You have to feel sorry for old Moses and I do mean old Moses - the story we heard from the book of Deuteronomy says he was one hundred and twenty years old when he died. It doesn’t say he was that old when he climbed up Mount Nebo, but we can imagine that he wasn’t a whole lot younger. But you do have to feel sorry for him - enduring the grumbling and complaining throughout the years in the wilderness. Doubting his own call from God to lead the Hebrew people, but sticking to the vision that God had placed in him and with him. And then just as they neared the promised land, the place to which they had been fitfully journeying for all those years, he is given the opportunity to see where they were headed, but is prevented from actually touching the land of promise for himself.

How many times do the same things happen for us? We may be living in a time of turmoil or difficult decision. We may be wondering where things are headed, what lies next for us in our life’s journey, or struggling with a decision about which path to take. It might all seem like a muddle at the time, but once the decision is made, the choice of paths is taken, and our lives are lived out with the consequences, joys, blessings and struggle that those choices entail, we can move forward for a time and then look back only to see that there were similar moments like that mountain-top view for Moses. It was seemingly a muddle at the time, but looking back we recognise the signs that were there, and that the muddle was not as muddled as we thought with the advantage of hindsight.

We can just imagine Moses surveying the scene that was spread out for him, and so vividly described in the passage from Deuteronomy. I’m sure as he turned his head to see the whole of it, that he was not preoccupied by all the turmoil behind him. Sure, I expect he had a general sense of relief that the journey with all its hardships was about to end, but I also expect that the prospect of what lay ahead for the people was far clearer in his mind, than the vague memory of how hard it had been to get to this place.

Is it an overstatement to suggest that baptism represents one such moment in a person’s life? Perhaps, but perhaps not. Is baptism a moment on which a life’s journey turns? Certainly for John the baptiser, that was what he had in mind. He even used the word turn in his invitation to people to come and be baptised. He said, turn around, look at the path you’ve followed and see if it doesn’t lead you to take this symbolic, this mythic and yes, very real decision to step into the Jordan river - which represented the divide that separated past and future - and come out with new resolve and a fresh start on a different life journey. That was John’s baptism - a baptism of repentance, which means just what I’ve said - a baptism of turning around. For John, the commanding view was not forward, but backward. He invited people to change their lives based on what they had done. Moses was invited to stand on the top of Mount Nebo and look forward to the promise for his people that had led them to this place and this moment.

While not as direct, the gospel stories we’ve been reading over the past few weeks have had a similar sense about them. The religious authorities - the Pharisees and Sadducees are threatened by the work and teachings of Jesus. He is showing them up with his straightforward approach and his words and actions that tell ordinary people that they can have a relationship with God that is not dependent on the interpretation and involvement of the authorities. So, for the past couple of weeks, we’ve heard how these religious teachers and scholars have tried to discredit Jesus, and trap him by asking questions that would serve to incriminate himself. We’ve also heard that Jesus was too sharp for their ways. He was disarming in the way he responded to their carefully devised questions and challenges.

Of course there is more at stake than just a verbal tussle here. This too, like the mountain top vista presented for Moses, which was more than just a panoramic survey of the promised land - we all know that there is a much deeper and poignant event happening here. These encounters between Jesus and the authorities are similar kinds of occurrences. Jesus’ fate rests on these encounters. Yes, he is disarming in his responses, but each time he sends them away, the reaction is getting stronger. They may be suffering defeat in the individual encounters, but it is strengthening their resolve for the final encounter. It is hard to keep getting stung by witty and deeply meaningful rebuttals.

So, yes, these encounters are more than just examples of clever repartee between Jesus and the Pharisees and Sadduceess. They are turning points for Jesus. His life journey turns on them. But the interesting thing is, that so does ours! Jesus is seizing a moment which represents a personal turning point and making it infinitely more important by saying things that represent turning points for all of us. What is the most important commandment, he is asked. His answer could seal his fate, but it is also an answer which we can use to guide our lives.

Most mission and vision statements, whole library shelves of books, self-help group purpose statements, promises made in baptism and many creeds can be summed up by what Jesus said in answer to that question from the Pharisees.

Love God, and love your neighbour as yourself. That’s a purpose statement that can guide every moment of your life. In question form, that’s the promise made in baptism - not just by parents on behalf of their child, but by congregation in support of their own promise, by Godparents and congregational sponsors as a living out of their promises as well.

Well, it can replace many or most mission and vision statements and whole shelves in the library, but we know that it doesn’t and that it can’t because it is at once both so simple and so challenging. As I said, whole lives, in each and every moment, can be directed by that commandment. One could say that it put Moses on a mountain top, after years of wilderness leadership, and that it also guided Moses to lead his people away from Egypt in the first place. It brought us here today.

As we stand and survey the land before us, what does it tell us about the choices to be made? Amen.