Choices

Luke 12:32-40 - Proper 14C

Do you know how many hits you get if you Google:

“How to help teenagers to make good choices”?

Thousand and thousands.

Trust me, I tried.

I tried because all of a sudden I am the parent of a pre-teen.

[Boy, just saying it out loud makes me weak at the knees.]

A pre-teen.

Someone who is already beginning to face a multitude of choices.

Someone who is slowly but surely paying less and less attention to ME,

when she’s making her choices.

The adolescent years are filled with questions about everything...

what music to listen to and what media to follow;

how to spend their time and money;

how to deal with friends and with peer pressure.

Teens make daily decisions on how to handle and resolve interpersonal conflict.

And what about choices related to vocation and how they will spend their lives?  

Will I marry? Will I have a career? Will I have children? 

What role will faith play in my life?
The list goes on and on.

And we, the parents, the mentors, the adults they more or less look up to

are supposed to guide them, encourage them to make good choices, reasonable choices, and support decisions that (God willing) 

will keep them happy and healthy and whole for a long time.

We are all aware that children today are facing

an unprecedented array of attitude and behavioral choices

while growing up in a postmodern culture that says the final court of appeal is how

"I feel" at any given moment in time.

But the fact is that it is not just children. It is all of us, isn't it?

We all have to make choices every day.

"will I or won't I?"..."what should I do?"

And, just like our children, we are surrounded on all side by entities seeking to harass us into submission:

Peers, authoritative figures, media, trends...

even when we think we are making independent choices

the pressure around us is at times so subtle that we can’t be sure anymore, can we?

Not even about the fundamentals.

We live in a day and age where personal feelings and preference

have become the guides for living and deciding.

We are constantly bombarded with messages about what is beautiful,

what is right, what is powerful, what will make us happy.

And we want that, whatever "that" may be.

And we want it now, because if our next door neighbor has it

then it is a good and joyful thing and I should have it too!

So we end up spending a lot of physical and mental energy keeping up with the fads, the trends, and the Joneses...

And then, sometimes, we look back and ask ourselves why,

why we accumulated things we've used only once

and shoes that were too tight even when we tried them on at the store.

[that would be me]

Why we went on vacation to the trendy beach that is really not our scene,

why we are having dinner with someone who is boring us to death,

why we are in a career that is not really using our God-given gifts,

and is definitely not making the world a better place,

but hey, it’s prestigious and it pays well, and it seems like such a good idea at the time...

And the list goes on.

So, my Brothers and Sisters, take a deep breath and ask yourself:

Where is your treasure?

What is really important in your life?

What is your guiding principle?

That is where you heart will be.

That is where you will put all of your energy, all of your time, all of yourself.

You need to be sure that it is really YOUR choice.

You can’t be giving all your heart to something just because it is expected,

just because everyone else does it, or because it has a cute commercial.

If you ask me, of course, I will tell you that our treasure is the love of God,

the Good News of Jesus Christ.

That following Jesus is the priority we all should have.

That imitating Christ ought to be our guiding principle.

The problem is that the Gospel is not sexy.

And on Superbowl day, Jesus doesn't have a funny speaking animal,

or a scantily dressed blonde to represent him.

And the Holy Spirit doesn't have a popular jingle.

How can we expect to hear the still small voice of God

with all other voices screaming in our ears?

Voices that are becoming louder everyday.

Every day more distracting.

Jesus promised to walk alongside all of us, 

while we walk the difficult journey of life.

Jesus life is our example.

Scripture can be our decision-making guide.

But we need to pay attention.

We need to stay awake.

We need to turn off the world’s influence and focus.

The light of God's Word illumines all of life and each choice we make.

God has something to say about matters of honesty, integrity, character, work ethic, sexual behavior, substance abuse, vocation, time, dating, and so on.

We just need to listen.

Find God’s voice in the Biblical text,

in the words of the Saints of God that preceded us or that are around us.

In the actions of all those who are already making good choices, Godly choices.

So, my brothers and sisters, for God's sake and our community's I have to ask you:

Where is your treasure?

Whose voice are you willing to listen to?

To whom are you going to give your heart?