From the Minister's
desk....
I
am a tragic child of the 80’s. I loved the hyper colour shirts, mullet
hair
styles and synthesized music. One of the
popular 80’s groups was WHAM. George
Michael was the lead singer and he had an oversized white shirt that he
wore in
one of his pop clips, it said in huge black letters “CHOOSE LIFE”. It wasn’t long before lots of people were
getting around wearing imitations of George’s shirt quoting it like a
mantra. There
was nothing new in this statement of “choose life” as the writer of
Deuteronomy
(Moses) back in 1406 BCE wrote of the LORD’s discourse ... Now choose life, so that
you and your children may live. 30:19b.
This Sunday’s lectionary reading
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
invites us to consider that there is a choice that is constantly before
us, always!
The choice... to ‘choose life’ (and prosperity) or ‘death’ (and
destruction),
Moses alludes that it is the love of the LORD and the walking in the
LORD’s
ways that leads to life. To choose anything else is to embrace death.
Verse 19a
states...
This day I call
heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you
life and
death, blessings and curses.
Is this the moment when God sets
before all of
humanity the reality of free will? Of
course
not! Genesis carries the same weight of choice for Adam and Eve and the
eating
of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. Even here the choice
before
Adam and Eve is the issue not the fruit. By the time Adam and Eve have
eaten of
the fruit they have already made the choice to do what they want (not
what God
asked of them), they have already chosen death.
Over time the choice
to live the LORD’s way became law and the law became a burden on the
lives of
the Hebrew people separating them from the God who wanted to be with
them. It
is up to Jesus (God incarnate) to embody the verses that precede
Sunday’s
Deuteronomy reading and liberate people from the law and from the
eternal
consequences of death. Deuteronomy
30:11-14 says
11 Now what I am
commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.
12 It
is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, "Who will ascend into
heaven
to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?" 13 Nor is it beyond
the sea, so that you have to ask, "Who will cross the sea to get it and
proclaim it to us so we may obey it?" 14 No, the word is very near you;
it
is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.
In our other
lectionary reading Philemon 1:1-21 Paul is urging Philemon to chose
life in the
form of welcoming back a slave that has previously run away (a choice
that for
Onesimus carried the punishment of death).
Paul is revealing that Onesimus has come to faith in Christ
while with
Paul. Onesimus has died to self and risen in Christ, he has “chosen
life”. He
has chosen life to the point where he
is willing to go back to Philemon and face his master, face his earthly
death. And
Paul in the spirit of Deuteronomy says in verses 8, 9 and 16 says
8 Therefore,
although in Christ I could be bold and order you to do what you ought
to do, 9
yet I appeal to you on the basis of love [to take Onesimus back], 16 no longer as a slave,
but better than a slave, as a dear brother.
Let us then living as Christ
lived “chosing life” rather than law and death. Let us learn from Paul
and remember
like Philemon that the choice is always before us at all times,
it is
not beyond us to see each other as brothers and sisters of Christ and
children
of God. As Dueteronomy 30:14 states “No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and
in your
heart so you may obey it.” May you always CHOOSE LIFE!
Shalom
Scott