his treasured possession

​9th Sunday after Pentecost – A (Proper 12)                          LSB #’s 909 tune 367, 646 tune 338, 573
Text – Deuteronomy 7:6
 
For you are a people holy to the Lord your God.  The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
 
HIS TREASURED POSSESSION
 
 
There are quite a few Americans who love to go hunting at garage sales,  & the price they are willing to pay for an item  tells you what they think it is worth.  Offering a dollar for one item and $50 for another  tells you the relative value they are placing on each object.  What value does God place upon the people  He is calling to Himself?   That is the point of this sermon. 
A lot of people in our country take very poor care of themselves  as evidenced by any number of statistics.  Between 2019 & 2021, the average life expectancy for U.S. males declined by three years.  In the 20 years from 2000  to 2020,  the % of Americans who were considered obese rose  from 30.5%  to 41.9%.  
How well a person cares for themselves  can reveal the relative value they place upon their life.  Many people who are addicted to a substance  or a behavior  place low value on their ability to lead productive & useful lives.  Rather than fighting the good fight of following Jesus they simply take the broad & easy road  that leads to destruction.  (Matthew 7:13) 
When God sent Moses to rescue the Israelites from being enslaved in Egypt,  that adult generation was unwilling to put their trust in God.   All across the wilderness  they complained against Moses  & against Yahweh.  Nothing God provided was good enough for them.   When He offered to take them into the Promised Land  they refused. 
Apparently, all those years of enslavement, gave them  an inferiority complex.   They placed little value upon their ability to receive the Lord’s blessing.   Finally,  all but  Joshua & Caleb were buried in the wilderness  outside the Promised Land.    In Deuteronomy, Moses reviews the entire 40-year history for the new generation  that did value their willingness to receive God’s promises  & His blessing.  He is sharing with them what God considers to be their value.   In Hebrew, they are Yahweh’s segullah; in English – His treasured possession.   This parallels the Gospel reading  where Jesus teaches that the kingdom of heaven is like treasure. 
As with the ancient Israelites, God’s children are the treasure, or the pearl of great value.  However, we are not the treasure or the pearl on our own.  We are only that because God calls this treasure into being,  just as Jesus called the dead man back to life when He said, “Lazarus, come out!”  Today, Jesus calls us into being His treasure, through His Word  & through Baptism. 
Those who respond with the faith that Jesus gives, they come to life & become the very segullah  of God.   They  are of tremendous value,  not because of anything they do,  nor because of any evil that they do not do.  Those children are of tremendous value for a reason that each one of you should be able to answer.  Someone died  in order that you may live. 
The heavenly Father was willing to pay a far greater price at Satan’s garage sale  than anyone could have imagined.  Judas betrayed his Rabbi for 30 pieces of silver, but Jesus was willing to give His life for you.  Even Jesus’ own disciples could not believe the price that their Master was willing to pay.  As Peter once said:
“Far be it from you, Lord!  This shall never happen to you.”  Jesus turned to Peter & replied, “Get behind me, Satan!  You are a hindrance to me.    For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”  (Matthew 16:22-23 ESV)   Where is your mind this morning?   Is it on the things of God?  Where was your mind yesterday,  & the day before that? 
Have you been recognizing the value that your life has  to the heavenly Father?  Do you live  as if you are His segullah?   Or  do you live as if  you’re on the  one dollar table  at a local garage sale?   Do you abuse  the blessing of God?     In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses is challenging us by saying, “For you  are a people holy  to the Lord your God.”  (7:6a ESV)   He’s not saying there  that we never sin.  That’s generally what we think of when we hear the word holy.   The root definition of the word simply means  something is set aside, or consecrated,  for a special purpose.  For example, we only, ever use the chalice for serving communion.  It is holy. 
You are holy,  because God the Father has chosen you,   & set you aside,  to be His segullah!   But quite unlike the communion chalice,  God has called you to be His treasure every day of the week  & every day  of the year.   All of us abuse the blessing of God.  We live as if we are on the one dollar table at a local garage sale,  & still  our Lord forgives us each & every day. 
Martin Luther taught that every time we wake up,  the 1st thing God’s children should do is to remember their baptism,  because that is where  you & I know for certain  that Yahweh Himself called us to be His treasure,  His pearl of great price.   If we remember the tremendous value that our Creator has placed upon us  it will have a positive effect on how we live our lives.    
A now infamous U.S. senator was reflecting upon his recent 6-week hospitalization for depression: “I don’t even like me.  That’s the truth.”  Whatever his religious leanings may be,  it seems that he has not bought into the tremendous value that God placed upon him  when Jesus died for his sins on the cross.  The senator is struggling to manage his emotions. 
Low self-esteem is a common scapegoat for why people cause trouble.  Psychology,  as practiced by unbelievers, comes up with a solution that is completely on the wrong path to actual healing.  It evaluates the worth of people by what they do or by what they leave undone.  God places value on people  based upon what Jesus has done. 
God’s path to healing removes emotions from the equation.  In His design our emotions are not allowed to determine our value.  God did that in the perfect life, death & resurrection of Jesus.  How we feel about ourselves,  & about others,  is not what determines value in our Creator’s plan.  Even what we do,  or don’t do,  with our lives,  does not determine our value.  Jesus has set us free from the chains of sin & from all the emotional destruction that it causes.   Yet, that does not mean that our emotions are bad.  God simply recognizes that they too have been corrupted by sin.  Yahweh is not held hostage by our feelings.
Our frustrations & our anger do not determine our eternal fate.  Happiness does not need to be the god that we  or our family members  serve.  Self esteem & self confidence are idols that Satan loves to set before us because he knows that our ‘self’ will always fall short of being content or at peace.  Chasing that goal never leads to satisfaction. 
Our heart, mind & soul  all  can find rest in what Jesus has done.  In this life our happy moments do not last forever, but we needn’t wallow in sadness when they end.  Likewise, our suffering will not last forever,  so we needn’t wallow in despair while it does.   Nowhere does the Word of God say that fending off despair will be easy, but it assures us that it will not last. 
Of course, God’s Word comes from an eternal perspective,  & for now we can only see that dimly even as we live in Christ.  This OT reading is but a snippet of a sermon by Moses, before the people are to enter the Promised Land.  It is instructive for us  as we await the day when you & I will enter the true & eternal Promised Land. 
In the larger picture, this sermon of Moses also warns against responding to God’s offer of salvation with complacency.  It warns against failure to remain connected to the Vine,  which is Christ.  Yet the good news overrides those warnings as the Gospel lesson demonstrates that God will pay whatever it costs  to claim us as His segullah, His treasure. 
Our character has nothing to do with God’s choice or declaration of righteousness.  Instead, it was God’s character of love & faithfulness which drove His choice of Israel.  It is God’s character of love & faithfulness which drives His choice of you.  It is a remarkably consistent message throughout the Bible,  all the way down to Mary,  as St. Luke wrote, “Mary treasured up all these things about Jesus in her heart.  (2:19)   God chose Mary as His treasured possession.  In a response of faith, Mary treasured the fact that God had chosen her,  & Mary treasured her son  who would also be her Savior. 
The news that God desires all human beings to be saved  is the only news that can change the stubborn & unregenerate hearts of sinners like us.  The Law can show us our sin  but it is powerless to change us. 
In the text from Deuteronomy, Moses is encouraging the people for the coming challenges they will face even in the Promised Land: “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God.  The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.” 
That is the news God wants us to build our life upon.  In fact,  it is the only news upon which any true life can be built.  As one of the Psalms tells us, “This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice & be glad in it.”  (Psalm 118:24 ESV)   Amen. 
 
 
 
Church of God, elect & glorious,  holy nation,  chosen race;  called as God’s own special people,  royal priests & heirs of grace:  know the purpose of your calling,  show to all His mighty deeds;  tell of love that knows no limits,  grace that meets all human needs.    God has called you out of darkness  into His most marvelous light;  brought His truth to life within you,  turned your blindness into sight.   Let your light so shine around you  that God’s name is glorified  & all find fresh hope & purpose  in Christ Jesus crucified.  Amen.  LSB 646:1-2.