The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost-Rev Melanie Lemburg

 13^th Sunday after Pentecost-Proper 18C

September 4, 2022

        When I worked at Stewpot Community Services, the non-profit soup kitchen in Jackson, Mississippi, in the years before I went to seminary, I had a co-worker named The Rev Donnell Flowers.  Rev Flowers was a fire and brimstone Baptist preacher.  He walked with a limp, spoke directly but kindly, and some of his language would make most preachers blush.  Rev Flowers was the director of the Men’s homeless shelter at Stewpot, and some days, he would give the talk that opened our noon meal, the center point of our day at Stewpot.  Our passage from Deuteronomy for today was one of his favorites—Moses’s farewell speech as he and the children of Israel stand at the edge of the promised land.  Moses has led them this far but he isn’t allowed by God to go on with them, and so Moses is giving them one last message from God before he goes off on his own to die. Rev Flowers would quote it by memory; the words were inscribed on his heart as if there were his own:

"See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. 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."

The congregation for that noon meal for Rev Flowers was often mixed.  It was made up of people who lived on the streets of Jackson, people who battled addiction and alcoholism.  It was made up of senior citizens who didn’t have enough money from their social security checks to pay for all their necessary expenses, so they’d eat the free noon meal daily to help those funds stretch.  The congregation was made up of people who were looking for somewhere safe where they could spend time—where the free meal was an extra gift that came with someone to eat it with.  The congregation was made up of the attorneys and business people from Downtown Jackson who came to volunteer their time to help serve the meal, and it was made up of the staff who worked every day to try to help soften the lives of our community members just a bit. 

        Choose life,” Rev Flowers would tell us all.  Every day when you walk out these doors, you will be faced with the choice between life and death, blessings and curses; choose life.  It was easy for me to see this choice between life and death that lay before those battling addiction and poverty, the minute they walked out the door.  But I also began to realize that Rev Flowers’ impassioned encouraging to choose life was just as urgent for all the rest of us, too.

        For us, as followers of Jesus, choosing the way of life means paying attention to the things that Jesus paid attention to; it means taking up our own cross and following him in ways we would never choose or imagine—offering mercy to those we think don’t deserve it; offering healing and help, charity and kindness to the poor and the suffering; being open to giving up our very selves, all the trappings of what we have used to build and create our lives in order to live and walk and follow this way of love.  Choosing life also means not turning our faces away from suffering—both others’ and our own, not numbing ourselves with the things we use to numb ourselves, not hardening our hearts or shielding ourselves with all the things we do to shield ourselves.  Choosing life means acknowledging the others gods who tempt us and call out to use to worship them instead of following the difficult way of discipleship that Jesus offers. Choosing life means holding fast to a God who lifts up the lowly and exalts the small and who casts down the mighty.  Choosing life means living our lives according to God’s priorities and not our own. 

        Choose life.  In every minute, every encounter.  In every hour and in every day, we have before us the choice between life and death, blessings and curses.  Choose life.