Trinity Parish Church

15^th Sunday after Pentecost – September 9, 2007

Deuteronomy 30:15-20

The Rev. Rachel Endicott

It's amazing the big bucks put into advertising.  With big campaigns, you find yourself seeing or hearing the same message through all sorts of media.  Recently, it appears that one of our regional health care providers has launched a campaign¹.  I've seen messages promoting this organization on buses as I've been driving around.  On the radio, there's - to my mind - a funny advertisement about the guy to rides his bicycle to work.  The listener come into the work environment - imagine cubicle land near the filing cabinets and the water cooler - where the listener is made aware of this man's riding because apparently he's walking around all day in his new bike shorts, shorts that he tells his disgusted co-workers that are really quite comfortable with the padded rear end.

Even my favorite nearby hiking and trail running spot has not found a way to escape the advertising.  The King County Park System has seen fit to rent space on the bulletin board in the informational gazebo at the main trail head.

That said, I can't argue with the basic premise of the advertising.  The gist of the advertising message is about finding more minutes in your life.  And it does it in a humorous way.  For instance, one of the ads has a clock face with the marker that is moving forward.  The text says, "Iron Man, +9; Ice Cream Man: -2; Healthy choices can add minutes to your life."  The emphasis is on extending your life, extending it by healthy living.  The implied point is that this particular health care organization can help you extend your life.

Now I must admit that putting these adds at the trail head, where you've already had to drive there and get out of your car to read it, they're probably to use a church phrase, "preaching to the choir."  But still, the encouragement is not doubt good.  Plus, it prompted me to think about it the next time I passed my local Baskin-Robins store on a warm day.

It's with this advertising campaign in mind, that I read today's passage from Deuteronomy.  Moses' invitation - in two small words - is to choose life.  Several times in this short passage, on God's behalf, he sets before the people gathered the choice for life or death, the choice of prosperity or adversity, the choice between blessings and curses.

And in Moses scheme, the choice for life is a choice to live with God.  For his people, it's a choice to follow the paths set by their ancestors.  It's a choice to forsake other gods, the myriad gods that others they met on their journeys worshipped or set their store by or to follow these other Gods, rather than the God of life.

I think about this call to choose life as the ultimate choice we are given.  God gives us the choice to follow or not.  And we make choices each day about how we live, how we follow.  As stewards of ourselves and the blessings we have been given, we continually make small and big choices.

As followers of Christ, we should always be conscious as to how we value and use the time given us.  Do we use our time in healthy ways for us and for others?  Do we do all we can to extend this life that we've been given?  Do we live in ways that contribute to our not doing so?

Likewise, do we use our talents the best way we can?  Recently, I bought a used piano as my daughter, Megan, has been asking to take piano lessons.  One small problem in her asking was that we had no instrument on which she could practice.  And without practice, we'll never know whether she has the skills, gifts, and mostly the perseverance to play well.  So part of stewardship, part of living into God's grace, is making the most of  the opportunities we have to use our talents and skills, to explore what we might do.  And so a piano was bought.

Part of exploring this talent necessitated the spending of money.  While the piano I purchased was relatively inexpensive, for us it was a big purchase.  But without this expenditure, the possible fruition of Megan's desire to play a musical instrument might go nowhere.  Now sometimes in life, we are called to take risks.  Perhaps Megan has it in her to be a competent pianist.  Perhaps she has it in her to be a much better than average pianist.   Perhaps she'll whine so badly about taking lessons that in a few years she will no longer go down that path.  But we are called to take chances, to try what is new and what might bring life, what might allow our talents to shine.

Now ask me in a few years how this has gone.  I need to add that, thankfully, Ben seems to have grown out of his desire to play the organ, possibly an even more financially challenging instrument than the piano...

And so it is in other aspects of our life that issues of stewardship come to play out.  As church-goers, we look at the same aspects of time, talent and treasure in our church community's life together.  We look at what gives life and lets our talents shine.  We look at how we can best bundle our money together to achieve that which we couldn't individually.  So, when you choose to make a pledge or put money in the collection plate on any given Sunday, you participate in educating this generation and the next in how to be faithful Christians, you share in supporting Northwest Harvest's continuing partnership with us, and yes, you even help pay to tune the organ and pianos so that we can raise beautiful music to the glory of God.

So, in the big picture, choosing life comes in following God.  In the micro-picture, it is about making those choices that add minutes to our life and value to those minutes.

On occasion, I am blessed to visit my friend Shannon.  She is a convert to Judaism and I have joined her on more that one occasion for Shabbat services.  I'm sure that she has on occasion used the salutation, L'chayim!  To life.  In fact, the Hebrew word chai means life.  Used as a symbol, it stands for life, health and prosperity.

As an aside, a book I read during seminary² on Judiasm, reminded me that the numerical value for the two Hebrew letters that make up the word chai is 18.  Apparently modern Jews often make contributions or give gifts in multiples of 18, indicating not only a donation, but a wish and prayer for life.  I may have to do this sometime...

So as you go through today and head home, I want you to think about the choice before you:  choose life or choose death.  Choose God or choose the other things that draw you from the love of God.  Try to live into a sense of stewardship of your body, your belongings, and your time that allows you to be healthy, whole and faithful.  Take chances in what you do and what you try.

Oh, and if any of you have a sudden yearning to train for a triathlon, let me know and I'll hold you in my prayers and give thanks for your working to add minutes to your life.  Choose life!

¹ Group Health Cooperative

² Wayne Dosick, Living Judaism:  The Complete Guide to Jewish Belief, Tradition and Practice.  San Francisco; Harper Collins, 1995, p. 278.