Choices

“Would you like to see a menu?”, she asked as I slid into a booth.   And then she produced a large document which well could have been the latest Tax Code, or perhaps an illustrated version of “War & Peace”.    Too many choices!   I liked it better when it was between a BLT or a burger without a cute name.   Vanilla or chocolate.  Baked or mashed.   Readings for this weekend help us to navigate the complex menu which Life hands us.

Moses gave The People a pep-talk as they stood on the doorstep of the Promised Land:  “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity.”  (Deuteronomy 30:15)   If they stay with Yahweh’s ordinances and commandments (The Law), then they’ll be blessed in their new land.  BUT if they turn away towards other gods–what foresight!–then calamity will ensue.  “Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him….”  Just then, the menu seemed pretty simple, with its binary choices.

Yet humanity can always come up with the “What If…?” clauses.  What situations define our ethics?   Paul reminds the Corinthians that their faith still has too many loose ends, for they are trading in their allegiance to God in favor of following specific leaders.  “For when one says, ‘I belong to Paul,’ and another, ‘I belong to Apollos’, are you not merely human?” (I Corinthians 3:4)  [Apollos was the missionary who led the Corinthian church after Paul’s departure.]   The vital choice was not between the styles & preaching of various leaders, but between the relationship with God as opposed to imperfect wisdom.

The portion of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:21-37) brings home this Holy Choice:   “you have heard it said…but I say to you…”   Jesus acknowledges the conventional wisdom, and sets against it God’s Plan.  Believers are called to be counter-cultural, to stand over and against business-as-usual — which can be really painful.   Here are four instances:  in God’s plan, anger towards another brings judgment just as murder does; lustful fantasies are just as severe as physical adultery; divorce is neither expected nor condoned; in the New Order, there’s no need to take an oath, since commitment  is the  order of the day.

In the 1970’s, Thomas Oden wrote that  “choice demands negation”,  an affirmation that a person cannot be in Boston AND Atlanta at the same time!  Oden says that when we make a choice, we are automatically discarding all the other possibilities.  My grandma put it this way:  “You can’t have your cake and eat it, too.”  To this citizen of the 21st Century, another choice can be made tomorrow, or at least when the video-game is played again.   But how many lives do I get?

God Bless Us, Every One.                                   Horace Brown King