We continue to consider the Sunday Psalms (from the Revised Common Lectionary). This week marks the Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany. We are ten days from Ash Wednesday and the start of the Season of Lent on February 22. The theme for this week’s Psalm and readings is Choice.
Choice—our faith and response to God is always choice. God
gives us free will, and God gives prophets and teachers to point the path. Even
so, we choose how to respond. The Psalm for this Sunday is 119:1-8. It is all
about how the Psalmist wants to make the right choices.
In the Psalm we hear that those who walk in the law of
the Lord and seek him with all their hearts are happy. The Psalmist
desires to live so that my ways were made so direct that I might keep your
statutes. The Psalmist chooses to live a life where I should not be
put to shame, when I regard all your commandments. I will thank you
with an unfeigned heart, when I have learned your righteous judgments.
The Old Testament lesson from Deuteronomy comes from the
final address to the Children of Israel by Moses. The old leader declares. I
have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity…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. (Deuteronomy
30:15, 19-20) The choice of following God will lead to blessings, while the
wrong choices mean death.
The Epistle and Gospel lesson also talk about the choices we
make. Paul reprimands the Corinthians for their internal conflicts over who is
more important. He states, I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the
growth. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but
only God who gives the growth. The one who plants and the one who waters have a
common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labor of each. For
we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field, God’s
building. (I Corinthians 3:7-9) Paul reminds the Corinthians that is doesn’t
matter who the teacher is, it is choosing to live as God’s servants that is important.
In Matthew 5:21-37, Jesus equates murder with anger and insults.
He says we need to choose to be reconciled to your brother or sister, and
then come and offer your gift [to God]. Jesus states that adultery is a
choice of the eyes and heart even if no action is taken. He adds that swearing
falsely is a wrong choice because our oaths are empty words anyway. Then Jesus sums
up his words by saying we just need to make the choice to Let your word
be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the
evil one. (Matthew 5:37)
It is important how we choose to live our lives. It may seem to be not very important when we spend time scrolling through negative messages on social media or spending time gossiping. However, those little habits add up and distract us. We forget what the Psalmist remembers, in the words of the Living Bible [God has] given us your laws to obey—oh, how I want to follow them consistently. With the Psalmist we might pray, I will thank you by living as I should! I will obey!
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Psalm 119:1-8 Happy are they
whose way is blameless, * (Episcopal Book of Common Prayer)
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Happy are all who perfectly follow the laws of God. (Living Bible
Translation) |
