Brief synopsis of the readings: We begin with the Old Testament Book of Joshua. Joshua gathered all the people together and told them they had a choice: choose to follow God or choose to follow other gods known at the time. “As for me and my House, we will serve the Lord.” Those gathered answered that they had no intention of leaving the God who liberated them from slavery in Egypt. “We too will serve the Lord, for he is our God.” In John’s Gospel Jesus acknowledged that some who heard him found his words hard to hear. He gave them the choice that if they didn’t believe they were free to leave and many did. Jesus then asked the Twelve why they didn’t also leave. Simon Peter then told him: “Lord, who shall we go to? You have the message of eternal life, and we believe, we know that you are the Holy One of God.”
If everyone who reads this has one thing in common it’s this: we all believe that we live our best life and that our best decisions come from following Jesus Christ. As diverse as we may be in sex, skin color, sexual orientation, age, location and political beliefs, we can all point to this belief and consider ourselves disciples.
But we weren’t born as disciples of Jesus. Many of us had the good fortune of being born into a family that taught and modeled discipleship. Others were born into families that didn’t model Christianity, but somehow they found a satisfying path in Christ.
And these readings ask the question of how it happened. Was there an experience that caused us to understand our path in a way that directed us so clearly that we cannot imagine another way?
I think so. Sometimes I meet couples who knew on their first meeting that their lives would merge and their friends saw it also. When I met my friend Greg’s new girlfriend Kate I couldn’t imagine a future for him without her and I told him: “If you screw this up and lose her I’m going to break your legs.” Fortunately as I write this they’ve been married 34 years.
Most people I know point to the births of their children. Some of these children were conceived intentionally and some weren’t, but all their parents tell me that they can’t envision a life without them. If asked what they would do if they could turn back time, they have no concept of the question. I was best man in a wedding in 1988 between my friends John and Carol. Their children born in the next few years and John told me that having a child didn’t just change his view of himself or his marriage, but that it changed his view of the entire world. His world was a new creation when he became a father.
These moments of divine clarity can also happen in other instances. I know several people who talk about retreats that changed their lives. They tell me that while on retreat they had an experience that, like Paul on the road to Damascus (in the Acts of the Apostles, 9:1-9) they came to see the world with a new understanding.
Oftentimes I read Scripture in terms of what it demands of us and how we need to conform our lives to what we read. But this week I’m struck with gratitude. The phrase from Joshua of “as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord” has become a popular door sign, and is indeed on our door.
When I look at those milestones in my life I’m struck by the fact that while I may have said yes to these experiences I didn’t choose the circumstances that placed me there. I helped chaperone a high school retreat in 1984 that provided me with an experience of God’s love that sustains me still. I agreed to go on the retreat but at the time I was a seminarian and was assigned to that parish.
Likewise I chose to marry Nancy (and she agreed to marry me) but I never would have met her had I not been transferred to a church in California after being miserable at a church in Tennessee.
And my 22 year career as a hospice chaplain blessed me in so many ways but that happened because I applied to a hospice who happened to be looking at a weekend on call chaplain.
Finally, what do we do with those who heard Joshua’s words and chose to worship other gods? And what of those who heard Jesus’ words and found them too hard? Many Christians, and virtually all wealthy televangelists, will disagree with me but I counsel patience and understanding. Many will argue that we need to convince them right now that they need to make our choice because their souls hang in the balance.
I don’t believe that, but more to the point I don’t believe they need to make that choice at this moment because of our witness. Perhaps they will find their moment further down the road with other people.
In 1985, my first year as a youth minister, I met a teenager who was a mess. She was 16 years old and told me that she was a recovering alcoholic but her father forbade her from attending AA meetings because he feared it would reflect badly on him. During my three years there she attempted suicide at least twice; fortunately she was smart enough to sabotage each attempt and was not successful. I was determined to be the person who could “save” her from all the chaos in her life.
When she was 18 she met a man who was much older and all sorts of alarm bells went off in my mind. But she married him and he turned out to be the best thing that happened to her. He encouraged her sobriety and helped her realize that she was worthy of love. That’s not how I would have written her story, but it was how God did. I learned a great deal about humility when that happened.
And so perhaps we should look at these readings and recognize those events that caused us to “follow the Lord” and accept Jesus’ call. At the end of the day if we cannot imagine a life without those decisions and people who complete us, they are gifts from God.
Tom Allain's Thoughts and Musings 