A Book with a Table of Contentment

 

A Book with a Table of Contentment

 

1 Timothy 6:6-19

Pursuing God's justice 

 

6:6 Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment,

 

6:7 for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it,

 

6:8 but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.

 

6:9 But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.

 

6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.

 

6:11 But as for you, man of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness.

 

6:12 Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

 

6:13 In the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you

 

6:14 to keep the commandment without spot or blame until the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ,

 

6:15 which he will bring about at the right time--he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords.

 

6:16 It is he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see; to him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.

 

6:17 As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches but rather on God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.

 

6:18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share,

 

6:19 thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.

 

Have you ever thought much about contentment? What does it mean to BE content? “Godliness combined with contentment” are the first-verse watchwords in today’s scripture passage from I Timothy. Is the apostle really serious, that we should seek contentment, especially when there is so much yet undone in the “mission” of the church, and that needs repaired in the world? Today’s message is entitled “Table of Contentment,” as a teasing allusion to the table of contents found in most books. Books are something that brings me contentment, so there you have it. Let’s spend some time exploring “contentment.”

 

The apostle, writing in Philippians 4, tells us we should “learn to be content in what state we may find ourselves,” so I guess he’s pretty serious about God’s people finding it! Poking around online, here are a few things I found regarding “contentment,” with a little help from Google and A.I.:

 

·     Quiet Joy: It’s a calm, sustained feeling off pleasure and happiness.

·     Satisfaction: It involves being happy and satisfied with your current life and situation.

·     Ease of Mind: Contentment brings a peaceful state of mind, free from disquiet or worry.

·     Harmony: It’s about being in tune with yourself and your surroundings.

·     “Low” Desire: Unlike intense happiness, contentment doesn’t require the “urge to savor and integrate” or feel the need to push for more.

 

Anyone who has been in therapy or has learned much about self-awareness should recognize these traits of contentment. Ever encounter someone who is 180 degrees from this: Loud, with little evidence of joy; never satisfied, regardless of how high they may rise; a mind that is never at ease, always scheming or plotting; almost driven to create division and tension; and relentlessly “pushing for more”? If you read the daily news, it should sound familiar…sorry…I couldn’t resist. However, we SHOULD quickly diagnose elements of this “opposite” trend in ourselves, any time we find ourselves discontented. This is precisely why the apostle begins with this assertion. Finding and maintaining some state of contentment not only points us in the direction of the joy and abundance Jesus offers his followers, but it blunts the stresses that can harm us, our plans, and those in the “orbit” of our lives!

 

Personally, I have somehow learned this inner contentment, and practice it daily. I know, those of you who know me might not see the evidence of it, as I have often been driven to accomplish many and various goals in my career, and in this fractured and highly-charged political place we find ourselves in, I can be as acerbic and combative as the next person (although I do try to temper it with humor). But I can honestly say I experience an inner contentment that energizes me, keeps me sane, and gives me a peaceful place to retreat to. It also keeps me from ever being bored. (It kind of drives my wife crazy, I think, that I’m never really bored; maybe I’m just easily amused?) I don’t say these things to boast, but to expose the forensics as to why this is so. I give credit to three things in life for my “easy” contentment:

 

·     Parents: I’m not sure how they did it, but while they wanted the best from “their boys,” they really didn’t pressure us, or expect more of us than we did of ourselves. They did the best within their limited budget to provide opportunities for us, but didn’t “freak out” of we tried something and decided it “wasn’t our thing.” Both parents also modeled a curiosity about life, the universe, and everything, without being obsessed with control of any of it. They also modeled gratitude for whatever we had, and wherever we found ourselves. Sound like the ingredients of contentment?

 

·     Partner: I’ve been privileged to spend over 48 years with a person who encourages me, critiques me gently, and doesn’t try to change me, even when my “opposite” personality totally chafes her the wrong way. On top of that, she maintains her own unrelenting pursuit of contentment, personal excellence, and inner peace. She is a person of such deep faith, I am in awe of her, and every single day of our 48-plus years has provided both a freshness and a welcome challenge to life. Stagnation is never an issue for us; homicide, maybe!

 

·     Faith: My parents had a simple, yet ever-present belief, both that God was always with us, and that God wanted more for us in life, which invoked a sense of what they might call in the business world, “continuous quality improvement.” They were never afraid to publicly call themselves Christians, not fearing that others would have evidence to judge them otherwise, based on their deportment, and even when times were tough, they never eschewed weekly church attendance, and that meant worship AND Sunday School, for all five of us. [I will never forget how they handled the situation with my middle brother, who, while navigating his own adolescent development, decided he didn’t believe in God, and inquired about refraining from church attendance. Our parents told him that, when he turned 13, he could stay home on Sundays, but he had to STAY home. He did. And while I know it really bothered our mother, she held to that bargain, and I fully believe this act of parental integrity sowed the seeds of not only a Christian faith commitment, but a call to the ordained ministry, that eventually blossomed in my brother. And if you know Pastor Jay, his roots go really deep!

 

In this passage, the Apostle Paul pairs contentment with “godliness,” which, as it turns out, is even harder to define. Jesus kept it simple: Love God, love neighbor, serve others. Paul models for us the highs and lows of trying to actually DO this. And ever since following Jesus became a thing, we have all been on the quest to both define “godliness” and to live it. Godly people probably get that “I’m third” thing right: God first; others second, I’m third. Godly people try to bring love, grace and harmony to conflicted situations, but without compromising principles and justice. Godly people forgive like WE have been forgiven by Jesus. As Jimmy Kimmel highlighted in his “return” monologue the other night, Ericka Kirk, widow of slain conservative influencer, Charlie Kirk, did the truly “Christian” thing by forgiving the man who killed her husband. History is rife with such examples: Elie Wiesel, forgiving the German prison camp guards; Nelson Mandela, forgiving the jailers who imprisoned him unjustly for 27 years; and Pope John Paul II not only offering absolution to the man who shot him, but visiting him in prison, as well.

 

However, “godliness” doesn’t have to be harder that what Jesus taught us. Love God, love our neighbor, serve others. Even these simple steps, when married to our quest for contentment, can qualify as godliness. Each of us may have other things to tack on our godliness inventory, based on our family heritage, personal values and appropriation of how we understand scripture, and church teachings. It is important, though, to acknowledge that, beyond what we get from Jesus, these codicils to our definition of godliness are ours, and we would be wise to not hold others to them. If the church has made grievous errors in this regard, it has happened when it codified these “convictions” into doctrines and dogmas. In then attempting to apply them broadly, it has violated many folks’ personal journeys to the degree that they have opted out of church life, and have found refuge in their own DIY religion. Even when Paul is at his most critical in attempting to define godliness and contentment, he is careful not to judge the people who ARE the church, and who—like all of us—are a work in progress.

 

There are those who believe that more rigid rules and purer doctrines will grow the church back to prosperity, but I don’t see it. Maybe this idea of helping people find contentment is a better idea? Who doesn’t want inner peace? Who doesn’t want to walk a path of self-improvement that connects with other pilgrims on the way? Who doesn’t want more light to healing and strengthening relationships? If we are honest, and spend time with passages such as this one from First Timothy, we may see that the secret to relevance for the church has been right before our eyes all along! Shalom!

Broke, Not Woke

Broke, Not Woke

 

Jeremiah 8:18-9:1

Jeremiah laments over Judah 

 

8:18 My joy is gone; grief is upon me; my heart is sick.

 

8:19 Listen! The cry of the daughter of my people from far and wide in the land: "Is the LORD not in Zion? Is her King not in her?" ("Why have they provoked me to anger with their images, with their foreign idols?")

 

8:20 "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved."

 

8:21 For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I am broken, I mourn, and horror has seized me.

 

8:22 Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored?

 

9:1 O that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!

 

 

Jeremiah was known as the “weeping prophet.” Today’s text is a good indicator as to why. Israel was both a source of joy to God and God’s prophets one moment, and a curse, in the next. They were often BROKE, not “woke.”

 

A few ground rules to consider:

 

    *The Bible speaks as Israel and “the people of God” as being the same thing, and we must understand this. Biblically, Israel was never a “nation,” but a collection of affiliated family “tribes” that occupied a land they believe God gave them. Only “modern” Israel was given nation status in 1948 by the United Nations, AND this modern, political nation-state was granted land in the Mid-East as a homeland. Jews from all over the world flocked there to settle. “Biblical” Israel is not the same thing as the nation-state named “Israel” today. Modern Israel is a political entity, not a theocratic state with a king, priests, and prophets, like its biblical version.

 

    *If we want to equate biblical Israel with what it really stands for in the Bible—namely the “people of God”—we are all included, at least all of us who claim to believe the Bible, and most certainly those of us who call ourselves Christians. Hence, the blessings available to biblical Israel are now also available to us and any other “people of God,” and the admonitions and warnings given to biblical Israel ALSO must apply to us.

 

    *To directly equate the modern state of Israel with the Israel we read about in the Bible would be in error, unless we also apply God’s law to it, as the Bible does to the “Israel” it addresses.

 

If the weeping prophet Jeremiah felt HIS Israel (remember, they were “the people of God” then) was “broken,” he would be shattered to see what has happened to what we call “Israel” today! Israel under Netanyahu has become a world power and a conquering state. We are currently witnessing them destroying Gaza and denying Palestinians—many of whom are practicing Christians—lands they have lived on for generations. In 1948, when the United Nations “partitioned” lands in the Mid-East after the Second World War, a large portion was given to the newly-established “nation” of Israel. Borders were drawn, and the Palestinian peoples were given their own adjacent lands they could call their own. “Palestine” was NOT chartered as a nation-state, and still is not one. After the Jewish people were close to being wiped out by Hitler’s Holocaust, it was understandable that free-thinking, well-meaning world leaders desired to give them a protected “homeland” where they could reestablish themselves and rebuilt their peoples, families, and faith. However, by granting this new nation of Israel a large piece of land, it meant forcing some of the indigenous peoples (“Palestinians”) into smaller quarters, which tended to reignite the historical enmity between the people of Israel and the mostly Arab people we had simply called “Palestinians.” What was meant to be a “Balm in Gilead” for Israel began to be a bitter pill for the people of the Palestinian territories, lands now greatly limited by the actions of the United Nations, in favor of Israel. This new historical “brokenness” was just beginning.

 

Had it stayed that way, we might have been able to arrive at some kind of tense, but “manageable” situation in the Mid-East, but it didn’t, and here’s where Jeremiah would be turning in his grave. Israel “exploded” in its growth, as Jews from all over the “diaspora” began to flock to the new nation state of Israel. This part of the experiment was quite successful. The growing pressure of needing larger settlements for these new residents meant a methodical encroachment into the lands occupied by the Arab/Palestinian people. As Israel grew stronger, they used this strength to drive the Palestinians into smaller and smaller areas, as Israel’s burgeoning growth usurped more and more property. Without any kind of central government or a formal military of any kind, the pressured Palestinians began to resort to what the world labeled “terroristic” tactics, and the agitated factions—with the support of other groups in neighboring and “friendly” Arab nations—drafted ideologies aimed at their “new” enemy, Israel. One need only to compare a map of the borders drawn between Israeli and Palestinian peoples in 1948 and a map of what land party now occupies, to see why we have such an unsolvable mess there, today! Through various wars—such as the 1967 six-day war—Israel has compressed the Palestinian peoples into a fraction of the land area granted them by the United Nations in 1948, and Israel has cut them off from important bodies of water (for shipping, drinking, and agriculture) and transportation routes. Israel has also developed what some suggest is the third or fourth largest military machine on the planet, that includes a prodigious nuclear capability. They are strong, and have the backing of the United States and most of Europe, while the Palestinians have factions like Hamas and Fatah al-Intifada that carry out para-military “terrorist” attacks, in response to Israel’s overwhelming force. Jeremiah’s tears would be flowing.

 

Israel, as a nation-state, has largely abandoned important elements of God’s law that once governed them. One of the highest commands given biblical Israel was the “Hebrew Code of Hospitality.” They were commanded to “welcome the stranger (immigrant or sojourner) in your land, and treat them like a citizen, for you were once strangers in a foreign land” [Leviticus 19:33-34]. Driving out Palestinian families because you want the land might be seen as the absolute antithesis of this, wouldn’t you think? What has been happening in Gaza and in the Golan Heights over the past few decades is both a sign of Israel’s “brokenness” in the words of the prophet AND a clear indication as to how modern Israel is fully a political body, and NOT one practicing Judaism as the Bible describes it. To hear so many Christians rally for total support of the nation-state of Israel, equating it with biblical “Israel” is disheartening. [Full disclosure: the Hebrew hospitality code  was the topic of my Doctor of Ministries study; my dissertation was entitled: “Welcoming the Stranger: Assimilating Guests into the Congregation.”]

 

Now please note: supporting our Jewish siblings and standing with them against antisemitism IS a bonified Christian act, as well as a humanitarian one. I’m not talking about this vital alliance. The brokenness of the situation is that WAY too many people of faith equate supporting what Netanyahu’s government is doing in Gaza with supporting the “Israel” of the Bible. Remember, Israel in the Bible stands for all of the people of God. Jeremiah would have had fits with how modern Israel is treating the “stranger in your midst.”

 

The brokenness of God’s people is nothing new. One would hope that at least Christians, who are the beneficiaries of the grace of God through Jesus Christ, would be a little less broken? I guess our humanness trumps our redemption, at least to some degree. But shouldn’t we at least be willing to wear “woke” proudly as a label? After all, Jesus was “woke.”

 

Where did the use of “woke” in its current form come from? Here’s what I found:

 

    “The phrase ‘woke’ originated in African American Vernacular (AAVE) and initially meant being aware of social and racial injustices. The word’s meaning and use have undergone significant changes throughout the 20th century and into the 21st, leading to its politicization.”

 

One cannot read the Gospels without clearly seeing how Jesus schooled the people of his time on social injustices. He regularly spent time with the marginalized “outcasts” of his day, from lepers, to tax collectors, to women. His teachings highlighted the needs of the poor and uplifted the downtrodden. He welcomed children to his lap, in public. He also cursed religious leaders who “strained out gnats and swallowed camels,” and who demanded more of their subjects than they did of themselves. He proclaimed that “greatness” came from servanthood, not power and wealth. He openly welcomed Gentiles, people the Jews of the day despised. To apply the term “woke” to Jesus, at least in the AAVE use of the word, would not at all be inappropriate. Of course, now the term has been turned into a pejorative one. Labeling someone as “woke” has become an insult, suggesting that their calling out injustice is somehow “un-American” or “too liberal.” Maybe it’s just too Christian? Does anyone notice that turning “woke” into an insult is also racist, given its origins?

 

As the prophet tells us in today’s text, Israel was often “broken,” usually during its times of prosperity, when it was so easy for it to take credit for its good fortune and put Yahweh on the back burner (or just leave the priests handle “that religious stuff.” Prophets proclaimed that it was time for them to “wake up”—to once again acknowledge their Creator and regain their sense of justice and community. In short, they should be more “woke,” both to God and the others around them, and their needs.

 

Ask yourself this question: when you are put in a position of defending what you have versus what others don’t have, how do you answer? Are you more like “broken” Israel, speaking of your own efforts and strength? Or do you speak of the blessings you have received, with a willingness to help others with the surplus? “Broke” or “woke,” you decide. When it comes to where we are as a nation right now, Jeremiah nails it: "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." Fortunately, there IS a balm in Gilead, and he is Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer! Only by “exploding” this balm can we hope to bring healing to our land and to our souls. May God have mercy on us. Amen.

 

 

Crossed

 

Crossed 

1 Corinthians 1:18-24

The cross is the power of God 

 

1:18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

 

1:19 For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart."

 

1:20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scholar? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

 

1:21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of the proclamation, to save those who believe.

 

1:22 For Jews ask for signs and Greeks desire wisdom,

 

1:23 but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to gentiles,

 

1:24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

 

One of the great questions of theology is: does the cross tell us more about Jesus? Or does it say more about us? How you took the “us” in the last statement may be a clue about how you might answer the question. If you tend to substitute “me” for “us,” seeing “us” as nothing but a collective “me,” then you probably focus on the cross being mostly about Jesus (he died for MY sins) and the cross experience as purely an act of atonement. If, on the other hand, your “us” means “humanity,” you might tend to think of the cross as a sign of the on-going failure of the human “race” to understand even the basics of forgiveness, love, and respect. Since the current administration has plunged us into a state of ‘getting even” and “winning over our enemies,” it would seem that the latter understanding of the cross is germane to this discussion of what “the cross” is all about.

 

This week’s text is Pauline reasoning and theology, so we must tread lightly. First, because most of our contemporary practice of “Christianity” comes directly from Paul. As a pastor, I long ago lost my fascination with how many passionate church Christians freely moved between quoting Paul and Jesus, often giving Pauline theology greater weight, especially when defining doctrine. Think about it: not many of the church’s doctrines come from things Jesus said or did. Certainly, our morals might, but doctrines are mostly defined from what Paul and the early church wrote and did. Few of the most hurtful doctrines of Christian history were derived from “love your neighbor as yourself” or “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Paul gets a bad rap, though, over his schizophrenic temperament, and most especially the things he writes about women, most of which are misconstrued. 

 

(I’ve addressed this in many other sermons, namely that Paul actually sought to liberate women and justify them as leaders in the early church. However, his “cautions” result from how early church leaders were being persecuted, and his wanting to spare women from the violence and retribution until things settle down a bit, as well as a dictum we read in I Corinthians 14, urging women to “keep silent” in the church, due to their total lack of participation in any religious body, up to this point. The “wait until you get home and ask your husbands” is not necessarily a chauvinist remark, but possibly a way to keep order in the assembly, until women get up to snuff on preaching, theology, and church polity, instead of just being expected to cook for the elders. If one reads the entire corpus of Pauline literature, it becomes clear that Paul not only encouraged women to take their place as preachers and leaders in the church, but in both Romans and Acts, we read of him answering to women as his superiors.)

 

My point is that how we see the cross is more from Paul’s angle of it being about blood being shed and sins being forgiven, than it is about it being an indictment of human failing and a NEED for forgiveness. Christianity has been victimized by the kind of polarization our current society faces, when it comes to the cross. The more theologically conservative among us tend to focus on Jesus’ death on the cross—including the requisite “shedding of blood”—as a necessary act performed by God to “atone” for the sins of humanity, often citing the Pauline theology in the Book of Hebrews, where the cross is paralleled with the ancient “meat sacrifices” of the Jewish temple. (Even late scholar Marcus Barth, son of Karl Barth, wrote extensively about the “Word becoming flesh” in Christ, asserting that the Greek word used for “flesh” in the prologue to the Gospel of John, is sarx, which Barth says means “meat.”) Trouble is, when it comes to our conservative siblings, this understanding of Jesus being a “meat sacrifice” for sin on the cross has become a dogma—believe it, or else you’re a heretic. On the other hand, for more liberal-thinking folk, there is a tendency to recast Christ’s death on the cross as nothing BUT a metaphor for the sinful failings of humans to accept new ideas, particularly when those new ideas run afoul of personal wealth or aggrandizement, or rebukes and refutes strong political authority. Jesus died because his message of “loving neighbor,” “blessing the poor,” and paying allegiance to God alone rankled what makes “humanity great again.” 

 

The truth? Both “sides” harbor part of it. Christ DID go to the cross willingly, in his “mission” of absolving humanity of its sin, and humanity DID fail—yet again—to hear a message meant to reconcile and revive humans into a sustainable, peaceful world community that would be inclusive of the “haves” and the “have nots,” and in this failure, decided to kill the messenger. As we have learned from the realm of science, two postulates may be true at the same time, and in many cases, the synergy of them is what actually FORMS the truth. Jesus DID die for the sins of humanity, and humanity’s continuing flirtation with selfishness and power DID result in the death of Jesus Christ. So, what is the ultimate truth?

 

Sacrificial love. Jesus willingly went the cross when he could have easily vanquished his accusers and walked free, emboldened by the power he would have gained—in an earthly sense—by doing so. But God SO LOVED the world that God GAVE the “only Son,” and therein we find the freeing truth of the cross. In choosing the cross, Jesus gives himself, and tells the world that what he stated in John 3:16 is absolutely true. In Christ, in his sacrificial death and resurrection, humanity is forgiven of what put Christ on the cross in the first place. It is my belief that this forgiveness is universal; the only persons who will not be received as a child of God by this universal atonement are those who CHOOSE to not believe and not receive this free gift of God’s grace. There have been, will be, and certainly are persons who reject this gift, or just don’t believe they need anything apart from their own acquired power to receive all of the benefits of this life, and the life to come, if there is such a thing. For those of us who willingly and gratefully receive the gift of redemption and reconciliation, the humility of knowing that God’s sacrificial and willful love was necessary for us to be bound together as children of God, is the proof and commitment of having received it.

 

Now do you see why in this text Paul says that the “cross is foolishness” to those who are perishing? And yet, anytime a person realizes that by living a selfish, “me first” life they ARE “perishing” and losing out on discovering the true love and acceptance they may receive via the always-available gift of God’s redeeming grace That this grace has been made available to ALL, friends, is the Good News! It is only foolishness to those who have not yet discovered it, or, God forbid, who have consciously decided they are not interested.

 

How wonderful it would be if God’s grace had also terminated the human tendency to “kill the messenger” when their message messes with our gig, but it hasn’t. We will always have to make a choice as to what we believe and where our allegiances will be. Even better, it would make things much easier for the church if dogmas and doctrines did not have to define us, supplanted instead by mutual, sacrificial love and cooperation. But we will always need God’s wisdom to incorporate the “love” morals into our behavior. But at least, let us not become “crossed” by the cross, distorting what God did for our mutual benefit into something to fight over and even “disaffiliate” from one another because we can’t agree on some single, polarizing “truth” about what happened at Calvary over 2,000 years ago. May the Spirit of God mend our tears and draw together the growing remnant of God’s people from every walk of life, every nation, and every tongue, to God’s glory, and the rebuilding of “Eden,” or God’s intended joy of life in community with one another. 

 

There is a funny story told about a young student who is flunking out of his math classes by not taking them seriously. After all other manners of getting him to buckle down failed, his parents decide to send him to a local Catholic school. Pretty soon, his math scores begin to improve, and he winds up acing his math class. When his parents ask what motivated him, he said: “When I first walked into the lobby of my new school, I saw that huge stature of the guy nailed to that big PLUS sign, and I knew THESE people meant business! This humorous anecdote does harbor a great truth, though—the cross IS meant to be a “big plus sign,” bringing together the Divine with the object of God’s redeeming love, and then neighbor with neighbor in a harmonious, synergistic community. Dogmas and doctrines inadvertently may turn the cross into a “minus” sign, erecting fences between the “haves” and “have nots.” Let’s not propagate this error any further and subtract and divide, where God in Christ seeks to add and multiply! That would be foolishness. Amen.

Life Chooses YOU

 

Life Chooses YOU!

 

Deuteronomy 30:15-20

Choose life 

 

30:15 "See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity.

 

30:16 If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the LORD your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess.

 

30:17 But if your heart turns away and you do not hear but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them,

 

30:18 I declare to you today that you shall certainly perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.

 

30:19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live,

 

30:20 loving the LORD your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him, for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the LORD swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob."

 

 

“Choose life.” Sounds so simple, doesn’t it? What does this author mean, “choose life”? Did you ever stop to think about it? People of faith have pondered this text since it was first penned millennia ago, Rabbis and preachers have pondered it from bemas and pulpits for millennia, as well. Evangelical Christians have hijacked the term to mean “accept Christ as your Lord and Savior,” or “oppose all abortions.” Years ago, someone wrote a while Bible study series they called, “Choose Life.” The assumption was that, to live one’s life according to the Bible, was choosing the kind of life God would want us to have. The obvious difficulty is that we never seem to be able to agree on what that “chosen life” might look like? 

 

The first verse of this lectionary passage already sets us off on the wrong path: “I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity.” It sure makes it sound like the author is suggesting that there are only two choices: life and prosperity; or death and adversity. This may be what they call a “false dichotomy,” possibly? If these are our only choices, who among us who doesn’t need therapy and psychotropic drugs would choose “death and adversity”? I don’t know about you, but personally, I find even daily choices to be much more complicated than this. So did Israel, frankly. They were jostled about between hostile lands and promised territory. They lived where they had to glean to survive, and yet believed in a God who was leading them to a “land flowing with milk and honey.” They had almost a primal love for Yahweh, but regularly were seduced by the proximity of local gods that could be perched on the mantle. They belonged to a people who throughout history have been victimized by holocausts and pogroms, hostile neighbors and plagues. When this author puts before them a choice between “life” and “death,” they would most certainly choose life, but what does this really mean? It is an oversimplified message driven by an even more oversimplified understanding of what people face in “real life”—just like so many of the sermons we preachers have presented down through our own Christian history. 

 

I read a piece by a colleague on Facebook recently wherein he quoted Oswald Chambers, championing the idea that all God expects of us is “holiness.” So, what is holiness? And whose definition of it are we to use? (And don’t say “God’s definition,” for ultimately, this is exactly what we are debating!) So, if you take an additional step and suggest that holiness is living an “ethical, moral life,” then again we confront what “ethical and moral” mean? For me and my understanding of God’s inclusive love and acceptance, “ethical” living means I am compelled to accept others who may be WAY different than me in many ways, including things like culture or sexual orientation. To others, “ethical” may mean using faith categories and scripture to persuade someone that being any “sexual orientation” other than the one you were given the plumbing for at birth is wrong, requires repentance, and acquiescence to the “law of God.” You see our dilemma here? “Holiness” is truly a loaded word, in our churchy vocabulary. The founder of Methodism—John Wesley—said that the role of the church was to “spread scriptural holiness throughout the land.” But then he put feet to his own sermons focused on love and transformation by launching “acts of mercy” in poorhouses and prisons, women’s rights, and fighting for social justice among England’s “working poor.” So we might come to believe that Wesley’s “version” of scriptural holiness was not just upholding and defending doctrines and theological perspectives. I don’t think people would have flocked by the thousands to hear his sermons if they were just doctrinal treatises. He touched them where they lived, and preached a gospel that could lift them up out of the coal pits and exploitive practices of the monied interests in control of 18^th century England. Wesley’s version of “holiness” might better be termed “wholeness,” if one were to describe it an a more contemporary vernacular. Wesley did as did Jesus, to demonstrate what “choosing life” might look like to those who society had robbed of having choices.

 

Again, “choosing life” is about so much more than the poles presented in verse one by this author. Now, please understand that I’m not saying here that there are NOT those who make seriously bad choices that may thrust them in the direction of adversity and even death. I understand that addictions of various kinds, and mental illnesses such as depression, bipolar disorder, and certainly schizophrenia, may take persons to very bad places where their cognitive minds and feeling hearts don’t want to go. I get that, but I am not addressing these maladies in this reflection. Instead, I’m trying to get a hold on what it might truly mean to “choose life” beyond simply “choosing to believe in God.” In reading and studying the Bible for many years, serving as a pastor and interacting with God’s people for over 37 years in this endeavor, and through my own questions and experience in “living,” I have come to believe that God wants far MORE of us than just loyalty, allegiance, and doctrinal purity and/or “holy” living, at least as narrowly as some define it.

 

At each stage of our lives, we are given opportunities to “choose life.” As children, loving parents offer us many choices of things to eat, activities in which to engage, books to read, and chances to expand and row ourselves and our interests. As teenagers, we often face choices as to how much “risk” we are willing to take to have or keep certain friends, or in proportion to how much amusement we may experience. (Some of us who were more intellectually “geeky” sought less risk and more books!) As young adults, we had to choose a potential career and what preparation this career or job would require. Here is a place where the young adult often stumbles: will you choose a career that piques your interest, is connected with your passions, and that might “stretch” you? Or will you bend to the economic realities of just grabbing at a “job” to earn money to do the things you “really” want to do? I wish I could have confidence that the former choice was the norm, but I fear it is the proverbial “road less traveled.” As a pastor, I have encountered WAY too many folk who admit they chose a “job” or career based on its potential economic rewards, but that was disjointed from their personal interests, or even “gifts,” as they perceived them. This may be one of the most crucial “choose life” things we all face. Don’t fail at this one, and if you feel you have, it’s never too late to either make a career transition, OR to purposely choose to explore personal interests in the field or fields you like, even if these just become adult “diversions” alongside what you do to earn your keep.

 

“Choosing life” should be seen as God’s challenge at all stages of our lives, not just “life vs. death,” or even “money-making vs. gifts/interests.” I have identified three key areas to consider if we are to take the “choose life” challenge:

 

ACCEPTANCE—What will it take for you to accept yourself as who you are, at this point? And what will it take for you to make choices, going forward, that will enhance this acceptance? (I’m guessing that some of you, when I mention “acceptance,” thought about being “accepted” by God. Give up on this. Jesus Christ came, said what he said, and did what he did, that we might BE acceptable to God, even to the end of being proclaimed “children of God.) A second avenue of the “acceptance” question is how YOU will accept others? You also can “choose life” by accepting others as who THEY are, at this stage of their lives. Choosing to limit your acceptance of others speaks more loudly about how poorly you accept yourself than it does about any “standard” you may be using to judge others. We each must “choose life” that is our own path, and afford others the freedom to do likewise. To reject them because their standards don’t jibe with yours, or because their lifestyle is one you may struggle to endorse (or understand?), is no reason to reject their personhood, or their faith, both of which are ultimately between them and their Creator. One final note: if you recognize that self-acceptance is a goal with which you need help, BY ALL MEANS, get help! Your pastor may be helpful in sorting this out with you, but there is a strong possibility that a professional therapist may be even more helpful, if the issues blocking you are beyond simple “beliefs” or questions.

 

GOING ON TO PERFECTION—This is the famous “goal” set forth by Methodism’s John Wesley. Wesley believed that “choosing life” also meant embarking on a lifetime of self-improvement and personal and spiritual maturation. “Perfection” may indeed be an unattainable goal out there, just like traveling to another galaxy, but even as humanity chose to step out into outer space in spite of the limitation of literally astronomical distances, so can we choose to move in the direction of perfection. Don’t give up the game just because winning it seems insurmountable! My home pastor used to speak of the difference between “positional sanctification” and “real sanctification,” in a Wesleyan sense. Positional sanctification is what happened when we accepted Jesus Christ’s acceptance of US through his life, death, and resurrection. We were instantly “made acceptable” to God. “Real” sanctification is the “going on to perfection” journey we tackle as budding disciples of Jesus Christ. On this journey we seek to improve ourselves, incorporating the teachings of Jesus and learning to listen to our “better angels.” 

 

COSMIC CITIZENSHIP—“Choosing life” at this level involves accepting our full role as “children of God,” stewards of the life God has given us with the realization that it must be lived in community with OTHER children of God, and functioning as caregivers and stewards of the Earth. Our Muslim siblings believe that God “lent” the Earth to us, and that we are compelled to return it to God in the same—if not better—shape it was in when we received it. As that old poem, Desiderata, said, we ARE “a child of the universe.” Act like it, or at least understand that your journey toward perfection includes this element. I have been challenged by the opening words of Rick Warren’s bestseller, “The Purpose Driven Life”: IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU. A more accurate statement by my theology would be, “It’s not ONLY about you!” As one of my favorite comedic actors, “Red Green,” says, “Remember, we’re in this together.”

 

As I started writing this message, I was watching “Midnight in Paris,” a fanciful film directed by Woody Allen about a young author who dreams of Paris in the Roaring Twenties, when a trove of American artists, authors, and song writers descended on that romantic city. For the young “Gil Pender,” who is trying to decide what “life” he will choose, a quirk in the cosmic ether transports him to the very time he believes is “the Golden Age,” where he meets the Fitzgeralds, Ernest Hemmingway, Cole Porter, Pablo Picasso, Gertrude Stein, and about every other creative person of that era. There he also meets a young woman who dreams of Paris of the 1890s as “the Golden Era.” Mr. Pender comes to believe, as he experiences both of these eras, that WE must “choose life” for ourselves, and accept our time and place as realities in which to grow, thrive, and be creative. I think this is EXACTLY what the author of today’s text is trying to tell Israel! If you always believe the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, you will spend your entire life climbing fences, and getting some nasty snags along the way.

 

One more thing: didn’t someone tell us in scripture that “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last...” (John 15:16) While God does NOT manipulate us like puppets on a string, God DID give us a “head start” on making better choices—in the Garden of Eden, through giving Israel a law to live by, and in the person and ministry of Jesus Christ. Will we continue to make lousy choices? Or will we “choose life,” accepting that God has already made GOD’S choice, and it is US! Amen.