Unpopular Choices

Psalm 27:1, 4-9

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

One thing I asked of the Lord, that I will seek after:

to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,

to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.

For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble;

he will conceal me under the cover of his tent:

he will set me high on a rock.

Now my head is lifted up above my enemies all around me,

and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy;

I will sing and make melody to the Lord.

Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud, be gracious to me and answer me!

"Come," my heart says, "seek his face!" Your face, Lord, do I seek.

Do not hide your face from me.

Do not turn your servant away in anger, you who have been my help.

Do not cast me off, do not forsake me, O God of my salvation!

  

1 Corinthians 1:10-18

Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters,

by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

that all of you be in agreement

and that there be no divisions among you,

but that you be united in the same mind

and the same purpose.

For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people

that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters.

What I mean is that each of you says, "I belong to Paul,"

or "I belong to Apollos," or "I belong to Cephas,"

or "I belong to Christ."

Has Christ been divided?

Was Paul crucified for you?

Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius,

so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name.

(I did baptize also the household of Stephanas;

beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.)

For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel,

and not with eloquent wisdom,

so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power.

For the message about the cross

is foolishness to those who are perishing,

but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

  

Matthew 4:12-23

Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested,

he withdrew to Galilee.

He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea,

in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali,

so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah

might be fulfilled:

"Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea,

across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles

the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light,

and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death

light has dawned."

From that time Jesus began to proclaim,

"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near."

As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers,

Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother,

casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen.

And he said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fish for people."

Immediately they left their nets and followed him.

As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee,

mending their nets, and he called them.

Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.

Jesus went throughout Galilee,

teaching in their synagogues

and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom

and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.

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Each of our scripture readings today address a type of choice we commonly face as God's children, as humans living on earth in these times just as well as in the times they were written. Common situations, typical choices.

The psalmist takes on the all-too-common question of fear. It's common because fear is common. Fear is inescapable for us. And our responses to fear are hard wired in our brains. We are programmed for fight or flight. It's our nature.

But in the midst of that comes these words: The LORD is my light, my salvation, my stronghold. Whom shall I fear?

This message is not just found in Psalm 27. It's everywhere. Do not be afraid. If God is with us, who can be against us? So many reassurances in scripture, all centered around the central truth of our faith, that God is sovereign above all.

So in that light, the light of God, the light that shines in the darkness that cannot be overcome, we are called to make the unexpected choice, the choice that is usually the least popular or logical - to choose trust in the LORD over fear.

In Paul's letter to the church in Corinth, he addresses another common choice that we face equally often today - the choosing of sides, the alliance with one group or another, with one leader or another. In this case, the church appears to be divided between two influential church leaders. Some are aligning themselves with Paul, while others are lining up behind Apollos. Then there's also the Cephas followers. It's gotten to the point where people are seeing themselves as better off than others based upon whom they follow.

Into the midst of this perceived choice, Paul calls them all to unity, unity in Christ, whose power resides not in the eloquence of any of these church leaders, but rather in the cross, the source of our salvation. Paul reminds them that following the One who was crucified is unpopular to most, because it seems foolish or weak to those who do not accept it, but it is the true source of power, this act of ultimate submission. It is the unpopular, unexpected choice that conquers death, once and for all.

In Matthew’s gospel, we hear the story of the first two disciples being called. It sounds pretty straightforward – Jesus walks by them as they are doing their life’s work as fishermen, and all he has to say is “follow me” and off they go. But I wonder what sorts of things I would have been weighing in my own head as I wrestled with the choice of whether to stay where I was, working with my father at our lifelong trade, or to up and run off to God-only-knows, and I mean that literally, what would lie ahead. How many of us would make that unexpected choice they made, that unpopular, inconvenient, difficult choice? How many of us would make it as easily as it appeared they did?

This choice had all sorts of practical implications, and those do seem to be the primary factors in the choices we make, aren’t they? What did the choice mean with respect to family loyalties? What about their means of making a living? What about their future food sufficiency? All this is put up against Christ’s call –“Follow Me”.

The choices in these scripture passages are not the choices we might see as logical, sensible, predictable. They are probably not the choices that would be expected by our friends or family. They are not the sorts of roads that lead to success, fame, accomplishment, a comfortable lifestyle, an eventual retirement.

They are not the popular choices.

But they are the paradoxical choices that are central to following Christ.

The humble choice.

The Road Less Traveled.

The act of following without fear, or more likely, following despite our fears.

The act of going beyond saying we believe

         while still aligning ourselves with the powers of the world,

         the leaders who seem to offer us the best outcome.

The act of living in line with God

         as our one and only Sovereign,

         conscious of where we fall short and begin to put our trust

         in human kings, powers, governments, and systems.

Again, this is not simply stepping back and saying

         “God will work it all out for the best”.

This is making the hard choice of following God’s will

         for the world,

         even when it is uncomfortable, unpopular, and difficult.

This is standing up for what we believe,

         for what God has called us to do,

         trusting the outcome to God,

         but knowing with certainty that we are the body of Christ,

that Christ has no hands or feet or voice but ours,

         that we are God’s plan, whether we like it or not.

That sitting back and letting God work it all out

         is not an option.

That if the Bible tells us anything, it tells us over and over

         that God calls ordinary people out of their ordinary lives

         to do extraordinary things.

And that when we accept that mission,

         when we live our lives as God’s children,

         with God’s work of loving one another entrusted to us,

         then we have made the unpopular choice

         that will not win friends and influence people,

but will bear fruit on the vine to which we are grafted.

Jesus Christ calls us, not to merely “believe”, but to follow –

         to live our lives as his hands and feet,

         to make the choices

         that are unpopular, uncomfortable, inconvenient,

          and difficult –

the choices that comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable –

the choices that reflect that we choose to love one another,

         especially the ones who are the most unloveable of all.

When we are those people, when we do those things,

         whether we like it or not,

         then we are truly serving Christ,

         shining Christ’s light in the darkness,

         bearing witness to the salvation

                  that was given to us

         through the ultimate act of humility, the crucifixion,

         and the ultimate act of salvation, the resurrection.

Then we are choosing to be fools for Christ,

         knowing that in this foolishness,

         only in this foolishness,

         are we surely and truly redeemed.