Sermon 3 December 2017                  Anniversary Day                                                         MartinBaker

Some background to the reading today:  The Hebrew slaves have been set free fromtheir bondage in Egypt, they’ve received God’s commandments at Mount Sinai, andthey’ve then spent forty years wandering in the Sinai desert. They are nowstanding on the borders of Canaan, their promised land. Moses is an old man andis about to die, and he has gathered the people together to give them what youmight call his ‘Last Will and Testament’. Deuteronomy is presented to us as asermon preached by Moses, in which he restates God’s laws to the people and encouragesthem to remain faithful to their God.

Deuteronomy 8:7-18

7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, aland with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up invalleys and hills, 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees andpomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, 9 a land where you may eat breadwithout scarcity, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron andfrom whose hills you may mine copper. 10 You shall eat your fill and bless theLord your God for the good land that he has given you.

11 Take care that you do not forget the Lord your God, byfailing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I amcommanding you today. 12 When you have eaten your fill and have built finehouses and live in them, 13 and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, andyour silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, 14then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God, who brought you out ofthe land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, 15 who led you through thegreat and terrible wilderness, an arid wasteland with poisonous[a] snakes andscorpions. He made water flow for you from flint rock, 16 and fed you in thewilderness with manna that your ancestors did not know, to humble you and totest you, and in the end to do you good. 17 Do not say to yourself, “My powerand the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth.” 18 But remember theLord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he mayconfirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today.

Let us pray

One of the things every one of us here has in common is thatwe or our ancestors all came from somewhere else. Whether it was last month ora thousand years ago,  someone made thedecision to leave somewhere and come here.

I know some of you have read Jessie Munro’s great history ofthis area. And early in the book she speaks of the history of the Tainui canoeanchoring off what we now call Duder Park, way back in the 13thcentury.

Things must have been tough on that boat.  But just think of the navigational skills ofthose who sailed those ocean-going waka back and forth between here,  and I guess the Cook Islands in those firstcouple of centuries of human contact with New Zealand.  I suppose New Zealand marked the final stopon the great pacific migration that started from East Asia a couple of thousandyears ago.

My earliest ancestors arrived in Lyttleton on a ship calledthe Sir Edward Paget that came in 1856. The ship record indicated 5 deaths onboard and 4 births. Almost 300 people on a ship that was around 40 meters longwhich took, then, a quick 4 and a half months to get here.  There were 5 toilets on board which mal functionearly on, leading people below deck walking through sewerage and a couple whocould afford their own cabin were assigned a room that measured 5 ft. 2 by 3 ft.1  about 1.5 meters by 1 meter. The passengershad to find ways of cooking their own food as the boat’s cooks jumped shipsomewhere along the way. In fact things were so appalling that the Captain wasarrested shortly after his arrival here. He was fined a few ponds and left tosail back to Britain.

Things can’t have been that good where we have come from,  whether it was Hawiki or Edinburgh, to leave,maybe forever,  what we had known. Toface what was going to be a tough journey,  arriving at some place which either we reallydid not actually existed, or had only heard stories and rumours about.

Moses is speaking this morning to those who have left. Andto those who have a memory of leaving.  Those ancient people, maybe to  us as well. Leaving Egypt, even during thehardships during those years in the desert people had wanted to return to theslavery they had left. At least we knew what that was all about they had said.Something happens and we see the bad old days as being the good old days.   Andthis promise of a place. The Lord your God is bringing you into this good land.

Three maybe not so simple points today on this 159thanniversary service.

And I am indebted here to the writing of Peter Gomes one ofmy Harvard lectures and the minister of Harvard Memorial church which weattended.

Moses led the people out of slavery in Egypt through thedesert for all these years, now,  failinghealth some of his last words knowing that he will never enter this good landhimself.  He says repeatedly do notforget. Remember.

Today is a good day to give thanks but this remembering thatMoses was talking about,  was not firstof all about remembering all our blessings but remembering for a moment all thebad things that have happened.  RememberMoses is speaking to the survivors,  40years in the desert, the ones who have endured – the  survivors and their children and grandchildren.

Think of your worst moments, your sorrows, your losses, yoursadness and then remember that here you are, able to remember them. You gotthrough the worst day of your life up to this moment, you got through thetrial, the loss,  you endured thetemptation, you survived the bad relationship and, you’re making your way outof the dark and out of the miry clay. Moses is saying Remember who got youthrough…remember that it was the Lord who got you out of it, got you throughit, and was with you in the middle of it.

And the second thing is all about the way we live out thatsense of being led and blessed through these times.  Gomes said it isn’t just about thanksgivingbut  thanks living. We have to keepmoving, even in the parched times we are blessed people with a vison for nowand the future. Thanksgiving and thanks living.

And the third lesson from Moses is based on trust. You areto trust God. Do not make God give you constant proofs of loyalty, power andaffection. God is to be trusted in the desert and in the good land, when we winor when we lose, whether we live or whether we die. God is to be trusted forGod is trustworthy. You are the proof of that. Remember to remember. A life ofgratitude is a work in progress. Trust God.

These ancient stories give us a foundation on which to buildour faith. They direct us toward the God who showed his love for us in Jesus.Our hope is in that God—in his love, grace, mercy and power. It’s not in theconditions and circumstances of the present moments—whatever they may be. Ourthanksgiving and our thanks living grow from the truth of God’s faithfulnessand love

Thomas Norrie the first minister – he endured and persevered.

Our ancestors wherever they have come from. The courage  that is the DNA , in the blood and memory of everyonewho calls this places home, the courage of our ancestors in faith of leavingprecious things behind. Getting through all those things. Holding on to a faithor maybe learning t for the first time or again. Telling that story to children and grandchildren, family andfriends.

The trust the hope the vison the people that have supportedyou. We are here today because of all these things. We have got throughwhatever deserts we have had to endure.

Lessons for an anniversary day.

So remember to remember. Thanksgiving and thank living andGod can be trusted.

AMEN