Reflection: Promised Land
Harmony Presbyterian Church
Sunday October 25, 2026
10 AM
Deuteronomy 34:1-12 (read both)
Nope, no admittance for Moses. It was time for Moses to ring the bell, close the book, blow out the candle and pass on. We come to the story of the death of Moses.
“Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!” – MLK.
Lot of places I’m never going to get to, places I’ll never see. When I’m finally rich and famous, we want a flat in Notting Hill, London. Love to visit the Galapagos, cross the Equator. See the Northern Lights. Dance at my granddaughter’s wedding or see my grandson play High School soccer. Problem is, when my grand-daughter turns 20 in the year 2039, I’ll be 86. If.
1Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho, and the LORD showed him the whole land: Gilead as far as Dan, 2all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea, 3the Negeb, and the Plain — that is, the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees — as far as Zoar. 4The LORD said to him, “This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants’; I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there.” 5Then Moses, the servant of the LORD, died there in the land of Moab, at the Lord’s command. 6He was buried in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor, but no one knows his burial place to this day. 7Moses was one hundred twenty years old when he died; his sight was unimpaired and his vigor had not abated. 8The Israelites wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days; then the period of mourning for Moses was ended.
9Joshua son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, because Moses had laid his hands on him; and the Israelites obeyed him, doing as the LORD had commanded Moses.
10Never since has there arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face. 11He was unequaled for all the signs and wonders that the LORD sent him to perform in the land of Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his servants and his entire land, 12and for all the mighty deeds and all the terrifying displays of power that Moses performed in the sight of all Israel.
It really wasn’t fair. Moses not allowed to go with his people into the Promised Land. All he got was to see it from afar.
Look and see, says the Lord: here’s the land for your people, for your nation. Let’s ignore the fact that other people were already living there. In today’s geographical terms basically modern day Israel from Egypt (including the Gaza strip) to most of Lebanon, a chunk of Jordan absorbing the West Bank, then all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. It explains a lot of today’s troubles. And why Israeli settlers think they have the divine right to evict by force Palestinian Muslims and Palestinian Christians from their generational homes and land. Not a lot of love.
Hey, now, the Lord gave this to us. Let’s ignore the fact that other people already live there.
To my satirical side, this rationale rather seems like an odd retrospective justification for eminent domain or manifest destiny.
~~~
Israel might be of religious historical interest, but my reading of the Bible makes me ask is it anymore the Holy Land than Newark, New Jersey, Tegucigalpa Honduras, Mogadishu, or Fort Collins? Nor is there some separate caste of priests who tell you how to be in relationship to God. We are all clergy. We are all, by the ordination of baptism, ministers.
My church building was a stately structure with a tall spire, handsome stonework, memorial garden, Dogwoods in blossom, named for the Grove of trees where it was built, facing the town’s Memorial park. First a barn in 1776, then a brick church, replaced by fine stonework. It was admired by many. Often, I got the compliment that it is a beautiful church. I replied: “Yes, they are.”
Reformation Sunday, today, honors the day when on October 31st 1517 Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door to the Wittenberg Church, basically to raise questions for discussion with the church authorities – a protest -- over some of the abuses both theological and moral going on in the church: the chicanery of indulgences, selling salvation, and all that jazz. Protests tend to mark you as Pro-test-ants.
“The Church reformed, always being reformed” is our motto. Fact is, if we aren’t reforming – whether church, nation, individually – we aren’t growing closer to Jesus.
~~~
Moses didn’t get into the Promised Land – he did his job getting them the chance. It was for the best, he had to let go of them, and they had to let go of him -- they had begun to thank Moses rather than the Lord for their fortunes.
The future always is an act of trust. We may see what’s possible but we don’t often get there, like Moses. And the future is far likelier to be different than we expect.
We can think back, and that’s okay, so long as nostalgia doesn’t hinder us from looking forward. Look here. Despite its bloody history, those who traveled the Overland trail running parallel to the South Platte River risked for something better. Everybody deserves a place where they can love – Nobody deserves it taken from them.
We turn to Matthew when Jesus is asked to give a Summary of the Law. They’re hoping he’ll say something wrong. He doesn’t. What Jesus wants us to cherish is how the promised land is more than a place, how we need repent of the sin of race and place.
Where love is, there is the holy, promised land.
Matthew 22:34-46
34When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”
To answer this lawyer he does what a good Rabbi does: he quotes Scripture.
37He said to him, “You shall love [agapnseis – second person singular) the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’
Quoting from Deuteronomy 6: 4.
38This is the greatest and first commandment. 39and a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
Quoting from Leviticus 19: 18. The Jesus difference is that in Leviticus this was exclusive, it meant only loving your fellow Israelite. Jesus has something more divine in mind: the issue is more than who is your neighbor but are you neighborly?
40On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
41Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question: 42“What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” 43He said to them, “How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying,44 ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet”’?45If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?” 46No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.
Title: Promised Land
Is the promised land a place?
We still miss Pennsylvania but is it really the place we miss or the people? It’s a little bit of both.
We do find comfort in the familiar. I get annoyed when we go to King Soopers and someone has parked in my parking space.
There is comfort in having our place.
A place where love can thrive, which means it’s more than a place.
That nesting instinct.
Bears have their dens.
Rabbits their warrens.
Mountain lions their lairs.
Cows their barns.
Horses their stalls.
Bees their hives.
Foxes their logs.
Groundhogs their burrows.
Beavers their lodges.
Skunks their woodpiles.Owls the hollow of their tree.
And eagles their nests.
Don’t know about elk.
And we all deserve a place where we feel secure, especially all God’s babies. Where we belong. Our own Promised Land.
Nesting. The nesting instinct. Time to paint the nursery. Time to can more tomatoes than we can eat in a year. Time to scrub the bathroom. Time to iron the sheets. Time to stitch the quilt. Time to wash the jamies for the sixth time. Time to outfit the crib. Time to snuggle with your mate and dream of what will be soon.
Pretty nice to call someplace home and cuddle up there awhile.
When this old world starts getting me downAnd people are just too much for me to faceI climb way up to the top of the stairsAnd all my cares just drift right into space
On the roof it's peaceful as can beAnd there the world below cant bother me
Let me tell you nowWhen I come home feeling tired and beatI go up where the air is fresh and sweet
I get away from the hustling crowdAnd all that rat-race noise down in the streetOn the roofs the only place I knowWhere you just have to wish to make it soLet's go up on the roof
At night the stars put on a show for freeAnd darling, you can share it all with me
I keep on telling youRight smack dab in the middle of townIve found a paradise that's trouble-proof
And if this world starts getting you downThere's room enough for two up on the roofUp on the roofOh, come on, babyOh, come on, honeyEverything is alrightOn the roof
And if you don’t have it, you keep looking for it. A place where love can thrive, which means it’s more than a place.
It’s what kept George and Lennie going and trying during hard times in Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men.:” O.K. Someday—we’re gonna get the jack together and we’re gonn have a little house and a couple of acres an’ a cow and some pigs and…”
“,,,An live off the fatta the land,’ Lennie shouted. “An have rabbits. Go on George! Tell about what we’re gonna have in the garden and about the rabbits in the cages and about the rain in the winter and the stove, and the how thick the cream is on the milk like you can hardly cut it. Tell about that, George.”
Because the realest place is Love. Something to look forward to. Looking forward to getting rid of all this weight of struggle and frustration, of hope and faith, even of knowledge, meaning and truth, institutions, religion, ideology, politics, economics, morality, justice. Getting rid because it will all be love.
CS Lewis described the difference between existence and heaven in the voice of a dead wife in heaven speaking to her husband: “Down there is a craving to be loved, in the main I loved you for my own sake, because I needed you. I am full now – I am in love Himself.”
Which is why Jesus broke rules by not quoting scripture the way it should be quoted, in order of the book from which you are quoting. It should have been Leviticus first, then Deuteronomy. Jesus flipped it, turned things around when asked about the greatest commandment, supplying his summary of the law: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength, and, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
We have to love God first. Why? Because our neighbors can be pretty unlovable. Us too.
For there is such a thing as wrong love.
Bad love shows up in pride, envy, wrath.
Too little love shows up in sloth.
Immoderate love shows up in lust, greed, gluttony.
So what is right love? It shows up in Jesus.
When King James set out to have his scholars translate the Bible into the beauty of Shakespearean English, the translators came to the word for love used most frequently throughout the New Testament – AG – A – PEE -- and fished to find the most fitting English word. And the word they chose was ‘charity’ from the Latin ‘caritas,’ defined as ‘the friendship of man for God.’
Charity – far more than benevolence. Far more than pulling out a pen and cutting a check for the poor and needy or adding few dollars to be deducted from your cell phone account.
Far more, because the Greek word, AG-A-PEE, means far more. Much more.
AG-A-PEE is a special Christian word. You will find it rarely used in any classical Greek writings. Rare word, yet used over 320 times as verb, noun, adjective in the New Testament.
What about the other Greek words of love. How about PHILIA (friendship)? Only 45 times in the New Testament. EROS (erotic love)? Alas, never used. STORGEE? That is, affection, general affection. Only three instances will you find in the Bible [Romans 1: 31; Romans 12: 10; II Timothy 3: 3].
AG-A-PEE. So it truly is the word for love coined by Jesus and New Testament writers.
AG-A-PEE. Richer, stronger, than any form of natural love for it is spiritual love. It is love drawn from a relationship with the Spirit of Christ. It is love unconditional, self-giving, vulnerable, for to love is to be vulnerable, which makes AG-A-PEE unsafe and dangerous. And wonderful.
Westley: Hear this now: I will always come for you.
Buttercup: But how can you be sure?
Westley: This is true love - you think this happens every day?
AG-A-PEE. The nature of love shown ultimately by Christ on the cross. Cross love. Sacrificial love. Self-spending love. Self-giving love rather than self-getting. Where I see each as my neighbor. Even those who consider themselves enemies.
It's a beautiful day in this neighborhoodA beautiful day for a neighborWould you be mine? Could you be mine?
It's a neighborly day in this beautywoodA neighborly day for a beautyWould you be mine? Could you be mine?
~~~
Loving with that ‘ag-a-pee love’ – your kind of unconditional love.
Real love turns a house into a home, turns our places into moments of heaven.
Love without being permissive or passive or a patsy.
Real love of real strength, forgiving the sin without accepting the sin.
Love that doesn’t depend on how loveable they are.
Love that doesn’t depend on how un-loveable they are.
Why are you asking me to love like that?
Actually, Jesus, you are more than asking me.
You’re telling me.
You’re telling me that if I am going to be with you, love like this is not optional.
10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people;
God help us, for now that that is who we are, we have to act like it.
aith.
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