Acts 10:44-48
Psalm 98
1 John 5:1-6
John 15:9-17

Acts 8:26-40
Psalm 22:25-31
1 John 4:7-21
John 15:1-8

For more information and directions please email Laura at admin@ecclesiax.com or call 613-565-4343.

“You will not cross” It sounds like a quote from Lord of the Rings when Gandalf prevents the Balrog (big bad demon monster) from crossing a narrow stone bridge in pursuit of the heros, but it isn’t. It’s from this weeks Old Testament lectionary reading.

At the end of his life, God told Moses that he “will not cross over into it.” “It,” is the land that God promised to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their descendents. God took Moses up a mountain, and showed him the bountiful land that he was going to give to the new nation of Israel. The land God had promised for hundreds of years;

the land Moses was saved from the Nile river so that he could lead the people to,
the land that Moses stood up to Pharaoh and risked his life to get the people to,
the land that Moses put up with a bunch of ungrateful whining people to get them to, the same people Moses had to plead with God not to destroy,
the land of milk and honey.

The land Moses, “will not cross into.”

So why did God shut Moses out? There are a couple of possible explanations. The first comes just a couple of chapters earlier when God tells Moses,

“This is because both of you (Moses and Aaron) broke faith with me in the presence of the Israelites… and because you did not uphold my holiness among the Israelites. Therefore, you will see the land only from a distance; you will not enter the land I am giving to the people of Israel.” (Deuteronomy 32:51-52)

It appears that God is referring to something Moses and Aaron did while in the desert (Numbers 20:1-13), but the infraction here doesn’t seem to warrant the punishment in light of all that Moses is credited with in chapter 34. It just doesn’t seem to balance out.

It has also been suggested that Moses did not get to enter because he is suffering the same judgement as the rest of the people when they refused to trust God and enter the promised land the first time they had the opportunity. God said “No one from this evil generation shall see the good land I swore to give your ancestors, except Caleb son of Jephunneh.” (Deuteronomy 1:35) Moses also says “Because of you (the people) the LORD became angry with me also and said, “You shall not enter it, either.”” (v. 37) We may not like that explanation, but it fits with the way things often play out in the Old Testament, leaders can be held responsible for their followers and people can suffer for the choices of their leaders.

I wonder if this is really what this story is about? Is this passage at the end of the story of Moses life about why he gets shut out of the Promised Land? With the emphasis on all of the great things Moses had done and the proclamation that there would never be another prophet as great as him, it seems unlikely that the point here is his failure. On the contrary, Moses accomplished all that God had planned for him. Maybe that’s the point.

Maybe this story can remind us that life is not a goal but an adventure? What a great adventure it was; Moses faced the most powerful leader of his time and said “let my people go,” he stretched his hand out and watched the sea part, he spoke to God and God knew him by name. To be sure there were rough times; the people were always complaining, they didn’t like his wife, they didn’t like the food, and their feet were sore. The path from where we are to where God wants us to be can be long, difficult, uncomfortable, and often thankless, but Moses and the people were led every step of the way by the presence of God. Moses didn’t get to enter the Promised Land, but neither did Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob, not the way God intended.

I have often struggled with the feeling that I am working for something that is out of reach, but every now and then God shows me a glimpse of where God is leading me and reminds me that I am never on my own. As long as we walk with God, the Spirit leads us. We mess up and go on a detour now and then, and we may not get to enter the Promised Land, but we get to be part of a great adventure.

God’s people did make it to the Promise Land, just like God promised. Even though Moses didn’t, he got to be a very important part of the adventure. It’s scary sometimes, but I want to be part of God’s adventure called Ecclesiax—how about you?

I wrote out a list of issues that I could think of that exist in Ottawa, that aren’t talked about in the church much, to see if there was anything I could feasible do:

Homelessness, mental illness, systemic poverty, our flawed jail system, immigration issues (like immigrants not being able to get work in their field of expertise, or issues of them being away from their families), or issues in subsidized housing in Ottawa (infestations, or crumbling buildings). 

These are all economic issues, because they require money.    One of the reasons consistently claimed by government that nothing is done about these, is that there isn’t money, and the government would need to raise taxes to address these.  Now, I struggle here, because I want to make the statement of “if the percentage of the portion of Canadians that claim to be Christians were willing to see their taxes raised to try and address these systemic issues…” as if it’s obvious to those that are Christian that we should be willing to do this, but I wonder if there are legitimate reasons that someone would claim that their taxes shouldn’t be raised to improve the jail systems, or address the poor conditions of subsidized housing.  I struggle, because for so long I’ve only ever considered these as political issues, but what if there is another way?

Don Miller made the statement once to the effect of “its not the government failing these people, its the churches failing the people.”  I found this quite a compelling statement.  What if we as the church were willing to do more to help out these various issues, and stop looking to governments to fix them?  Of the critiques of religion by Marx, he had a good answer to why we don’t do more.  The first way we justify not doing more, is that we say “God is Love”, and “God wants us to live justly”, but are never willing to talk about concrete ways to live this out.  There is some legitimacy behind avoiding telling people what to do, because there’s a risk that it may be wrong.  The second way we may justify not doing more, is that we separate our physical lives from our spiritual lives, and suggest that all of those economic imperatives given in the New Testament are exclusively for life in heaven.  I know I do the first one far more than the second, as I believe that Christianity really is intended to have something to say about how I live now. 

So, I’m back with this fear of what to do.  There are so many issues that exist, both locally and globally.  There is far more than any one individual has any hope of doing.  That, and my time is now a little more strapped having a young child around.  I know I have to overcome that fear of doing something wrong.  For so much of my life, I’ve been taught that “God will direct me”, and tell me what to do.  In a sense when I was writing that list, I was hoping for some sort of divine revelation, but like usual it didn’t come.  But, I’m beginning to believe that we have been given the ability to make decisions for ourselves, to have goals and desires.  We have been given the gift of creativity.  If I hope and wait for God to tell me what to do, I’m giving up that gift.  If I choose to do something, I run the risk of doing the wrong thing, but at least I’m trying in some small way to create a better world.

But when I look at that list, I don’t see anything that matches up with my personal passions.  So am I missing something?  Or do I need to give up those passions, so I can live better? 

What are the issues that you see around you?  What are your passions?  How are you bringing these two together to create a better world?