The Promised Land

Peter Olson

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Luke 4:1–13

Deuteronomy 26:1–11

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First Sunday in Lent

The Promised Land

By the Rev. Emily Trubey-Weller (Adapted by Pastor Peter Olson)

Deuteronomy 26:1-11

Luke 4:1-13

Sept 11th Story

I’m going to show my age a bit with this one. But on September 11th, 2001, I was a sophomore in High School. I remember hearing the news that the Trade Towers had been struck… and I have to admit I didn’t even know what they trade towers were up until that day.

And yet, even though I wasn’t familiar with those towers… even though I didn’t know anyone who were there that day… even though all of that occurred 1,500 miles away from my home… the world as I understood it shifted.

And perhaps the most profound moment that I experienced that day was in band practice. We were on the football field, practicing our half-time routine.

We already knew about the first tower… but someone came running out to us with news of the second tower being struck. It was in that moment that we realized it was not an accident… but it was malicious. People were trying to cause harm.

My band director gathered us together in a great circle around him. I remember the look in his eyes as he considered for a moment what to say to this group of high school students.

His weathered brows furrowed and then he said, “I’m not going to assume you are all Christians. But I am. In this moment, I don’t have the words of wisdom to offer that I wish I did. But if you would, I’ll ask you all to have a time of silence with me.”

On that football field, trumpet in hand… I bowed my head in silence… and rather than fear I felt comfort. I felt the presence of God in our midst.

While I did not know what would happen next in our country or in our world… while I did not know if there would be more terrorist attacks or if we would soon find ourselves in the midst of WWIII, I did know that God was there on the football field with me… with all of us. God was there. God had gotten us that far… and God was going to get through to whatever lay ahead.

Struggling for the Promised Land

Three and a half thousand years ago, a group of people who had just been released from slavery were wandering the wilderness. It had been generations since they had tasted freedom.

And suddenly, here they are with all the freedom in the world and absolutely no idea where to go. They no longer had a place that they could call their home. They didn’t have relatives that they could run to that would take them in. We even hear them ask their leader the question… why did you bring us out of slavery only that we might die here?

While they had prayed for years to taste freedom… now that they have it their hope is waning. They reached one promised land of escaping slavery… but now they don’t know what’s next. The future is unknown and uncertain. They are, understandably, afraid.

God Speaks

God speaks to them in their wandering: “When you have come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you…” -Deuteronomy 26:1

For those Israelites following Moses out of the Egypt… out of slavery… and into the unknown, these are powerful words. These are words of hope and words of promise. They promise an end to wandering. They promise an end to oppression and reliance on oppressive powers. They promise a future where the people of God are their own masters, with only the Lord to serve. They will come into a land that is their own: the Promised Land.

This sounds like the beginning of the final chapter of a magnificent epic. The people are on the precipice of greatness! All their dreams will come true! They will live happily ever after at last! Yet, much like their wilderness wanderings, the path to freedom and divine favor is not going to be as straightforward as they might imagine.

There are two big plot twists awaiting God’s chosen people: the land God is giving them is already occupied, and as the narrative has shown us before, the people will often be their own worst enemy.

Two Twists

First, there are already people living in the Promised Land. This is not an idyllic and uninhabited new Eden where they can simply build their homes, plant some grapevines, and settle in. The land is populated by its own Indigenous people, by shepherds and herders, by fortified cities, by various tribes with shifting allegiances and their own complex histories.

Scripture tells the story of how the people of God conquer this land, an unlikely and heroic tale of defeating enemies more powerful and organized than they are, all in service of the divine command to possess the land. Historians tell a more nuanced tale that involves intermarriage of tribes, rebellion of local peoples against their own leaders, and in rare cases, perhaps conquest.

The story of entering the Promised Land is likely more complicated than the biblical narrative might lead us to believe.

Second, God’s chosen people get in their own way. When they finally do settle in the Promised Land and plant their vineyards and make their homes, they begin to grow restless. Foreign powers push against their borders, cause skirmishes over resources, and generally bully the smaller tribes of Israel.

In response, the people want a king. They want someone to rule and guide them and lead them into victorious battles. God knows this is a bad plan; when someone is granted the authority of king, military conscription and abuse of power soon follow.

Instead, God sends the prophets to warn the people against it, but they cannot be swayed from self-destruction. In the days of the monarchy, the people will once again experience oppression and hardship, this time at the hands of their own chosen leaders in their own land.

What is a Promised Land?

Is this Promised Land flowing with milk and honey after all? Was it an empty promise, a pipe dream? Was it just a short-term promise, not meant for future generations? Was God serious when God made those promises to Moses and the people back in the desert?

Today in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus also finds himself in a place of bitter irony. Directly after being baptized in the Jordan River by John and hearing God’s voice declare him Beloved, Jesus is driven into a literal, spiritual, and emotional wilderness. This place is devoid of the promises and comforts he has recently known. Was God serious about those words back in the river Jordan?

What if a land’s status as the promised land isn’t dependent on the actual location?

What if it isn’t made the promised land by the flow of milk and honey?

What if the promised land is not a place of comfort or comfortability, even of safety obtained or promises fulfilled?

What if what makes the land promised is simply the promise of the presence of God?

Jesus in the Wilderness

God is present in Jesus’ wilderness trials. We hear it in his replies to the tempter. There is an echo of the voice of the liberator of the Exodus as Jesus demonstrates that he knows how to flee the false comfort of earthly power.

Jesus points to God’s provision of daily bread for the chosen people in the wilderness as he refuses to rely on anyone but God to provide true stability. Jesus shows us how to thwart the insidious powers of evil in even the darkest moments: by accepting our own vulnerability and trusting in God’s powerful presence.

The chosen people may have entered the land that was promised to them and their ancestors before them. But they will still know trials a-plenty: times of famine and drought, fear and uncertainty, foreign conquest, oppression, and exile. And through it all–just as in all their wilderness wanderings–God will not leave them.

Though a place has been what they were seeking all along, God’s goodness is not limited by location, and God’s presence is not even limited by goodness.

The promised land is wherever God meets us, and wherever God meets us is the promised land.

God then pushes a little bit further. God pushes us to think about who is included when we say God meets “us.” Listen to Deuteronomy: Deut. 26:11, “Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house.” Even as we rejoice in the good news that God is with us and God gives us reason to celebrate… God tells those early Israelites to celebrate it not only on their own… but to do so with both the Levites -and- the aliens who are living among them.

Because the promise that God offers is more than just a personal promise from God to Israel or God to you or me. God’s promise of being with US extends beyond ourselves and to the world.

God’s promise of meeting us where were is a promise to meet the world where its at with all of the brokenness that we face. God’s promise to bring us through the trials that we experience… health issues… relationship issues… rising costs of gas and food… threats of war with Russia… God’s promise to be with us through all of that is a promise to all of us.

God promises and God fulfills those promises. God meets us and leads us.

Questions to Ponder

When have you entered a place where you know God called you to be?

How did you know you had arrived?

Was that place a location, a circumstance, a community?

What is it like to settle into a place where you are aware of God’s call and God’s presence?

What makes you most aware of and in tune with that presence, especially amid tough times?

Consider a time when God met you in a place you did not want to be. Ho