Making Choices

 Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Luke 14:25-33

 When my granddaughter was about 2, her mother helped her learn to make choices. Do you want the red crayon or the blue one? Do you want grilled cheese or peanut butter and jelly? Today, her choices are more important as she finishes college and gets married, but she knows how to make life choices.

Today’s texts remind us that life is about making choices, sometimes life and death choices.

Moses is near the end of his life. After 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, the Israelites are about to enter the land God has promised them. God has informed Moses that he will not make this trip, and that Joshua will lead the people.

But, like any good preacher, Moses has a few words to say. “As you make your way into the land, you will need to make some choices. I urge you to make them wisely. I know you will be tempted to follow other gods, that you will easily forget the commandments God gave you. Make good choices, and you will have a life filled with blessings from God. Make bad choices and you will be choosing death.”

Jesus issues a similar challenge. He, too, urges his followers to make good choices. “You must follow me with your whole heart. It does not work to have divided loyalties when you follow me. If you try to divide your loyalties, you will be like a builder who runs out of material before the tower is finished. Or you will be like a king who doesn’t have enough men and materiel when he goes to war.

Following me will require you to give up anything that gets in the way. It may mean you have to choose between me and your family. It may mean that you must get rid of all your possessions, so that I can have your whole heart.”

The earliest followers of Jesus were serious about making choices and not owning possessions. Listen to this passage from Acts 4:

³² The community of believers was one in heart and mind. None of them would say, “This is mine!” about any of their possessions, but held everything in common. ³³ The apostles continued to bear powerful witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and an abundance of grace was at work among them all. ³⁴ There were no needy persons among them. Those who owned properties or houses would sell them, bring the proceeds from the sales, ³⁵ and place them in the care and under the authority of the apostles. Then it was distributed to anyone who was in need.

“Get rid of all your possessions.” These are scary words for us. I’d guess that most of us have more stuff than we need. When Mike and I married, we had to figure out what we didn’t need, because combining the stuff of two households was too much for one house. Unfortunately, we still have a lot of what we didn’t need!  

I know not all students have many possessions, but my one of my twin granddaughters has shoes enough to fill the underside of her new dormitory bed. And that was just some of what she took from home to school!

St Francis and St Clare of Assisi practiced extreme poverty. Francis was known for repeatedly giving away his tunic - his main outer garment - to beggars. “Own nothing,” Clare and Francis said. One of Francis’ followers asked permission to have his own prayer book and Francis refused to allow even this. When we own something, we give it our attention, which we should be giving to God instead.  

Included in how we manage our possessions is the way we manage the time God gives us. It was on internship in Northwood Iowa that a farmer shared with me his experience of not having the right balance.

“Joe” discovered the hard way that if he chose to be in the field on Sunday morning, something would break down. Fixing the broken tool or machine cost him more time than being in church would have. On the other hand, if he made it to church on Sunday, everything worked just fine with no breakdowns.

We don’t have to give away all our possessions to choose to follow Jesus. But we do have to make choices. We have to decide to give significantly to the things Jesus cares about. How do we use the gifts God has given us?

At ULC, I have observed that many people use their gifts to make ministry happen. From Altar Guild to Campus Ministry to Congregation Council to after-church Social to Office Cleaning and Bookkeeping to Newsletter Writing and Publishing to Piano playing, there are many folks using God-given gifts and talents here.

And, how do we use the income God has given us? The portion we give is a choice. You may remember a few weeks ago I mentioned being part of a poverty immersion. As part of the time in Chicago, we heard some stories about the ministry in general at Bethel New Life.

The clients were encouraged to tithe, to give 10% of their income. Even though they earned only (let’s say) $200 a week, they gave $20 a week to Bethel, because there were folks in the community who had even less than they did, and they wanted to help them. The clients discovered they felt good helping those less fortunate than they were.

We make choices a lot. Some choices are inconsequential, some are life-changing. Sometimes it’s what to wear, or what to have for lunch, sometimes it’s where to live, or whether to have surgery. I hope the life-changing choices are made with a lot of prayerful discernment.

So, this week, I hope you will think about what choices you are making and how you make them.