You know, life is all about making choices and our lessons really seem to point to that quite clearly today. You probably make hundred’s of decisions everyday without really thinking about it. To give you a few examples: one of the choices you probably made was what to wear to church today. Another might have been whether or not to eat breakfast. You might have to decide where to go to eat after the service.
Some of the new choices we are faced with in today’s world are whether or not to get vaccinated and will you wear a mask. Then there is the question of where do you feel safe to go - to church, to school, to the supermarket, to a rock concert? Our grandson was exposed to COVID on the first day of school - the girl sitting in front of him tested positive for COVID.
The movie theaters have reopened, but do you feel safe there? What about flying? We have tickets to fly to Kansas City for a Provincial meeting the first week in October. In all the questions you have to decide if you feel safe in our Brave New World.
For younger kids the choices might include whether to do your homework or watch TV or go play ball for an hour before dinner. Older kids might have to decide whether to go to school or to skip for the day. There are all kinds of choices out there. There’s alcohol, drugs, tobacco, promiscuity, or shoplifting. There are all kinds of pitfalls waiting for us out there.
Some of those choices should be governed by how we’ve decided to live our lives – if we’ve actually made that decision yet. This is exactly what Joshua is talking about in our first lesson. The Israelites are in the Promise Land and the conquest of Canaan is over – the land has been parceled out – and now the covenant with God is being renewed. “Choose this day whom you will serve... as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
They had a choice – they could worship and serve the gods their ancestors had in Egypt, the gods of the Amorites, or Yahweh. And they make their decision – “We, too, will serve the Lord. He brought us out of Egypt, he did great signs, and he protected us.” They will worship God and try to live their lives in a way that is pleasing to God.
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We see a similar kind of dynamic working in the Gospel lesson. We’re picking up the end of last week’s lesson. Jesus is telling the people that he is the bread of life, and he came down from heaven, and the people are looking at him like he just landed from Jupiter. “What are you talking about!”
My first year in Huntsville, a man got a box and set it up on campus and started preaching to the students who passed by. One of the students from St. Stephen’s heard him and called the church. He didn’t like what the guy was saying - it didn’t make any sense to him. And he wanted Fr. Jim and me to go up on campus and set this person straight and tell him what God was really like.
Some of the followers were feeling the same way about Jesus himself. They’re probably not much different from you and me. Most of us come to the church searching for deeper meaning in life; something beyond our humdrum existence and our petty problems. We’re looking for something bigger than we are. We want a God who can rescue us when we’re in trouble; a God who can take care of the problems that we can’t solve. We want a God who does not abandon us when the going gets tough; one who understands us; our emotions, our inadequacies, our sins - and who can love us and forgive us anyway. And here is this man talking about eating his body and drinking his blood, so they made the decision not to follow him anymore.
Now Jesus is sitting there with the original twelve and he asks them, “Do you want to leave also?” Peter speaks for the twelve. He replies, “Lord, where would we go?” -- You see, they've left their homes and families, their jobs and careers. “You alone have the words of eternal life.” No one else inspired them like Jesus did. No one else made their hearts burn within them. No one else spoke of heaven and life with that kind of authority. No one else cared about what happened to them. Why should they turn anywhere else.
“You are the Holy One of God.” Jesus had given them the faith they thought no longer existed. He had renewed their hope for the future. They understood that this man was different - there was a completeness they felt in his presence that they had never felt before. You see, God draws us to Himself with longings that we can neither understand nor describe. It is that spirit that the twelve are hanging on to.
Words alone are never sufficient to describe our encounter with the divine. They can never catch the essence or the emotional impact that God has on us. That’s what the twelve were experiencing - an encounter with the Holy One of God. And they trusted, that even though they could not fathom what Jesus was talking about, that God was going to work and to move and that one day, some way, they would understand.
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The problem is that when you make that decision to follow Jesus, to walk in the ways of Yahweh, you might think that everything is going to be just fine and you’ll never have any problems again. Actually, there are preachers who make a lot of money by preaching exactly that. The truth is you’re still going to have problems and troubles, because we live in a broken world.
Remember that choice you have to make? Not everyone chooses for God, not everyone chooses to do the right thing. Making that choice is not always easy. In our lesson from Paul, he talks about standing against the wiles of the devil, and the powers and principalities that come against us. And he tells us how we can stand against all the assaults of this world.
There are times and places that we actually feel like we are under assault. When I used to teach 8th grade math at a junior high school in Alvin, at one time it got the point that every time I walked into the building I would begin to feel oppressed. I wasn’t the only teacher to feel that way. Seemed like the other Christian teachers began to feel that way also. We formed a group and met at the school early on a regular basis and prayed for the school, and gee, the oppression eventually went away. Wonder of wonders!
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Back to Paul - he gives us a formula for standing up against opposition and oppression. He tells us to be strong in the Lord and to pray at all times. He tells us to be aware that things are going to happen to us that are going to try to draw us away from the Lord. He says to put on the whole armor of God.
Paul had been in prison when he wrote this and he had watched the soldiers put on their armor day after day and he thought of a way to use that to teach others how to do battle with these powers that seem to try to drag us down, and to be able to keep the faith. He says, “dress yourself as a soldier dresses for battle. Put on the belt of truth.” You’ve heard the saying, ‘the truth shall set you free’ – if you keep the truth before you, around you, then you won’t be distracted by lies and distortions others tell you.
Next, you put on the breastplate of righteousness – that’s the knowledge that you are of God, made in his image and you have chosen to follow Jesus and therefore or righteous before God. And that doesn’t change regardless of anything you do or that happens to you.
Third, you put on the shoes of peace, that wherever you walk you strive to bring peace, not strife. It’s not just proclaiming the gospel of peace, but it’s conducting your life in such a way that you demonstrate peaceful ways of co-existing with those around you.
Fourth, you must take up the shield of faith, that piece of armor that catches the darts and arrows that the enemy throws at you to distract you from the task at hand or to throw you off the course you have set for yourself.
Next you put on the helmet of salvation. Jesus Christ loved you so much that he gave his life for you – regardless of who you are or what you have done. Once you have made that choice to follow Jesus, that salvation can never be taken away from you.
And the last thing you do is take up the sword of the Spirit – which is the word of God – given to us as our only offensive weapon. When you are not sure of what to say, fall back on the word of God – scripture is a great offense as well as a defense. Use it carefully to inspire and attract those who do not know Christ to become seekers of God’s grace; to experience for themselves how the light of Jesus can redeem their life. Use the word to draw others to God.
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Joshua says, “Choose today who you will serve.” Not who you will “worship.” Sitting in the pews to worship is for beginners. You only get out of worship what you put into it. That’s very true – not just with God, but with all your relationships. You might say that you love someone, but if you never do anything that demonstrates that love, how long do you think they’re going to believe it? When we make a commitment to God, we need remember that it includes service. Choose today how you are going to serve the Lord. Amen.
