Sermon draft -Sept 9th

Duh-cisonal Theology

Pentecost 15 C 9/9/07

Deut. 30:15-20, Luke 14: 25-33

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior.

Some things just go without saying. And yet, invariably somebody says them anyway. Annoying. Like when you're hammering a nail into a board and you miss and hit your thumb. And while you're sucking on it and trying not to cuss, some genius comes out with, “That's gotta hurt!” No, duh! Or you're opening your new can of deodorant and you notice the warning on the label. “Don't spray in eyes!” Well, duh! Or—hard to believe but true—someone actually says, “Pizza's the best food ever!” Well duh, Einstein!

Related to those examples of stating the obvious are those choices that are really no brain-ers—but some people still have trouble with. For example: Should I go to the Red Sox game, or should I go to that church committee meeting? Duh! Church committee, of course. Or, do I choose brownies or ice cream for dessert? Duh, both! And this classic choice: sink or swim? Well, duh? It’s not called a sinking pool is it?

Sometimes things are real obvious, and sometimes choices are quite clear. But sometimes they aren’t. And sometimes they just seem to be that way. The obvious becomes clouded and choked with plausible alternatives, the choice that once seemed so very straight-forward instead becomes multivalent and complicated, and the “black and white-ness” of the situation fades to gray. Duh becomes d’oh!

Take the statement “God is good.” On the surface that’s readily agreeable. But in certain situations, a person might be hard pressed to affirm that as obvious. For instance, at the sudden and senseless loss of a loved one those words may stick in your throat—at least initially.

And as to choices? Try this one on for size: When I went to seminary I initially enrolled to earn a two year degree and jump right back into outdoor ministry. But at the beginning of my second year God presented me with a choice—do that, or—here’s a idea—serve me as an ordained pastor. Lots of pros and cons on both sides. Either was a good choice, though. This was definitely not a no-brainer.

Why couldn’t God give me a simple choice, like the one he gave Israel in today’s first lesson? God says to Israel, “Folks, now make a choice: you can either be cursed and have adversity and perish—or you can be blessed and prosperous and live. What do you say now, ay?” That’s a no-brainer. Duh! Choose prosperity! Choose blessing! Choose life! Choose God!

That’s clear, right? Apparently not. At least not to the people of Israel. It seems the way God envisioned them choosing life was by them obeying God (uh-huh), and following God’s commandments, decrees and ordinances (right)—oh, and not making a golden calf and worshipping it! (Uh-oh!) Not so clear-cut as first considered!

A golden calf. You know, you gotta wonder what decision making process these people used there. “Okay, let’s not worship Yahweh—let’s not worship the god who visited Egypt with plagues, the god whose angel of death passed over our first born children, the god who split the Red Sea and destroyed Pharaoh’s army, who gave us water to drink out of a rock, and food to eat from the sky—let’s not worship that god—instead let’s make a cow out of all our gold and bow down to it.” Yeah, that makes sense!

Well, it did to them. And I think I can tell you why. Because they could see the golden calf—they could touch it. They could go right up to it and rap on its bottom round and—yep!—he’s here, he’s real. It wasn’t a burning bush, or a cloud, or fire, or anything nebulous like this Yahweh—who you couldn’t look at lest you turn to dust or some such thing. It was good old Elsie the Cow—familiar, innocuous, and best yet—unambiguous. There was no thinking involved in golden calf worship. You didn’t have to say to yourself: “Okay, I need to keep the commandments, but what are they again? And I think this situation breaks one of them, but maybe not—it depends on how you interpret the law. And what do the other scriptures say—and why does scripture say two wildly different things about this? And what would Moses do? But then again—this teacher says this and that teacher says that.” What a headache! That God’s way was puzzling and difficult. With the alternative, you only had to give up your gold and then dance around Bessie once in awhile.

People like their obvious to be obvious. Red is red and blue is blue—no periwinkle. And they like their choices to be black or white, wrong or right. No blurring of the lines. No gray areas, no vagueness. Do you want fries with that—yes or no? And just one choice of fries at that—no curly fries, steak fries, or spicy jalapeno poppers!!

Now, don’t get me wrong—I’m not faulting anyone for this—it’s cool. But I will say that I’m of the opinion that applying this logic to theology leads to some serious, serious angst. Because it can not take into account the ambiguity and the paradox that are inherent, I believe, in any discussion about God or God’s ways. Meaning, basically, that it is arrogant of us to presume to know the mind of God, it is limiting God to presume that God can only act as it has been reveled to us as yet, and it is a sure road to madness to ignore that, with God, opposing truths are often held in tension.

So those who claim to know it all, who reduce everything down to black or white, tolerating no interpretation and dismissing any circumstance, are like horses with blinders, seeing only what’s in front of them, disregarding the beautiful, albeit sometimes scary, world around them. By claiming that there is no gray, they stamp out their awareness of God’s spirit moving in new directions.

That sounds sad, and it is, but that doesn’t deter people from seeking out this type of teaching in droves. Some prefer an unquestionable God who requires certain things of us, and who acts in certain, prescribed ways. Now that doesn’t seem to be a bad thing—you might even say, “Duh.”

But look again at what God puts before us, this “duh”cision that appears to merit an almost instinctive affirmative response. “Choose life,” pleads God, “follow me, obey me, love me!” Okay, God what does that mean? Does that mean I should follow all the codes and laws in the scriptures, including Leviticus 20:9 which says if anyone curses his mother or father, he must be put to death? With teenagers today, we'd surely wipe out the future generation. And how does that jibe with what Jesus says in today's gospel about hating mother and father? “Choose life,” says God—but we're only ten seconds into discussing this little smidgen of the law and already I'm ready to admit that I'm not so sure just exactly what choosing life looks like in this situation. It's just not as crystal clear as all that.

And it's a good thing that it's not—because a God who judges in lockstep with the law with no concern for the circumstances or the social and cultural evolution of his favorite creation, just isn't the merciful, generous, loving God revealed in Jesus Christ.

Does that let us off the hook when it comes to following God's commandments? By no means! In fact it commits us to the hard work of discerning God's pathway of life for us, and, as Jesus says, it costs us something. Yes, that's one of those opposing truths that we have to hold together, especially as Lutherans—free grace cost us something. It cost us our priorities. How many of you have ever said these words, “My family comes first”? Jesus says you follow him and they don't. That's what he means by” hating” family members.

And you know what else he says? Amazingly enough he says that the life that you worked hard to understand and finally choose from God? It doesn't make it to the top priority spot either. Jesus wants you to love him more than life itself. More than life itself!

Okay, line forms here to sign up to follow Jesus—no pushing, no shoving, and – oh yes – Jesus says you have to give up all your possessions. So leave the car keys on the altar, your house keys in the offering baskets, we'll send a truck over tomorrow for the big screen tv. Any takers? Anyone, anyone Beuhler?

Bet you thought following Jesus would be one of those no-brainers. Well, duh, it's not. Choosing life and choosing to follow Jesus are two of the toughest decisions you'll never make. I say “never “ make because sorry but you don't have it in you. God knew that about the Israelites, and he knew it about those Judeans gathered around Jesus that day as he spoke about discipleship, and thank god, he knows it about us too. God knows that left to our own devices we'll choose death and run pell mell from Jesus every time. And that's why God gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit to call gather and enlighten us, to give us god's good gifts, to show us the way to life, and to enable us to pick up a cross in this world and carry it for all to see despite the personal cost.

But most of all, that's why ours is a God of grace. A god of second chances. So when you blow it and choose wrongly, you don't get a one way ticket to perdition—you get a free pass to try again. And when you figure the cost of being a disciple wrong—maybe not figuring in the radical nature of what God sees as sharing—you don't get voted off the island. You pick yourself up, dust yourself off, remember your baptism and try discipling again. With the Spirit's help.

For as much as it just isn't that simple to choose life and to follow Jesus—it still is the only choice worth making. It's still the obvious choice. So, it is simple while being complex! While being simple. Confused? Well, hang in there. Because I like to think that when with the spirit's help you get it and it clicks for you—that God will look down on you and smile and say:, “Well, duh!”