It’s hard for me to stand in the pulpit today.  It’s been a really tough week.  Football season is over.  Every year about this time I go through a mild depression.  There’s no curing it until kickoff in the Fall.

Yes, it’s true—I love the game!  I love the strategy, I love the hard-hitting, rough-and-tumble nature of the sport, and I love the human element as well.  I love it when a big-time coach allows television cameras into the locker room for the pre-game speech before the big game.  It always goes something like this:

“OK men. You’ve worked hard. You’ve run the drills.  You know the game plan.  This is your moment.  If you put it all together and execute the plan, victory will be ours!  It’s your choice.  Now go win this game!”

That’s the image that immediately came to my mind as I read our scripture lesson this week.  What we have before us is Moses’ pre-game speech to the Israelites before their big game—entering the Promised Land.  They’ve escaped from Egypt, they’ve spent the past 40 years as nomads wandering around in the desert, and now they are poised to cross over the Jordan River and claim their victory.  Moses is “coaching them up,” getting them ready for the game of their life.  He tells them they have a simple choice to make: “Today I set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life.”

Another image came to mind as I read the text this week.  I was reminded of one of my favorite, all-time movies, The Shawshank Redemption.  A great film released in 1994, it starred Tim Robbins as Andy Dufresne, a well-to-do banker who is wrongly accused of two murders and sentenced to hard time in the nation’s toughest prison, Shawshank.  The film follows Andy Dufresne’s experience in that prison.  It depicts horrific abuse Andy suffers at the hand of some fellow inmates.  But there is one redeeming storyline in the midst of this dark and difficult tale.  Andy forms a surprising friendship with another inmate, a guy they call “Red.”  Red is an older, hardened, black gentleman who has been in prison most of his life.  He’s done some bad things, but he’s a good guy at heart.  Andy and Red form a beautiful, deep friendship.

In one of the most poignant scenes of the film, we find Andy and Red sitting on a concrete pad in the prison yard, their backs against a stone wall.  They begin talking about their futures.  Andy shares his dream of living on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, opening a small hotel, buying an old boat and fixing it up brand new and taking customers deep-sea fishing.  As he shares his dream, his face becomes alive with hope and joy. However, Red thinks all this dreaming is foolishness.  He turns to Andy and basically says, “You are a stupid fool. The Pacific Ocean is thousands of miles away, and you’re in these four prison walls. You are a stupid fool for doing this to yourself.”  Andy’s face grows grim. He counters Red’s rebuke by saying, “Well, it comes down to a simple choice really.  Get busy livin’, or get busy dyin’.” He gets up and walks away.

In one story, Moses tells the people, “Today I set before you life and death.”  In another, we hear Andy Dufresne saying, “Get busy livin’, or get busy dyin’.”  But the similarities in these two stories don’t stop there.  Both stories are about bondage.  The people of Israel having been slaves under the oppressive hand of Pharoah—Andy and Red prisoners under the hand of a cruel warden and an often not-so-fair system.  And in both stories, we find people in bondage who are afraid of freedom.  After Moses led the Israelites’ escape from Egypt, the people groaned and complained about their life in the desert.  “Let’s go back, Moses!” they cried out. “Let’s go back and be slaves in Egypt. Life was easier then!”  In Shawshank, Red confesses that he can’t fathom life outside of prison.  “I’m an institutional man,” he says.  “In here, I’m the guy who can get things.  Out there all you need is the yellow pages.”  He shares his deep fear of freedom. 

I want to hold these two stories before you as we consider for a moment the state of our world.  Over the past few days and weeks, we have witnessed some exciting, but scary, uprisings across North Africa and the Middle East.  All throughout that region, people are rising up against oppressive regimes, demanding their freedom.  But in almost every instance, the people are encountering resistance from their own countrymen—those who fear the freedom demanded by the protestors.  Freedom is terrifying. Freedom is hard.

We’ve seen this kind of thing in our own nation’s history.  At the end of the Civil War, President Lincoln signed into law the Emancipation Proclamation granting slaves their freedom.  However, the newly-freed slaves often didn’t fare so well.  With skills and education, they often flocked to larger towns and cities and competed with one another for unskilled laboring jobs.  For many of them, life was easier on the plantation.  For some of them, their only consolation was that, yes, they might be starving.  But at least they were starving as free men.

Freedom is hard.  Part of the reason that freedom is so difficult is that freedom requires us to make our own decisions.  In Egypt, the Israelites had the luxury of being able to blame Pharoah for their lives not being all that they would hope.  At Shawshank, Andy and Red and the other inmates had the luxury of being able to blame the system for their lives not being all that they would hope.  It’s always easier to blame someone or something else than to take responsibility for our own lives.

And let’s face it.  It’s fun to cast blame.  It’s fun to blame, in part, because it make us feel superior (which is one of my favorite feelings). It’s great because when we blame, we take the weight off of our own shoulders and cast it elsewhere.  But if you think about it, that’s a very childish thing to do, isn’t it?  Isn’t adulthood defined by “responsibility?” So when we blame—when we cast responsibility off of our shoulders and place it elsewhere, it’s a quite childish thing to do.

But we all do it.  Playing the “blame game” is one of my favorite hobbies!  C’mon. Where’s your favorite place to cast blame?  I’ll tell you mine.  For me, it’s my poor husband.  If I had known how fun it is to have a spouse to blame, I would have gotten married when I was much younger!  The house isn’t clean? It’s his fault! The bills haven’t been paid? It’s his fault! I’m not as happy as I think I should be? It’s his fault! We blame our spouse, our kids, our parents, our neighbor, our dog—we blame the government or “those people,” the Muslims or big business or illegal immigrants—we blame the church.  We even blame God Almighty!

And it’s right there.  It’s right there when we’re playing the biggest blame game of our lives that Moses calls out to us from across the ages saying, “Welcome to freedom!  But you know what freedom means, right?  It means your life is now your own! You can’t blame Pharoah no mo!” It’s a simple choice, really. Get busy livin’, or get busy dyin’.

For Moses, this holy self-determination was truly a matter of life and death.  You see, when Moses delivered his pre-game speech to the Hebrew people, he was 120 years old.  That’s old!  That’s older than Joe Paterno!  The Lord had revealed to him that he would not enter the Promised Land with his people.  Moses knew that his death was imminent.  His days were numbered.  These were his final words to his beloved people.  Think about that for a moment.  If you knew you were speaking your final words to your beloved—that your death was imminent—what would you say?  I think that though the content might vary, each of us would utter the most important words we could muster.  These were the most important words Moses could offer.  And what did he say?  “Choose life!”

But he didn’t stop there.  He actually offered a three-part game plan for how they might “choose life” in the Promised Land.  First, “Love God.”  Secondly, “Obey God.”  Finally, “Embrace God.” 

At first, when I read these words, I kind of glossed over them, not thinking much of them.  But when I went back to this three-part directive, I began to wonder if Moses didn’t have something deeper in mind.

You see, every human, it is widely believed, consists of three parts.  At the very center of each human exists the spirit—that place within each of us that in some mysterious way connects with the very Spirit of God.  This is the spiritual realm. A layer out is the mind (some people call it the “soul”).  This is the seat of our will, our thoughts, our beliefs, and our emotions.  This is the psychological realm.  Finally, each person has a body.  This is the way we interact with the physical world around us.

I wonder if Moses had the “whole person” in mind in his three-part approach to choosing life.

1.     “Love God” with your spirit.  Love God from the very center of who you are. 

2.     “Obey God.”  Conform your will, your thoughts your beliefs, and your emotions to the will of God.

3.     “Embrace God.”  How do you do that?  You subject your body to the Lord.

In other words, “choose life” with everything you are.  With everything you think, in everything you believe, with your emotions, with your physical self, with everything within you, choose life!

“Well that’s a nice thought, pastor. Now let’s go to lunch.”

Not so fast!  I would be remiss to offer this challenge to you without giving you some ideas, some practical ways you might “choose life” in your daily comings and goings.  So here are some suggestions.  These are not one-size-fits-all.  But here are some holy ideas for ways you can get busy livin’ ^[1]

·         Surround yourself with things that make you feel alive.  There are people and things that enhance our vitality, and there are people and things that suck the life right out of us.  Surround yourself with things that make you feel alive.  Maybe music or nature or friendships or beauty.  In so doing, choose life.

·         Reinvent yourself.  Maybe it’s been a long time since you’ve really chosen life, and you want to make that inward change.  Do something outwardly to symbolize that inner change.  Get a sexy new hair-do or get a toupee so you can look like John Orr.  Buy some of those cool Sarah Palin/Tim Meadows glasses.  Grow yourself a Marty Singley goatee. Do something on the outside to remind you of the inner change you want to make, and in so doing, choose life.

·         Go buy a book of poetry, and actually read it!  Go to an art museum and immerse yourself in a thing of beauty.  In so doing, choose life.

·         Create a gourmet meal.  Really pull out all the stops.  Let decadence be your guide and make it a meal you’ll remember for the rest of your life.  Share it with someone you love (or at least tolerate). Create a gourmet meal, and in so doing, choose life.

·         Learn something new.  Expand your thinking by taking a music lesson or an art class or go to the community college and study archaeology.  Learn something new, and in so doing, choose life.

·         Here’s something that will get you where it hurts!  Get out a pen and your checkbook, and write a painfully, painfully large check to a non-profit or charity that means a lot to you. Write that check, and in so doing, choose life.

·         Take a walk in your neighborhood, but do it in this way: set your attention on noticing things you’ve never noticed before.  The way that branch is twisted in such an unusual way or how there’s a perfect placement of stone and shrub in your neighbor’s yard.  Take a walk, and in so doing, choose life.

·         Go on an adventure!  Adventure is not just for the young, but for the young-at-heart. So go sky-diving or parasailing or spelunking or scuba diving or bungee jumping.  Get your blood pumping, and in so doing, choose life.

·         Laugh!  How long has it been since you’ve laughed so hard your stomach muscles ached the next day? Laugh like that, and in so doing, choose life.

·         Here’s a surprising one.  Tell someone you’re sorry.  Rekindle a dormant relationship, and in so doing, choose life.

·         Here’s one most of you can to tonight.  Light a fire in your fireplace, get a stick and some marshmallows, and roast them right there in your very own living room! Turn off cable news while you do this.  Light that fire, and in so doing, choose life.

·         Here’s one for Valentine’s Day tomorrow.  Write a love letter.  It’s a dying art, you know.  Write a love letter to your spouse or your kid or your parent or your friend.  Express your deep gratitude for their presence in your life.  Write that love letter, and in so doing, choose life.

There are thousands, maybe millions of sacred possibilities.  I hope this has sparked your imagination.

“Today I set before you life and death.  Blessing and curses.  Choose life.”  Or to contemporize that: get busy livin’!  Do it now!

Amen.

 ^[1]  This list was inspired by Brett Younger, “Deuteronomy 30:15-20—Homiletical Perspective,” Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary, (Year A, Volume 4), David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, eds. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, pp. 339-343.