13th Sunday of Pentecost
September 4, 2022
Fr. Phil Eberhart
Choose
Life!
We hear a lot these days about “choice” don’t
we? We, here in the west, put a high value
on our own ‘sovereignty.’ Personal
sovereignty. It’s my life … it’s my
choice. Literally anything is justified
as being ok… even good … if it’s ‘My choice!”
Let’s talk about choosing this morning.
Our scriptures this morning are about
choosing. The very first words this
morning set out the choices! I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. That
is the basis of every choice we have in life.
Our big problem is knowing the difference, it seems! We live in a culture that has started to fly
upside down… at night! We’ve lost our
orientation to the horizon and where we are in relation to the ground. It’s really easy to crash the plane that way!
So let’s talk about “orientation” for a moment.
Orientation is defined as a person or objects
relative position related to its surroundings.
Orientation can relate to the compass:
North / South / East / West.
Orientation can relate to altitude, to latitude & longitude (its position
on the globe).
Of course I’m talking about our physical space –
the direction we’re headed or the position we occupy in space. Orientation has taken on a much wider meaning
than just spacial meanings today as well.
It has emotional meanings, even sexual meanings today.
Orientation begins to really matter to us at
the moment that we realize that we have lost our way! If you are flying upside down at night, and
you don’t know it, you are in danger of pulling “UP” and flying into the
ground!! So orientation is pretty
important!
Like I said earlier, our culture today is “flying
upside down at night!” It’s a culture
that, how does the Bible put it? “Calls
evil good and good evil.” Flying upside
down, at night!
So how do we re-orient our life? “Choose you this day,” God says. Life and good … or … death and evil. So how do we know and see the choices … the
real choices… that are before us?
Life and death – good and evil. Light and dark. Ying and yang. John warns us in his gospel that we have a
leaning toward “loving the dark.” But he also says that the dark will never overcome the light! Have you ever done the experiment? Open the closet door and see if the dark
falls out? No! Why not?
Because the light always rushes in!
Never fails. Darkness never wins!
So how do we switch on the light? What is the source of the light in our
lives? Anyone know? Psalm 119:105. Can someone tell me what it says.
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a
light to my path”
So the source material for our orientation
should be the source of light in our life.
The basis for orienteering is my relationship with the light (the sun)
and the direction of my movement. It’s
true in our spiritual life as well. The
basis for orienteering my life is my relationship with the LIGHT * THE SON –
and the direction of my movement (OBEDIENCE.)
OK.
There it is … the “O” word! The
very next words in our scripture reading from Deuteronomy were “IF YOU OBEY.”
Not our favorite “three little words.” Something about the “O” word that causes us
to… ya know?
Obey, Obey, Obey!
We just get our back up!
Why is following God’s rules so hard for us?
We have a heart problem. And we’re “hard of hearing.”
At the other end of the Bible, John again, at
the end of his life, sends these words from Jesus to the Church at Laodicea:
17 For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not
realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.
Flying upside down … at night!
What’s the answer? Let’s look at our other scriptures this
morning:
1 Blessed is the man who has not
walked in the counsel of the ungodly,* nor stood in the way of sinners, and has
not sat in the seat of the scornful;
2 But his delight is in the law of
the Lord, * and on his law will he meditate
day and night.
Paul tells Philemon he is “confident of his obedience…”
Jesus tells us: “Whoever
does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”
Friends, our orientation is determined by our
relationship to the SON and our direction in OBEDIENCE to His Word. We call it a Biblical Worldview.
David reminds us in verse 2 of Psalm 1: “But his delight is in the law of the Lord, * and on his law will he meditate day and night.”
Show me your hand. Hold it up!
Hear … Read … Mark … Learn … and Inwardly
Digest.
C.H. Spurgeon comments that these disciplines are
like cutting the wheat, grinding the wheat into flour, kneading it into dough and
baking the bread but that meditation is sitting down and eating the meal!
It is clear throughout the Scriptures that the
one who obeys the Word is “blessed in His/Her doing.” James lays it out pretty clearly for us:
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving
yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and
not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a
mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at
once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks
into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer
who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
Obedience is the basis of blessing. From Deuteronomy, actually from Genesis, to Revelation! From beginning to end the basis of our
getting oriented rightly in our life has been a relationship of obedience to
God, through His Word.
John gave the invitation to the Laodiceans from
Jesus:
19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and
repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door
and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will
come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.
Let’s pray together:
O most
loving Father, by your mercy you put away the sins of those who truly repent,
and remember their sins no more. Restore and renew in us, your servants,
whatever has been corrupted by the fraud and malice of the devil, or by our own
selfish will and weakness. Preserve and protect us within the fellowship of the
Church; hear our prayers and relieve our pain; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Show favor
to your people, O Lord, who turn to you in weeping, fasting, and prayer. For
you are a merciful God, full of compassion, long-suffering, and abounding in
steadfast love. You spare when we deserve punishment, and in your wrath you
remember mercy. Spare your people, good Lord, spare us; in the multitude of
your mercies, look upon us and forgive us; through the merits and mediation of
your blessed Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
And
join me in our opening collect from your bulletin:
O Lord
God, grant your people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the
flesh, and the devil, and with pure hearts and minds to follow you, the only
God; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy
Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
