Dr. M. Taylor Bach

Joshua 24:14-18 Matthew 6:19-24

In the Bible, there are two concepts of time. There is linear time which is chronological time. The Greek word for that is kronos. Then there is the concept of sacred time, sacred moments, or sacred hour. The Greek for this is kyros. I brought up a prop this morning, a bungee cord, to illustrate kronos time which runs from the birth to death. Sometimes when people pray for us like people prayed for me, you may get to stretch your life a little longer, but it is limited. Our chronological time will have its moments, its kyros time. So let me illustrate that by these post-it notes stuck on the bungee cord. Kyros time is sacred moments. We may have sacred moments along our life's path. In these sacred moments, something will happen to let us know their meaning and purpose.

I'm beginning a sermon series today entitled Seize the Moment. It is all about these kyros moments in our lives that become life-determining. The first thing of importance to think about that is to recognize that in these moments, we always have a choice. In fact, when I was in counseling training years and years ago, one of the trainers said to me, “Do you realize all of life is decisional and everything about life is making choices?” When little kids are growing up, they are making choices even in their ignorance and through perceptions that they will live for the whole of their life unless those choices are interfered with and there are new choices that are made. In the scripture readings that Michael Sprague read this morning, we find in the book of Joshua that Joshua says that they are renewing the covenant with God, the covenant that was made with Moses. He is urging all of his people to make this covenant. That covenant is a choice, a choice to follow the Law of Moses. That covenant is a choice which will determine the future of the whole Israeli community. Even to this day, the choice that was made in Joshua's time is a choice that determines a lot about how the Jewish community functions now. Joshua made this statement (I Just love this) “As for me and my household, we choose to serve the Lord.” So it is not only that he chooses to serve the Lord but he got his whole household to choose to serve the Lord as well.

In the Gospel reading that Michael read, we see that famous passage about money. This is a passage where Jesus shows us that how we handle our money is all about choice. Again, it ends with that so memorable phrase that we cannot serve two masters. We cannot both serve God and money at the same time. It reminds me of the saying of Yogi Berra. Yogi was such a profound philosopher! (Not!) He said, “When you come to the fork in the road, choose it.” What? When you come to the fork in the road, you have to take one path or another. It is all about choice. We have to make a choice. If you look at the lives of Biblical characters, we find defining moments in their life course where they make choices that determined their whole lives. David fighting Goliath, the giant, was a major turning point in David's life. He had to make a decision to do that. David made the decision to have an affair with Bathsheba and have her husband killed. That was a defining moment in his life that bore greatly on the future of his kingdom and led to him writing real penitential songs (Psalms) where he poured out his heart in grief. He was greatly disturbed because of the sin he committed and what he had done.

Each of us are faced with defining moments. Paul on the Road to Damascus was thrown down. He had an encounter with God. It left him temporarily blind. But he decided to turn away from his persecutory stance against Christians and become one of the greatest missionaries if not THE greatest missionary of all time. It was a decision  a choice - in a moment, in a flash, that absolutely changed his life course.

There are two Biblical characters I want to hold up for you this morning for you to think about. One was the rich young ruler and the other one was Zaccheus. Maybe you remember their stories. The rich young ruler came to Jesus and said to Him, “Lord, what must we do to be saved?” Jesus' answer was, “Keep the commandments.” This young man said, “Oh, I do that.” He meant he kept all ten of them. “What else must I do?” Jesus looked at this young man and He said, “You must sell all that you have, give it to the poor, and come follow me.” And the scripture records that he hung his head and walked away in shame because he was a man of great wealth. Obviously, he made the wrong choice. At that defining moment, he could have chosen to do what Christ had urged him to do. Jesus gave him a specific prescription for a sickness he had in his heart. His sickness was greed. If he would have chosen to follow Christ's prescription, he would have changed his life course completely for the better. Unfortunately, as far as we know, he may not have even made it into heaven. Now, contrast that with Zaccheus. Do you remember Zaccheus? He is recorded in the scripture to be a short man, a little man. He too was young. How do we know he was young? Because when he heard Jesus was coming, he climbed a tree. When Jesus saw him in the tree, He said, “Zaccheus, come down here.” The Bible said, “He hurried down quickly.” If he was an old man, he wouldn't have done that! So he had to be a young man. At least younger than 50. So he was somewhat like the rich young man. The Bible also said he was a man of means. He had a great deal of wealth. How had he gotten his wealth? He was a tax collector. As a tax collector, he skimmed money off the top of the taxes he collected for Rome. He built his home with the overage and cheated a lot of people. But when Christ visited his home, Zaccheus made a choice to follow Jesus - unlike the rich young man. He decided he would sell half of all that he had and return it to the poor and he would then from that moment on follow Christ. A remarkable man  a remarkable story. Their circumstances were similar. Their great sin was greed. They were both wealthy. They were both youthful. But they had a moment  a defining moment  of choice. One made the wrong choice. The other one made the right choice.

Earl Nightingale, a motivational speaker who is also quite a religious man, had a story that he told that was an interesting story about choice. He said that there was a farmer who had two hands full of seed. In the one hand he had corn. In the other hand, he had night shade. I had never heard of night shade before so thankfully he defined it for us. Night shade is a poisonous plant, extremely poisonous. You eat a little bit of it and it will kill you shortly thereafter. So he said this farmer had both in his hands and he had a choice about which to plant. He could plant the corn that was nutritious. He could plant the night shade that was poisonous. Or he could plant both. He said, “That is really like our minds. We can put in our minds that which is nutritious and helps us and makes us Christians and enables us to follow Jesus Christ or we can put in our minds poisons that keep us from following Jesus Christ. Or we can both put into our mind. He said, “The choices that we make determine our life course. We have these defining moments in our lives.” We can do things that are wonderful like plant the corn, or we can do things that are poisonous to our life and sinful. But the key ingredient is choosing. The key ingredient is choice.

The scripture that we read this morning makes it very clear. We can choose the way of Christ or we can choose the way of the world. We can choose the way of the Holy Spirit, or we can choose the way of the flesh. But it is all choice. This day, choose who you will serve.