Beliefs MatterDr.
James Mayfield
May 23, 2004 Text: Joshua 24:14-18 Thursday, Diana Henry, our director of children's ministries fell, and hit her head in such a way that it eventually caused her death. Wednesday I had all but finished the sermon for this service of confirmation. At first I considered starting over, but then, after some thought and prayer, I have decided this is the sermon for today because I am convinced its central message about faith and commitment is relevant for us as we deal with this tragedy that has shocked us into a renewed awareness of how fragile life is, how limited we are, and how close each of us is to death. One of the challenges in our moving from childhood to adulthood is coming to terms with the truth that life forces us to make choices, and then, we have to live with the consequences of the choices we made. We begin learning this as little children when we have money for one toy but we see three we really want. We can only have one. We have to make a choice. Or when we are in school and we want to make a good grade on the test tomorrow, but we also want to go to the mall with our friends today. We have to make a choice, going to the mall with our friends today or making a good grade tomorrow. We cannot have it both ways; we have to choose. It is a simple fact of life, but one we prefer not to think about. But then we find a $50 bill on the floor near the check out counter at the grocery store. We can pocket it, as if it is ours -- after all, finders keepers, losers weepers - or we can turn it in to the store manager, in case someone reports having lost it. What shapes the choice we make? What shapes our core values and basic behavior? What do we really believe? Day after day, minute by minute, we are faced with situations that confront us with the choice Joshua placed before the Hebrew people: "Choose this day whom you will serve." The people to whom Joshua was speaking had received many blessings from God. God had delivered them from slavery in Egypt, led them through the wilderness and into the promised land. The problem Joshua saw was that the people were not really committed to anything or to any god, much less the one true God. They were living on the basis of expediency -- just drifting in life, like a leaf on a stream, going wherever the current carried them. They were in a sense religious and could probably have recited all sorts of religious opinions they called beliefs, but at the depth of their lives, they did not know what they really believed in -- what they were really committed to. Whatever seemed to offer what they wanted is what they gave themselves to. They centered their living around first one god and then another. Their living was shaped by first one set of values and then another. They just drifted wherever the currents of conformity carried them. "Stop drifting through life," Joshua was telling them. "Choose this day whom you will serve." Like those people of old, we too have been richly blessed by God. Yet, also like them, we tend to live our lives insensitive to God and therefore unaware of God's blessings. Insensitive to God, we are like the leaf floating on the surface of a stream drifting wherever the current carries us. We do not consciously choose our lives and our values, we just let them happen to us. When we do not focus clearly on what we believe in, and so, even what we think we want is not the result of a considered decision, much less a real commitment. We just drift into wanting whatever TV and our social group tells us we ought to want. Living without a rudder or moral compass, we drift away from God and into the swirling waters of self-centeredness. Without realizing we are making choices, we merely drift into decisions. In our unexamined living, we go through our days merely reacting to what comes next and doing what we see others do. Blind to consequences, like lemmings running with the herd until the herd runs of the edge of a cliff and drowns in the sea, we head down roads without really thinking about where the road is leading us. Rather than live life, we just "go with the flow," "follow the crowd," and "let life happen to us." In Joshua's statement to the people, he does not offer the option of not making a choice. After all, even our drifting into a lifestyle of merely drifting is a choice -- perhaps an unconscious choice, but a choice none the less, and like all choices, one that has its own set of consequences. All of us make choices, even when we choose not to choose. Joshua was calling for us to be intentional. We are going to make choices, whether we are aware of it or not, so he calls us to be aware of it. "Choose this day whom you will serve." Don't just let life happen; live life; claim your life. What is going to be at the center? What do you choose to believe in? What are you choosing as the guide for the choices you make? What is your life all about? What do you live for? What do you want in life? What do you want out of life? "Choose," Joshua tells us, "Choose this day whom you will serve." Each day and each moment is a time for decision, and today is clearly a day of decision -- at least for the youth who are being confirmed. This morning they will be making their initial professions of faith and they will also be joining this church. This is a significant day of decision for them. But it is also a day of decision for each of us because like the youth being confirmed, we too are being once again addressed by Joshua: "Choose this day whom you will serve." I wish I could say to these youth, to you and to myself, that the answer, the choice we make today will resolve the issue once and for all. The truth is, it will not, because each day of our lives, each hour of our lives, we will continue to be confronted (whether we are aware of it or not) by Joshua's challenge to choose this day, this hour whom we will serve. Because we will be dealing with this issue as long as we are alive, we need the support of one another. When we try to go it alone. it is not long until we distort our journey into a self-centered, self-absorbing experience, and focused on ourselves, we forget, lose sight of, and abandon our commitment to live in response to God as revealed in Jesus -- loving others as God in Christ has loved us. And when this happens it is not long until we are caught in the swirling waters of sin and find ourselves in danger of being torn apart in the destructive white water rapids of evil. An ancient symbol of the Church is a ship, strong enough to sail through the storms of life. We need this ship, this fellowship of faith, this community of believers. It is by living within the community of faithful believers we are enabled to live our lives rather than drift through life. It is through our involvement in the family of Christ that we are able to maintain our focus and resist drifting away from God. It is in being nourished within the community of believers that we are empowered to live as God intends, and along with Joshua to say with integrity: "As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord." God, as we move through life, enable us at all times and in all places to choose to serve you. Amen. Pastoral
prayer: |