Wednesday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 415


The LORD then said to him, "This is the land which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that I would give to their descendants. I have let you feast your eyes upon it, but you shall not cross over."
So there, in the land of Moab, Moses, the servant of the LORD, died as the LORD had said; and he was buried in the ravine opposite Beth-peor in the land of Moab....



The Letter to the Hebrews refers to this touching scene in the eleventh chapter,

All these died in faith. They did not receive what had been promised but saw it and greeted it from afar and acknowledged themselves to be strangers and aliens on earth....

Human beings are creatures of time; we remember the past; we anticipate a future. Those who neglect that dimension of our nature forfeit their human nature. The past, of course, did not begin with my birth; there are a million historical incidents far more important to me than that particular item. Nor does my future end with my death. If I cannot control what happens after my death, I have some responsibility for it.

The Lord favored Moses with a vision of the future as he stood atop Mount Nebo. With courage, toil and much suffering he had brought God's people this far. Even as he saw the Promised Land with its flowing rivers and green meadows, he had now to turn leadership over to the young, untested Joshua. Moses must take his place in the past with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. For better or worse, his work was finished.

There are many scenes like this in the scriptures. Jacob gathered his sons and blessed each of them before he died. Eli ceded his status of judge to the boy Samuel. After David has amassed materials for the temple, he turned the pile over to his son Solomon with careful instructions about its building. Jesus' final discourse is recorded in John 12-18; Saint Paul's last address to the Ephesians appears in Acts of the Apostles, chapter 20. Saint Luke tells us :

They were all weeping loudly as they threw their arms around Paul and kissed him, for they were deeply distressed that he had said that they would never see his face again. 

John of Patmos finished his career with the Book of Revelation. All these died in faith. They did not receive what had been promised but saw it and greeted it from afar...

The challenge of every generation is to admit ours is not the last. As our world was built by our forebears, we build a world for our children. With that insight comes the realization we cannot afford to waste our resources; we must not destroy what should remain. We owe it to generations yet unborn to preserve both our memories of the past and our promises of the future.

There's a lot of denial out there, especially among those Christians who see no hope for the future. They devoutly wish the Lord would return today, now! They pray, "Let us not suffer the humiliation of decline, of weakness and old age, of less influence, of being cared for rather than caring for others." Politically they would nuke the world before they suffer the loss of economic, political and military superiority. Individually they declare, "We're spending our children's inheritance!"

The Spirit of Moses and Jesus and John of Patmos urges us to acknowledge that we are strangers and aliens on Earth, that our homeland is still a long way off. We cannot describe in any detail what that Kingdom looks like; but, as we're satisfied with our lives, we are sure it will be beautiful. In preparation for that day we still make sacrifice.