Free To Choose
THE TWELFTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY
A sermon by The Rev. Dcn. Jason VanBorssum
11 Do not say, “It was the Lord’s doing that I fell away”; for he does not do what he hates.12 Do not say, “It was he who led me astray”; for he has no need of the sinful.13 The Lord hates all abominations; such things are not loved by those who fear him.14 It was he who created humankind in the beginning, and he left them in the power of their own free choice.15 If you choose, you can keep the commandments, and to act faithfully is a matter of your own choice.16 He has placed before you fire and water; stretch out your hand for whichever you choose.17 Before each person are life and death, and whichever one chooses will be given.18 For great is the wisdom of the Lord; he is mighty in power and sees everything;19 his eyes are on those who fear him, and he knows every human action.20 He has not commanded anyone to be wicked, and he has not given anyone permission to sin. (Ecclesiasticus 15:11-20)
The older I get the more aware I am of the choices I have made and the consequences of those choices, not only for me but for others. Some were the right choices, some were not. Sometimes I was sure about the choice I was making, other times I was not at all sure. Some choices I would make again, others I would not. We have all spent a lifetime choosing.
Regardless of what I think about or how I evaluate my past choices I know this. A lifetime of choosing has influenced who I am and what my life is about. A lifetime of choosing has determined the relationships I have and the quality of those relationships. A lifetime of choosing has influenced the way I see and engage the world. For better or worse my life and world have been built around the choices I have made. I am not saying that other people or circumstances do not affect or play a part in our choosing. They do. I just don’t think we can blame our circumstances or others for our choices. Neither can we escape or avoid choosing. Within every set of circumstances, good, bad, or neutral, there is always a choice to be made.
Every day we choose between life and death. Every day we are choosing our way into one or the other. We all have our reasons for the choices we make. Sometimes our choices are about gaining approval and acceptance, wanting to fit in and be liked. Sometimes our choices arise from a desire to be loved and accepted. Sometimes our choices arise out of anger, resentment, or envy. We choose based upon the costs, benefits, and risks associated with our choices. Sometimes we have chosen to give up and other times to muscle our way through. I suspect we’ve all made choices that we thought would make us successful, wealthy, popular. We’ve probably made choices that we hoped would create the persona and identity we wanted. Sometimes we choose power, control, or security. Often our choices are about self-protection or making ourselves feel better and happy. And sometimes they have been about making another feel bad, an attempt to get back at him or her. Have you ever chosen yes when you really meant no? I suspect we all have. Why did we do that?
There are thousands of reasons for the choices we make. Most of us, I am guessing, look back on our choices as having been either right or wrong. They were good choices or bad choices. But what if there’s another way of looking at it? Have you ever gotten exactly what you chose only to realize it wasn’t what you really wanted? Have you ever made a choice that you knew was the right choice, a good choice, but it left you feeling empty, as if something was missing? Despite getting what you wanted, what you chose, your life was not enriched, made full and vibrant the way you thought it would be. Instead, it felt diminished and impoverished.
Those experiences of choosing to tell us there is something more. They point to the truth and wisdom in our first reading. There is really only one choice to be made, and it is the choice between life and death. That may sound stark or overly dramatic or too simplistic at first. Sure, we make lots of other choices but in the end the only choice that really matters is the one between life and death. It is both the ultimate choice and the ultimate criterion for making all other choices. As Jesus said, “What does it profit a person to gain the whole world, and forfeit their soul?”
Is what we choose to think, say, or do life-giving? Does it sustain, nurture, and grow life for ourselves or another? Or does it destroy, diminish, or deny life? Does it leave us bereft of life? Does it impoverish life for ourselves or another?
We make the choice between life and death in so many ways every day of our lives. We make that choice in the ways we choose to see and look at ourselves and others. It’s in our thoughts. It’s in our Facebook posts. It’s in the words we speak as well as the things we have done and left undone. So what if we intentionally chose life in every decision we made? What if choosing life was at the center of our thoughts, the words we speak, and the things we do? How might that change your life, your relationships, your world?
Jesus knows that life isn’t to be codified and that choices are more than a cost benefit analysis, more than getting what we desire, and more than simply following the rules. Now, I am not suggesting that we throw out the rules as if they don’t matter. Jesus did not do that. Rather, he fulfilled the law. He recognized and revealed the law to be about life. Love of God + love of neighbor; the First and Great commandment, and the second, which is like unto it.
The law was never intended to divide people into categories of good or bad, right or wrong, law abider or law breaker. It was to point the way to life. That’s what Jesus does. That’s why he could say that he came not to destroy but to fulfill the law. Jesus did not come to make us good but to make us alive. He set us free to make choices that support, sustain, grow, and nurture life for ourselves and one another.
What if we took to heart the choice between life and death? It means we would have to look at the law and our lives differently. Keeping the law would not be the ultimate goal. Rather, it would be a means to life. It means that the choices we make would begin not with the circumstances around us but with the circumstances within us.
The context for the reading is Ecclesiasticus 14:20-16:21 which can be divided into three parts.
The verses which immediately precede those appointed as this morning’s First Lesson are concerned with the pursuit of wisdom and the blessings that accrue to those who pursue Divine wisdom. The end of this section emphasizes that God withholds wisdom from sinners (15:7-9). Searching for wisdom and sinning both involve free will, so Sirach begins to focus on this. This section begins by rejecting the idea that God causes sin and then turns to emphasize man’s God-given ability to choose between good and evil. To claim that God causes someone to sin is not only a rejection of free will, it also would rob God of any basis for punishing acts of evil.
Sir 15:15. If you will, you can keep the commandments, and to act faithfully is a matter of your own choice.
These commandments would never be imposed if man were not free. The idea here and in what follows is similar to that of Deuteronomy 30:15-20 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice, and cleaving to him…
Sir 15:16. He has placed before you fire and water: stretch out your hand for whichever you wish.
Sir 15:17. Before a man are life and death, and whichever he chooses will be given to him.
Choosing life takes sacrifice. We are free to choose, but choosing life is not always easy. Matthew 7: the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction and there are many who take it For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it. And when you find it, you still have to squeeze through it! It’s not a vast, wide open boulevard, but more like a narrow passage.
Sir 15:20 He has not commanded any one to be ungodly, and he has not given any one permission to sin. But we have the freedom to do so. God as parent metaphor. No responsible, loving parent commands children to be wicked.
This repudiates the sinners attempted indictment of God in Sir 15:11-13.
A widely accepted maxim of rabbinic teaching is, “All is in the hands of God except the fear of heaven.” In other words, though God constantly showers the world with grace and light, He does not *force* us to revere His Presence but rather leaves that choice with us. Of course God could overwhelm us all so that we had no choice but to see and fear Him, but He “withdraws” Himself and restrains His influence in our lives so that we can exercise faith. As Blaise Pascal said, “There is enough light for those who want to believe, and enough shadows to blind those who don’t.” The Hebrew word for seeing (ראה) and the word for fearing (ירא) share the same root. We cannot genuinely choose life apart from personally seeing it, but we cannot see it apart from the reverence of God. The reverence of God sanctifies our perception and enables us to see clearly. Therefore, as St. Paul taught, the righteous “walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7).
Kingship and Sovereignty. God in His Sovereignty chose to give us a choice to respond – a yes or no – to His grace. We can refuse it or we can embrace it. From Genesis to Revelation, this call and response is emphasized again and again. In Genesis 6, God is grieved over sin. Wouldn’t it be an odd thing if we were predestined to be a certain thing but then God would be grieved over it? God desires His people to live differently. “If only you had lived like this, I would have blessed you.” Scripture teaches that God has an ardent desire to bless – and He is pained over our rejection. Choose. Choose. Choose. Deuteronomy 30: choose life. Ezek 18: Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, says the Lord God, and not rather that they should turn from their ways and live? God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. This is why the Hebrew prophets, John the Baptist, the Apostles, and Our Lord deliver the same message: turn from your ways, repent and live. The words of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew and Luke: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing! Ultimately, God is accomplishing His will and His plan. His will and His purpose are revealed again at the very end of the Biblical canon: Rev 22:17 – And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is thirsty come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
Choose choose choose throughout Scripture. I believe it is genuine. God says what He means and means what He says. God is grieved when we reject His gift of Grace. We are made righteous in and through Christ, by God’s gift of grace. We are not saved by works. We are saved by faith and by grace. But faith without works is dead. Our good works are fruits of the Spirit – “by their fruits ye shall know them.” “Let your light so shine before men, that they will see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”
God’s Grace – in Jesus Christ – is the greatest gift ever offered to humankind; like all gifts, we can accept it or reject it. In His Sovereignty, God has given us the freedom to choose. God’s Omnipotence is not diminished by giving us the freedom to choose Him. John 10 7 So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
This is the perpetual call and response, call and response. God’s gracious gift of life is calling us. And the phone never stops ringing, even if we block the call or let it go to voicemail.
We are free to choose. Choose life. Amen.
