"Choose life"-Sermon for Proper 18, Deuteronomy 30:15-20
As we find ourselves at Labor Day Weekend, a traditional marker for summer’s end and fall’s beginning, I for one feel, really as I do each year at about this point on the calendar, but I feel as if I’m standing on a precipice of sorts and looking ahead at all that lays before me and before St. Julian’s in the months that lie between roughly now and really Memorial Day 2023. The Church’s programmatic life, in modern times, has always been oriented around the school year. Thus, this time of year has always had for me a sort of “new year” vibe…sadly without the fireworks. And, of course, as I look out from this metaphorical precipice, rather than some sort of landscape or cityscape laid out before me…I see, in my mind’s eye, mainly gatherings of people…in spaces like this church, our worship space, classrooms and offices, people’s homes, Lakeline Station Apartments like where we gathered this past week to both serve and deepen our relationships with our friends at Foundation Communities. And, I see many faces…solemn faces and lots of happy faces and even a few sad faces. I see concrete being poured and walls going up on Brushy Creek Road at the site of our new church. I see meals being shared, lively conversations being had, white boards and news print being inscribed upon. I imagine hugs and hands being held, heads bowed in prayer, and voices raised in song.
And, as my imagination runs through these various images fueled by similar past experiences, for this is my 21st year gearing up for fall as a priest, I hold in my heart a mixture of feelings that are all jumbled up together. I feel excitement and eagerness. I feel hopeful and a sense of anticipatory joy…for I know there is much fun and growth and, even, unexpected but wonderful surprises that stand before us in our undiscovered, God-led future…together And, if honest and at the very same time, I feel some anxiousness…some apprehension…for I also know some surprises before us will inevitably be unwelcome…that there will be challenges that arise that are hard, and that we will experience some sorts of losses along the way. And, I worry that some of the tasks that I will face I may not be equal to…that along the way I may disappoint some of you. And, as your pastor, priest and friend…and as one who has big feelings and cares deeply for this family of faith and all who are in it…such a thought rattles my head space…for I want everything to be just perfect…but we all know life is not perfect.
And, whether or not your life revolves as completely around the school year as mine does, as a parent of 2 school aged children and as a priest in the church, perhaps we all know something of what I speak. For we all have and will face times of transition, experience new beginnings. And, the future, when we take time to intentionally look ahead, will always be full of unknowns…both great opportunities and profound challenges…and we find the feelings I just described welling up…welcome or not.
And, I share this with you…these musings from the precipice of another fall at St. Julian’s…because I believe our Old Testament lesson today has some wisdom…some helpful insight to share about how we might walk, individually and together, into our undiscovered future…and not only the future that is connected to our life at St. Julian’s…but just our future…meaning like tomorrow and the weeks and months that follow…even the years that follow…for the future is always their…always remains in front of us…and it always remains just as unpredictable…just as unknowable…and just as uncontrollable.
For, you see, we find Moses and the people of Israel, in our Old Testament lesson today, on their own sort of precipice…the precipice of entering the Promised Land. After 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, the time to enter that which they have been seeking after so entirely has finally arrived. Though obviously not all, like Moses himself, but still I imagine most of those who crossed the Red Sea on dry land, chased by Pharaoh’s army, as the people of Israel fled from slavery in Egypt, are no longer actually alive. At least two new generations of God’s people have come into the world since that day. Which is to say, 40 years is a long time…a long time of looking forward to something long awaited…a great expectation shared from generation to generation, which has followed many trials and tribulations experienced along the way…on their 4-decade zig zag across the Saini Peninsula. I imagine the anticipation and anxiety I might be experiencing as I begin my 21st school year as a parish priest pales in comparison to the big, big feelings that must have been coursing through the hearts and minds of Moses and those many thousands of people he leads. Sure, their joy must have been unimaginable, uncontainable even…but I also imagine that the level of anxiety must have been equally as great. For, what might it be like for those generations that have known nothing but life on the road to settle into an agrarian sort of life? Would the communities they are yet to build both thrive and last? There are questions of leadership to be determined, a non-existent economy to create. Moreover, there are, in fact, already people living in that Promised Land, so questions of war and peace remain squarely set before them…questions I note that have still not been resolved these thousands of years later.
And, I could go on, but my point is that though the people of Israel must be overjoyed, and surely that is a great understatement, that God’s promised new beginning…a home at last…lies just ahead of them…and, thus, hope abounds…surely their undiscovered future, also, carries with it the weight of the unknown…the great existential question of whether or not they are both worthy and capable of living into, caring for, and successfully inhabiting such a profound gift. And, friends, into this anxiety, God speaks. God provides direction…the very wisdom they need to take their very next step…to walk into their undiscovered, God-led future…together.
So here we go…here it is…through his prophet Moses, God says to his beloved people, on the precipice of the Promised Land, “I call heaven and earth to witness…that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live…so that you may live in the land that the Lord swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” Now, I believe this life that God speaks of is about more than geography…the place we live our lives…the Promised Land or, for that matter, Central Texas. And, I believe it is about more than the length of our life…for though nature and nurture may have impact on our lifespans…ultimately the number of our days is one of the greatest unknowns that our future holds. Instead, I believe the life of which God speaks…the life God asks us to choose, both his people entering the Promised Land and every single one of us as we just enter a new day…is really not about the future at all…but about the present. For, we can only choose life while actually living it, which is in the present moment. And, I believe to choose life is to affirm life…to love life…to give ourselves over to life…as we live it and lean into the gift of our lives…and not only our own…but the lives of those with whom we share our life in the present moment…those we are with right now…and in each “right now” that follows.
You see, the most important question is not how well will I organize our next outreach project, how efficiently will I run our next Bishop’s Committee meeting, how wisely will I lead our next bible study, but, instead, who I choose to be in those moments as they surely arrive. So, will I speak into the lives of those with whom I share those future moments…blessings? Will I build those lives up? Will I affirm the giftedness and beauty in others through expressions of gratitude and by really listening to what they are saying to me and the wisdom they are offering for our shared pursuits? Will I empower people to use their gifts and offer themselves as leaders, and will I use my words and my own assistance to encourage those good efforts? For that is choosing life…to bless, to affirm, to express gratitude, to listen well, to equip, to invite, to empower…for, in doing so, we will always find our own lives and the lives of those with whom we share a life…abound. When we choose life by affirming and blessing each other, we find that all of our lives increase in wonder, creativity and power…our lives fill up to overflowing.
Now, don’t get me wrong, goal setting and diligent planning and thoughtful reflection are supremely important to assure future success, but, friends, it all can be so easily undone…if, when that for which we prepare arrives, we bring to the actual moment…and more so to the people with whom we share that moment, curses and expressions of death, like negativity and pride-fullness and a sense of superiority over others. No matter how well we prepare, accomplishing the good things for which we prepare…spiritual growth, healing our community, living further into our purpose, vision and mission…depend the very most on our choice to choose life…to bless, affirm, give thanks, listen, equip, invite, and empower…while we plan and when the time comes to actually do.
God knew this when he shared it with God’s people on the precipice of entering the Promised Land…he knew that their success in forming a nation…in building a healthy community, a thriving economy, equitable systems of government, in which, all could mutually thrive…entirely depended, first and foremost, on who they choose to be with each other as they both planned for and entered into that work…if they chose life…in every present moment they shared together…an abundant sort of life characterized by affirmation and blessing and thanksgiving and inclusion and encouragement. Everything that would follow depended first on that choice.
And so, back to our precipice…the beginning of a new program year in the life of our church…the very best way I believe we can lean into the joys that lie before us and ease the anxiety that comes with the desire to successfully navigating the challenges and difficulties that also lie before us…is the same…to in the present moment and each that follows…choose life…to choose to affirm the life that God has graciously given to each of us…to affirm the life of those with whom we share our journey…affirm one another’s beauty and giftedness, be quick to bless each other with our words, to give thanks for each other’s efforts, to listen well to each other, to invite others in, to equip and empower one another for ministry.
If this is who we choose to be…if this is where all our efforts begin…if this is our highest goal and aspiration…even more importantly than being “successful” …we will more and more become the people and place, the lovers and life-choosers, that God created us from before time and forever to be…a family of faith in which life overcomes death…blessings replace curses…a hopeful sort of shared future that we can joyfully and boldly walk into together. Amen.