Choose Life

It has been said that most people in the church get their theology from the church’s hymns. Despite the fact that every word of the prayer book is crafted with care to teach us, as well as offer us a means of worship and praise. Despite the resource of the Holy Bible that is available to us all. Despite all this, it is the hymns that offer us our most memorable images of God. It is the words that we sing over and over that teach us about the character of God and the nature of our faith. In fact, the only things I remember from the occasional church-going of my childhood are the definition of a sacrament from confirmation class and the hymns. I still remember the words to hymns I sang when I was ten or twelve years old.

That was the "old" hymnal, of course. One of my favorites was a spirited and powerful hymn that began "Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide." It’s not in the current hymnal. I did a simple statistical analysis of hymnal revisions when I was in seminary. The 1982 hymnal actually deleted very few hymns, less than any previous hymnal revision—by far. But it deleted "Once to every man and nation". In the end, though, it’s a good thing they deleted that hymn, because it is very bad theology. Its words are words that should not be remembered for years and years… Words that should not shape a young persons’ faith… Words that should not be used to teach the people of God about God. (The tune—which was really the best part of the hymn—is still in our hymnal, with marvelous new words.)

Listen to the old words.

Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side;
Some great cause, God’s new Messiah, offering each the bloom or blight,
And the choice goes by forever twixt that darkness and that light.

By the light of burning martyrs Jesus’ bleeding feet I track,
Toiling up new Calvaries ever with the cross that turns not back;
New occasions teach new duties, time makes ancient good uncouth;
They must upward still and onward who would keep abreast of truth.

Though the cause of evil prosper, yet ‘tis truth alone is strong;
Though her portion be the scaffold, and upon the throne be wrong,
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow keeping watch above his own.

We really are better off not singing, not learning, those words. Yet it’s instructive to ask what it was specifically that the theologians and hymn crafters found objectionable in these words when they were developing the 1982 hymnal. For starters, it seems to me this hymn warrants at least a PG-13 rating for violence. "By the light of burning martyrs Jesus’ bleeding feet I track…" But the graphic goriness was not the problem. Nor was the overall darkness and gloom objectionable—even if we might wish songs of faith to be a bit brighter or more joyous. I personally would hope that God’s truth, at least from time to time, offers a cheerier reward that the scaffold. Nor, unfortunately, did the theologians object to the fact that only men were enfranchised to choose between good and evil… "once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide."

The theological problem with this hymn is encapsulated in just one word. The very first word— "once." "Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide, in the strife of truth with falsehood for the good or evil side." That’s terrible theology. And the hymn really goes awry when it adds, "the choice goes by forever twixt that darkness and that light." Certainly everyone would agree, out of our own experience, that the choice between good and evil is one that comes before us many, many times, not just once. Yet the most important theological point to stress is that, should we make the wrong choice, all is not lost. If we once choose the blight over the bloom, we have not lost all hope of new life. If we once choose the darkness over the light, we have not extinguished the light of Christ for all time. Even if we choose wrong once or twice or a multitude of times, God still loves us. God yearns for us to repent and re-turn to the Lord. God continues, over and over and over again, to offer us light and hope and renewal.

Yet, we are asked to choose. Throughout our lives we must choose between evil and good, between darkness and light, between death and life, between the blight and the bloom. To be the people of God has always been a matter of choice. In today’s reading from Deuteronomy the early people of Israel had come through the wilderness and stood now on the brink of the River Jordan with the promised land before them and slavery behind them. Through Moses, God said to them, "See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. Choose." This day. Life. Or death. Choose. Adversity. Or prosperity. Choose. Blessings or curses. Nothing is more important than your choice. Choose.

We, too, are asked to choose. Being God’s people, being a Christian, walking in God’s ways, is not something that comes naturally to us. It is not something we just instinctively do without thinking about it, without trying. Christianity is not human kind’s "default mode" of living. We must choose to follow the good. We must choose life and creativity over the numbing dark. We must choose to be the Body of Christ amid those who are not. Again and again and again the choice is in front of us.

And yet I think we just plain miss a lot of the choices. Without Moses’ stark words right in front of us we forget that we do have to choose and we hurtle through life with our decisions governed by instinct or habit or social expectation or time pressures. We forget that each of those decisions is, in fact, a decision between life and death, and before we even knew it was before us each opportunity to choose is behind us and we have missed the chance to choose life. And there is no middle ground. A failure to choose life is a choice for death.

Frederick Buechner writes about life:

Have you wept at anything during the past year?
Has your heart beat faster at the sight of young beauty?
Have you thought seriously about the fact that someday you are going to die?
More often than not do you really listen when people are speaking to you instead of just waiting for your turn to speak?
Is there anybody you know in whose place, if one of you had to suffer great pain, you would volunteer yourself?

If your answer to all or most of these questions is NO, the chances are that you’re dead.

Why is it such a hard decision? Surely each of us faced with a choice between good and evil or life and death would easily and immediately choose the good. But we don’t. It is often easier not to choose the life, the new life, which God offers us.

For the people of early Israel to choose God’s life meant giving up their other gods, the familiar gods of their households, the tangible gods who they believed had for thousands of years enriched their harvest and brought peace to their homes. To choose new life, to move into the promised land, meant giving up the security of the familiar past, even if that past was one of slavery. It would have been easier not to choose life.

In Jesus’ day, choosing to walk in God’s way might mean turning your back on your father or your sister. I don’t know exactly what Jesus meant when he said that to be his disciple one must hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters. But I think part of what he meant is that choosing to follow Jesus means turning your back on every person and every thing and every personal god that keeps you away from the one true God. Maybe your father (especially in Jesus’ day) or your relationship with your father keeps you away from the will and love of God. Maybe it doesn’t. Maybe your relationship with your father is rich with the presence of God--thanks be to God.  But if it is not, the choice is yours. You may choose to follow Christ, or not. There is no middle ground. Perhaps it is your possessions that keep you from knowing God’s blessing. It may be a very clear choice, but still not an easy one.

Yet remember that it is life and light and goodness and hope that are offered. What we are offered really is better than anything else in the world. To choose life is to choose to bring God’s blessing, God’s creativity, God’s mercy, God’s love within your own life. Each choice we face is an incredible opportunity that we are given. Thank God we have the opportunity to choose to follow Christ, and through Christ to experience God’s redeeming and renewing presence and love in our lives. Thank God we are given the choice to live lives of meaning and purpose rather than futility and emptiness. Thank God we are not consigned for all time to dark hopelessness or to a life blighted by failure and human inadequacy. Thank God we are offered—should we choose to accept it—to know in our lives, to feel in our hearts, the peace of God that passes all understanding. Thank God we have the chance...  over and over and over and over again to choose new life.

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