Choosing Life Over Death

Choosing Life Over Death
This week begins our six week series on the book I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church by Rev. Paul Nixon. Rev. Nixon is a United Methodist Pastor currently serving in a new church based in Arlington, VA. Rev. Nixon works with pastors & churches of many denominations across North America. This book has been recommended by our Bishop, Hee-Soo Jung as part of the tools for Harvest 2020. Harvest 2020 is the vision for the Northern Illinois Conference of the United Methodist Church, of which we are a part… The VISION of Harvest 2020 is to plant 100 new faith communities within the Northern Illinois Conference, to grow healthy disciples in local churches, and to promote cooperation through cluster ministries. As a part of the Norther Illinois Conference, we are challenged to participate and to live into this vision. There are ways that we have engaged this vision already and there are ways that we are working towards living into this vision…
During this Lenten season, we have intentional time to practice Spiritual disciplines and to have conversations about the vision & mission of Sheridan-Norway United Methodist Church. Participating in worship, practicing a spiritual discipline, or joining a Bible study are all ways that we will have ways to connect with God and to seek to hear what God is calling and sharing with us…
We begin our Lenten series this morning…In this first week, we are talking about choosing life over death…
Now, choosing life over death seems like a no brainer, right? Would you rather have a piece of fruit that is rotten and dead or something that is ripe and juicy? Or would you buy a plant that is wilted and dry or one that is blooming and lush? Choosing life is something that seems like it would be an easy decision to make, one would think that to choose life would be a conversation that would be very short and sweet…Choosing life is something that everyone would choose, right??
It seems like an easy question to answer…It seems like an easy choice to make…And yet…For many the choice is very hard…and for many, without realizing it, they have chosen death instead of life…
In our passage from Dueteronomy, Moses is speaking to the Hebrew people…These people who were in slavery to Pharoah and who were brought out of slavery by God and lead through the dessert for 40 years where they wandered, seeking to arrive to the land which God promised, the promised land…Moses is speaking to these Hebrew people toward the end of their wandering years and asking them to make choices that honor what God has planned for them…That before them has been set life and prosperity and death and adversity…And they have been given very specific instructions on how choose life…To obey the commandments of God…To love God…To walk in the ways of God…All these things are ways that the Hebrew people choose life…
It’s still a choice…It’s still a choice that the Hebrew people make to choose life…They could just as easily choose to turn away…to not hear…to worship other gods…And there were times that they did that…There were times when the Hebrew people chose death over life…
But of course…We’re not like those Hebrew people! We’re not a people who would choose death over life! That’s preposterous! Right??? And yet…Doesn’t it happen?
How are there ways that you have chosen death over life? That you have not listened to God…That you have turned away from God…That you have not obeyed the commandments of God…That you have chosen death over life. Now, some of you may be sitting and thinking… “Melissa…I have never chosen death over life! Are you serious???” And maybe you’re right…I mean I’m not with you 24/7 or have been present with you for your whole life…So…every day, have you listened to everything that God said? Every day have you loved God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength? Every day have you walked in the ways of God completely? Because I have to be honest…I know that there have been times when I have chosen death over life…Sometimes intentionally and sometimes unintentionally…I can think of a time when I was finishing visiting someone at the hospital and as I was leaving, I saw a familiar car in the parking lot…And I felt God nudging me to turn around and go back into the hospital, but I had to get to another meeting instead…I disobeyed what God was telling me and missed an opportunity to minister…I chose death over life…It’s easier to choose death than one might think…
There are ways that we choose death unintentionally… When we have questions about what is happening or the direction of the church Jesus teaches us that we are to go directly to the leadership of the church and talk, ask, discuss…By gossiping or sharing negative attitudes, we have chosen death instead of life. Choosing death is easier than it seems…
But…Within the passage from Deuteronomy and the story of Jesus healing the paralyzed man…We’re not asked to choose death…We’re asked and instructed to choose life…It’s about what we shouldn’t choose…It’s about what we should choose…We should choose life.
Life…Life is what God offers to us… To obey the commandments of God…To love God…To walk in the ways of God…To do that is to choose life…
We choose life when we spend time in prayer and meditation with God…When we listen to God…When we turn to God…When we live into what God is calling us to do and to be…We choose life…During this Lenten season, during our communion on Wednesday evenings, we’ll have opportunities to practice different spiritual disciplines…To pray through art, through body prayers, through silence, through studying Scripture…These are all ways that we choose life…
The life that is given to us through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ…Jesus didn’t die so that we could choose death…Jesus died to destroy our death…Jesus died and was raised to give us hope…To give us life…How could we not choose that?? That Jesus gave up his life so that we may truly live…How could we not choose that life that Jesus gives??
We begin our series talking about choosing life…Because choosing life has to be something that we choose to do as individuals…As Christians…To accept the life that we have been give by and through Jesus Christ our Savior…As Christians, before we can invite others to choose that life…It’s something that we need to choose for ourselves…Maybe that’s a decision that you made long ago…When you chose life over death…Maybe it’s a decision that you’ve been struggling with…Choosing life over death…Maybe you’ve felt like you’ve been choosing death more than you’ve been choosing life lately…Let me tell you that choice to choose life is here for you today…It’s here for you now…If life is something that you would claim now…In this time and in this place…If you are choosing the life that Jesus gives…To love God…To walk in God’s ways…To choose life over death…I would invite you to come forward to pray at the altar…To come down and make the choice to choose life…(song)