I have
set before you life and death, the blessing
and the
curse. Choose life, then, that you and
your
descendants may live, by
loving the Lord
your
God, heeding his voice and holding fast to
him.
Deuteronomy 30: 19,20
Do you want what’s behind door number one, door number
two or door number three? Do you want to keep the new kitchen appliances that
you have already won or would you like to trade them for what’s behind the curtain
on stage? Some of you may remember the still-running TV show, “Let’s Make a
Deal.”
Contestants in ridiculous costumes were offered
choices between a bird in the hand for two in the bush, between what was
certain and what was possible. Sometimes people would trade something like a
plastic comb for a choice of doors. Sometimes they would end up with a Hawaiian
vacation, a room full of furniture or a booby prize.
The biggest winners were confronted with a second,
more difficult choice. They were asked whether they wanted to trade their
Hawaiian vacation for what was behind a curtain. They could win a shiny new car
or they could end up with a live jackass.
The program was popular, I believe, because it was
symbolic of the human predicament. We are constantly faced with a world of
choices and sometimes those choices produce great blessings and sometimes they
bring disasters. Sometimes we are better off because of our good choices and
sometimes we are left to live in a hell of regret because of our bad choices,
knowing that we brought ruin on ourselves because of those bad choices.
I sat down two years ago and traced my own choices and how those choices have
affected my life for good or bad. It is an autobiography of sorts that traces
the choices I have made since I was six years old and how those choices have
affected the way my life has turned out. I put it all in a book. It is
entitled Between Courage and Cowardice: Choosing to Do Hard Things
for Your Own Good. What I have learned from those reflections is
that choosing to do hard things has more often than not brought blessings and
growth to my life, while choosing the easy way has more often than not brought
me pain and stagnation.
In your first reading, the Israelites are about to
enter the “promised land,” after an arduous trip across the Sinai desert.
Before they start their exciting new lives in the land of plenty, Moses
lectures them about the necessity of making good choices in a land filled with
blessings. He reminds them that there are curses as well. Their happiness will
depend, in a great measure, on what they choose.
In many ways, you and I are still living in a
“promised land, flowing with milk and honey.” In this land of freedom, we get
to make choices. Our choices affect us, for good or for bad. We need that know
that our freedom to choose, does not guarantee that we will make good choices.
Making good choices requires, not just knowledge and freedom, but wisdom. We
live in a world of unprecedented knowledge on one hand and unprecedented lack
of wisdom on the other. The ability to choose from many choices does not
guarantee that we will choose wisely. We live in a land full of smart people
doing a whole lot of dumb things. We know a lot of facts and we have
been pumped full of information, but at the same time we live in a world
knee-deep from the fall-out of people’s bad choices. The freedom to choose from
a smorgasbord of choices does not guarantee that we will choose wisely.
My friends, it is important that you are not just smart,
but wise. It is important that you choose wisely because your choices can bring
blessing to you and those around you or they can bring ruin to you and those of
us around you.
This brings me to another point. You were not created
just for your own good. As Jesus says to his followers in the gospel reading
last Sunday, “No one lights a lamp and puts it under a bushel basket or under a
bed; he puts it on a lamp stand so that whoever comes in can see it,” and in
another place, “You are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Your
light must shine.” We don't make choices in a vacuum. Our choices affect other people.
I would like to end this short homily by quoting
Nelson Mandela in his first inaugural speech. He was quoting Marianne
Williamson. I can think of nothing better to leave you with than these
challenging words.
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our
deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our
darkness, that most frightens us. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won’t feel secure around you. You were born to make
manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us. It’s
in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others
permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence
automatically liberates others.
My friends, make good choices and let your light shine
- for your own good and the good of the world in which you will live, work and
raise your children, the world the rest of us have to live in as well!
We hear a lot these days about our freedom to choose.
However, that freedom does not guarantee that we will make good choices.
We are all suffering from a "failure of wisdom" that is being caused
by a lot of smart people making some very stupid choices. Think before
you decide because the easy thing to do is seldom the best thing to do!
