Do and Hear

Scripture: Exodus 24: 1-8

Sermon: Do and Hear

Topics: Disciplines, Feelings, Habits

Preached: May 7, 2006-05-04 intergenerational service

Rev. Mike Abma

Note: From the start I want to acknowledge a debt to Lauren Winner’s book, Mudhouse Sabbath where I first learned of this interesting turn of phrase in Exodus 24. Also to C.S. Lewis’ description of faith in Mere Christianity.

EXODUS 24: 1-8

Then he said to Moses, ‘Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship at a distance. ²Moses alone shall come near the Lord; but the others shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him.’

3 Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice, and said, ‘All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.’ ⁴And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. He rose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and set up twelve pillars, corresponding to the twelve tribes of Israel. ⁵He sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt-offerings and sacrificed oxen as offerings of well-being to the Lord. ⁶Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he dashed against the altar. ⁷Then he took the book of the covenant, and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, ‘All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.’ ⁸Moses took the blood and dashed it on the people, and said, ‘See the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.’

This is the Word of the Lord

Thanks be to God.

INTRODUCTION

In the middle of the Book of Exodus, we have what is called the Book of the Covenant. It starts with the Ten Commandments, then goes on to list various laws that deal with

how to treat your neighbor,

how to handle crime and punishment,

how to deal with property,

regulations concerning marriages,

how to deal with the weakest in society – widows, orphans, and foreigners –

and also how to observe holy days, like the Sabbath and the Holy Festivals.

The beginning of Exodus 24 is called a Covenant Confirmation Ceremony. All these laws have been laid out before the people of Israel, and they solemnly vow to abide by them. What is a little puzzling is the words they use in verse 7.

Then Moses took the Book of the Covenant, and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient (NIV obey).

In our translation, that doesn’t sound so odd.

But the last word is really “hear” (shema) — like the Shema of Deuteronomy 6 – “Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord is One…”

So literally it says in our text: “We will do and we will hear — Na’aseh v’nishema.”

Doesn’t that sound a little odd? We will do and we will hear.”

For centuries Rabbi’s have pondered over this strange word order.

It doesn’t seem to make sense – do and hear?

Even for us New Testament Christians, we scratch our heads and wonder.

We are so used to praying that the Lord make us not only hearers but also doers of His Word. Hearers, Doers – that is the order we are used to.

But here we have Doers, Hearers.

What could this mean?

As I noted earlier, I have Lauren Winner and C.S. Lewis to thank in helping clarify what it probably means. It means that we often only come to really understand what we believe in the doing and the practicing of that belief.

We know faith and works go hand in hand.

but we often only think about how faith shapes what we do.

What we fail to recognize is how what we do shapes our faith.

So this evening, taking our cue from this peculiar phrase in Exodus 24,

we are going to think about how what we do shapes our faith;

how our habits help mold what we believe.

We will talk about doing and hearing.

SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES

In the language of the church, we call these things we do Spiritual Disciplines.

There are Disciplines of Abstinence – things we give up

and Disciplines of Engagement. – things we take on.

And sometimes we do both – we give up one thing to take up another

That is sort of what happens for many of us on Sundays –

we give some things up — like work, or for some, shopping;

and we take up other things – like gathering for worship.

SABBATH

Let me make myself clear here.

I think we all know that simply going to church does not make us Christians.

Simply attending church will not save us.

Only the death and resurrection of Jesus does that.

Only the mercy and love of our Lord does that.

I think we also know that, as New Testament Christians, we believe every day is holy.

Yet, we still set aside this day of Sunday. And many of you are here for a second time today. But how does the “doing” deepen the “hearing?”

How does “keeping Sabbath” deepen our faith?

There is talk about reclaiming Sundays as a day of rest.

Most of what is written talks about making Sundays a day just for you.

Treat yourself, pamper yourself.

Rest, relax, sink into a bubble bath with a good book,

and let the troubles of the world slip away.

That is the way reclaiming Sundays is sometimes packaged.

But really, to be a holy habit, a spiritual discipline,

we should realize Sundays shouldn’t be designed to pamper ourselves.

They should be designed to praise and honor God.

We find our rest not so much in a hot-tub or a movie theater,

but in stepping back from the demands of the world

and resting with other Christians in our dependence on the Lord.

But what if we don’t feel like it?

What if we don’t feel like going to church?

That was my biggest complaint as kid.

When I was a kid, the Wonderful World of Walt Disney was on television during the second service on Sunday. I’m telling you, that was big competition. Faced with the choice between watching Herbie the Love Bug and sitting through second service, well, you can imagine, Herbie or whatever else Walt Disney was showing, won every time.

But our family still went to church, often when I didn’t feel like it.

In fact, looking back, I think there were Sundays when my parents didn’t even feel like it.

But we went anyway.

Why? It was a Spiritual Discipline. It is what gave rhythm and order to our lives.

Ask anyone over the age of 70 who has been attending church services all their lives if they were always eager to go, and the answer will probably be “No.”

The reality is that feelings come and go, just as our feelings of faith come and go.

But it is the habits of faith, the spiritual disciplines,

that so often see us through the dry times, the hard times.

We do. We hear.

PRAYER

Prayer is another spiritual discipline.

Again, many people think that we only need to pray when we feel like it.

If that were the case, most of us would only pray

when something really good happened – so we could give thanks,

or when something really bad happened – so we could ask for help.

But prayer is something that needs to be part of the rhythm and order of our days.

Why do parents pray with their children before meals and before going to sleep at night?

It establishes a rhythm, a habit, a spiritual discipline.

Rhythms, habits, — they have much more of an affect than we often realize.

Again, when I was a kid, there was a rhythm to our household:

Tea at breakfast;

Coffee at mid-morning

Tea at late afternoon

and tea before bed.

That was the rhythm of my parents.

I never consciously decided that I liked that rhythm.

But somehow, I find myself following the same rhythm:

tea for breakfast,

coffee at mid morning;

tea in the late afternoon;

and tea before bed.

It isn’t a duty. It is a delight.

Prayer, ideally, should be the same.

Our rhythm of prayer shouldn’t be a duty.

A member of our church just said to me this week – my rhythm of praying before sleeping each night is something I look forward to – it’s a delight.

Let me refer to C.S. Lewis who again and again writes about the importance of healthy habits. Lewis writes, there is nothing more important than the practice of faith, resulting in the habit of faith, in order to deepen faith itself. There is nothing more important.

We do, we hear.

OTHER SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES

There are so many other Spiritual Disciplines we might choose – different Spiritual Disicplines of Abstinence and Disciplines of Engagement.

Let me give you some examples of some Spiritual Disciplines of Abstinence:

A classic spiritual discipline of abstinence is fasting.

Fasting is doing without certain foods we love.

Why? Fasting helps deepen our faith in a number of ways:

* it makes us more thankful for what we do have

* it makes us more dependent on God

and helps us see that our deepest hunger is ultimately for Him.

Another example of a Spiritual Discipline of Abstinence is to live a life of Simplicity.

We may not have the rigid food laws of the Old Testament,

but perhaps, out of concern for God’s creation,

we might consider eating more simply so that others may simply live.

You see, next to keeping our cars on the road,

the biggest use of oil in our country

is transporting food from here to there.

We have become used to having strawberries in January;

tomatoes in December

and yes, even Gouda cheese, from the Netherlands.

Perhaps a spiritual discipline of simplicity

is to practice seasonal and local eating.

Eating food that is in season,

and avoiding, or at least limiting, foods that clearly need to be transported a long way in order to arrive on our plates.

There are also any number of Spiritual Disciplines of Engagement. That is when we add something to our lives that intentionally shows love to God and our neighbor.

Perhaps volunteering one night of your week to

serve at a shelter,

or tutor a child

or teach English as a Second Language to a student.

It may mean intentionally practicing Hospitality:

one night a month inviting someone over for a meal.

Not just friends, but people you would normally not invite socially.

The big challenge is, “What if I don’t feel like it?

What if I’m not even sure I like the people I’m helping, or tutoring, or

teaching, or inviting over?

Again, the advice is to simply put into practice what we know we need to practice – generosity, kindness, compassion, hospitality, acceptance –

and in time we will come to love the person more and more.

Do and hear.

SPIRITUAL TEMPTATION

Here is the greatest temptation.

The temptation is always to become self-righteous and smug.

The temptation is to feel spiritually superior to anyone who doesn’t practice the same Spiritual Disciplines we do.

We need to avoid the temptation of announcing to the world that for the sake of God and the planet, we don’t eat broccoli or peaches out of season.

If someone invites you for dinner, and serves a broccoli, peach, don’t say smugly, “O, I don’t eat broccoli and peaches out of season.”

Instead, take a page out of the Apostle Paul’s book.

When he was with broccoli and peach eaters – he ate broccoli and peaches.

When he was with broccoli and peach abstainers – he abstained.

He became all things to all people in order to be a witness to Christ.

CONCLUSION

People of God, how we live shapes what we believe.

This is so important that at Calvin Theological Seminary they now ask all their students to write a Rule of Life. They ask what spiritual practices and what spiritual disciplines give shape and rhythm and order to their lives.

The Seminary has realized that being a pastor is about more than

knowing your Greek verbs,

and knowing the definitions of justification and sanctification.

The Seminary knows that these disciplines, these habits,

do not make us Christians.

But they do shape our Christianity,

and deepen our understanding of what it means to follow Christ.

This, of course, isn’t only for prospective pastors.

It is for all of us.

How we live,

the habits we live by,

these shape us.

May we live by holy habits

That deepen our understanding of what it means to follow Christ.

May we Do and May we Hear.