Not Always Easy Choices

By Rev. Ralph S. Wearstler |  February 12, 2023

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Read 1 Corinthians 3:9-10
 
As I told Rev. Heidi, when she asked me to fill in for her today, I won’t be doing a Valentine’s Message, nor will I be dealing with President Lincoln or Washington, or the Super Bowl either. Those would’ve been easy choices. In fact, the easiest choice would’ve been to share with you the message that I prepared last Sunday for Western Reserve Christian Church. What I chose to do relates to the Scripture shared in the Lectionary for this Sunday.

That Scripture comes from the Apostle Paul's first letter to the Corinthians. Early in the third chapter of this letter Paul is sharing with these people the importance of understanding that ones faith, ones spiritual life, is something that lives. He talks about a faith in Christ that needs to grow. Paul reminds them of how they were once infants in Christ, and how now, through the leadership and teaching of those within the Church, they have been nurtured into a stronger, more mature faith. As we look at verse 9 in chapter 3, we find Paul moving from an image of planting and growing to another image, an image of faith as something that is built. So, let us hear these words that Paul has written in verses 9 and 10:

Let’s take a very close look that the last sentence here in verse 10, which says, “Each builder must choose with care how to build on it.” Paul has laid a foundation of faith, that one foundation, as declared in verse 11, is Jesus Christ. What Paul is saying, is that as Christians we’re called to build about the foundation of Jesus Christ, and in the process of building we will have to make choices.
What Paul points out to the Corinthians, and in turn to all of us, is very much the same point that Moses, in today’s Old Testament reading, was making when he stood at the edge of the promised land and said to the people of Israel, "I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore, choose life, that you and your descendants may live." Moses' point was that in choosing life one must first and foremost choose God.

And Paul is pointing us in this same direction of choosing God, but also making it clear that the foundation of that choice is made through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Jesus Christ we have the opportunity to love God with all our heart, soul, and strength. Through our faith in Jesus as the Christ we choose to listen and follow and make God the most important part of our life. It's a choice that we’re called to make each and every day of our life.

The choice seems so easy, choose God and you choose life, choose against God and you choose death. When given options like that, I don't know about you, but for me choosing God seems to be an easy choice.

But is it really?
 
The truth of the matter is, the choices that you and I must make throughout our lives are not always easy choices. They're not always clear and sharp. For instance, a youth who is approached while stands on a street corner on the way home from school must choose, will I buy drugs or not? Sometimes we must choose when the light is dim, and we can't say with a firm and certain voice, "This is the way of life, and this is what I choose to build with."

A couple gets married. They stand in the present of family, friends and God, and they promise each other, "for better or for worst, as long as we both shall live." But later at home, with the shades drawn, a person isn’t always what she or he seemed to be from those early days of romance. So what do you do? How long do you choose to stick it out when you’re being abused emotionally or Physically? The choices are not always easy. Is help available? Yes!

Back in November, many of us made a choice to exercise our rights as citizens of this country and went to the polls and voted. Some of the choices seemed clear, yet with others we approached with some uncertainty, whether they be candidates, State issues, or local levies.

Which button on the voting machine will enhance, and which button will tear down. Which one will share in your effort to build upon the foundation of your faith. I suspect that most of us rarely look at our voting habits in such a way. But these are important choices.

Life is filled with hard choices: A Minister is about to head out of the office excited about finally getting a fifteen-minute appointment with their congressional representative, that took three months to set up. The representative has the swing vote on a committee that is deciding whether to authorize a substantial increase in long range support of local education for handicap children, for which two families in the congregation will benefit.

Just then the phone rings. A member of the congregation has been in a car accident and taken to a hospital on the far side of town. The member of congress will be leaving town in an hour and won't be returning to the area until after the vote. And now the minister must choose, what will be best for building up the foundation of faith and the ministry of that congregation?

A choice cannot always be reduced to a simple yes or a simple no. So what do you do when a choice is not always easy? How do you make decisions in the face of uncertainty? Well, if you choose to listen, here are four suggestions that might help.

First, we can begin by acknowledging that we cannot see clearly. More times than not, there is a thick fog that hangs between us the choices we make. And we find that many times we must move into the fog in order to make the choice. We can't just wait around hoping for the fog to clear. We need to move in by faith and embrace the situation.

Second, we can make the best choice we can on the basis of the best information and viewpoint that we have at the time. Sometimes, the best we can do is to make a decision that seems relatively closer to loving God than some other decisions. Sometimes the best we can do is to make the choice that seems somewhat more obedient to God's Will than other choices.
And sometimes we must choose without even a real sense that one choice will embrace God any closer than another. Sometimes, we have no choice but To choose.

Third, we can deal sensitively and compassionately with the results of our choices.
Sometimes, people will be hurt because of a choice we make. But when a choice turns sour, we need to admit it to God and to one another, and then seek the forgiveness of the injured parties.

Fourth, we can actually learn from the process of making choices. We can think back on those factors that went into making a good choice and those that led to a bad choice. We can begin to identify those things that can help us when we face a similar set of choices in the future.

But even more than all these suggestions, we need to remember that God is with us. This is precisely the point that Paul makes concerning our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Through our Lord, the presence of God's Holy Spirit dwells among us. It’s God's Spirit that can give us the courage to stand in front of the death-dealing false gods of this world, and empowers us to state, "I choose life." The awareness of God's presence allows us to live with hope and confidence in the face of confusion and fear. And the awareness of God's steadfast love is the very thing that makes it possible for someone who makes A Big Mistake, to seek forgiveness, and then receive the courage to make the better choice for life and for God.

One of the shocking events of Sports History came years ago with the announcement by Magic Johnson, that he would retire from a promising career as a Basketball Super Star because he had contacted the HIV virus.

In the time leading up to that public announcement, Johnson faced a maze of choices within his life, his family, his career, and his future. One of his choices was to share that he had made some bad choices in his life. And yet, as sad as the outcome of those choices were upon his life, ultimately, from what I've been able to see, Earvin Johnson made a choice for life, for good, and for God.

Now, I’m not really a Sports Fan, so I really don't know Magic Johnson, I don’t know much about his faith or his beliefs. But I did hear how the choices Johnson made effected the faith of others. Many might still remember the sight on TV of two opposing professional basketball teams gathering at the center sideline and being lead in the Lord's Prayer by one of the Coaches. It happened just a few weeks ago at the Buffalo Bills and Bengals’ football game. When we choose life, we open ourselves up to the loving presence of God.
I do know of someone who years ago had to make a choice in her life, it wasn't an easy choice, and because of the choice she made, it changed her life, her voice, her ability to work in her career. However, she didn't make that choice alone. Her faith in Jesus Christ gave her the courage and the assurance of knowing that no matter what, she was then, and continues to be in God's loving hands. That person is my wife, Terri, and she has held onto this truth in the choices she has made over the years.

You see, there are all kinds of choices that we must make throughout our lives, some of them great and some of them small, some of them easy, and some that are not always easy.

Some of us will be making some choices in the weeks and months ahead on how we will support the future mission and ministry of the Church, both locally and worldwide. For some it may be easy choices, for others it will be harder, as they weigh and balance the many parts of their life. And yet I pray that each of you will make your choices in the light of faith. Because your choices will make a difference in the ministry that you are able to do right here and now at Ledgewood Christian Church.
So what will you do when choices are not easy? Will you move into them by faith? Will you make the best choice you can in the light of the best information that you have? Will you deal compassionately with the results of your choices? And will you also learn from them?

Just remember, the light of Christ is able shine even in the darkest places of your life. This light is the light of Life and Joy, given to you because God chose to love you, and will continue to love you, and be gracious and merciful to you, no matter what you choose. In the light of this understanding, may we all seek first to choose God in all our choices.

Amen....

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