Choosing

Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25, Psalm 78:1-7, Matthew 25:1-13

Twenty Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, November 6, 2005

Heritage Congregational Church, Madison, WI

The tribes had been gathered. The elders, the heads, the judges and the officers as well. The people of Israel were in Shechem, settled now in the promised land, and their new leader, Joshua, had done the gathering.

When they are all together, the people presented themselves to God. They remembered their history, how God had delivered them and their ancestors. They remembered the covenant made with Abraham. They remembered the worship of idols and false Gods in their past.

And then Joshua spoke to them, “choose this day whom you will serve…as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” The people, remembering all that God had done and all that they had done, made their choice. “Far be it from us,” they said. “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other Gods…we will also serve the Lord, for He is our God.”

Joshua questioned them and tested them. He challenged them to be sure about the choice they were making, about their promise to serve. And Joshua made a covenant with the people that day. They had proven their commitment to God. They are dismissed from the assembly to go out and live their choice.

Many years later, the people of Israel are gathered at a festival. The road to this time has been a bumpy one. The Ephriamites have defected and gone their own way. Judah, and not Israel, has been favored by God. And yet, it is a festival, a time to celebrate.. It is time to remember God’s great deeds and steadfast love. And so the people sing. They sing a song from one of David’s composers, a song that reminds them of what is important, a song that urges them to choose.

Listen, the psalmist cries. There will be teaching, parables spoken, sayings of old. As they speak and sing, they will remember, and be reminded of the things taught to them by their ancestors. Just as their ancestors chose to share God’s deeds with their children, the people of Israel are now asked to do the same. The psalm urges them to tell their children these stories and sayings, teaching the generations. They are reminded that with the choice they make comes the possibility of three outcomes: hope, remembering God’s works and keeping God’s commandments. That is what they will be giving their children if they so choose.

The people of Israel sing and remember. They remember times of the past—good and bad—faithful and unfaithful. They remember when they learned of God’s hesed, God’s steadfast love. And they remembered hope. How it felt when it was new—an amazing discovery, how it led them—building up during trying times, how they rely on it still—for every aspect of their life. The festival ends. The people choose. They go out and live accordingly.

Again, the people are gathered. The Messiah has come and He is teaching in parables. He remembers the challenge of the psalm. Over and over Jesus speaks of the Kingdom of Heaven, leading the people to a closer understanding of what God would have them do, of the choices God puts before them.

There are ten bridesmaids and one bridegroom. Five take extra oil for their lamps, they are prepared. Five do not. When the time comes to meet the bridegroom, their lamps are not trimmed or burning. They are not prepared for the length of the evening, for the possibility of a long wait. In haste, they seek out a seller of oil, hoping they will be back in time. But in the end they are on the outside while the others are on the inside. They beg to be let in and are refused. They made their choice and must live with it.

Be ready to meet me, Jesus says. You do not know the day or the hour. Keep awake, He says, the Kingdom is at hand. Be prepared. Make your choice.

It is a Sunday in November, and like Shechem and the festival and the crowds around Jesus, the people are gathered. All who would come are here. The leaders and officers, the moderators and pastor, the nominees and committee members, those who worship—we are all here. We have freely gathered in this place and, again the like the people of Israel, we are bound together by covenant.

Today we will be asked choose. We will hear of our history with God as well as the many possibilities God offers us for the future. We will be challenged and tested. We will pray and discuss and ask questions. We have some difficult decisions to make. What will we choose? What does God want of us? What does it mean to be faithful in today’s situation?

We all want to choose God, but how do we know if we are truly choosing what God wants. Our beings are distracted by the needs of self, of culture and of society. They fill us and zap our energy. At times they consume us and challenge God’s place in our lives. But today, like every day, we are asked to choose God alone, to know where our allegiance lies.

In preparing for today’s worship and for our Annual Meeting, I was reminded of a sermon I heard on tape last year. It was given right here, in this pulpit, on a Sunday when I was in Michigan at an NA meeting. Jo Sommers spoke eloquently and with inspiration about choice. She reminded us that every decision we make in this life is a choice—every word we utter, every purchase we make, every action we engage in is our own choice.

But even if we are truly aware of making all these choices every day, how do we know if they are of God? How do we weigh the choices, know what is truly important, discern what is right?

God is here. If I ever forget that, I can remember Larry’s sermon from last week. God is here—walking with us throughout our lives and leading us to a place of hope, from what otherwise would surely have been despair. God is here, and God will help us with the choices before us.

In today’s passages, we are shown the marks of choosing God. In Joshua it was service. We choose whom we will serve. Will it be ourselves, our society or our God? In the psalm the mark of choosing God is teaching our children and passing on our relationship with God for generations. and in Matthew, the mark is preparedness. Are we ready to meet Jesus, whenever He may come. These are the marks that aid our discernment. These are the checks and balances of our Christian life. We are to ponder these things in our hearts and choose accordingly. We are to remember and learn. We are to be ready to see Jesus everywhere we look.

As we worship and work together for God’s Kingdom to come, may we remember what we have learned and have the strength to fulfill our call to faithfulness. Amen.