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The Old Testament book of Deuteronomy presents Moses last address to the people of Israel before he dies, and before they go in to take possession of the Promised Land. Today’s reading is full of hope and promise.

“The Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous,” Moses says, “in all your undertakings.”

What human heart does not long for prosperity? Prosperity means material security. It means great health. It means leisure time to enjoy with family and friends. It means the flowering of the arts.

Not only does Moses believe the Lord will make the people abundantly prosperous, but he adds that granting prosperity expresses the deepest desire of the divine heart. “The Lord will take delight in prospering you.”

This promise raises an important question for any thoughtful reader. If the Lord takes delight in prospering his people, why do so many people seem to experience something less? Does the Lord make promises he doesn’t keep? Or is there another explanation?

What if the Lord desires to keep his promise of abundant prosperity for all his people, but is powerless to deliver without his people’s cooperation?

The passage from Deuteronomy suggests exactly that. It says,

The Lord will take delight in prospering you when you obey the Lord your God by observing his commandments and decrees because you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

Now this sounds like a parental bribe. It sounds like the less than perfect mother who, out of exasperation, says to her incorrigible son, “If you obey me, you can have some ice cream.”

Over the years some less than perfect church-goers – and alas, priests and preachers -- have reinforced the notion that God bribes people. “Go to church or you will go to hell.”

Never mind that going to church feels like the equivalent of going to hell. When the church loses touch with the real needs of real people and becomes an institution focused on maintaining its irrelevancy, thoughtful people come to the conclusion that maybe going to hell is a whole lot better than going to church.

God does not bribe people. The divine promise of abundant prosperity for all is genuine. But God is powerless to create abundance wherever people are self-centered, self-absorbed, and self-indulgent. Human selfishness throws God to the ground and renders him powerless.

The Lord cannot move among people who are unwilling to live in partnership with the God of blessing.

What command must we obey? Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you. Love one another, even as I have loved you.”

Love opens the doors to abundant prosperity. Our challenge is simple: To learn to love one another, even as we learn to be loved by Jesus.

In Christ Jesus the eternal Word draws near to us, so that we can draw near to one another, and in loving one another, enter the abundant prosperity in which the Lord takes such delight.