Choosing this Day

sermon by Carrie Eikler
Joshua 24:1-28

Care of God's Creation: #6

(you need to move to about minute 3:25 before the sermon begins!)

What was the first choice you made this morning?

Well, likely it was something along the lines of: “Do I get out of bed or do I go back to sleep?”

But probably once that all important decision was made, your brain probably went on autopilot, your feet following the path of habits you have chosen a long time ago: 

bathroom, shower, breakfast, teeth, clothes.  Or

bathroom, breakfast, teeth, shower, clothes.

If you put morning exercise or a time of prayer, good job.

And then the question:  church, or no church?

I bet for many of you that seems like a question with a forgone conclusion.  Sure, church.  That’s what we do.

But what accompanied that subtle choice?

Dread, because you don’t know how hot it might be in the un-airconditioned sanctuary? 

Resentment, because a bunch of other people you know are probably sleeping in or enjoying another cup of coffee?

 Relief, because what you need right now is to be with other people who care about you? 

Eagerness, because you need to hear some word of God right now that you just don’t get in you regular 9-5 life.

Now I may disappoint you, here: you may predict that with this line of reasoning I will say that since you chose to come to church, you made the right decision.  When faced with Joshua’s question, “Choose this day whom you will serve” and you say “OK, I’ll go to church”, you may think I will say choosing church means you chose God.

Well, I’m not.  Because Church does not equal God.

Not necessarily.

I hope I didn’t rain on anybody’s parade.  And please don’t walk out the door.  Because, while church does not equal God, I can assure you, you can find God here.

You have made the choice, consciously or unconsciously, to go to a building, to sit with people, to let words of prayer and poetry of song wash over you and bless you and yes, God is here.  And God is present to you here, in this place because you made the choice to be here and accept it.

Choice.

It is something of a human right, we might think, isn’t it?

We certainly see choice as an American entitlement.  Those without choice we think of, are those in autocratic regimes. We think of words like dictatorship.  communist. totalitarian.

Have you ever felt that maybe, just maybe, we have too many choices in our contemporary lives?  From the apps to our phones to varieties of yogurt in the dairy case, the choices we face can make our lives more complicated, rather than more liberating, as the clever marketers would have us believe. 

This is the premise of the 2004 book called the Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz.  The premise in this book is that Americans are given so many choices, that our brains are actually exhausted and he argues that all the choices we have to face actually go a long way in eroding our psychological well being.

Just think about that as you flip through 900 cable channels and wonder why there isn’t anything on. 

Here’s an interesting fact for you I read this week: you know the craze of the K-cup coffee?  This is the process of making single-cup coffee comes in individual portions, encased in plastic capsules or packets that you put in a special coffeemaker to brew one cup at a time.  The draw is people can choose the type of coffee they want.  It appeals to our contemporary notion of choice, doesn’t it?

Apparently, with about 12 % of US homes have a single-cup coffee machine, approximately 100 million plastic cups are trashed…a day.  That’s 36.5 billion a year.  A small glimpse at the environmental impact of some of our choices…

But no one wants to give up choice.  We could perhaps do with fewer choices, but the capacity to choose is part of who we are.  And choice, and the blessings and woes of the results of our choices, have been present since the beginning of the Biblical story: God chooses to create…something.  Adam chooses the names of the animals, humans choose to eat of the tree of knowledge, Cain chose to murder Able.  Noah chose to listen to God and build an ark.  Lot’s wife chose to look back.  Miriam chose to lead her people with a tambourine into the promise land. 

And here we are.  Now in the promise land.  Joshua has taken over for Moses, who died just before reaching this land of milk and honey, after 40 years of wandering in the desert.  Joshua has the dubious task of setting before the people…yet again…another life or death situation.  As if the past 40 years weren’t enough.

OK, we’ve come this far, says Joshua.  Now here is the real test.  A clear either or choice.  Black and white.  Now that we are here, choose: who will you serve. 

As we sit here, together, we have been summoned.  Summoned to this moment.  Not to look to the future or to dwell on the past, but like the people summoned by Joshua we sit in a moment pregnant with potential. 

In this moment, I ask you the question: Who will you serve? 

Who will you serve? [pause]

*scoff* that’s easy!  We’re in church, of course you’re going to say God!  Who wouldn’t say God?

Now this moment we are in may not seem as momentous as I pictured Joshua, expansive above his people.

It may not be as momentous as the time you made a decision to follow Christ at age 8 or 16 or 25 or older.

This moment may not be as meaningful as the time you dipped your toe into the baptismal waters, or felt the cool water sprinkled on your head.

But this is what life is.  Moment to moment decisions of allegiance.

OK, I know that sounds dramatic, a flash back to the early days of the War on Terror when George W. Bush gave us the ultimatum: you’re either with us or against us.  So, I’ll take it down a notch:

 In each moment, with each action

            with each purchase we make

            with each person we choose to look at

            with each person we choose to avoid

            with each bite of food,

Joshua’s question is sealed in our hearts: who am I serving?

Am I serving the God who sent Christ to love the outcast, to turn fear into abundant joy ,to reach out to the margins, to bless God’s creation

Or I am going to serve and to value…something else.  Something maybe a bit easier

a bit prettier.

A bit more comfortable.

We think that the choice of following God comes with the big, dramatic decisions, but it is probably more in the small, unconscious decisions that we daily encounter this question, an faithful opportunity respond to Joshua’s invitation

Torin and I are learning about these unconscious decisions quite clearly these days.

Our family is ten days into  a “No Spend” month.  We are trying to not spend any money.

Now, the name “No Spend” month is a bit inaccurate.  We pay our bills, we buy groceries and gas, but that’s about it.  Apart from those, we are trying not to spend any money.

And the grocery thing is hard, because you know, we love our food! 

So this month we are giving ourselves $500 dollars for our family of 5 to spend on food and gas.  That is $100 less a month than we usually spend on groceries alone.

That belt gets tighter and tighter.

The first week down went pretty well, but I hear it’s the second and third weeks that are the hardest.  I’ll let you know on September 15^th how it went, if you’re interested. J

So why are we doing this?

Yes, it’s a way to save money, to kind of scale back a bit after the summer vacations

Yes, it’s a way to feel a little more in control of our spending.

But what is exciting for me in this No Spend month…at least 10 days into it…is that it forces us to step back and evaluate our habits.  This week I thought, “oh, I’ll go down to ZenClay, spend $5 on a drink and type my sermon there.”

Great idea!  Except…we’re not spending this month.

Alistair asked if we could go to Ogawa, our favorite restaurant, for lunch this week.  My initial thought was  “what a great way to celebrate Alistair going to PreK, one last lunch out!”

Great idea!  Except…that  will make it pretty hard at the end of the month when we have $25 less to spend on groceries.

But what I’m noticing, is that this is not just an exercise in deprivation.  It’s an exercise in observation.  An exercise in choice.  In consciousness.  And that somehow, feels like the opposite of deprivation.

I’m taking those regular reactions and spending habits out of the realm of the unconscious, and putting them into the light of choice, and it shows me something about myself.

In today’s culture of choices everywhere, for everything, that just may be the take away from Joshua’s speech to the realities we face: every choice has an impact no matter how small.  But every choice does have an impact.

An impact on the environment.

An impact on our relationship with others

An impact on our financial situation

Every choice has an impact on our self-worth

An impact on the self-worth of others.

And ultimately, an impact on our spirits.  Our souls.  The place where God resides in us.

And yet, it’s not just about me…or you…as individuals.

Joshua was speaking to a community.  His tribe.  Joshua is talking to the group.  He is talking to us, as a congregation.

Our decisions.  Our words.  Our worship.  Our resistance.  Our embrace.

With these things…what choice do we make? 

May we find courage to take our decisions out of the realm of

            routine and  the unconscious

And hold them up as momentous, every day responses of faith.

Amen.