Reflection by The Rev'd Dr. Deborah Broome

Choosing Life Means Choosing Love 

“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 his ways, and observing his 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 him, and holding fast to him, 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.”                          Deuteronomy 30:15-20

At the beginning of their entry into the Promised Land the Israelites are given a choice.  This isn’t just an ancient choice – it’s our choice too.  And “choice” isn’t really about personal preference but about allowing God’s ways to shape our desires and habits, as a community: “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.”  We get a choice between two options: life and death – life and what’s good versus death and what’s wrong. 

“See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity.”  When put like that, it’s a no-brainer.  Who wouldn’t opt for life and prosperity?  Who wouldn’t turn away from death and adversity?   It all sounds fairly straight-forward – a cause and effect sort of thing.  The book of Deuteronomy is set out as a series of sermons from Moses, the great law-giver, to the people of Israel just before they get to go into the Land of Promise.  But in reality it’s written much later, just before and around the time of the Exile, to a people who’ve failed to follow God’s commandments, to a people who’re about to suffer some of the possible consequences of not heeding God’s word.  These powerful words were addressed to a community who knew, painfully, that they had not always chosen life.  It’s just as good for us to remember the importance of living in a way that God desires – but there’s a problem here. 

This passage – it’s a summary statement – comes after a long list of blessings and curses in which there’s a direct link between sin and suffering, and obedience and prosperity.  This theology has fed into the sort of Prosperity Gospel that some churches proclaim: listen to and obey God and you’ll be blessed (and become rich), disobey God and bad things will happen to you: sin and you will suffer.  But that’s not always how it is, is it.  Road accidents, infertility, and cancer can happen on a seemingly random basis: bad things do happen to good people.  The theology of Deuteronomy is set against the lament psalms, the story of Job, and indeed the story of Jesus.  It’s not always so neat and tidy.

So with life and death set before us, what does it mean to choose life?  What does it mean for you and I, and for our parishes, to choose life?  Perhaps we can see this as an invitation to work for what makes life possible, for ourselves and those immediately around us, yes, but also for others and for the community as a whole, the world as a whole.  Choosing a way of life that’s based around a community shaped by God’s covenant love, loving God with heart, soul, and strength, loving other people as well as loving God.  Choosing life means walking in God’s ways; keeping a community grounded in justice, compassion, and faithfulness.  How can we choose life for others?  How can we be part of God’s wider mission for the world?  How can we delight in a life shaped by God’s word, by those pathways of integrity and wholeness?

Sometimes choosing life carries with it an element of risk, and the need to trust God. That’s where it helps to remember that the people to whom Deuteronomy was ostensibly addressed were still in the wilderness, invited to trust in God’s love for them while being tempted all the time to race back to the safety and the slavery of Egypt.  Sometimes, choosing life means staying with discomfort a little longer, knowing from experience that that’s how we can grow.  What has made you grow over the past year?

What does choosing life look like in the ordinary patterns of our relationships?  One way to approach it is to see that choosing life means choosing love – in how we speak, how we look, how we commit, and how we tell the truth.  Choosing to acting in ways that build life rather than diminishing it.   Does what I am about to say reflect God’s desire for life?  Am I seeing others as people made in the image of God, not as objects to be used, ignored, or pushed aside.  Am I speaking with integrity, using truth as a foundation for genuine relationship?

Life is always God’s desire for us.  And love is always God’s way toward that life.  Choosing love — in our words, our vision, our commitments, our truth — is how life takes root and grows, in us and in the world God loves.

Image: Jon Tyson, Unsplash