Choose Life, Choose Love - June 8

Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 61, 62; PM Psalm 68:1-20(21-23)24-36; Deut. 30:11-20; 2 Cor. 11:1-21a; Luke 19:1-10

Today’s Reflection

In today’s reading from Deuteronomy 30, we hear Moses telling the children of Israel that they (and we) have a choice:

See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. … Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the Lord swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob (Deut. 30: 15, 19b-20, NRSV).

When we choose to live lives of love, we are not choosing the easiest path, though. Oftentimes choosing to live lives of love is so much harder. When we choose to live lives based on love, we are choosing to sacrifice other things—like material comfort or getting our own way and other privileges—for the greater good. But each time that we are courageous enough to make that choice, and the sacrifices required by choosing a life of love, there is power in that choice. A power that some say can even change the world—one choice at a time.

Each time we make a good choice, to obey the commandments of the LORD our God, by walking in his ways, then we are, in fact, choosing life. Moses tells the children of Israel (and us) to choose life, so that we and our descendants, our children and our children’s children, may live. Now, all this may have sounded intimidating to the people of Israel (and to us). It’s not so easy, we think, to love God by following in his steps and holding tightly to him in a world in which we are constantly tempted to do otherwise. But several verses earlier in Deuteronomy 30, Moses offers us this encouragement:

For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it. (Deut. 30: 11-14, ESV).

You don’t have to wait for someone else to bring you what you need to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You can do this. You have all the gifts you need to choose life and to choose love: “the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.” When I read this passage, it sounds like Moses was giving a motivational talk. We already have all that we need to love God and love one another with all our heart and with all our soul, to love with a sacrificial, other-oriented love. And each time we do this, we are choosing life.

Moses’ motivational talk reminds me of another uplifting sermon from not so long ago, by a preacher who always encourages us to choose life by choosing to love. The sermon I am thinking of is the one that our Presiding Bishop, the Most Rev. Michael Curry, delivered at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in England back in May 2018. Bishop Curry’s sermon focused on the power of love to change not just the life of one couple, Meghan and Harry, but to change the life of the whole world. This was no ordinary wedding homily. Let’s look back at what Bishop Curry preached that day:

Jesus of Nazareth on one occasion was asked by a lawyer to sum up the essence of the teachings of Moses. He went back and reached back into the Hebrew scriptures, to Deuteronomy and Leviticus, and Jesus said you shall love the lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength.

This is the first and great commandment and the second is like it: love your neighbor as yourself. And then in Matthew’s version, he added … on these two, Love of God and Love of Neighbor, hang all the law, all the prophets, everything that Moses wrote, everything in the holy prophets, everything in the scriptures, everything that God has been trying to tell the world. Love God, love your neighbors, and while you’re at it, love yourself.

Now someone once said that Jesus began the most revolutionary movement in all of human history, a movement grounded in the unconditional love of God for the world. A movement mandating people to live that love. And in so doing, to change not only their lives but the very life of the world itself. I’m talking about some power, real power. Power to change the world.

Each Sunday, after we share Holy Communion, we are dismissed “to go in peace to love and serve the Lord.” As you carry on with this rest of this day and this week, do so knowing that as you go out in peace, to love and serve the Lord, you do so empowered by Christ, the living word of God. The love of Christ is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it. Thanks be to God!

—Becky+

Questions for Self-Reflection

When does God’s word feel very near to you? How do you experience God’s word at work in your life, in your mouth and in your heart? What passage of scripture is one that you carry especially close to your heart—one that gives you hope, one that reminds you that you are loved?

Daily Challenge

Take a few minutes to view or read Bishop Curry’s May 19, 2018 wedding homily here.