We get a lot about choices today.
In our Old Testament reading, Joshua addresses God’s beloved people…and asks them what god they are going to serve — the old gods of their ancestors? Or the gods of Egypt that they fled? Or perhaps the gods of their current country? Or will they serve The Lord…who led them out of slavery….who had brought them safe this far?
And then in our gospel, Jesus is teaching his disciples in the synagogue. And he is calling himself the bread of life — telling them how those who eat of his flesh and drink his blood will live forever….not like their ancestors in the wilderness (the very ones Joshua is talking to)…who died. And for some of his disciples…Jesus is going too far. Now, he is asking them to desert the God of their ancestors — to choose him over everything they have been taught, everything they have been raised to understand. And they decide to return to their former way of life…they go back to living as they used to…they stop walking with Jesus.
Joshua tells God’s people they must make a choice about who they serve…whose leadership they will follow. Jesus’ disciples must also make that choice.
And so must we.
So, what does it mean to choose Jesus? To walk with him? Well…Jesus says you need to eat my flesh and drink my blood. In other words, you need to live in me and let me live in you so completely that my very essence goes through you into the world. Do what I do and live as I live. Turn the other cheek. Love your enemies. Forgive those who don’t know what they’re doing. God the extra mile. Lose your life to gain it. Trust that the first will be last and the last will be first. Seek God’s kingdom. God’s righteousness. Deny yourself. Pick up a cross.
Yup.. his disciples were right. This IS a hard saying.
It’s no wonder they left. It’s a wonder some stayed. And when Jesus asks those remaining …do you also want to leave? You can almost hear the sadness in his voice. He understands how hard it is…what it means to walk with him…to live in him. And he knows we’re free to choose. Jesus’ love doesn’t demand we follow…no, Jesus’ love gives us the freedom to choose.
Yes we get to choose. Every day, we get to choose. And some days, choosing Jesus seems just too hard.
I think Joshua is on to something….because often it is the gods of our ancestors, the gods of Egypt, the gods of our country…that can seem so much more doable…so much more reasonable….
To serve the gods of our ancestors means we choose to live a faith that it simply inherited…faith that demands nothing of us except to check the box on the census called “Christian”. It’s a label that doesn’t change my day to day life — doesn’t change what I say or how I spend my money or use my time or treat other people.
And the gods of Egypt…why they are the pervasive values of our own culture. Egypt was an empire…built on the premise that people were commodities…used to sustain the privilege and wealth of the few. Dominance and power, economic prosperity and security…these were the gods of Egypt. Looking out for me and mine. You don’t have to worry about anybody else.
And then there are the gods of the country we live in …the gods of a dominant culture…of My Country First…the gods that care about nationalies or borders or tribes.
Choose today whom you will serve….Joshua entreats us. Will you serve them…or the God that brings you from slavery to freedom? And Jesus asks us, Do you also want to go away?
Yes, today…we have to choose. Will we do hard things? Will we abide in Jesus, and let him abide in us? Today…will we choose to let our lives be enfolded into Jesus’ love so completely that everything we do is shaped by him?
Every day, we sit on a precipice…and honestly, most of us will waffle back and forth. Most of us will be windblown, to say the least. Some days, we will be tired…we will be tempted by the gods of our ancestors, the gods of Egypt, the gods of our country. Some days, we will question our faith…we will wonder if everything we have believed was wishful thinking…we will doubt the promises of God. It may be brought on by deep grief and heartbreak or just the latest newscast …but most of us will wonder at some time or another if Jesus matters at all.
And though we may like to think that we are better than those disciples who left Jesus… though we may like to think we know better, that we would never be so fickle…really, we’re no different. Just as we’re no different than Judas…who was so sure he would remain in Jesus…who remained longer than those others did…but who also separated himself from Jesus. You see…we all walk on the precipice of faith. Sometimes confident and sometimes questioning. Sometimes committed and sometimes skeptical. Sometime enthusiastic in our confession and sometimes rational in our resistance. And each day…we choose. Sometimes we choose well….other times…no so much.
Fortunately for us, we can’t choose whether God loves us…or whether we are God’s child. And thank God that God’s forgiveness and mercy and gifts of eternal life are based on God’s choice…not ours. Because if it was up to us…we’d be in a hell of a mess…depending on the day.
But the choice that is ours…as we live on the precipice…is will we walk with Jesus today? Today, as we are filled with his body and blood…as Christ is in us…will we live in him? Will we abide in Christ, who does not care whether we are Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female? In Christ, who doesn’t care about our nationality or culture, our legal status or gender? Will we abide in Jesus…and choose to love not hate? Choose mercy not judgment? Choose redemption not retaliation? This teaching is hard. Jesus doesn’t pretend it’s not.
Today…each day…we will choose the gods whom we will serve. My prayer today…and each day…is that I…that WE …will choose the one who has already chosen us…in love. For love. For the salvation of the world. Amen.
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