Deuteronomy 6:10-12, 20-25                                       Ordinary Time

 The other night Andrew and I were watching the movie “The Guardian” about the US Coast guard trainee, played by Ashton Kutcher and his teacher played by Kevin Costner. Rescue swimmers, they are, saving desperate people after their boat accidents and other water tragedies. Just like this (image on screen)

 Ronnie can tell you an amazing story of his rescue from a tragic car accident, how he was trapped in the car, with the seatbelt across his neck, cutting off circulation to his brain.

 On the screen see, one Chinese woman was rescued 150 hours after the earthquake in May. This boy soldier (image on screen) was rescued his captivity to warfare in Uganda.

 “Moments of crisis seem to bring out the best or worst in people. Tragedies can paralyze us in despair or they can be a catalyst for hope.” (Shane Claiborne)

 Others of us can tell less dramatic stories but powerful nonetheless about being saved from a difficult situation by the hand of God. Being rescued from the bondage of alcoholism or compulsive eating. Being liberated from a job situation which was burdensome. Some of you can talk about how you spent part of your life, seeking wealth only, trying to prove yourself through your accomplishments and how you were rescued by the grace of God for a life worth living. I can tell you about couple of times in my life when God has pulled me out of the pit of despair when I was sinking.

 Last week, we talked about practicing the rituals of our faith to keep our faith
alive – Bible reading, in particular. The reason we need to rehearse Biblical faith is that we need to see the larger story of God’s people, of which we are part. The stories of the Bible are family’s narrative. They tell us who we are.

 We are people of the Exodus, of the great rescue of the Israelites by God with the leadership of Moses. In the second half of Deuteronomy 6, which we read today, we will be encouraged to remember that God is the One who rescues us, who gives us good things. God brings us across places when we can see no way. God leads us out of slavery through the wilderness, give us commandments to make our lives more secure, and carries us into the land of promise. When we get to the good places in life, we sometimes forget that is God who brought us there.

 Deuteronomy tells us to remember and to make sure our children remember.
Hear the word of the Lord:
 

 ^NRS Deuteronomy 6:10  When the LORD your God has brought you into the land that he swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you – a land with fine, large cities that you did not build, ¹¹ houses filled with all sorts of goods that you did not fill, hewn cisterns that you did not hew, vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant -- and when you have eaten your fill, ¹² take care that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. ²⁰ When your children ask you in time to come, “What is the meaning of the decrees and the statutes and the ordinances that the LORD our God has commanded you?” ²¹ then you shall say to your children, “We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt, but the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. ²² The LORD displayed before our eyes great and awesome signs and wonders against Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his household.”²³ “The Lord brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land that the Lord promised on oath to our ancestors. ²⁴ Then the LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our lasting good, so as to keep us alive, as is now the case. ²⁵ If we diligently observe this entire commandment before the LORD our God, as the Lord has commanded us, we will be in the right.”

The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

 (Singing) “God will make a way where they seems to be no way. God works in ways we cannot see. God will make a way for me. Christ will be my guide. Hold me closely to his side. With love and strength for each new day, God will make a way. God will make a way.”

 When you feel hopeless; when you are tempted to despair; when you feel like the LORD is far from you - remember! Remembering will revive your hope. We cannot underestimate the gift of our memory, the power of a communal faith, which celebrates together the goodness of God. Remember all that God has done in the past, and you will have courage for the present and future times. If God has conquered an addiction of mine in the past, God will conquer the present one! If God has liberated us from the fears and oppressions of yesterday, God will again liberate us from the fears and oppressions of tomorrow! God has indeed fed us and sustained us these forty or sixty years, God will graciously feed and sustain us in the decades to come!! (Wordpress.com blogger)

 If you say in your heart, “This situation is too desperate. This Pharaoh is too stubborn. This enslavement is too fixed. This wilderness is too dry. This exodus is too long. There is no hope for change in this world of ours, or this heart of mine,” then remember the power of God. Hear more words from Deuteronomy: “You shall not be afraid of them but you shall remember what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt, the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, by which the LORD your God brought you out. (from Deuteronomy 7)

 How can we doubt God after seeing all God has done for us? But we forget, just like Israel so often forgot that it was the LORD who brought them out of Egypt, it was God who fed them, it was God who led them to the Promised Land, it was always God who sustained them. Just so we forget what God has done in our lives, because we don’t rehearse the Biblical stories enough nor do we reflect enough on God’s work in our own lives. And when we forget, we despair. Or we become self-satisfied and go our own way. When we forget that it was God who brought us, we begin to think that it’s all up to us. “Life is what you make it.” People love that line.

 But that line doesn’t tell the whole truth for the people of God, because life is not what we make it. We make a mess of it. Life is what God makes it. We cannot forget what the LORD has done for us, in us, and through us. It is our testimony; it is what strengthens our faith. We should often bring to mind all the things God has done - lest we forget and our hearts become dull and thank-less.

 Tomorrow at sundown, Jews will celebrate Shavuot. Shavuot, the Festival of Weeks, comes 50 days after Passover, like our Pentecost comes 50 days after Easter. Passover celebrates the freedom of Exodus (like Easter the freedom of Resurrection. Shavuot celebrates the gift of the Ten Commandments, which were given during the 40 year Exodus to the Promised Land. Shavuot also celebrates the fruit harvest that began once they reached the Promised Land. This is the origin of the term “first fruits” which are given to the Lord, in gratitude for all that we’ve been given. By practicing gratitude, we learn to recount the deeds of the Lord, so we remember all God has done. Remembering is an act we have some control over, not total control, but some control. We can rehearse the memories we want to keep.

 It’s really amazing how our memories work, isn’t it? I can’t ever remember things like where I put my keys, pocketbook or cell phone five minutes ago, but I can vividly remember events in my childhood. We have the ability to, in a sense, visit the past. The best preserved memories are one the ones we have rehearsed in our minds bodies or voices many times.

 “Do this in remembrance of me.” we rehearse at the communion table.
 “Jesus, the bread of life.. Jesus the cup poured out.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
1 Corinthians 11:23-26 When we hear the stories of the faith, when we share the sacraments of the faith, we remember our rescuer. From the desert wastelands to the fertile promised land, God will provide. And we will be thankful.

 We will remember that God will make a way where there seems to be no way. When you’ve been lying under rubble for 146 hours, there seems to be no way out. When
you’ve known nothing but warfare as a little child of Uganda or Iraq, there’s seems to be no way. When you’ve lost your job or your health or your home or your spouse, and there seems to be no way. God makes a way in the wilderness. God brings water in the desert while you wander around for what seems like forty years. God promises that you will reach the promised land where you can breathe again. God goes before you, behind you, and beside you.

Remember that God is your rescuer, no matter where you are.