The Law, a Song, and a Blessing

This Sunday, the twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost, we will finish our sermon series on the Book of Deuteronomy. The series is entitled Words for People on the Border.  

We will explore three texts from the closing passages of Deuteronomy. Each text presents a different form that Moses uses to offer his last words to the people on the border: the law, a song, and a blessing. 

Deuteronomy is a book that often makes us uncomfortable because it refuses to let go of the tension between God's law and God's love, military occupation and care of the vulnerable, divine choseness and universal blessing. As we hear and are convicted by God's righteous law-code, let us not forget to also listen and hear God's song of justice and blessing of salvation.