On Sunday, we continued our Month of the Ministry celebration by honoring those who serve as nursery assistants, Sunday School teachers, Children Worship & Wonder storytellers and greeters, and our large group of property, maintenance, and lawn care volunteers. We also promoted our "Re-Leaving Tall Oaks" collection to provide additional support to the camp and conference center of the Christian Church in Greater Kansas City.
We also continued our journey along Godsway 66, concluding five weeks reading the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. With Deuteronomy, we discover a retelling of the story of the time of the Israelites during the wilderness years after slavery in Egypt. While Exodus seems more interested in presenting God's miraculous liberation of the Hebrews from slavery, Deuteronomy focuses more on the inner salvation that the Hebrews need to experience before inhabiting the Promised Land. Part of this faith in God is to be exhibited in love and devotion, as described in the 6th chapter.
In some ways, the people needed to learn how not to be slaves. But God worries that without a proper relationship with God (which would include having some appreciation for God's perspective on human life), the Israelites would start thinking that their good fortune in the Promised Land was about their work and not about God's providing it. Worse, losing sight of this would allow them to start mistreating other people around them too, because they would think too highly of themselves.
If you missed Sunday's sermon, if you'd like to listen to it again, or if you'd like to share it with others, you can find an audio recording here.
You can also listen to the closing benediction here.
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