Scripture: Deuteronomy 4:1-8
My grandfather who only had a third-grade education, travel the country relatively extensively with the Boy Scouts of America. As a child, I remember him sharing with me his experiences and encounters with people of all walks of life that he had met through scouting. Scouting gave him the opportunity to meet so many people.
I remember him sharing with me his experience of traveling to Washington D.C. on the train from Mobile, Al to meet the president (Truman, I believe) all through scouting. He was a proponent of the benefits and values of scouting. He served as scoutmaster of our church’s troop for many years. He championed the cause of scouting in our community and through his efforts, touched a many of lives.
I first met Billy Williams, and Tommy Agee, and Cleon Jones, and Hank Aaron and Willie McCovey through scouting. When the major league baseball season was over and they returned home, my grandfather would always invite them to the roundtable meeting to talk and encourage of us.
For his selfless efforts, he was awarded scouting highest honor, the Silver Beaver Award. His love for scouting rubbed off on me. In my formative years the benefits and values of scouting help shape me. I took seriously its oath:
On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country, to obey the scout law, to keep myself physically strong mentally awake and morally straight.
I took seriously its motto to; be prepared, so much so that I became one of the first Eagle Scouts in my troop. I worked to earn the merit badges that met the eagle requirements; swimming, and lifesaving, and cooking, and hiking, and camping, and safety, and first aid, citizenship in the home, community and nation only to discover that these badges didn’t just prepare me to become an Eagle Scout, they prepared me for life. They prepared me to fulfill God’s promises for my life.
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The historian in the text shares with Israel this Mosaic exhortation of preparation as they stood on the verge of God’s promise. God had promised their ancestors a land flowing with milk and honey. For a long time their ancestors (because of a lack of preparation), meandered and wandered and never entered that Promised Land. They needed an exhortation. They needed some encouragement. They needed some inspiration.
They had been through some stuff, and they needed some motivation. They had been through four hundred years of enslavement and the mentality of oppression and victimization had taken hold of them. They had been freed from physical bondage yet; they had not been freed from mental bondage. They had been through some stuff and stuff can enslave you. Stuff can oppress you.
Stuff can dash your dreams. Stuff can steal your joy. Stuff can destroy your hope. Stuff can make you tired of going through stuff. Who among us have not had to go through some stuff? Trials and tribulations; stuff, wayward children and abuses spouses; stuff, sickness and death; stuff, bad relationships and divorce; stuff, all of us have been through some stuff. You don’t make it through this life without going through some stuff. They needed some inspiration because they had been through some stuff.
Moses not only gives them some inspiration, but he also gives them some information. Inspiration void of information is nothing but a pipe dream. In preparation for God’s Promised Land, they were to observe the statues and ordinances (V.1). They were to keep the commandments of God and not add or take anything away (V.2).
They were to shed their oppressive mentality and live as liberated people. Liberated people don’t forget the One who liberated them. Liberated people honor their ancestors who came before them. Liberated people don’t steal from each other. Liberated people don’t kill each other.
Liberated people don’t bear false witness against each other. Liberated people don’t covet each other’s property. Liberated people love the God that liberated them with their whole being and everybody else like they love themselves. Liberated people live like promised people.
Moses told them, to be prepared to live in the Promised Land like promised people; for promised people are prepared people. Preparation is the prerequisite for fulfillment of God’s promise. God’s promises are not unconditional. God’s promises are conditional.
God promises to be our God, if we will be God’s people. God promises to heal our land, if we humble ourselves and pray (2 Chron. 7:14). God promises to send blessings down, if we send praises up.
Because of their preparation Moses said, that others would see their diligence and discern that God was near them (VV.6-8). When preparation meets opportunity, God’s purposes are fulfilled. When God’s purposes are fulfilled, God is glorified. When God is glorified, God’s presence is magnified.
When God’s presence is magnified, we are edified. When we are edified, the creation is reconciled. When the creation is reconciled, all of heaven is glorified. God’s purposes are as near as the next breath we take and the next step we make. Nearer, nearer, nearer blessed Lord, draw us nearer to thy precious bleeding side. Amen!
Rev. Dr. Kelvin T. Calloway is the senior pastor of Bethel AME Church 7900 South Western Ave. in Los Angeles. This message was originally published in the L.A. Sentinel in December 2009.
