So often doesn’t
life seem like it is a smorgasbord of choices, of decisions to be made. What to
have for dinner- where to go out to dinner—To eat that cookie when you are
trying to eat a little bit healthier. –
Now in regards to cookies doesn’t it seem like the cookie is choosing us and
not so much us choosing the cookie.
This morning to
sleep in read the paper or to come and sit on a hard, wooden pew.
The choice of whether
to read Fifty Shades of Gray or to read your Bible.
Sometimes we are
bombarded with too many choices like when you sit in front of our televisions
with 500 channels and say there is nothing on.
Life is about
choices.
Today we hear
Moses-laying out a choice before the Israelite people. Moses
says “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and
adversity.
Are you going to
choose door number one—life and prosperity or are you going to look behind door
number two—death and adversity.
Remember that at
this point in the story the Israelite have escaped the slavery of Egypt and are perched on the edge of the Promise
land—they have gathered on the banks of the Jordan and are about ready to rush
across the river into the Land God has promised them—the can almost taste the
sweetness of the milk and honey they have been promised. And Moses lays out this choice-if you want
the milk and honey, the good things that God has promises—choose life—choose to
obey his commandments- choose to walk in God’s ways
If you don’t
want those-there is always door number two—death and curses and adversity. Throughout their history, the Israelites will
constantly battle this choice—when they choose to follow God and his ways---
good things happen and when they don’t well —you know the story exile,
destruction- plagues – and famine.
The choice
before the Israelite people is also a choice that sit out in front of us as
Christian people.
Do we choose life or
do we choose death?
Now when I am
100% honest with myself—I don’t always choose to do things that bring life and
light into my life and into the world around me. Sometime I even want to do the right thing
and then I just don’t
St. Paul talks
about this inner conflict in his letter to the church in Rome when he say, “For
I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate…For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do
not want is what I do.”
How often do I say that I want to read more or pray more and
before I know it—the blackhole that is social media has sucked me right
in. I want to eat better to care for my
body, honor this wonderful temple God has given me—and then the cookies choose
me or I spend hours sitting on my duff.
I want to be a more even keeled parent and then anger or
impatience rear their ugly heads.
I want to put my energy and efforts into the eternal things,
things that matter, but then I find myself overworking, neglecting the
important relationships or worrying the things that the world says matter money, accumulating possessions, or trying to look good in the eyes of others—not
storing up treasure in heaven
So often it’s choosing door number two.
I think that beginning to choose life—is recognizing that we
make mistakes-- that we all fall down—maybe choosing life begins by getting
ourselves up off the ground—dusting ourselves off and saying I am going to try
again to choose life in this moment at this time and choose those things that
bring life to myself, my family, to my workplace—to my church, my community, my
school.
Brett Younger writing about this passage—says that there are
myriad of sacred possibilities of how we
might choose life. He says “…Give to the
poor. Fight for justice. Care for the hurting. Share food with the hungry… Enjoy
simple things. Play with children. Laugh often, long and loud. Cry when it is time to cry. Be patient with
your own imperfections as well as the imperfections of others. Surround
yourself with what you love-whether it’s family, friends, pets, music, nature
or silence.”
He continues, “Walk around the block. Turn off the television
(I’m adding social media) Get together with friends. Invite a stranger to
lunch. Clean out a drawer. (Don’t you always feel better after organizing
something)
Read a book. Quit doing what is not worth your time. Do
something so that someone else won’t have to. Give money to a cause you care
about. Stop arguing.”
Here’s a good one, “Search for something deeper and better
than your own comfort…Let God make your life wonderful…”[1]
There are thousands of possibilities—about how we might choose life.
Every moment of every day.
God places our lives, our circumstances before us and invites us to
choose life. My friends—the kingdom of
God is built one small brick at a time—it is built one small choice at a time—it
one small action at a time— it breaks into our world every time we choose life.
God is setting before us today life and prosperity and the
invitation is to choose life.
How will we choose?
AMEN
No comments:
Post a Comment