For at least a couple years in high school, I carried around a binder with a picture of Billy Graham pasted on the inside cover. As a young man with an at-the-time confused sense of calling to pastoral ministry, I found Graham’s life and ministry inspirational. In years to come, as televangelist and mega-church pastor scandals unfolded, I was somewhat surprised to discover that Graham continued to live up to my youthful appreciation of him as a model for service to God. Not only did he remain free of scandal, I began to appreciate more and more his concern for racial equality and justice and his willingness to embrace and serve the whole range of the Christian church. Now, with many in the world, I mourn his passing. He was not by any means perfect, but he consistently pointed the way to God through Jesus Christ and lived that way himself.
As we near the end of our Immerse reading of the Pentateuch, I realize how much Moses presents us with a model of consistent, faithful service to God, constantly pointing his people in the right direction. The little summary of the Law in Deuteronomy 10:12-22, which is our text for this Sunday, shows us Moses at his best, pointing Israel toward that which matters most in their relationship with God.
In particular in this text is a key word for our time, that God is perfectly just, while at the same time particularly concerned about the poor, widows, orphans and aliens. Verse 19 focuses in on asking Israel to “love the alien” in the same way God does, because they themselves were aliens in Egypt. As Scripture does throughout, the first part of the text focusing on love and devotion to God connects seamlessly to loving and serving others.
Our Gospel lesson from Mark 8:31-38 shows us Peter being rebuked for misunderstanding the nature of Jesus’ mission, for trying to dissuade Jesus from the way of the Cross. Once again we see that loving our Savior directly involves us in sacrificial love for others. Attempts to avoid that sort of sacrifice take us down the the wrong path.
The way of the Christian is the way of Jesus, Moses and Billy Graham, the way which consistently holds together love of God and love of others, no matter the cost.