Two little stories for you.
Two
men were shipwrecked on a desert island. The minute they got on the
island one of them started screaming and shouting, “We’re going to die, we’re going to die! There’s no food,
No water, we’re going to die.”
The second man was propped up
against a palm tree and acting so calmly it drove the first man crazy.
“Don’t
you understand, we’re going to die”
The second man replied, “No my
friend, you don’t understand, I earn 100,000 pounds a week.
The first man looked at him
quite dumfounded and asked “What difference does that make, we’re on an
island
with no food and no water, we’re going to die.”
The second man answered, “You
just don’t get it do you? I make 100,000 a week and I tithe ten percent
to my
church.
MY
VICAR WILL COME AND FIND ME.
The second story. A young man
joined his local football team and discovered that he was expected to
play in
goal for the next Saturday’s match. Because he was late sending his
registration papers in, officially, he was not a member of the team,
so, he was
told that if anyone asked him he was to say he was Len Falkener, a
member of
the team who was not playing that day.
During a lull in play around his
goal area, a man approached the back of the net and said, “Hello, who
are you?”
The young man replied, “I’m Len Falkener,” The man behind the goal
replied,
“Well, I’m very pleased to meet you, I’m your father!!!
That little story is all about
choice, the man chose to go along with the lie about who he was,
instead of
telling the truth. But then, I suppose, in similar circumstances we
would all
probably have done the same.
It is about choices that I am
going to talk to you this morning The
Bible is full of stories about choices isn’t it. Adam and Eve chose to
eat the
apple, Noah chose to build the ark, Jonah chose to disobey God, and so
on and
so on, and finally, Jesus gives us the choice of following him or going
our own
way
Making choices is a popular
political activity today, It is commended as a means to promote
industrial
efficiency, better education and more satisfying media entertainment.
Choosing can give us a
satisfying sense of freedom and power. Having
a choice makes us feel we can
exert some control over our lives.
But there will also be times
when we may shrink from making a choice, because we are afraid of the
responsibility which this carries.
Yet, so often we have to make a
choice even when we would rather not do so. Over many things we cannot
avoid
making a choice in this life, and it does of course bring with it
responsibility for the result of that choice, for instance, to take a
simple
and very common example that has faced most of us at some time, well,
all of us
who drive that is.
We are in a hurry, there appears
to be no one about, so we choose to break the speed limit, and a camera
flashes
and we get caught and must take responsibility for our actions. We made
the
wrong choice and have only ourselves to blame.
Life is made that way, God has
given us freedom, not absolute freedom to make choices, but freedom to
choose
with the life we are given.
Even in the most restricted
circumstances which we can imagine, we should still be free to decide
how we
are going to cope with a situation.
This day I offer you the choice of
a blessing and a curse. These words are attributed to Moses as he
prepares the
people of
If the people hold fast to the
law which has been given to them a huge area of land will become their
homeland, But, if the people are not faithful to God, they will
experience
curses rather than blessings, the choice was theirs, depending on
whether they
keep, or fail to keep the commandments of the Lord.
We are not standing on the banks
of the Jordon, and we do not have to make the historical choice Moses
put
before the people of
But we are reminded of that
today. In today’s gospel Jesus spells it out quite clearly, you cannot
serve
two masters, you cannot serve God and mammon, and that can be seen as a
picture
of the choice which we do have to make.
We are taught that God presented
himself to the world in Jesus Christ, if we reject the Son, then we
automatically reject the Father, and we will lose the promise which the
Son
brought from the Father.
This promise is eternal life,
something that we can enjoy now, through the anointing of the Holy
Spirit, and
which we shall enjoy in all it’s fullness after death.
If you want it spelt out for
you, there in John’s gospel chapter 6 verse 40 it says, “For my
Father’s will
is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have
eternal
life, and I will raise him (or her) up on the last day.”
So, there is a sense in which
we do stand looking at the promised land, and having to make a choice
which
will bring us a blessing or a curse.
We have been given life and we
didn’t have any choice about that, but we can’t escape choosing what we
do with
it, nor can we fudge the issue
To walk in the way of Christ,
heeding his words, and living in the strength of his Spirit will bring
blessings, To turn aside as one of our hymns says is hell.
There are of course many choices
which we make day by day in our lives, concerning all sorts of matters,
some
trivial, others of great significance.
But, the determining choice
which colours and shapes all other choices is whether we say yes to
God’s
invitation to live a new life which he has shown us in Jesus.
To choose God and not mammon, or
however we like to describe the alternative, is a choice which we may
make
hesitantly, and which we may have to re-affirm many times, and a choice
which
occasionally we may need to recover from neglect.
But it is a choice we cannot
avoid, and for which we need to ask for Grace to make, even more firmly
for
God, then we shall know the blessing and avoid the curse.
What we really need to focus on,
is our lifestyle, and where we place God . Whom does the family, our
work and
hobbies revolve around?
It is a hard question, but we must
ask ourselves, do we give God our first fruits, or the fruit we have
left over
after we have had our fill?
Jesus said that he had come
that we may have life, and have it in all it’s abundance. The life he
showed us
was one in which he held fast to the Father’s will, whatever the cost,
only
then could the blessing come through.
That blessing was revealed in
all it’s glory on Easter morning. That is the promised land we are
asked to
look forward to and to choose life.
This day I offer you the choice
of a blessing and a curse, is a challenge offered to us , as well as
those
ancient Hebrews who first heard it from Moses.
So, do we choose life and have
it in all it’s abundance, putting God at the centre of our lives. Or do
we
choose to pay God lip servive and look after N0
1, and be prepared to take the consequences.
The choice is yours.
Amen