Bulletin Outline

I. History of Israel
What was Israel's situation?
1. _____________ generation out of Egypt to wander in the wilderness.
What had they missed?
2. On the ____________ of the promised land again.
3. Moses was preparing them to enter the land again.
How did he prepare them?
II. Why History Is Important
1. A covenant was formed between a __________ and his _________
God = __________ Israel/Us = ____________
2. Who is God? How do we know him?
"The God of your ___________."
He is known by his ____________ in history.
3. Who are we?
We know who we are by ____________.
The sacraments ___________ redemptive history.
III. How We Understand History
1. ____________ person.
God's past miracles understood presently
Lord's Supper becomes current.
2. An attitude of gratitude.
Obedience.
Blessed to be a blessing.

Outline for overhead:

This Is Who We Are Part II
Deuteronomy 6: 20-25

Introduction: Grandma and the folder

I. History of Israel
A. Where They Are
1. 2nd generation out of Egypt to wander in the wilderness.
2. On the threshold of entering the promised land again.
B. Moses' Preparation
1. The Ten Commandments
2. The God of your fathers.
II. Why History Is Important
A. The Formation of Covenants
1. God/King and Israel/vassal
B. God's Identification
1. "God of your fathers."
2. Through his past acts in history.
C. Rehearsing the Story
1. Star Trek.
2. Our identification.
3. The sacraments.
III How We Understand History
A. First Person
1. God's past miracles understood presently.
2. The Lord's Supper
B. An Attitude of Gratitude
1. Through obedience.
2. Blessed to be a blessing.
Conclusion
 A Responsive Reading Based on Deuteronomy 6:4-8
Leader: Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is on.

People: We will love the Lord with all our hearts, with all our soul, and with all our
strength.

Leader: This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is like unto it.

People: We will love our neighbor as ourselves.

Leader: These commandments I give you today are to be upon your hearts.

People: We will impress them upon our children.

Leader: Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the
road, when you lie down and when you get up. For the Lord your God
demonstrated his great love for you and his immeasurable grace in that while
you were yet in bondage God led you out of the land of slavery with a
mighty hand. While you were yet a slave to sin, Christ died for you.
Deuteronomy 6:20-25
A Family History: This Is Who We Are

My wife, Rachel, and I have a tradition we follow every time we go back to the
hills of West Virginia. We like to take a little time out of each visit to go and pray with
my grandmother. When my grandfather was alive, he and grandma prayed together every
night before going to bed, so she enjoys having someone to pray with her. Rach and I
will go and spend a while talking to her and then as we prepare to leave, we say a prayer
for grandma.
Well, while we were home over Christmas break, we went to visit and began
talking to her about the good ol' days. I had never learned much about my family history
because as I was growing up, my family always lived away from West Virginia. Dad was
in the military so we only visited during the summer. But that evening, Grandma drug
out this old folder bulging with papers. In it were handwritten pages, some with
grandma's hand-writing, some with others, full of the names and dates of my ancestors.
There were birth and death notices, short little blurbs about major events in the family
and the name of the original five brothers who left Lanham, Maryland in the early 1800's
to settle in Appalachia. I also heard about my maternal great, great, great grandfather,
William "the Pioneer" Currence, who married Lydia Steele in Philadelphia and after
having ten kids, moved to the Tygart Valley in West Virginia. He built the first mill in the
area and Fort Currence. Shortly after finishing all this, he was killed in an Indian raid.
I was so fascinated by all the stories and names and dates. They gave me a
connection to the past -- to all the fish that swam in my gene pool. I began to get a sense
of who I was, where I came from and what sort of heritage I had.
Now, I realize, that to most of you, if not all, this is nonsense. Afterall, it has
nothing to do with Michigan or Jackson history. Nor does it have anything to do with
the Netherlands, the Reformed Church, or Cascades Fellowship. But to me, this
information is priceless. You know why? Because its my story. It tells me who I am.
Without these stories, I don't exist.
In the same way, Israel does not exist without her stories. Our passage this
morning concentrates on the story of Israel. It tells us a little bit about who she is and
how she came to be. In working through our passage this morning, we're going to look
first at the history behind the passage. The second thing we will look at is why telling the
story is important. Finally, we will talk about how we should hear the story today.
To understand what is happening at this point in the story of Israel, we must
remember at what point they are in their journey toward the land -- where they are in the
exodus from Egypt. By this time in the story, the first generation of Israelites to come out
of Egypt have died. Only Moses, Joshua, and Caleb remain from that first generation.
So the people addressed here by Moses are ones who never tasted the slavery of Egypt.
In their minds, they are part of large nomadic people searching for a land to make their
own. Sure they have heard the stories and the promises, but they themselves were not
around to see the plagues destroy Pharaoh and Egypt. They did not walk across the dry
bed of the Red Sea or see the cloud settle on Mount Sinai where Moses met with God and
received the Ten Commandments.. So for them, the sting their parents felt when God
turned them away from the land for their disobedience and lack of faith -- as recorded in
Numbers 14 -- is but the dull ache of a long journey. This generation is part of the second
exodus -- the second wandering through the wilderness. And their wanderings are about
to come to end. As the nation of Israel approaches the boundary of the promised land --
the Jordan River -- for the second time, Moses is busy preparing them. In chapter five, he
gives the Israelites the Ten Commandments again. He reminds them of the covenant God
made with them at Sinai. Now in chapter six he tells them why it is important to pay
attention to the things he is telling them. Look at v. 3.

Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you
may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the
God of your fathers, promised you.
What I want us to notice -- to keep in mind -- is how Moses names God. "The God of
your fathers." He's making a statement here. He's pointing Israel back to her history. He
wants her to see that the God who led Abraham out of Ur is the same one who led their
parents out of Egypt. Is the same one who is leading them into the promised land. Now
why do you suppose this is so important? Take a look at vv. 20-25.

In the future, when your son asks you "What is the meaning of the stipulations,
decrees and laws the Lord our God has commanded you?" tell him: "We were
slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty
hand. Before our eyes the Lord sent miraculous signs and wonders -- great and
terrible -- upon Egypt and Pharaoh and his whole household. But he brought us
out from there to bring us in and give us the land he promised on oath to our
forefathers. The Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the
Lord our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive as is the case
today. And if we are careful to obey all this law before the Lord our God, as he
commanded us, that will be our righteousness.

Notice how the father begins his answer to the son's question in v.20. "We were
slaves in Egypt..." What's he doing? Why is he answering the child with a history
lesson? Well, what he is doing has to do with the way covenants were formed in the
Ancient Near East. You see, in the Near East at that time when a king or royal figure
made a covenant with a vassal or servant, the covenant began with a narration of the
kindness the king has shown to his vassal -- a rehearsal of his mighty and kind acts in
history. These acts of kindness were recited to inspire allegiance and gratitude in the
vassal. Now God is the mighty King and Israel is the vassal. So what the father is doing
here, is rather than simply saying "Out of gratitude," or "Because he is God and he says
we must," the father rehearses the terms of the covenant God has made with Israel at
Sinai. He is helping the child recognize that he has a part in the covenant and is leading
him to think of his obedience as gratitude.
Now, while that explains what the father is doing, it doesn't completely explain
why God wants a parent to answer in this way. Why it is so important? To understand
this a bit better, I want to look at Genesis 15, when God made his covenant with
Abraham. Notice how God identifies himself in v.7 of that chapter. "I am the Lord, who
brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you the land to take possession of it."
Now, look over in Exodus 3 v. 6 when God is speaking to Moses. "I am the God of your
father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Again in Exodus
20 at the giving of the Ten Commandments, v.2 "I am the Lord your God, who brought
you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery." And again, looking at Deuteronomy 6:3
when God is referred to as "the God of your fathers."
In each of these cases, God identifies himself or is identified not so much by
name, but by what he has done in the past. What I want us to see here is what God
reveals about himself. What we need to see is that the knowledge of God is gained
through the experience of his acts of kindness in history. We come to know God by
seeing what he has done in our past. So, to know God one must begin by looking at how
God has maintained the covenant. One must look at the history of redemption -- all of
the history of redemption -- and see what God has done.
So why is it important to tell the story? Because it tells us two things. The first
and most important thing that it tells us is about the God that we serve. Unless we
remember what God has done for us previously, we will have no idea about who we
worship. When someone asks you "How do you know God exists?" What do you tell
them? Because I have seen what God can do. I have seen his actions in history. I have
known his kindness by what he has done for me. What do you tell your kids when they
ask why they go to church and catechism during the weekend? Or why you read the
Bible each night after dinner as a family? Because when you were a baby you were
baptized as a sign of your part in the people of God and we stood before the Lord and
promised that we would do all we could to make sure you grow up knowing who he is.
Do you see what is happening here? Even in our sacraments we are rehearsing
our covenant with God. Why? Because they tell us who he is by retelling the story and
in finding out who he is, we can then begin to understand who we are.
Now before I go on, I have a bit of a confession to make. My wife Rachel and I
are die-hard Trekkies -- you know, people who watch Star Trek in all its manifestations.
Actually, its worse than that. We tape the episodes. We already have about ten, twelve
tapes apiece for Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. We also have
about 4 or 5 tapes of Star Trek Voyager.
Now before you raise your eyebrows, let me just say that every now and then you
come across an episode that has real value -- that speaks volumes on something
worthwhile. An example would be one episode I watched some time ago. Now for the
most part the episode was about being true to yourself and finding worth in who you are.
A noble story-line, but misguided since it posits a persons worth outside of Christ. But in
the middle of the show, there was a scene that was just brilliant. It resonated with truth.
The scene concerned a discussion between an elder and a child. They were
Klingons. For those who don't know what a Klingon is, it is an advanced culture of war-
like people who hold traditions sacred even as they seek to advance technologically.
Understand, however, that their first loyalty belongs to the tradition, not progress.
At any rate, the elder Klingon was reciting one of the stories of his people when
the child became bored saying he had heard it all before. The elder's response revealed
his passion. He began to tell the child how important the stories were because they
forged the identity of a Klingon. Everything that a Klingon believed about himself, his
family, his race, and his planet found its core in the stories they told to one another. The
stories were important because they told a Klingon who he was. Without the stories, no
Klingon exists.
 That is the second reason why telling the story is important. Without the stories
we don't exist. They tell us who we are by outlining for us our relationship with God.
John Calvin, in his Institutes begins his discussion on the Christian religion by arguing
that it is impossible to know ourselves unless we know God. And it is impossible to know
God unless we know ourselves. In other words -- unless we recognize that he is the
Creator and we are the creatures, we will never truly know ourselves. Until we know that
Jesus Christ is the Redeemer and we are the ones in need of redemption, we will never
truly know ourselves. Are you beginning to see it now?
Telling the story is so important because without it the people of God do not exist.
We need our stories to know our God. We need to know our God to know ourselves.
How can we be the covenant people of God unless we know who we are in covenant
with? And the only way to know is to do what the father does in vv. 21-25 -- rehearse the
terms of the covenant.
Before I move on to talking about how we are to hear the story today, I want stop
for a moment and pick up this idea about the sacraments retelling the story. One of the
greatest privilges about belonging to Christ is sharing in the Lord's Supper. I want us to
stop and think for a moment about what we are actually doing when we celebrate
Communion. We remember -- rehearse -- retell the story of Christ's death. We look at
the cross of Calvary as the defining moment of the church. The church exists because the
Cross happened. Without it, without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins,
there is no resurrection -- there is no church. Don't miss that. If you take away the cross,
you take away the church. You see, celebrating the Lord's Supper is so much more than
just remembering that Christ died for your sins. It is remembering who we are. It is
remembering that with his blood Christ purchased a people for God -- a peculiar people, a
nation of priest. It is the retelling of how God in Christ made us one Body, who has one
Lord, through one baptism, to the glory of one God and Father of all.
When Rach and I moved out to Iowa and began attending the Christian Reformed
Church there, part of my experience was recognizing that in many ways I was still an
outsider. The same was true in Grand Rapids because when you join the Christian
Reformed Churches in these areas by necessity you join the Dutch-American sub-culture.
Dutch-Americans still have a strong sense of their ethnic identity. Many still rehearse
their stories from the Old Country and pass down the traditions of the Netherlands to
their children. For someone like myself who comes from such a mixed bag, this can be
appealing. The problem for me was I didn't have access to the stories -- they were not
part of my heritage. Just as my stories about William "the Pioneer" Currence were at best
curiosities to you -- they have no organic connection to your past -- the stories of the
Dutch-American community suffice only in that they let me know who they were -- who
it was I am dealing with. I loved the stories, but for me they are simply information.
But there is a story we shared -- an organic connection between us. It's a story
which also connects all of us together. We have a past together that extends throughout
history and pre-history. A part of that history is retold for us in our passage this morning.
"We were slaves of Pharaoh...."
Look again at verse v.21. How is the father to begin his answer? "We!" He does
not say -- "Well, my mom and dad were slaves in Egypt under Pharaoh, and God came
and rescued them, so we now worship God because of what he did for our parents." To
say that would have been to distance himself from the covenant. To distance himself
from God.
Instead, when Israel retold the Exodus story, she was to proclaim her deliverance
in the language of first person. "We." Even though the person saying "we" was not even
born during the time when they left Egypt, he was yet to understand himself as having a
part in it. They understood God's acts of kindness in the history of their people as acts of
kindness done for them personally. In other words, God's deliverance was for them as
well as their parents and grandparents.
Just as Israel then was to hear the story first person -- as if she actively
participated -- so Israel today. We, the church, are to remember the Exodus as if we
walked across the Red Sea between the towering walls of water. That's our story -- our
family history, it is who we are. When we read the Exodus story -- when we talk about
the plagues that swept over Egypt -- we should be saying that God led us up out of Egypt
with a mighty hand, with many miraculous signs and wonders to bring us into the land.
Similarly, when we hear the words of the institution of the Supper "This is my
body, given for you...." we should hear these words as if Christ himself were speaking
them to us. As we take the bread and the cup we should have all the giddy feelings of the
disciples realizing that we are getting in on the ground floor of a great movement of God.
People God hear me and rejoice. When you take the bread and cup you are participating
with all the saints down through the ages in inaugurating the New Covenant. At that
moment you stand at the pinnacle of redemption and you are witnesses -- you profess its
reality -- by eating and drinking. It is as if you are shouting loud and clear -- Christ has
died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again. You are rehearsing our story.
Beloved, we can't miss this. It is too important to our faith response. In this day
and age when we use so many things to keep us apart, the deeper we invest ourselves into
the story of redemption the closer we will draw together as a body. What I want us to see
is that our lives are governed -- or at least should be -- by an over-arching narrative. It is
the story of redemption -- of Israel. Like Paul in Philippians 3, let me remind you that
your citizenship is in heaven. You belong to Israel. That is your story, your heritage. It
does not matter whether you are white, black, red, brown, purple green, Dutch, German,
African, Egyptian, Jewish, English, Irish -- whatever. The day you professed Christ as
Lord, you became a citizen of the New Jerusalem. And the story of that city is now your
story. A story that you share with believers all over the world and through all times -- a
story which should govern the way you think and act.
Look with me quickly at the vv. 24-25.

The Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the Lord our God,
so that we might always prosper and be kept alive as is the case today. And if we
are careful to obey all this law before the Lord our God, as he commanded us,
that will be our righteousness.
The father tells the son that they obey the stipulations laws and decrees because of what
God has done. They obey out of gratitude for what God has done. And in doing so, it
becomes their "righteousness." All that the father is saying here is that obedience to God
is the proper response to great kindness he has shown us. It is the way we express our
gratitude. It is the way that we live in the land flowing with milk and honey.
 When we hear the story the way we should, it changes us. It changes our
responses. The Heidleberg Catechism is separated into three sections -- sin, salvation,
service. What the writers of the catechism understood -- and what is reflected in the
answer the father gives the son -- is the recognition that when we hear the story, claim it
as our own, our hearts should be so filled with gratitude that we feel obliged to obey what
God has commanded us.
Let me ask you one last question. Why is the response of gratitude so important
to our story? Because that's how Deuteronomy 6 says we should respond? Well, sort of.
What is Israel? A nation of priests? Yes. But she is also to be a blessing to the nations --
remember the promises made to Abraham in Genesis 12. All the nations will be blessed
through you. The nature of Israel is to be a blessing to all those around her. She is to live
a life of gratitude that visibly demonstrates the power, majesty and grace of God.
Remember, she was going into a land she did not conquer -- God did it for her -- the
people would go into homes they did not build and would eat from crops they did not
plant. Everything she had -- came from God's hand, so by responding in gratitude, the
nations about her would see the glory of God and be drawn into the faith. That is still our
nature. Our task. This is who we are. Our family history.
This is why we need to remember our stories. This is why we need to impress our
stories upon our children. Why we need to talk about them when we walk along the road
or sit at home. Why we need to declare them to one another when we lie down and when
we get up. We need to tell them to one another constantly lest we forget who we are.
Israel, a nation of priest chosen by God -- sinners redeemed in Christ. We need to
rehearse them lest we forget where we were. We were in the land of slavery -- in
bondage to sin -- but God led us out with a mighty hand into the land of promise -- the
history of redemption. We need to recall them so that we may be faithful to the mission
of Israel -- to be a blessing to the nations -- to manifest the glory of God among the
nations. To proclaim the good news that Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will
come again.
I told a little fib a moment ago. I have a few more questions for you. How is it
with us? Are we telling the stories of our faith to our children? To each other? Do we
know our story -- who we are? Who God is? When we celebrate the Supper, is it just
another chance to repent or is it a chance to recapture a sense of our participation in God's
glorious plan of redemption?
We share a history, you and I. One that is far more meaningful than the one that
includes William "the Pioneer" or stories of immigration from the Netherlands. It is the
story of God's people and his mighty acts on their behalf. It is the story of his saving
action despite our continual rebellion against him. It is the story of his grace.
Let me just say, if for some reason, this isn't your story, please talk to somebody
before you leave today. Talk to one of the elders or deacons or if no one else, then to me.
Become a part of the story. If this is your story, tell it to somebody. Be a blessing to
somebody else. Afterall, we have such a cool -- awesome -- story to tell.