Our biblical, Christian faith is basically a response to a story, to the story of what God has done in human history. It is not as if Christians through the ages have looked at the natural world and decided that there must be a God who created it. They have not thought up a picture of God and designed worship to go with the picture. Nor have they adjusted to their changing cultural and social situations simply by drawing up their own rules for the ethics and morals by which we should live. There are some forms of faith in our day that are such products of human imagination and construction. But that is not true of the biblical faith of the Christian Church. No. Our faith is a response to a history of God's words and deeds, a history that is now preserved and passed on to us in the scripture.

So it is that when we confess our faith in the Apostles' Creed, for example, we tell the story on which that faith is based, and the story is the history of what God has done: "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth ... I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son our Lord, who was born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. The third day he rose again from the dead...." On that basis, then, we respond and say, "I believe."

God's acts always come first. We did not construct our faith out of our own thoughts and desires. Rather, God did particular deeds and said particular words, and we say, "Yes, I believe God did those things and spoke those words," and then we work out our response of faith in accord with what the deeds and words have revealed to us about God. Thus, in our Epistle lesson from Romans 10:8b-13, Paul writes that whoever believes and confesses that God raised Jesus from the dead and made him Lord, will be saved. Faith and salvation rest on God's prior act in Jesus Christ.

So it is, too, in our text for the day. This text embodies one of the oldest practices and confessions of faith found in the Old Testament, probably dating back to the twelfth century B.C. It tells of bringing the first fruits of all crops to the sanctuary as an offering to God (cf. Exodus 23:19; 34:26), in recognition of the fact that God is the Owner and Giver of the promised land to Israel. And when the worshiper brings those first fruits, he tells why he is doing so by reciting the confession of faith that is found in verses 5-9.

What that confession of faith is, however, is the basic story of God's acts that are recorded for us in the Hexateuch, made up of the books of Genesis through Joshua. The confession tells of the patriarch, Jacob, going down into Egypt; of the multiplication of the Israelites, in accord with God's promise to Abraham; of their enslavement by the Egyptians; of God's delivery of them out of slavery "with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror, with signs and wonders" (v. 8); and of the gift of the land to them in the time of Joshua, again in fulfillment of the promise to Abraham. The worshiper is bringing the gift of the first fruits, because God has done all of those things, in fulfillment of his promise. The worshiper's act is a response to God's act. He believes the sacred story, and he responds in confession and practice.

The notable thing in this confession, further, is that all of those acts of God in Israel's life are not considered by the worshiper to be acts done just in the distant past for his forbears. Rather, they are acts done also for him. "The Egyptians treated us harshly," he says, "and afflicted us." "We cried to the Lord." "The Lord heard our voice," "saw our affliction," "brought us out of Egypt," "gave us this land." God's acts of salvation were done not just in the past, but also for each new generation of Israelites, who reap the benefits of those acts in the present.

We have a sacred story of God's acts of salvation in the past too, don't we? And it is very much like Israel's story. We too were slaves once -- slaves to sin and death -- but God sent us a Deliverer to redeem us out of our slavery and to give us a new life in the "glorious liberty of the children of God." As with Israel at Mount Sinai, God entered into covenant with us also by means of that Deliverer, and he gave us his commandment to love one another as he has loved us. Like Israel trekking through the wilderness, we too set out on a journey toward a promised land that still lies before us. And like Israel we are accompanied every step of the way by the One who said that he is with us always.

None of that is simply history in the past, however, any more than Israel's story was just in the past. No. Those are all things that God has done and is doing for each of us this day. This day, by the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are delivered from sin and death. This Sunday or on the Sunday when we sit at the Lord's table, we enter anew into covenant with him and are given his commandments of love. This day, you and I are journeying toward a promised land that is known as the Kingdom of God. And this day, Christ is with us on the journey, and promises to be with us always. All of that sacred story from the Bible is our story. And if we believe that story with all our hearts and confess it with our lives and act accordingly, we too shall be saved.

 Two further things should be said. The worshiper in our Deuteronomy text knows the story. He knows his people's history of what God has done in their lives, and the result is that he can tell the story, not only there at the sanctuary, but also to his children and grandchildren. Can we do the same? Do we know the biblical history, that is given us in the scriptures, so well that we can tell it to others and to our offspring? Do we know the accounts of God's deeds and words in New Testament and Old? Or are they rather hazy memories from past years in Sunday school or occasional Bible classes? Our faith is a response to God's acts and words, preserved for us in the scriptures, but if we do not know the scriptures, we have no solid basis for our faith. In this Lenten season, perhaps the one thing we should all do is read the Bible every day.

Second, our text tells us that the Israelite worshiper, when he brings his offering, can rejoice "in all the good which the Lord your God has given to you." His worship can be joyful, because he knows the wonderful deeds that God has wrought on his behalf. And the same is true for us. If we know what God has done for us, if we know the benefits of his deeds and words, there is simply no other response we can make in the worship of this church than to rejoice. In the words of our text, we can rejoice because God has heard our voice, and seen our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. We can rejoice because he has delivered -- and delivers us daily -- from our slavery to the sin of this world and from the terrible defeat that death would mean. We can rejoice because our Lord is with us here, accompanying us on our journey. And we can rejoice because there lies before us his kingdom of good and love and eternal life.