Can you imagine the anticipation the people felt when they
heard Moses say, "“You are standing today all of you before the Lord your
God… so that you may enter into the sworn covenant of the Lord
your God, which the Lord your God is making with you today, that he may establish
you today as his people, and that he may be your God." They stand on the precipice of the most
amazing moment in history to date and Moses knows it. He includes everyone in the crowd including
men, women, children, sojourners and those who chop their wood and draw their
water. (Later, in the time of Joshua,
the Gibeonites would deceive them into making a treaty in direct contravention
of God's instructions and Joshua would make them choppers of wood and drawers
of water.) The covenant is for all who
would align themselves with the nation and when they enter the Land all were to
be under one Law. The covenant includes
not only all present but also, "whoever is not here with us today." Generations yet to come.
We must always be focused on children, the generation that
will carry on after us. We cannot fail
them and investment in them is investment in the kingdom of God. They are the responsibility of the entire
community if we are to see the kingdom advance in every generation. We are to be examples to them and we are to
do nothing to hinder their coming to Jesus.
That is part of our rationale for baptizing children, Jesus took them
seriously. The story of the rich young
ruler would seem to tell us something about what it means to be like a little
child, renouncing everything about being a responsible adult in our society,
all possessions, in favor of just having the kingdom. You have to open your hand and let go of what
is already there to receive something else.
You want an eternal inheritance?
Give me your earthly inheritance.
Look, all I am trying to do is save you and me some
embarrassment, I am trying to make sure you look good, that all the good things
I have said about you are true. This
passage begins with Paul saying those things in such a way that the church at
Corinth must certainly prove themselves to be as extraordinary as he has told
others they are. He has used them as an
example to spur others to be as good as they are and now they need to step up
and make sure they are indeed the example.
After that tack, he moves to the reality of the principles of sowing and
reaping, that if we sow abundantly, we will reap abundantly, and we are to do
so cheerfully. The principle isn't as
simple as some would make it today, that if you give, God will return your
money to you in prosperity. The return
is sometimes non-monetary to investing in the kingdom, it is eternal. Jesus didn't promise the rich young man any
financial return on giving away his money, only an eternal reward.
No comments:
Post a Comment