Sacred Choices: Choosing Life Over Death A Stewardship Message for First United Methodist Church of Olympia October 14, 2018 Rev. Peter K.

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1 Sacred Choices: Choosing Life Over Death A Stewardship Message for First United Methodist Church of Olympia October 14, 2018 Rev. Peter K. Perry But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you. (Romans 8:9 11, NRSV) 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. (Deuteronomy 30:15 20, NRSV) The year was Olympia had been named the capital city of the new territory being carved Oregon country, north of the Columbia River to Canada. The community of Olympia was a small collection of cabins at the base of Budd Inlet, and its future now looked bright. And that bright future attracted two Methodist circuit riders who came to town that summer with the idea of starting a church. The only building big enough was Charlie Burmeister s saloon. It took some doing, but old Charlie finally agreed to close the saloon for a few hours on a Sunday morning so that a worship service could be held. They covered the barrels with sheets, and they fired the town cannon on Water Street that guarded the city. Some of the folks in the know were expecting that sound as a signal of the circuit riders meeting, but others who had not heard of the plans rushed into town afraid that the cannon fire meant the town was under attack. As the church s history page on the website says, While the barrels were out of sight at that first service, the hymn-singing, prayers and preaching

2 must have been permeated by the smell of beer, which, years later, would make Olympia famous. Twelve people from that first meeting ended up forming a church, becoming charter members of the congregation that would one day become us. They made a sacred choice in the midst of hard lives and great adventures. Experiencing regular conflicts with the neighboring tribes of indigenous people, they choose to be followers of Jesus. Receiving infrequent letters from their distant cousins on the East coast who were preparing for a Civil War that would shape our nation to this day, they choose to build a church. Planting crops and praying for an uncertain harvest, they choose to trust in God. Far from cities with their colleges and hospitals, symphony halls and libraries, they choose to live faithful lives as disciples of Jesus Christ. They made a sacred choice to seek God in the midst of their lives. We shouldn t romanticize our forebears and pretend that everything about their lives was noble and pure (we know that is not true of them then or us now), but we do affirm that in the midst of their humanity they sought God, they sought God s blessing, they sought God s truth, they sought God s beauty, the sought God s presence. They made a sacred choice to build a building for the worship of God and become a community centered on their faith in God, founded on the conviction that God was present in the world and that God, through them, would be a force of goodness and love in this life they were building where the land met the sea that they called Olympia. Our Sacred Choices That was then. This is now. So very much has changed in the world over the course of 166 years. But some things don t change. I find it uproariously ironic that the Evergreen new church start has been meeting twice a month over the past year in a Tap Room with the smell of beer in the air as songs are sung and prayers prayed. I just regret that there is no cannon we can fire to attract the settlers out in Hawk s Prairie. We may no longer be pioneers, but we still have sacred choices that we make every day. The first of those sacred choices is the choice of life over death. Jurgen Moltmann is perhaps the world s greatest living theologian, though I find him hard to read because he s so obtuse in his writing. At 92 years of age, he is still writing theology that makes me scratch my head and say, Huh. I first read Moltmann in seminary in the 1980s. I remember his

3 words about the Christian faith offering life-before-death, when the culture around us is focused on death-before-life. He wrote: Where Jesus is, there is life. There is abundant life, vigorous life, loved life and eternal life. There is life-before-death. I find it deeply unsettling whenever I think about how we have become accustomed to death to the death of the soul, to death on the street, to death through violence to death-before-life. (Moltmann, The Passion for Life, p. 19, 1977) There are so many ways of describing our sacred choice, but Moltmann s intrigues me. We have the choice to affirm life or to deny it. Moltmann would never deny the belief in of eternal life after death, but he is saying that central to the Christian story is the idea God wants us to live fully in the now, and God wants us to live in such a way that all of God s children may live fully in the now. This is an echo of the words from Deuteronomy See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments then you shall live But if your heart turns away and you are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, you shall perish. Moltmann says that life has been reduced and diminished by greedy, selfserving, oppressive worldviews which Jesus opposed. Moltmann emphasizes the promise of Jesus that says, I have come that you might have life and have abundantly, now and forever. Jesus offers that promise to a world where life reduced and diminished, where life is denied and devalued, where living life fully is confused with existence and survival, where life the kind of life Jesus promises is hard to find. Choose life! Paul in Romans wrote the words we read this morning: If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwells in you. (Romans 8:11) It is of course the message we celebrate on Easter. Life wins. With God, life wins. Chose life, therefore; choose resurrection, choose hope, choose possibility, choose renewal, choose growth, choose progress. Choose life. Choices the World Makes are not always sacred ones

4 There are so many forces in this world that align against the life choice God asks us to make. Sadly, some of those forces masquerade as forces of faith. Nothing about being Christian protects us from the subtle deceptions that obscure and confuse our choices. There has long been a worldview that says the world is getting worse and worse, and people more and more sinful, and God and God s people are just waiting for the tipping point to come, so God can finally destroy the world and rescue the righteous remnant and secure them in a heavenly eternity. Many who call themselves Christian operate in that worldview, but I do not find that worldview to be life-giving, life-enhancing, life-promoting. It is a philosophy od death that makes God into an angry judge instead of a loving presence and I reject it. In the life of Jesus I see repeatedly the rejection of the forces of death, all that would diminish and reduce life. Those things Jesus spoke out against 200 years ago are still very much present in our world today, and we must reject them. Tribalism in the guise of nationalism, racism, and ethnocentrism. Xenophobia and the fear of others Authoritarian, patriarchal, misogynistic, and privileged power structures Preference for retributive justice over restorative justice Economic systems that favor the rich Economic system that are built on a culture of war The use of violence as a means to an end I am sure we could add to the list. Time and again, Jesus asks us in his words and in his deeds, to choose life over the forces of death. In this week s edition of Sojourner s Magazine, a writer named Joe Kay responds to current events and the feelings of hopelessness that he sees among many followers of Jesus, and he offered the recollection as encouragement: One of the truest lessons of our greatest stories including the Gospels is that just because your power doesn t work this time, that doesn t mean it s not still there and capable of changing the world the next time.

5 When I visited the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis earlier this year, I was deeply touched and inspired by how one woman s brave decision changed everything. Many times, Rosa Parks had obeyed the white man s directive to move to the back of the bus, feeling powerless against the system of white supremacy. But one time this time she said no. Shaking inside with fear, she stood up to the powerful white man driving the bus. He won that round she was arrested. Her powerful no didn t change the world that day, or the next. But over days and years, it challenged her society and changed it in ways she never imagined. One woman, backed up by the strength of a movement, has made a difference, and she will again. That s not just our history, but our faith. Robert Johnson is the pastor at Wichita s Saint Mark s UMC and I follow him on Facebook. A few months ago he shared a post there that I filed away as a reminder to encourage me when the odds against life winning over death seem too great. Johnson wrote: I don t think that David ever saw Goliath as an invincible giant. I think that he was angry that his people, GOD S chosen people, were shaking in their boots, making Goliath out to be more than what he actually was. I think that David was deeply irritated that the people of God were letting something as small as darn-goliath frighten and intimidate them out of their destiny.... OMG! Is THIS why y all are stuck on pause? HIM? Somebody pass me a pebble. My friends, the forces of death are great indeed, but God is greater! Who says that darkness wins? Light a candle and chase away some darkness. Choose life! Who says that hate wins. Find someone who is hurting and share a little love. Choose life! I believe that we are better together. I believe that we are strongest when we care for the weakest. I believe that might doesn t make right, but that right most certainly makes might. I believe that prayer changes us and empowers us to change things. I believe that the stone was rolled away from the tomb and that Jesus is alive and kicking in every one of you. And I believe that the church still needs to choose life.

6 This week in the mail you got the first of two stewardship mailings. This one described some of the amazing things that are happening at First Olympia United Methodist Church. No, we aren t the biggest church in town. And this year we experienced a little financial hiccup that has some of you worried about the future. We dreamt a little too big while loving in times filled with controversy. But I stand here in this chancel today saying to you that God is at work in this place, and people s lives are better today than they were yesterday because we are trying in al we do to choose life. For the rest of October we will be talking about sacred choices: Choose life over death Choose community over isolation Choose bold over mild And as we think on these things, I invite you to spend some time thinking about how you can support the work of the church with sacred choices. Money is part of that. But your sacred choice is bigger than money. For many of us it is easer to write check than to volunteer for a day. But we need people. We need people who are teaching and learning, who are serving with the poor, who are fixing meals for the hungry, loving on the babies, visiting the sick and the old and tired. Choosing to serve is a way of choosing life! Your sacred choice is also about showing up on Sundays. I m preaching to the choir here, because you are here today and thank you for that but for many in the church just showing up on Sunday is sacred choice that gets forgotten too often. A full sanctuary is an enthusiastic experience you know that right? Enthuse, means God within. When you bring the God within you to worship together with the God that is within your neighbor in the pew, and before you and behind you, well God gets bigger in this place. Choosing to be present is a way of choosing life! Your sacred choice is also about witnessing. That s right. A lot of Christians have a secret that they share. Does your neighbor know your secret? Does the grocery store clerk know? Do your children and grandchildren know? Does your coworker know? Do they know that you are follower of Jesus Christ, a member of a church, a person who sees the world with eyes of faith? Do they know that you choose life?

7 And your sacred choice is about praying. And I know that we all pray in different ways, but I pray that we all pray, that we all spend time alone with God, not rushing around doing God s busy work, and not just when the storms are raging and we need God s help, but praying by just resting in the grace of God, in the quiet, in the calm, deep within our very being where God is and always has been. Praying like that is choosing life! Pledge cards will come up to the altar on October 28, and they will be in the next stewardship mailing along with information about church finances. Choosing to prioritize giving to God and choosing to pledge is a way to choose life. What we give financial? Well, that s a sacred choice, too. God s promise is that when we choose life, we will experience life as blessing and joy. In that Sojourner s article by Joe Kay about Rosa Parks and the ability of one person choosing life to change the world, he concluded his thoughts with these comments: Never forget that God is working with us too, which means that we shall overcome... some day. God is always on the side of the oppressed, never on the side of the oppressor. God herself stands with every woman who tells her story of abuse by powerful men, never with the abusers who mock and dismiss them. God himself supports those trying to get at the truth, never with those who are trying to ignore the truth to keep their system of privilege in place. The times, they are changing. God is making all things new. The moral arc is bending, slowly and inexorably. And there s no going back. Some powers can slow the change, but they can t stop it. So, push on. Don t despair. Change never happens quickly or easily. You have your power to change the world. Keep using it. It's working already. My friends, the world is changed for the better every time we choose life. Every single time. So every day when you wake up, decide to make a sacred choice with every opportunity you have. Choose life. Amen.