Standing on the Torah: Our Christian Roots

This is the opening sermon in our summer series about lesser-known individuals and books in the Old Testament or better said the Hebrew Bible.  The New Testament does not replace the Old but grows out of it. I want us to dive deep into the roots of our faith.  Why?  Because we will better understand Jesus if we know about his biblical roots, specifically the Torah, the first five books of the Bible.

In Matthew 5:17, Jesus says:

Do not think I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church echoes this: “The Law is a preparation for the Gospel” (CCC 1964).

So, it is essential to go back to the foundation -the bedrock of the faith of Jesus, from which our faith has developed. It is important that we Christians remember the pathway that was laid by God in the Torah.  This is before the manger, before the cross, before the resurrection morning. Because the Torah——The Rabbi who taught me in seminary emphasized, is not just laws. It’s not just commandments.  It’s story.

The Torah gives us the story of Abraham— called to walk in faith, not by sight. It gives us Moses—called to lead God’s people out of bondage. A story of liberation that still speaks to those held captive today. It gives the Ten Commandments whom many want to display in our buildings.

Professor and Rabbi Rachel Mikva liked to use the word narrative.

She taught that it was about a peoples’ struggle in their relationship between their lives and God.   How they viewed what happened to them in light of their turning away from God.  And when they returned. They knew themselves as the chosen of God, created by God, yet they kept failing miserably, only to have to try again, to reach out to God once more.

While working on this sermon, I had a dream about it.  That I was failing to understand what this meant for us. Then I woke up.  With some new insights.  The Torah isn’t just a story about Israel – it is about us, resonating with our own story.  Our own struggles with our beliefs.  Our own hateful thoughts and actions.

God frees us through Jesus from our sin, so that we are no longer bound by our wrongdoings.  Do we always appreciate this?  Afraid not. And we can become like the Israelites walking to the Promised Land, who don’t like the food, who complain about what God gives them and finally want to worship a golden calf, turning away.

When we get what we want, God is good, when we don’t we ignore God, we stop praying and look for other ways to fulfill us. We eat too much, we drink too much, we don’t take care of ourselves, drowning ourselves in mindless activities. We blame God and absolve ourselves of responsibility.

In Genesis, we find the incredible truth that we are made in God’s image.

Let that sink in.  Ponder it.  At first this sounds good, yes?  But, for me at least, with prolonged thought, this is scary.   Why?  Perhaps because we, I don’t take after our father creator God.  Jesus did, but do we when we fail to take care of marginalized people, widows, orphans, refugees, and the poor?  Rev Brueggemann teaches that “The image of God is not a possession but a vocation—a calling to represent God’s will in the world” (Brueggemann, Genesis, p. 32). ”

The Torah shows us that God is not distant, just like I preached about the Trinity last week.  God meets us in burning bushes. When and where we don’t expect it. Is God calling you? Are you getting this?  This is not just a Jewish or Israeli story. This is our story.  As Christians, we’re joined with this covenant.  We walk the same road of faith and trip on similar obstacles tempting us to sin. We serve the same God of justice, mercy, and love.

The Torah gives us a set of instructions to help us behave as God wants; to plan our lives in the way God wants us to live and thus gives us a purpose-driven life.   God says: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and soul, and strength.”  Who said this?  That’s from Deuteronomy—and it is thought that Moses wrote that. It’s the very command Jesus called the greatest of all. And the second command Jesus gave? “Love your neighbor as yourself.” That’s not new either. It comes from Leviticus. Yes.  Moses again.  The Torah

But where do we know this from?  Mark 4: 29 and 30. So, not just old news.

So when Jesus taught, he was speaking God’s truth.  His truth.

To follow Jesus is to walk in the path that he did, guided by the Word of God in the Torah.  Which is also the words of Jesus, if we take the Trinity seriously. Jesus lived out his father’s and his own words, with the support of the Holy Spirit.  That puts a different slant on how I understand this. Jesus did what he as God, as God’s son, said he would do.

God says to the Israelites: “I will be your God, and you will be my people.”

This is an irrevocable promise, to them and to us. Even when we walk away from God, He does not walk away from us.  How do we know this? He loves us.  He gave us Jesus.  Amen???  Jesus lives out this love on the cross.  Faithful and loving us like God, his father does.  He is committed to us. We are his people.  Paul tells in Ephesians, chapter one, “4 just as [God] chose us in Christ[a] before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. 5 He destined us[b] for adoption as his children[c] through Jesus Christ….

Jesus is the Word made flesh) and what was that Word?  The Word that spoke the world into being.  The Word that gave the commandments at Sinai.The Word that told us to love our neighbor, care for the widow, and welcome the stranger. Jesus didn’t replace the Torah.  He lived it.  He was it—in human form.

So folks, let’s not skip over the Torah like old news. Let’s stand on it. Let it be our firm ground. Because when we do—we remember who we are. We remember whose we are.  We walk in the footsteps of Abraham,  the hope of Moses, the wisdom of the prophets and the love of Jesus—  as Rabbi Mikva taught me, all of these are held together in one great, wonderful and redeeming holy story.

“Without the Old Testament, Jesus makes no sense, ” Wright clearly states.(Knowing Jesus, p. 29).And as the Torah itself says, “These words are your life” (Deuteronomy 32:47  Thanks be to God. Amen.