luckily, though, there are people like David Brooks, and Parker Palmer, who choose to show their strength by being vulnerable enough to speak about the wilderness moments in their own lives and speak about them on such a large scale. It is because of their willingness to do so, that the rest of us who might share similar feelings and similar experiences, know we are not alone.
So, on this chapter about his own suffering in the Wilderness, David Brooks writes, “… in moments of suffering … stand erect ... Wait. See what it has to teach you. Understand that your suffering is a task that, if handled correctly, with the help of others, will lead to enlargement, not diminishment.”
He then writes, “The valley is where we shed the old self so the new self can emerge. Dying to the old self, cleansing in the emptiness, resurrecting in the new.” And while all of that sounds so good to those of us who know or have known the wilderness, the truth of the matter is that dying to the old and cleansing in the emptiness are some of the most difficult tasks any of us will ever undertake. So difficult, that most opt for, or choose, to stay right where they are. Most choose to build a hard shell around their life to cover their fear and insecurities so they can win the approval of others or some amount of perceived success. Sure, we want the new that resurrection promises but do we really have to fully die to the old? Do we really have to sit in the emptiness of the in-between? Can’t we choose a different way to get to our new life?
************************************
I believe it is safe to say Moses knew a lot about wilderness experiences. It is also safe to say the Israelite's who followed Moses knew a lot about the Wilderness. After all they had spent the vast majority of their lives to that point trekking through the wilderness to get to the promised land. Many experiences were had during those wilderness years. Many lessons taught, and the question, it seems, at this point in their journey was whether or not those experiences and those lessons would be remembered when they finally reached that promised land. You see, the exiting of that wilderness phase meant they all would face choices. That’s always what happens. And the choices were straightforward and direct, you can either choose life, or you can choose death.
Like any good teacher, Moses seems worried about the choices the students will make as they move forward without him to guide them. And if the choices they made during the wilderness time are any indication, he has good reason to worry. When he is no longer there, will they continue to choose adversity and death or have the lessons he taught, and the experiences they had taken hold? What have the experiences in the wilderness done to their view of the world and their place in it? Moses knows, maybe better than they do, how important their choices are as they are coming out of the wilderness. Moses knows that as they move forward, they will be free to choose a liberated life and they will be free to choose a captivated death. The choice is theirs.
And like a loving parent speaking to their child as he/she heads out the door, Moses feels compelled to offer some final instructions. Here’s the way I hear Moses’ instructions, As you head out to make your way, I want you to know and remember that right before your very eyes will be life and prosperity and death and adversity. Not one or the other, but both – life and prosperity and death and adversity. I’ve done the best I can to teach you. Your wilderness experiences have taught you too. So, when you are out there let those lessons and experiences guide you to choose life. If I could I would choose it for you, but that is not how this works. The choices are yours to make.
I know this wilderness trek has been tough, even miserable at times which is why your choices going forward are so important. You see, you don’t have to stay in the wilderness. That is not the life God wants for you. You don’t have to continue living in wilderness captivity. If you do then you are choosing death and adversity and I want you, God wants you, to choose life and prosperity.
***********************
I think it makes sense that even today I feel as though I hear Moses because the fact of the matter is his instructions about choices weren’t only meant for those Israelite's. The instructions are meant for every generation. These choices come to every generation. God, I believe, longs for every generation to choose life and prosperity. God, I believe, longs for every generation to choose God, because choosing God is choosing life. “Choosing God—living in obedience to God—means living in ways that put others’ interests before our own. It means proclaiming God’s justice especially on behalf of those not invited to be a part of the discussion and radiating God’s love in the wildly indiscriminate way God shows love to all people.”[1]
This is what shedding the old, cleansing in the emptiness and resurrecting in the new looks like. And before David Brooks called it The Second Mountain, Moses called it choosing life and prosperity. The good news is that even today we can learn these same lessons. And when we do, may we let them guide us to choose life and prosperity instead of death and adversity.
Amen!
[1] Fair, Fairfax F., https://www.christiancentury.org/blogs/archive/2014-02/hard-work-choosing-life
