11/09/2014 ~ Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost ~ 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time ~ (Proper 27) ~ Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25; Psalm 78:1-7; Wisdom of Solomon 6:12-16 or Amos 5:18-24; Wisdom of Solomon 6:17-20 or Psalm 70; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Matthew 25:1-13 ~ Stewardship Sunday ~ Also the Sunday Closest to Veterans Day.
Choices
“Now then, throw away the foreign gods among you and turn your hearts toward Yahweh, the God of Israel.” — Joshua 24:23.
I have a confession which will not surprise too many of you. I always wanted to broadcast Major League Baseball games, be the one to call the plays— the runs, the hits, the errors. I was reminded of that a week ago as Bonnie and I sat and watched Game Six of the World Series.
That, by the way, tells you Bonnie is a good person, but you’ve probably noticed. She, after all, was willing to sit and to watch baseball with me.
For those of you who are not baseball fans, Game Six of this series was a boring game. But, as you probably know, I am into baseball. It was not boring to me.
In fact, Game Six would have been boring to most casual observers. It was a blow out. One team led by a lot of runs. After only five innings the score was Kansas City nine, San Francisco nothing— zero. The final score was ten - zip.
At that point— at the end of five innings— I said to Bonnie, “Watch what the San Francisco Manager does with the bull pen. He has to stop worrying about winning this game and start worrying about winning Game Seven. This game no longer matters.”
“What he’ll be doing,” said I, “is bringing in pitchers who can eat up innings. But these are probably not the pitchers he’ll use tomorrow in Game Seven.”
About five minutes later one of the broadcasters— a former major leaguer baseball player— said the same thing using nearly the same words. Bonnie looked over at me, glowered a little, and said, “You missed your calling.”
Calling? What are the odds I would have been able to work my way into the broadcast booth of a Major League Baseball team? Slim and none— and slim just left the room. Yes, I played ball as a kid. I was average at best. And I had no contacts in baseball or in the broadcast industry.
Which is to say for me landing that kind of position would have been just dumb luck. I know of only one person who became a Major League Baseball broadcaster by way of dumb luck. And although he did not have a lot of experience, even he had some experience.
That person is Gary Thorne, a native of Bangor Maine. He is an attorney who, as a hobby and for fun and for free, started broadcasting University of Maine Hockey Games. Then for pay, a little bit of pay, he did the same for the Maine Guides— a Triple A baseball team.
On a lark he submitted an audition tape to the New York Mets. It turned out the day the tape arrived the Mets had just fired a broadcaster. They decided to hire Thorne before anyone else had a chance or was asked to submit a tape— pure dumb luck.
I mention all this to ask a simple question: the choices we make can be and even are important. But in the larger scheme of things how do we account for what happens?
I want to suggest, fortunately or unfortunately, much of what happens to us is just luck, chance. To be clear: that luck is involved in our lives at all violates American theology.
American theology makes the claim we are in control of everything that happens to us. But that is simply and even obviously not true. Yes, we all do need to make good choices. That’s not what this discussion is about. You see, the chips will fall where the chips will fall and mostly— mostly— we have little control. (Slight pause.)
We find these words in Joshua: “Now then, throw away the foreign gods among you and turn your hearts toward Yahweh, the God of Israel.” (Slight pause.)
I can guarantee this: we all have gods, little gods, things we hold on to. ‘Can we throw them away?’
‘Can we throw them away?’ is a serious question. You know, you can read a passage in Scripture a hundred times and the hundredth and first time, you see something that you never saw before. That’s what happened to me when I read those words at a committee meeting this week.
As strange as it sounds, in ancient times people carried around small idols, little statues. These represented gods. So, when Joshua tells the Israelites to throw away foreign gods, the statement can be taken somewhat literally.
The instruction probably means take that little statue you’ve been carrying around; throw it away. If only we were able to throw away our false gods. Now, the next thing Joshua says tells us how to throw away our false gods (quote:) “...turn your hearts toward Yahweh, the God of Israel.”
Indeed, here’s one way to look at this passage: luck will happen. And maybe that is what those little idols are about— luck. These statues, these little gods we hold on to, are as likely or unlikely to work as well chance— to work as well as pure dumb luck.
But this passage also says we— we— need to ignore luck. We need to be faithful, no matter what happens, no matter what luck comes our way. We need to turn our hearts toward God. We can’t be fair weather Christians only turning toward God when luck goes our way.
So, says Joshua, for we Israelites, luck is no longer central. Faithfulness is now central. But that still leaves us with a basic question: why be faithful? (Slight pause.)
I have told bits of this story here before. When I was in Seminary, my Hebrew Scriptures professor was Dr. Ann Johnston. Dr. Johnston was a Hebrew Scholar and a Irish Roman Catholic nun, not a combination one finds too often.
At the beginning of a term she might have a class filled with people who never studied with her before. Like many classrooms, often there would be a little din of background noise as people gathered.
Ann had a very small, quite voice and would start a class in that voice, a voice which was normal for her. So, if you wanted to hear what Ann said, you had to keep quiet. Hence, in any class she taught, within five minutes of its initial session, people got very quite. People learned to listen.
And once people listened, they realize what Ann said was invaluable. She was and is a great teacher. She was, in fact, so great, that you wanted to give back to her your best, the best work you possibly could. You wanted to be... faithful. (Slight pause.)
God speaks. And God speaks in a small, quiet voice. Or at least that’s my experience. What does God say? Be faithful.
Perhaps yet another question for us is ‘how?’ How can we be faithful? I recently saw this banner outside a U.C.C. church. (Quote:) “Be the Church. Care for the poor. Preserve the Environment. Forgive Often. Reject Racism. Support Those Who Are Powerless. Share Earthly and Spiritual Resources. Embrace Diversity. Love God.” (Slight pause.)
We all make choices. Some pan out. Some don’t. The choice we need to make is to be faithful, to remain faithful, no matter what luck pans out, no matter what happens. (Slight pause.)
As I have said here hundreds of times before, every dollar you pledge to the church goes toward outreach. Every dollar you give to the church goes toward outreach. What does that mean? It means among other things that, as a church, we are lucky to have an abundance with which we can help others.
It also therefore and imperatively, urgently, it means we need to be the church. It means care for the poor. Preserve the environment. Forgive often. Reject racism. Support those who are powerless. Share earthly and spiritual resources. Embrace diversity. Love God. In short, no matter what luck brings we need to be faithful. Amen.
11/09/2014
United Church of Christ, First Congregational, Norwich, New York
ENDPIECE— It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Congregational Response and Benediction. This is an précis of what was said: “I want to suggest that faithfulness should never translate into tribalism. Our commitment to God should foster what philosopher Alfred North Whitehead described as whole world-loyalty. It should not produce parochial in-group, out-group attitudes. Put differently, it’s not about winning or losing or what strategies to employ in an effort to win. Faithfulness is about consistency. It’s about how you play the game. Do we play the game with love on our hearts, being witnesses to God?”
BENEDICTION: The knowledge that God loves us frees us for joyous living. So, let us trust in the love God offers. Let us also be fervent in prayer as we make choices daily, and seek to do God’s will and walk in God’s way as we travel on our Christian journey. And may the peace of God which surpasses all understanding and the abiding truth of Christ keep our hearts and minds in the knowledge, love and companionship of the Holy Spirit this day and forever more. Amen.
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