True Choice :: Deuteronomy 30:15-20

CHOOSE LIFE! How could such a positive, biblical statement stir up such controversy? As if I would really want to choose the alternative.

CHOOSE LIFE! The world says it loves life. That it loves to live life, to take life to the fullest, to live the life you love. Yet as soon as we say CHOOSE LIFE, the world immediately associates it with the abortion debate, and that always stirs the pot. 

CHOOSE LIFE! Some say, “Abortion is a political issue.” Others say, “We might offend someone, so we shouldn’t talk about it.” Still more say, I will CHOOSE LIFE for myself, but I will be silent about whether others should CHOOSE LIFE for themselves or their babies. Maybe someone here has been involved in an abortion decision, and it’s uncomfortable hearing others talk about the choice between life and death. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we who love the way, the truth, and the life, that is we who believe in Our Lord Jesus Christ, we must CHOOSE LIFE. 

Choosing death, of course, is never a decision we want to think about, let alone talk about, or remember. Death brings darkness, fear, despair. No one really wants to talk about death. Life is good. Death is evil. Life is a blessing. Death is a curse. Why do we choose death all too often? 

I was shocked to learn that 79 percent of Episcopalians, 65 percent of Presbyterians, 58 percent of Methodists say abortion should be legal in all or most cases. By extension, they are embracing a culture of death. Even more shocking is that 46 percent of Missouri Synod Lutherans agree with them. It should be zero. 

CHOOSE LIFE!

Despite the undertones of Deuteronomy chapter 30, our sermon text today is not about abortion. Today’s text is all about what we ... as God’s people ... base our choices on. We don’t choose based just on what we are choosing. We choose based on who has chosen us. Brothers and sisters in Christ, you are chosen by God; He chose life for you. He has given you life. He has set it before you. It is yours, and it is good, very good. 

CHRIST HAS CHOSEN FOR US LIFE SO THAT WE CAN WALK IN HIS WAYS

Ever wonder why God chose his people in our text, people he often calls “stiff-necked”? What was so special about the Israelites that God would choose them? He knew they were stubborn. He knew they wouldn’t listen and obey.

The answer is in Deuteronomy chapter 7. The Lord God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people ... it is not because you are special ... The Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love. 

And there you have it. He chose life. He promised. 

You might make promises, too. But unlike the Lord Your God, you don’t keep your promises. Like Adam and Eve, we choose to seek the fruit of our own knowledge, ignoring that with it comes death and evil. That is the poison of the original sin. But God is life, and he keeps his promises. He knows no sin. And today, just like he promised, our Lord God is delivering on his promises, giving his chosen ones life. 

So it is with God’s New Testament people. Peter writes, But you, all of you, the Church, are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Pet 2:9).

We can take it down one step further. 

Each of you as an individual is special because you were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4). This isn’t a choice you made on your own. He chose you in the waters of the Baptism he poured out upon you, making you a child of God. You were given faith in your baptism to believe his words and promises. You were called to hear and to listen, to see and to believe. Now you can embrace that choice or return to death and evil. 

See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply ... But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. ... Therefore, choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord Your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days.

The text from our Old Testament reading is from a long “sermon” of encouragement by Moses to God’s people in the wilderness of Moab, where they are preparing to enter the promised land without him. 

My sermon isn’t remotely close to being that long. 

Moses is giving God’s people pure Gospel so that they will remain faithful. 

Maybe you are like me, and the first time you listened to that passage, you heard a long line of LAW that declares if you do this, then this. If you do that, then that. Obey and be blessed; or disobey and be cursed. 

Notice there’s no middle ground. 

It is just like our Gospel reading from the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus declares in no uncertain terms that there is no middle ground choosing between good and evil. You have heard it said ... You shall not murder. But I say to you if you are angry at anyone in this room when you receive communion, you will be liable to the fire of hell. ... Be reconciled, then come. ... In the same way, you have heard it said do not commit adultery. But if you have even sneaked a peek at an image on the Internet, you too are already guilty. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, CHOOSE LIFE. A community tolerating abortion, anger, rage, adultery, immorality, and divorce is a community openly denying the Lord God Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. 

So how do we make this choice for life? 

Well, I have great news for all of you who have been chosen. This passage is not necessarily about making rational choices. It is not about decision theology. This is not about making a decision for Christ. 

This is about listening or not listening. 

Despite how expressive the English language is, there are a couple of words in our reading in Deuteronomy chapter 30 that don’t really mean what we think they mean. The first one is the verb we translate as “set.” See, I set before you the choice. The second one is “obey.” If you obey the commandments of the Lord ... you will live.

I will deal with the last word first. The word we translate as “obey” more accurately “to listen.” Obeying is listening. This word keeps our focus on the one who speaks and who will later say, “my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” 

Jesus said that in John chapter 10. As we learned in Bible study, Jesus makes it clear that hearing and listening are intimately connected to having faith. In faith, we do not hear and then obey, as if we are taking step one and then step two. Those who hear have faith and they live life in Christ, doing good, loving God, loving your neighbor. More than that, this obedience in faith leads us to the Good News of the Cross.

That Gospel was right there in the opening verse of our Old Testament reading. Allow me to read this the way I would translate it. See, I have given to you the day of life and good, death and evil. When God sets something before you, he has given it to you. And what God has given to you is the Day of the Lord, the day he took death from you and gave you life. That day was fully realized when our Lord Jesus Christ took death and evil from you, nailed it to his cross, and saw to it that it would be buried forever. More than that it was fully realized three days later when the author of life overcame sin, death, and the devil by rising from the dead. 

This is the day of life and good and death and evil. Jesus chose life for you. 

Now you understand that Paul means when he writes When Christ who is your life appears you too will appear with him in glory. He who knew no sin has taken your sin from you and chosen death for himself. In exchange, He has set before you eternal life. 

Therefore, Choose the way the truth and the life that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, embrace this life, returning to the baptisms daily and arising to life in Christ. Confess your sins daily and receive the Lord’s absolution. Read and hear his Word of grace daily continually receiving His life-giving breath of life that declares that if you once were involved in an abortion decision ... you are forgiven. God doesn’t want you to carry the baggage of any sin any longer, let alone that one. He has absolved you in Christ crucified. 

More than that, today you get to choose life. See, he has set before you ... here on this altar ... life and good, for the forgiveness of your sins. Come, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and he will give you rest. 

Choose life, obeying his Commandments. They are for your good and his glory, so that you may walk in his ways, keeping his commandments and statutes, so that you may live and the Lord God will bless you in the land you are entering, his glorious kingdom.  

These Means of Grace are the Real Choice. They enable us to live faithfully in obedience to him as we hear His word and believe His Gospel, receive the forgiveness of our sins, and give evidence of our faith in Him.