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St Brendan's
Anglican Church |
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St Brendan's
Anglican Church |
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CHOICES by Moheb Ghali August 23, 2009 What I hope to do this morning are three things:
In the chapter before the passage from the Old Testament read today Joshua was encouraging all the tribes of Israel to “cleave to the Lord your God as you have done to this day”. He says: “Therefore be very steadfast to keep and do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right hand nor to the left, that you may not be mixed with these nations left here among you, or make mention of the names of their gods, or swear by them, or serve them, or bow down yourselves to them, but cleave to the Lord your God as you have done to this day.”[Joshua 23:6-8] Then in the passage we read today Joshua gives them a choice: "Now therefore revere the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. Now if you are unwilling to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD." [Joshua 24:14-15] This is rather odd: If Israel had cleaved to the Lord their God up to that day, what is the point of giving them the choice? Could he not have assumed, judging from the past, that they will continue to cleave to the Lord? I think not. Joshua knew that every day they will be tempted to fit in with the religions of the nations around them, to be open-minded and inclusive, to avoid being accused of bigotry and exclusivity. Hence Joshua’s starts with the words “be very steadfast” – unwavering “turning neither to the right nor to the left” in keeping God’s commands. This is a call to an active faith – the decision to serve the Lord is not something we do once and for all. Rather, our resolve to serve the Lord will be tested day after day and every day we must choose to be very steadfast – every day we must choose not to be moved or shaken by what we will encounter. We make choices on the basis of what we anticipate to be the outcome. But faith calls us to make choices without fully seeing or comprehending the outcomes. When we are called to do something that offends our senses and sensibilities as Jesus did when he said: “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you” we will likely demand an explanation: “"How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" [John 6:52]. If no explanation is given, we may respond "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?" [John 6:60] as many of Jesus’ disciples did. After following and serving the Lord for many months “Many of the disciples were offended by what Jesus said and turned back and no longer went about with Him”. Jesus gave the twelve closest to Him a choice: "Do you also wish to go away?" [John 6:67]. We live at a time when many worship wealth, fame, power, glamour or self. The temptation is to do what the modern day “Amorites” are doing and serve their gods. The choice to serve other gods is before each of one of us every day: and every day we must “Choose this day whom you will serve”. When many stop following Jesus because what the Lord asks of us is too hard, will you choose to follow the crowd or will you cleave to the Lord your God? To be steadfast in cleaving to the Lord is hard work (Christianity is not for wimps!), and that is why Paul calls us to be strong in the Lord. One has to be prepared daily for the real battle: “For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Had our enemies been flesh and blood, our physical and mental strength, our stamina and our training would have sufficed. But our real fight is against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places, which are hell-bent on making sure that we no longer serve the Lord our God. And the battle is on day after day – the enemy has all the time in the world! To be able to “stand firm”, to “be very steadfast” we need the strength of the Lord’s power – spiritual power, not our own physical and mental strengths. We need spiritual stamina that comes from constant prayers so that we would not faint or be discouraged in the middle of the battle. And we need to be properly equipped for the spiritual warfare. In the passage from Ephesians St. Paul tells us that to be able to stand against the wiles of the devil we need to “take up the whole armor of God” – to put on the full armor that God has provided for us. With due apology to St. Paul, I will rearrange the armor, going down from head to toe - so that it would be easier for me to remember:
When the enemy tries to deceive us, we should have the word of God, the sword of the Spirit ready to wield. When we are tempted, are we sufficiently versed in the word of God to counter the temptation as Jesus did?
If we make the choice to serve the Lord our God, in addition to having the full armor of God, we will need the strength to stand against the wiles of the devil at all times. It is for this reason that Paul adds: “Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints.” [Ephesians 6:19].To stand firm I need your prayers and supplications always, and you need my constant prayers and supplication. You may wonder how can one pray at all times since most of the time we work, talk with people, keep up with the news or do chores. When Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth she was able to do three things at the same time: she was responding to Elizabeth with her mouth while glorifying the Lord with her soul and meanwhile her spirit was rejoicing in God her savior [Luke 1:46-47]. It is possible to pray at all times (pray without ceasing) – even while speaking to others or doing your work or reading or writing if we allow the Holy Spirit to pray through our spirits. This is why Paul can write “Pray in the Spirit at al times” and expect the people in Ephesus to actually do it. If you want to know more about how to pray in the Spirit, ask me after the service. QUIZ: If you remember at the beginning I mentioned that we will have an open book quiz. Please open your blue inserts to the Ephesians lesson, and read me the answers to the following questions:
HOMEWORK You may have recently heard about the young American soldier in Afghanistan who left his armor and weapons at the base and went out off the base. He was captured by the Taliban. They made a video of him denouncing all that he had believed in. He acted foolishly. Yet we do the same thing every day: when was the last time I took up the whole armor that God provided before I left home and started walking where I can be attacked and captured by the spiritual enemy? I said earlier that I will give you a shopping list and a homework assignment. Here is the shopping list – where to find the pieces of armor:
The homework assignment is in two parts: (a) Each day find one piece of the armor, for example Monday read the shopping list verse about salvation and think about it during the day, and on Tuesday read about righteousness and think about it during the day, and so on. [For extra credit: find additional verses for each piece of the armor – 5 points extra per verse.] (b) Every morning before you get out of bed, and many of us take a few minutes between waking up and actually getting out of bed, (1) make a conscious decision: This day I choose to serve the Lord. (2) Get spiritually dressed- say to yourself: I cover my head with the helmet of salvation, I cover my heart with the righteousness of God, I surround myself with truth, I carry the shield of faith and hold in my hand the sword of the Spirit, and I get my feet ready to take me to proclaim the gospel of peace. Then you are ready for the world, or more precisely you are ready to take on the prince of this world. [Note: if you find this exercise helpful, you may want to continue doing it indefinitely.]
C.S. Lewis in
his book Mere Christianity wrote: “The
real problem of the Christian life comes where people do not usually look
for it. It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes
and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job
each morning consists simply in shoving them all back, in listening to
that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other
larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. And so on, all day.
Standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings; coming in out
of the wind. |