“Choose Life!”

Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Matthew 5:21-37

Rev. Deborah Church Worley

February 16, 2020

White Rock Presbyterian Church

“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him….” (Deuteronomy 30:19-20a)

“You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times…But I say to you…” (Matthew 5:21a,22a)

“Because I said so!” 

A beautiful phrase in the ears of parents, right? Why do you have to do what I just told you to do? Because I said so! There is no need to explain, no need to give a reason, no need to justify whatever is being asked–or more accurately, demanded–of the child. Just do it “because I said so.” Period.

That’s one parenting approach.

Another is to let your child be his or her own authority. To let them be in charge. To let them have the final say. This perhaps seems a little extreme on the other side…so I would add the caveat, if this is your approach, that perhaps you let them do all of that, within parentally acceptable boundaries. In other words, they have options, but any possible choice they could make within those options is acceptable. For example, for a child who is given the authority to choose what she will wear to school, the question is something like, “Do you want to wear the green shirt or the purple shirt?” 

That’s another parenting approach.

To some degree, I think these two approaches (among the gazillions that exist!) are somewhat generational. My mother and I, for example, are of two different generations, and each of us has tended more naturally toward one or the other of these.  Without naming names so as to protect the innocent, let me briefly share an incident that happened when Sarah was young and my mom was visiting. One of us was preparing some breakfast for Sarah, and as she was doing so, she asked, “Sarah, would you like your toast cut in squares or triangles?” To which the other adult in the room replied, “My gosh, by the time she’s grown up, she’ll be exhausted from making so many choices!” I’ll leave it to you to wonder which of us said what…. 🙂  

My point is only that there are different ways of establishing and embodying authority as a parent.

Which brings me to Moses. Moses, of course, wasn’t a parent to the Israelites, but he was an authority figure. He was in charge. And he had been in charge for many years. Under God’s leadership and direction, yes, but in terms of a human authority figure in the lives of the Israelites, Moses was it. As such, he could have easily taken the “Do this, because I said so!” approach. But he didn’t. Nor, however, did he take the “give-two-choices-with-either-one-being- equally-acceptable” approach. He took a third approach. 

You might say it was something of a common-sense approach. He gave them choices, but it seemed like a no-brainer that they would want to choose one over the other! “See, I have set before you today…”–and here are the choices–“life and prosperity, death and adversity.” (Deut. 20:15) That would be like me giving my kids the choice between not going to school or going to school…or, a comparable choice Ryan suggested, eating lasagna for supper every day or eating dirt! Really, Moses? That’s the choice? To choose between life and prosperity, and death and adversity?? 

I mean, there is a real choice to be made, and it’s up to the chooser to make the choice. But one choice seems obviously better than the other. !!  Life or death? Prosperity or adversity? Is it really a choice? Why would someone choose death over life? Why would anyone choose adversity over prosperity? Is Moses really giving the people a choice when he says, “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.” (Deut. 30:19a) “Choose life,” he goes on to say, “so that you and your descendants may live….” (Deut. 30:19b) It seems like it would be such an obvious decision–to choose blessings, to choose prosperity, to choose life…but he leaves the decision up to them. It’s their choice.

But why would they not choose life? Why would they not choose what seems like the obvious better choice? 

Hmm..well, maybe it’s because of what would be required of them if they made that choice. Moses puts the choice before them…and then tells them what would be involved in choosing life and prosperity–they would have to “obey the commandments of the Lord your God…, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances.” (Deut. 30:16a) Hmm…no simple task. Yes, of course they want to choose life and blessings…but do they really have it in themselves to obey all of God’s commandments? Maybe there’s a chance they can love God…but are they really up for walking in God’s ways?  And that part about observing God’s decrees and ordinances? Presumably all of God’s decrees and ordinances? Wow…it turns out this is no small task…and maybe not quite as easy a choice as it had first appeared….

Curses and adversity and death, at first blush, sound pretty awful…but life would definitely be easier. Living with their neighbors wouldn’t require as much effort. Going about their day-to-day business wouldn’t require so much attentiveness to God’s ways, so much vigilance to God’s commandments, so much diligence with regard to God’s decrees and ordinances…. I can almost imagine the Israelites responding to Moses, saying “Yes, of course, the obvious choice would be to decide in favor of blessings and prosperity and life! But…upon more careful consideration of the consequences of making that choice….well, it’s just not that simple…. You make it sound simple, Moses…but, well, it’s just not that easy….”

Hmm. Well, fortunately for us, we can leave the Israelites with their dilemma. We’re Christians, after all. We just have to wait a few thousand more years…until Jesus comes along. Because we are followers of Jesus, not Moses. And because Jesus makes it easier. Jesus simplifies things for us. Never mind all those ordinances and decrees! Never mind all those rules! Never mind all those commandments! Never mind all of that; we just have to follow Jesus, and love God and love our neighbors. We just have to ask ourselves, “What would Jesus do?” and then try and do likewise. We kind of lucked out, because what Jesus asks of us if much simpler than what Moses was asking of the Israelites, that they “obey the commandments of the Lord your God…, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances.” Right? 

Well…no. It’s not that simple. It’s not that easy.  Because as Jesus himself said (and this was part of last week’s Gospel reading), “Do not think I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” (Matthew 5:17) Hmm.  And then he goes on to say what he says in this morning’s text. I don’t know if you were really listening or not, but he is not making anything easier!! He seems to be taking some of the laws, and going even further with them! 

Three times, just in the small segment of his teaching that we heard this morning, three times, he says, “You have heard that it was said…” (Matthew 5:21, 27, [31,] 33) and then mentions one of the commandments– “You shall not murder”… “You shall not commit adultery”… “You shall not swear falsely….”  Jesus reviews these commandments…and then follows them with “But I say to you…” (Matthew 5:22, 28, [32,]34) and goes even deeper into the issues.  

He does not make things easier. If anything, it seems to me, he makes them harder. He asks even more. He makes it clear that following him, becoming his disciple, does not give a person permission to disregard God’s commandments….but he’s also clear that for those who want to be his followers, keeping those commandments is not just about acting in the right way, it’s not just about not doing bad things, it’s not just about keeping the commandments for the sake of following the rules. Jesus makes it clear that it’s not enough to do the outwardly right thing–to not murder, to not commit adultery, to not break a promise you’ve made and sworn to God to keep.

Jesus wants more than that from his followers. Demands more than that. More than right behavior. More than doing what looks good to check off a box, or to win others’ approval, or to somehow “earn” those blessings and prosperity that Moses had promised. Like God, Jesus is nothing if not not about outward appearances. Jesus wants his followers to go all in. To be all in. Not to be concerned with outer appearances but to be changed from the inside out. To be transformed in the depths of their souls…a transformation that will lead to doing the right thing, and keeping God’s commandments, and walking in God’s ways…which will, in turn, lead to blessing and prosperity and life. Just like Moses promised. 

But like those Israelites understood, I suspect, it’s not that simple. And it’s not easy. In fact, it’s hard. Because it’s not just about doing the right thing to check off a box. Following Jesus is not just about behaving in the right way so that others will think well of you. Being a disciple of Jesus is not just about not doing bad things so that you can say you kept God’s commandments.

Following Jesus is about letting your heart be transformed. It’s about letting go of fear and letting in trust. It’s about letting go of the need to always be right and never be wrong, and letting in vulnerability. It’s about letting go of pride and self-righteousness and arrogance, and letting in humility. It’s about letting go of the need for power and control, and letting in feelings of mutual respect and deference. It’s about letting go of the need for perfection, and letting healing come in through the broken places. Following Jesus is about letting go of doing what’s right in the name of being right, and instead, learning to do what’s good in the name of Love.

And that’s hard. It takes effort. Real effort. It takes attentiveness to God’s ways, and diligence with regard to God’s commandments. It takes thoughtfulness and intentionality. And it requires, I dare say, fairly consistent contact with Jesus. But not so that we can simply learn how to answer the question, “What would Jesus do?” in any given situation. So that, I believe, we can know the Love of God as manifested in Jesus. So that we can know and see what it is to live fully and completely centered in God’s love. So that we can know and see and experience in our own lives the utterly transforming power of being intimately known and deeply loved and fully claimed by God, the Creator of the Universe and all that is! 

That may sound simple. I might be making it seem as though it’s simple. I wish it were simple! But it’s not. Right? I know it’s not. It’s generally easier to just go about our day-to-day lives without thinking so much. It’s easier to just do our thing, like everyone else does, without caring too much, or getting too involved, or asking too many questions, or feeling too much responsibility for anyone else. Because it can be hard enough to take care of our own lives. It can seem so much easier to not follow Jesus. Or not really follow Jesus. At least not in a way that requires too much work. Or certainly any body parts to be cut off! And sometimes that’s the choice we make. To not really follow Jesus, to just go about the living of our lives. And that’s okay….

But what do we give up when we do that? We give up the blessings and the life Moses promised. We’re given the same choice, just like the Israelites, time and time again, in face–to choose life or death, blessings or curses. It seems like it should be an easy choice every time–to choose life, to choose blessing…but it’s not. Because life is hard and complicated, and we’re human and we’re complicated. 

But I hope we keep trying. I hope we keep trying to choose blessings over curses, to choose life over death. We have to keep trying…. Because it is in that choosing, again and again, that our hearts are transformed. It is in the act of choosing life, again, that fear has a little less control. It is in the act of choosing God’s ways, in yet another moment, that vulnerability gains a little more of a foothold. It is in the decision to learn from Jesus, one more time after seventy failed attempts, that we see our desire for perfection a little more clearly as a burden than as a noble pursuit. It is in choosing life that we learn more and more about Love, and that is so worth the effort.  

What Moses said to the Israelites, I say to you, to us, today: “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life, so that you and your descendants may live….”

Amen.