Series: July 2025
Speaker: Bethany Nelson
Today's Sermon
"Would You Rather"
Psalm 25:1-10
To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, in you I trust; do not let me be put to shame; do not let my enemies exult over me. Do not let those who wait for you be put to shame; let them be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous. Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all day long. Be mindful of your mercy, O Lord, and of your steadfast love, for they have been from of old. Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for your goodness’ sake, O Lord! Good and upright is the Lord; therefore God instructs sinners in the way. God leads the humble in what is right and teaches the humble God’s way. All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep God’s covenant and God’s decrees.
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in God’s ways, and observing God’s 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. But if your heart turns away and you do not hear but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall certainly perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying God, and holding fast to God, for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the Lord swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
One of my favorite games to play with our Sunday School kids is called “Would You Rather.” In this game, you are given two different options, and you have to choose which of the two you prefer. Let’s give it a try. Would you rather eat an apple or an orange? Stand up or lift up your hands if you prefer an apple, remain seated if you prefer an orange.
Would you rather vacation at the ocean or in the mountains? Stand up/hands up for ocean, sit down for mountains.
Would you rather swim like a fish or fly like a bird? Stand up/hands up for swimming, sit down for flying.
When I play this game with our young people, we start with fun options like those, but then we will get more serious, such as – Would you rather confront someone about lying or let the lie slide and try to forget about it? Or, Would you rather be rich and alone or poor with lots of friends? Or, Would you rather be a teacher or a student? These options really make you think about what your values and priorities are.
The key part of this game is that you have to make a choice! There is no squatting halfway because you want both options – or neither option. You’re either standing or sitting!
I am reminded of the “Would you rather” game when I hear this speech from Moses in Deuteronomy. He is basically giving them a “Would you rather” – Would you rather life and prosperity or death and adversity. That seems like the easiest “Would you rather” ever! Of course I choose life. Who wouldn’t choose life? That’s a no-brainer, Moses!
Or is it? For, as Moses explains, choosing life means that we need to commit to a few things. Loving God, walking in God’s ways, and observing God’s commandments. Again, on the surface, that all sounds do-able. Of course you love God, that’s why you are here in worship this morning, right? But, do you love God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your might, as God commands earlier in Deuteronomy? Do you love God more than any other idol in your life? More than money, status, achievements, possessions? Because whenever we choose any of those things over God, we are not choosing life.
And what about walking in God’s ways? The Psalmist tells us that all the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness. Steadfast love for all people. Love for those who are easy to love. Love for those who are hard to love. Love for our closest friends. Love for our enemies. If we are not loving all God’s children as God loves them, we are not choosing life.
This choice between life and death offered by Moses is a bit more complicated that it may first appear. And, it’s not a one-time choice. It’s a choice we keep making, day after day, with every interaction we have, with every decision we make. We are living a constant “Would you rather” all the time. And all the time, God continues to urge us – choose life.
Let me offer some examples from current events. Let’s start with the big bill that was recently passed by Congress. If you are excited about how this bill will positively affect your personal finances, without any consideration for what it could mean for the disabled, the elderly, and the poorest among us, that is not choosing life. If you are unhappy about this bill and have resorted to bad-mouthing elected officials, name calling, or wishing harm upon them, that is not choosing life.
Or, if you have laughed alongside some of our politicians as they joke about immigrants being eaten by alligators in Florida, that is not choosing life. If you have attended one of the recent protests and have brought a sign that is vulgar or degrading or unkind, that is not choosing life.
As we begin to consider our words, our actions, and our thoughts it becomes more and more obvious how hard it is to truly choose life, to commit to loving God, walking in God’s ways, and observing God’s commandments. It’s not an easy or straightforward choice at all.
But, there is good news. There is lots of good news. First, God wants us to choose life. We hear it from Moses very clearly at the end of the Deuteronomy passage. Choose life, he says, loving the Lord your God, obeying God, and holding fast to God. And because God wants us to choose life, God is going to help us. God is going to guide us. God is going to walk with us as we choose. We are never alone. Second piece of good news, in those times that we do not choose life – because there are times when we won’t - God continues to offer us love and forgiveness. God does not give up on us. God picks us up and sets us again on God’s path of steadfast love and faithfulness. And God does this over and over and over again. Third, though choosing life can be difficult, often counter-cultural, it is also filled with so much joy. Brett Younger is a pastor in Brooklyn, and he brainstormed a list of all kinds of ways that we might choose life. I want to take a look at the list of what he calls “sacred possibilities” and I invite you to consider which of these you will choose this week.
Learn things you have told yourself you would never learn.
Enjoy simple things.
Play with children.
Laugh often, long, and loud.
Cry when it is time to cry.
Be patient with your own imperfections as well as the imperfections of others.
Walk around the block.
Turn off the television.
Get together with your friends.
Invite a stranger to lunch or dinner.
Clean out a drawer.
Read a book of poetry.
Quit doing what is not worth your time.
Do something so someone else will not have to.
Give money to a cause you care about.
Stop arguing.
Apologize to someone.
Forgive someone.
Have patience.
Stop having patience when it is time to tell the truth.
Figure out what you hope for and live with that hope.
Worship with all your heart.
Pray genuinely.
Believe that God loves you.
Remember the stories of Jesus.
See Christ in the people around you.
Share God’s love with someone who has forgotten it.
Give to the poor.
Fight for justice.
Care for the hurting.
Treat others fairly.
Share food with the hungry.
Delight in God’s good gifts.
See that all of life is holy.
Open your heart to the Spirit.
Search for something deeper and better than your own comfort.
Live in the joy beneath it all.[i]
What a list. There is a lot on that list that is not easy, but there is a lot that is. A lot that may not come naturally, but some that will. Imagine your life filled with those things. It can be filled with those things. Choose life.
Again, we do not do this alone. We walk with each other and with God. The quote on the front of your bulletin this morning is actually the first paragraph of a prayer written by Shirley Erena Murray. I was drawn to this prayer because it reminds us that we choose life with our whole bodies. It’s not just our minds making decisions, but every part of our being, with God’s help and guidance. Murray begins, “Come, teach us, Spirit of our God, the language of your way, the lessons that we need to live, the faith for every day.” God will show us how to choose life. God will teach us what we need to know. Are we willing to learn and do?
The second stanza continues, “Excite our minds to follow you, to trace new truths in store, new flight paths for our spirit space, new marvels to explore.” This summer, a group of us are discussing the book “I Never Thought of it That Way,” which encourages “fearlessly curious conversations in dangerously divided times.” The author, Monica Guzman, talks a lot about how fun, how interesting, how mind-opening it is to explore new marvels. To approach everything with curiosity and wonder. There is so much room for learning and growing when we choose life.
The third stanza prays, “Engage our wits to dance with you, to leap from logic’s base, to capture insight on the wing, to sense your cosmic grace.” I am such a linear, logical thinker, that this one pushes my comfort zone a bit. But God speaks and moves and dances in our lives in so many different ways. When we choose life, how might we be open to God’s presence in ways we have never even considered before?
The fourth stanza says, “Inspire our spark to light from you to catch creation’s flair, new artistry to celebrate, new harmonies to dare.” In our Sacred Stories Sunday School class, we end each session by lighting the Christ candle and remembering the Christ-light in our lives. When we are done with the candle, we don’t blow it out. Instead, we “change the light.” We use a snuffer to extinguish the flame, and then we watch the smoke blow all around the room. The light has not ended, it has just changed, and we now carry that light out into the world. When we choose life, we encourage that Christ-light within us to shine.
The final stanza is, “Delight our hearts to worship you, to learn compassion’s code, to live in context of your love, great teacher who is God.” The question from Moses to the Israelites so many years ago is the same question to us today. Would you rather choose life and prosperity or death and adversity? Let us always choose life. Amen.