Our Paradoxical God

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Good morning.

My name is August Fern.

This morning we're going to have a reading from the book of Deuteronomy, various selections

from chapter 4 as printed in the liturgy.

The words we're hearing are the words of Moses as he's speaking to the Israelites before they

crossed the Jordan, starting with verse 5.

See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the Lord my God commanded me, so that you may follow

them in the land you are entering to take possession of it.

Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations,

who will hear about all these decrees and say, surely this great nation is a wise and understanding

people.

What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is

near us whenever we pray to him?

And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body

of laws I am setting before you today?

Only be careful and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes

have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live.

Teach them to your children and to their children after them.

Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when he said to me, assemble

the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they

live in the land and may teach them to their children.

You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain while it blazed with fire to the very

heavens with black clouds and deep darkness.

Then the Lord spoke to you out of the fire.

You heard the sound of words but saw no form.

There was only a voice.

He declared to you his covenant, the Ten Commandments, which he commanded you to follow, and then wrote

them on two stone tablets.

And the Lord directed me at that time to teach you the decrees and laws you are to follow in

the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.

You saw no form of any kind the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire.

Therefore watch yourselves very carefully so that you do not become corrupt and make for

yourselves an idol, an image of any shape.

Now verse 23.

Be careful not to forget the covenant of the Lord your God that he made with you.

Do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the Lord your God has forbidden.

For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

Verse 31.

For the Lord your God is a merciful God.

He will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your ancestors, which he confirmed

to them by oath.

Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created human beings

on the earth.

Ask from one end of the heavens to the other.

Has anything so great as this ever happened?

Or has anything like it ever been heard of?

Has any other people heard the voice of God speaking out of fire as you have and lived?

Has any God ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation by testings,

by signs, and by wonders?

By war?

By mighty hand and an outstretched arm?

Or by great and awesome deeds?

Like all the things the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?

Verse 39.

Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth below.

There is no other.

The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever.

Good morning, Christ Church.

If you're new with us, we're delighted to have you.

My name is Jonathan.

And if you want to know what I've been up to the past two weeks, I'm now a volunteer cross-country coach

at my kids' school and have been recruiting kindergarten to eighth grade students to come

and run with us and wooing them with popsicles at the end of practices and trying to get their parents

to sign up on Team Snap and get jerseys and spirit gear and all this great stuff.

I think now we're going to have about 40 plus kids come and run with us on the next four or five Friday nights.

And it's been a lot of fun, but it's also a great deal of effort to form a team.

Has anybody here tried to form a team?

It takes a lot of effort to get all these different people moving in the same direction

and to get these kids kind of ready for speed and for distance

and to just get them up to the starting line of that first race to be ready to run their best race to their fullest potential.

I've also enjoyed thinking about great cross-country slogans on T-shirts.

For example, our sport is your sport's punishment.

Thought that was a good one.

Running is a mental sport and we are all insane.

Or if we played tag, you'd be it forever, which I kind of like that one.

But I like this analogy of forming a team and getting people up through the starting line.

And it has great resonance for me as a pastor launching a church into a new ministry year.

How do you get all these individual people into a cohesive group moving in the same direction for the same purpose?

And I kind of think about my experience as a cross-country coach or as a pastor

as like one one millionth of what Moses must have been feeling here at the edge of the promised land,

trying to get the people of God up to that starting line

and ready to move into the race that God had marked out for them.

Because that's what is happening in Deuteronomy.

Moses is getting the next generations of the people of God ready to run this race with perseverance

and with joy that God has set out before them.

And Jesus, I think, as we talked last week, he loved this book so much.

Quoted this book more than any other book, I think,

because it's such a clear revelation of who his father is.

Such a clear revelation of the character and the nature of God,

of his heart and his will for us,

of what he wants from us, his people,

how he wants us to run this race that he's setting before us.

So with that, let's dive in this morning to Deuteronomy 4

and this great farewell address from Moses in the last month of his life.

What does he have to say to the people of God?

And I think here in Deuteronomy 4, he wants us to know

that our mysterious God has a jealous love that makes us different.

And I want to explore for a minute the fact that we have a mysterious God

because Moses says in verse 10,

he says,

Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb,

that is Mount Sinai.

Remember that day when he said to me,

assemble the people before me to hear my words

so that they may learn to revere me

as long as they live in the land

and may teach them to their children.

The people of God had two intense encounters

with Yahweh, with the Lord.

And these were their primary sources of their knowledge of God.

The one experience was the exodus from Egypt.

And the other experience was the covenant

that God made with them at Sinai.

And this formed the framework for Israel's faith,

just as for the Christian paradigm

as the incarnation of Jesus on the one hand

and the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus on the other hand.

And Moses is inviting us into this framework.

He's inviting us to relive this moment at Mount Sinai

because this defining foundational event

was a profoundly moving experience

of the mysterious presence of the Lord.

And Moses, as he helps us remember it,

he's emphatic that God,

the God of the Bible is not an either or God.

He's a both and God.

He's not a one-dimensional God.

He's a multi-dimensional God.

And the people of God are called to know

this dynamic, personal, relational, incomparable being

that cannot be reduced down to either this or that.

And here's what I mean.

Moses wants us to know this God

is both imminent and transcendent.

He's both near and he's awesome.

Look at what he says in verse seven.

He says,

what other nation is so great

as to have their gods near to them

the way the Lord our God is near us?

Whenever we pray to him,

there's an intimate closeness.

We call out and God's right there listening.

He's near to us.

And yet, listen to verse 33.

Moses says,

has any other people heard the voice of God

out of fire as you have and lived?

He balances God's nearness with the fact that

he's so awesome and majestic in his power

that if you were to plug into him,

it would blow your circuits.

I mean, how can anybody hear God

and survive that encounter?

How can they live through that experience?

Or again, Moses says in verse eight,

he says,

what other nation is so great

as to have such righteous decrees and laws

as this body of laws I'm setting before you today?

Here is God right here

giving you this ongoing quiet guidance

through this righteous body of teaching

the scriptures breathed out from his spirit

into your spirit.

He's right here with us.

And yet, it's balanced with verse 34

where he says,

has any God ever tried to take for himself

one nation out of another nation

by testings, signs, and wonders,

war, a mighty hand, and outstretched armor

by great and awesome deeds

like the things the Lord your God

did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?

The quiet guidance of God in the scriptures

is balanced and matched by this drama

of his mighty hand and his outstretched arm

and these wonderful works of God

to rescue his people.

God, Moses says,

who's not to be taken lightly

or to be trifled with.

Moses is saying to the people,

look, you should have confidence in God

because he's so near to you.

He's so close to you.

He's right here filling all things

everywhere around us and within us.

And yet, not only should you have confidence in God,

but you should have reverence for this God

who is awesome, who's wondrous,

who's incredible in his power,

who's way more than we can handle.

And Moses tells us that this God

who's both imminent and transcendent,

this God who's both near and awesome,

he is both knowable and incomprehensible.

And Moses goes on and he says,

this God is both fire and a voice.

This God is both a fire and a voice.

He says in verse 11,

you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain

while it blazed with fire to the very heavens

with black clouds and deep darkness.

This is a detailed, vivid memory

that Moses wants to become our memory.

Even those of us who were not there,

he says, imagine this mountain, Mount Sinai,

that's glowing with the light of fire.

Its brightness contrasted

with all the surrounding darkness.

And five times in this text,

Moses likens God to a fire, right?

Which is consistent with Genesis 15,

God shows up to Abraham as a,

he reveals himself as a blazing torch.

Exodus three, God shows up to Moses in what?

A burning bush.

Exodus 13, God reveals himself to Israel

and he leads them out of Egypt as a pillar of fire.

Why fire?

I don't know, but I just, I love,

I love this fact because I've been a pyromaniac

since I was a very young child.

I just loved striking that match

and seeing, you know, the flame come to life.

Some of you have heard me talk about sewer ball.

As an adolescent, we would take the manhole cover off.

We'd pour some gasoline down the sewer.

We'd soak a tennis ball in gasoline,

light it on fire,

and then we'd kind of play putt-putt

and hope that we could get that flaming ball

into the sewer.

And when it happened,

there was just a pillar of fire

that would come up.

How am I not in jail right now?

How am I alive?

How am I a pastor?

I don't know.

But I've always loved fire.

And you think about these four elements,

earth, water, wind, and fire.

Why does God reveal himself as fire?

You know, your child comes to you, wants to play.

Do you give them a hose and some dirt

or do you give them wood and lighter fluid, right?

The fire imagery, the fire likeness of God,

it engages our senses.

We can see the brightness.

We can feel the heat.

We can hear the roar.

There's a formless, luminous, mysterious beauty

that beckons us from a fire to come closer

and to get warm.

And yet, there's a powerful danger that says,

don't come too close or you're gonna get burned.

This fire on Mount Sinai needs no fuel to burn.

Just as God needs nothing in himself

or outside of himself to be, he just is.

He's this infinite source of self-sufficient power.

Moses says, you are before a fiery God.

But this fiery God is not a silent God.

He's a God who speaks.

Verse 12.

He says, then the Lord spoke to you out of the fire.

You heard the sound of words but saw no form.

There was only a voice.

This is a God who speaks.

He's a personal, relational God who reveals

and communicates himself to us,

which means we're to be a people not so much of the eye.

We're to be a people of the ear,

a people who learn to listen

because God is calling out to us

from his interior, inmost being,

through his voice, through his word,

trying to get into our interior, inmost being.

God is reaching out to us

because he wants to be known by us.

And this is so deep.

This is so rich.

Moses is saying, God,

the God who is a transcendent, awesome fire,

he cannot be grasped or comprehended

by the greatest theologian.

And yet this God is also such an imminent

and near voice that's speaking to us.

He can be known and adored by the smallest child.

And Moses says, this voice of Sinai is speaking

not only to that generation,

but to every generation.

He's calling out to us

and it's ours to learn to trust this voice.

It's ours to learn to trust this word

that's speaking to us.

I love the gospels.

We have four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

But John 1, 1 says this,

in the beginning was the word.

And the word was with God

and the word was God.

The word became flesh

and made his dwelling among us.

We have seen his glory,

the glory of the one and only son

and who came from the father

full of grace and truth.

In Jesus, John says,

we finally and fully meet this mysterious God

who is both transcendent and eminent,

who is awesome and who's near,

who is a fire and who is a voice.

In Jesus, the divine fire

takes on human form

and a human face and a human voice.

In Jesus, this divine nature of God

is woven into human nature

and he's calling out to us

from his inmost being,

calling out our names,

saying to each one of us,

I want you to come follow me.

Come follow me.

And that's the question

maybe for some of us today

who are here exploring the Christian faith

and what it's all about.

Are you hearing this voice,

the voice of this mysterious God

calling out your name?

Moses says that our mysterious God,

he has a jealous love.

Our mysterious God has a jealous love.

And this is where Moses goes next in verse 15.

He says,

you saw no form of any kind

the day the Lord spoke to you

at Horeb out of the fire.

Therefore, watch yourselves very carefully

so that you do not become corrupt

and make for yourselves an idol,

an image of any shape.

Why?

Because God says,

I can tolerate no reductionist images of me

and no rival powers beside me.

On the one hand,

God is saying,

I am unrepresentable.

Anything you would try to construct,

whatever you could imagine,

I'm more powerful than that.

Whatever you could create,

I'm more majestic than that.

Whatever size you could make an idol,

I'm way bigger than that.

God is saying,

I am not static.

I'm not immobile.

I'm not deaf or dumb

or unfeeling or unthinking,

which every idol in the end actually is.

God says,

no,

I'm not manageable.

I'm not limited.

You can't contain me

or control me.

You can't pin God down

in space,

time,

and matter,

and say,

well,

God,

this is your time

and this is your space.

This is your day

and this is your place

and all the rest belongs to us.

God says,

no,

all of it is mine.

God says,

all of it is filled with my glory.

All of it is filled with my presence.

You can't reduce me

or try to reproduce me.

He says,

I'll tolerate no reductionist images

on the one hand

and on the other hand,

the ancient Near East

was full of gods,

full of gods

that oversaw various realms,

oversaw various human needs.

You had the gods of healing,

the gods of agriculture

and the god of commerce,

the god of war,

the god of relationships

and love and fertility

and in order to make your life work,

you had to bow down.

You had to depend on these gods

for your vitality

and your success

and God is saying here,

I don't want you to turn

to any substitute powers

for your needs.

Why?

Because I am the lord of all realms

and I am the lord of all needs

and I want you to come to me

and depend upon me

for everything,

for all of your needs.

I can tolerate

no reductionist images

and no rival powers

and why can't he tolerate

these things?

Because he says,

I'm jealous.

I'm a jealous God.

Verse 23,

be careful not to forget

the covenant

of the Lord your God

that he made with you.

Do not make for yourselves

an idol in the form of anything

the Lord your God

has forbidden

for the Lord your God

is a consuming fire,

a jealous God.

There are actually many places

in the Bible

where it just says

that God's name is

Jealous

with a capital J

and I know

it's completely off-putting

for most of us

for our modern sensibilities.

Why?

Is he jealous?

Is he insecure?

Is he egocentric?

Is he paranoid?

What's up with God

being jealous?

But there are two ways

that we can use that word.

One way is

jealousy is a synonym

for envy.

So I'm jealous

of your good looks.

I'm jealous

of your money.

Meaning that I

want to have them

and I don't want you

to have them.

That's one form

of jealousy

that's kind of

an egocentric

self-absorbed

kind of jealousy.

But the other

way to use this word

is what it means

here in Hebrew.

It literally means

to become intensely red.

I am a God

who becomes

intensely red.

And that signals

a passionate

commitment,

a zealous

allegiance

behind

which

and beneath

which sits

the structure

of a covenant.

If you want to get

Presbyterians

really excited

and see them

become Pentecostal

just use this word

covenant.

We name our churches

and our schools

covenant this

and covenant that

but that's because

God says here

in verse 23

the Lord God

don't forget

that he made

a covenant

with you.

Western society

is increasingly

short on

covenantal relationships

but the scriptures

say that this is

the only way

that we can relate

to God

is through

a covenant.

Well what is

a covenant?

A covenant

is far more

personal

and intimate

than a contractual

relationship

and yet a covenant

is far more

binding

and solemn

and accountable

than a friendship

and there are

really only two

forms of

covenantal relationships

left in

Western society.

The first is

the parent-child

relationship.

Some of you are parents

so you can imagine

yourself being a parent

and I want you to imagine

your cute

beautiful son

or daughter

becomes a teenager.

A teenage

son or daughter

who develops

a pattern

of lying

and cheating

and stealing

and how does that

make you feel

as a parent?

Does that make you feel

warm and fuzzy

on the inside?

Does that make you feel

indifferent

or does it cause you

to become

intensely red?

You become

intensely red

not so much

because you're angry

at that child

of course

you are

but because you're

angry for

your child.

you're angry

because of the

thing that's

destroying your

loved one

and your

relationship

with them.

You're angry

because you

love them.

This is what

one woman says

she says

love detests

what destroys

the beloved.

Real love

stands against

the deception

the lie

the sin

that destroys.

The more a father

loves his son

the more he hates

in him

the drunkard

the liar

the traitor.

Anger isn't

the opposite

of love.

Hate is

and the final

form of hate

is indifference.

The Bible

teaches us

that God

is this loyal

parent

with a

fiercely

protective

familial

bond

that will

tolerate

nothing

that's destroying

the well-being

of his children.

That's what it

means that he's

a jealous God.

But there's also

this other

relationship

not just the

parent-child

relationship

but the

covenantal

relationship

of marriage.

And if you're

if you have a

spouse

or you're

interested in

having a spouse

imagine

what you would

feel if you

found that your

spouse had

become more

intimate with

someone other

than you

you would

become intensely

red.

You would

because of

your passionate

commitment

because of

your zealous

allegiance

you would

want to

rescue

your beloved

you would

want to

rescue

your relationship

with them

and the

scriptures tell

us as well

that God

is a faithful

spouse

who has a

marital

commitment

to his

people

that will

tolerate

no rivals

and no

competitors

in this

relationship.

If God

is our

highest

good

how can

he be

anything

but jealous

how can

he possibly

be indifferent

when he sees

us his

people

resorting to

cheap

alternatives

that are

so much

less

than he

is

and so

far

beneath

us

people

who are

made

in the

image

of God

people

who are

the

beloved

children

of God

we

all of

us

myself

included

experience

imperfect

jealousy

that's so

tainted

with self

interest

it's hard

for us

to imagine

but what

if there

is one

being

one

perfect

parent

one

perfect

spouse

who

so

selflessly

sacrificially

committed

himself

to the

good

of his

loved

ones

that if

something

went

wrong

he

would

be

filled

with

a

pure

positive

redeeming

jealousy

for us

I think

C.S.

Lewis says

it so

well in

his book

The Problem

of Pain

he says

what is

this love

of God

and love

is such

an amorphous

term

is it

not

Lewis

helps

us

define

it

he says

what is

this love

of God

it is

not a

senile

benevolence

that drowsily

wishes you

to be

happy

in your

own

way

it's

not

the

cold

philanthropy

of a

conscientious

magistrate

it's

not

the care

of a

host

who

feels

himself

responsible

for the

comfort

of his

guests

no

the

love

of God

is the

consuming

fire

itself

the

love

that

made

the

world

persistent

as an

artist's

love

love for his

work

and despotic

as a man's

love for a

dog

provident

and venerable

as a father's

love for a

child

jealous

inexorable

exactly

love

love

between

sexes

and what

I want

to

remind

us

today

is

that

Jesus

most

fully

reveals

this

covenant

love

of our

jealous

God

1

John

3

16

says

this

is

how

we

know

what

love

is

Jesus

Christ

laid

down

his

life

for

us

when

he

was

crucified

on his cross, Jesus is acting like a parent who's throwing himself in front of the bus of sin and

death that's barreling down the road, threatening to kill us, his beloved children. When Jesus is

crucified on the cross, he's acting like a spouse who is out of his mind with crazy love to do

anything, anything it would take to bring his beloved back home to himself. On the cross, Jesus

is becoming intensely red in a passionate commitment to his blood, a zealous allegiance to

give himself completely body and soul for our well-being. God the Father, God the Son, God the

Holy Spirit has shown that he'll stop at absolutely nothing. He will spare no expense to rescue us, to

love us, to bless us because he's a jealous God. And in Christ crucified, we see this God who is both a

jealous God and a merciful God showing us what love really is by laying down his life for us. And that's

the question for us today. Are we clinging to this crucified one as the fullest, most complete image

of this invisible, mysterious God? Moses says, our mysterious God has a jealous love that makes us

different or that makes us weird. Our mysterious God has a jealous love. Let's just go with that. Weird is

better. That makes us weird. And I'll close with this. This is what caught my attention listening to

Moses' sermon this week and just taking notes on his own preaching. Moses expects the next generations

that are going to come along as the people of God and enter into the promised land, he expects them to

develop a counterculture. He expects them to establish a contrast society, to become an intentionally

peculiar people with a distinctive way of life that's recognizably different and strange, that's

readily distinguishable from the identities and vocations of the surrounding nations. Listen to what

he says in verse six. He says, observe these laws of God carefully for this will show your wisdom and

understanding to the nations who will hear about all these decrees and say, surely this great nation is a

wise and understanding people. What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the

Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him? And what other nation is so great as to have such

righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I'm setting before you today? Moses looks at the

surrounding peoples, the surrounding cultures of the ancient world, and he says, they're going to be dazzled

by what they see lived out among you, the people of God in your life together. The ideal nation in the

ancient world was based on, you know, having great size and great wealth and great military power, and

Israel had none of those things. Israel was small, it was weak, it was poor, it had no military. These were

recently freed slaves who've been wandering in the wilderness, but God says to them through Moses, he says,

your greatness is going to be your wisdom, that you live according to the wisdom of God woven into

this world. Your greatness is going to be your spiritual understanding and your moral discernment.

Your greatness is going to be your intimate covenant relationship with this God who is near you to

bless and protect you. Your greatness is going to be the righteous character of God embodied

embodied in your communal life together, embodied in your neighborly love, embodied in your justice,

especially toward the poor and the vulnerable. And as I think about this counterculture,

as I think about this contrast society of the people of God, I get excited about that. I don't know about

you, but I want to be a part of a great church. I want to be a part of a peculiar church, a church that

is like causing people to ask, where is this coming from? Where is all this wisdom and righteousness?

Where is all this understanding coming from? Don't you want to be a part of a church that's a counterculture

here in Berkeley and Oakland? And I just want us to, as we're going through the book of Deuteronomy,

as Moses lays this out, I want us to imagine what that looks like. I think what it looks like is us as a

people having hearts that are on fire with the burning love of God in our midst, his love that is

jealous, his love that is merciful, his love that is renewing. We have our hearts burning with the love

of God. And because of that, we have an attractive life. We have a provocative life. People look in

upon us and they see there is God's burning love embodied in their love for one another.

There I see there's God's love embodied in their love for their neighbors and even for

their enemies, their political enemies, their ideological enemies. I see the love of God among these people.

When people get close to us, they would feel the burning of God's wisdom and understanding among us.

When people get close to us, they would feel the burning of God's presence and his nearness

in our midst. When people get around us, they would feel the burning of his righteousness and justice being

enacted by us. And oh, the people would say, as Moses expects them to say, wow, we are illuminated.

By the burning light, we are warmed by the blazing heat of your God that's burning in your midst.

When the mysterious God is among us, when his jealous love has set us on fire, we will be a people

who are just different. A people who may look strange, who may look weird, but when we get close

enough, you know, this is the very heart of God, the very love of God that's become real and alive

among this community of people. That's what I want. Don't you want that? Let's pray for that.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we ask, Lord, make this true for me. Make this true

for us. Make us a people with your fire in our midst. Make us a people with your voice speaking in our

midst. Make us a people who look like you and act like you and feel like you in every way possible.

We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.