Choose Faith

Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Sirach 15:15-20

What is valuable to you? What would you seek to preserve and protect above all else? That is how the authors of Deuteronomy and Sirach get our attention: by assuming that we value life over death, prosperity over adversity, water over fire. The choice is yours. Seems simple enough, doesn’t it? So why aren’t things perfect and prosperous if acting in our own best interest is so easy?

Here is why. Sometimes my presumed best interest interferes with your presumed best interest. Sometimes the pathway to my personal prosperity is at the expense of another’s. Closer observation of these two texts reveals something nuanced about how we are to preserve and protect our life and blessing. Spoiler alert, it is NOT by acting on our own best interest above all else. “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.” Did you catch it?

To accomplish what is best for us we must act in God’s best interest. God’s interest for our well-being is not at the expense of someone else. As Jesus puts it in John 10, “I came that they could have life--indeed that they could live life to the fullest.” To act in God’s best interest requires an awareness of and deep compassion for others.

For both the author of Deuteronomy and Ben Sira (the author of Sirach), acting in God’s best interest involves keeping God’s commandments to us. There are a lot of commandments contained in the Torah, but let’s simply focus on those famous “10.”

“I am the Lord your God who brought you out of slavery in Egypt, you shall have no other gods before me.” Number one. Interesting how this commandment to place God first also includes a prelude reminding us about God’s intention and ability to act in our best interest.

Number two. “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” We see this one quickly broken as the people take what is valuable to them and craft it in the shape of a bull: taking what is valuable to them, and turning it into a god that they can control. We can easily make it seem like serving our own interests is a religious act. Such is the delusional power of sin: it makes selfishness seem so alluring, so obvious, so right.

Number three. “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.” Example: to say you are serving God when, in reality, you have no compassion for others...is a misuse of God’s name.

Number four. “Honor the sabbath and keep it holy.” Not only shall you not do work, nor shall you force anyone else to work on your behalf, so that you are not profiting at their expense.

Numbers five through ten. “Honor your parents; don’t murder; don’t commit adultery; don’t steal; don’t slander your neighbor; don’t covet.” All of these commandments are broken by the sin of selfishness. To dishonor my parents is to neglect their role in my life. In order to commit murder, I must believe my own life to be more valuable than that of the person I kill. To commit adultery is to prioritize my own lust. To steal is to put my own desire to have and hold something above the need to compensate the owner or creator of that item. To speak lies against my neighbor is to place my own opinion, and feelings, and self-righteousness over and above the truth. To covet is to listen to the whisper of selfish desire.

To follow these commandments is to resist the temptations of selfishness in our relationships with God and with others by seeking the will and way of God above our own inclinations. “God does not command anyone to be ungodly, nor give anyone a license to sin,” writes Ben Sira. I’ll tell you who does give us a license to sin though, Satan: the spirituality at the heart of all selfishness. Satan will whisper the sweet nothings we long to hear to convince us that we are justified to pursue the inclinations of our own gut, and heart, and mind. Do what feels right to you.

One of the most convincing whispers of Satan is actually a deep truth: “God wants you to be happy.” But then obscures it with, “so do what makes you happy.” Scripture says otherwise, “God wants you to be happy, so do what is pleasing to God and you will find great blessing in that.”

I’ve said something similar these past few weeks, about how our calling to serve God doesn’t necessarily need to feel like a backbreaking sacrifice since we are called to serve through love. But love, as revealed to us by Jesus Christ, is necessarily engaged in the well-being of others.

We often use the “golden rule” to encapsulate our calling to love others. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” But there is a flaw in this, which is to assume that what is best for us is also going to be best for someone else. To take what is valuable to us and craft it into our ethic of love toward others transforms the golden rule into a golden calf of sorts. Now try this on for size: “Do unto others as God would do unto them.” It places our ethic of love within divine compassion. It’s going to require us to do some listening to our neighbor’s needs and praying about those needs to God before we act. It’s going to require more than our heart, mind, and gut...it’s going to require loving God with our heart, mind, and gut so that our feelings and thoughts and actions are guided by God’s will and way...not by our own inclinations.

It’s going to require faith that God really does know best for us. It’s going to require overcoming the urge to trust selfishness and that voice that says “put yourself first.” It’s going to require overcoming fear. Today we have set before us life and prosperity, or death and adversity. We have a choice between faith or fear.

Choose faith. Amen.