Sermon, Sunday 23 August: 'Choose God'

Joshua 24:1-8, 14-18

Psalm 84 

John 6: 56-71  

Let’s pray:

May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, our strength and our redeemer.  Amen.

She has a look of concentration on her face:

concentration mingled with hope, yearning.

Having been given a choice that could change her life completely, 

she takes the plunge.

Taking a deep breath, she utters the words:

There’s no place like home…

There’s no place… like home.

In last Sunday’s sermon,

the film ‘Forrest Gump’ was mentioned.

And, as some of you might have deduced already, 

today we’re continuing on with the ‘film’ theme 

as we reflect on the subject of

choosing to follow God. 

Occasionally I’m given to making pulpit confessions, 

and today is one of those days:

Yes, I’m about to utter a deep, dark secret…

I’m going to make a confession to you all which I know –

discreet and kind people that you are –

will not be repeated outside of these four walls.

My confession is this:

one of my favourite films of all time is ‘The Wizard of Oz’ 

and of course, I confess this with more than 

just a wee bit of embarrassment!!

But, come on, what’s not to like about this movie? 

Music,

singing,

munchkins –

singing munchkins! 

flying monkeys wearing fez,

tornados dropping houses on witches,

a lion,

a tinman,

a scarecrow,

a little girl lost,

and… a cute little dog.

In the movie –                     

and if you haven’t seen it yet,

here’s the warning about possible spoilers -                                     

in the movie, the main character, Dorothy,

longs to leave home and have exciting adventures

which, ultimately, she does when she’s caught up in a tornado 

that takes her to the wonderful land of Oz.                

Ironically, having wanted to leave home,

she spends the rest of the movie desperately trying to get back there…                                

Towards the end of the movie -

the bit before we fade from glorious technicolour back into black and white -

she’s given a choice by Glinda, the good fairy:

Dorothy can go home.

All she has to do is to click her ruby red slippers three times and say:

‘There’s no place like home.’ 

‘There’s no place like home.’    

‘There’s no place like home.’    

But, having spent quite some time in Oz,

and, having made deep friendships through

shared adventures and dangers,

and, having come to care for the people of this strange new, and very colourful world,

it’s a much harder decision to make:

the journey,

the pilgrimage

has changed her.

However, even as she looks around the Emerald City and at her friends,

she realises where her heart’s true home is:

She clicks her heels, and says the words.

Dorothy, and her little dog Toto, make it home. 

In our readings this morning we find, intertwined, 

themes of journey, of home, of making choices.

In the Book of Joshua, the Israelites have followed God 

from Egypt and through the Wilderness. 

They have followed this particular god for forty years.

They have been a displaced people, longing for their heart’s true home.

Having reached the Promised Land, and begun to make their home,

they’re faced with a choice.

Joshua asks them: ‘who will you choose?’

Faced with other gods and with the God who has led them home,

they choose the God who has been their home,

the God who has chosen them.

As one, they choose to serve the Lord, alongside Joshua and his family.   

Turning to our Gospel reading: 

this takes place just after Jesus has talked of himself

as the ‘bread of life’ - and talks of his followers ‘feeding on him’.

Strange talk - ‘a hard teaching’, his disciples call it.

We, who are so used to the notion of the bread and wine of communion,

perhaps find it less ‘strange’. 

But the disciples, hearing this for the first time,

are very probably thinking about cannibalism and are, quite rightly, horrified. 

And this misunderstanding is one that will follow the early Christians around.

The Roman, Pliny the Younger, has a famous description of these strange Christians and

their cult of cannibalism - a reference to communion.

For the disciples listening to Jesus, a choice must be made,

and, according to our text:

‘many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him’

They couldn’t see beyond a literal understanding of his words.

Jesus asks the Twelve, his inner circle: 

‘you do not want to leave too, do you?’

And these disciples choose to stay.

‘Where would we go, you have the words of eternal life’, says Peter.

Instinctively, they know that they’ve found their heart’s true home 

in the person of Christ.

They choose him.

Our psalm is also about choosing God:

but is a little more upbeat than our other readings.

Here we have uncontained joy.

It’s about journeying home - to God.

It’s also what set me off on my Wizard of Oz thoughts because 

as I read it, I saw in my mind a yellow brick road to follow, follow, follow.

And so, let’s spend a little time with Psalm 84 this morning

and, if you’d like to follow along in your bibles, please do so.

                                            

Psalm 84 belongs to a group of psalms known as ‘Songs of Zion,’  

Psalms used when on pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem.

This psalm was one that pilgrims would have sung together 

as they made their journey to worship in God’s house.

And as you read the psalm you get a sense of the excitement of the pilgrims…

A sense of expectation.

A sense of joy - the joy of those who,

having chosen to serve God,

expect to meet God 

when they reach the Temple.

As with our other readings, and even with our friend, Dorothy, 

there’s a strong sense of yearning that can be felt within the psalm.

In verses 1 and 2, the psalmist’s fervent longing is to see and to be in the temple in

Jerusalem - to be in the house of God:

‘how lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty! My soul yearns,

even faints for the courts of the Lord;

my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God’

Over 1500 years ago, St. Augustine wrote quite beautifully 

about this sense of yearning, this sense of longing when he said:                    

‘You have made us for yourself,

and our hearts are restless

until they find their rest in You.’

With those words he captured the sense of spiritual longing that many of us have as we

make our way as pilgrims in this life seeking again, and again to choose God, 

to follow in his ways.

For the pilgrims journeying to the Temple,

and for us, even now, as we journey towards God,

there’s the expectation that at the end of the journey 

we will actually arrive somewhere:

that there’s a destination,

that at journey’s end, there’s home.

And it’s faith that fuels that expectation.

Faith understands that God will guide us home,

understands that we, like the children of Israel, will find the Promised Land.

It’s faith that trusts that at the end of the journey, 

those who dwell in God’s presence are happy and blessed.  

For  it’s faith which understands that home is where our hearts find our rest –

and that our rest is found in God.

And, as verse 4 of the psalm states: 

‘blessed are those who dwell in your house…’

The psalmist reminds us, too, that provision will be made 

for those who choose to follow God.

In verses 5&7, the psalmist speaks of God sustaining the pilgrim on the journey,

and the resulting joy - rejoicing in God’s mercy and faithfulness:

‘blessed are those whose strength is in you…’

And, nodding in the general direction of our gospel passage this morning,

Jesus, in calling himself bread of life, reminds his disciples once again 

that he is the one who sustains and nourishes forever –

as we journey in him, as we find our rest in him and feed on him, 

so we find comfort and life. 

                           

Often, journeys can be quite difficult, 

but the psalmist reminds us that we will find God’s 

strength and presence with us.  Not only that, but making the journey 

can also bring about refreshing.                            

The psalmist mentions the Valley of Baca, a place of wilderness,                              

a desert the pilgrims travelled through on their way to Zion.                               

The psalm implies that the pilgrims’ journey 

had the power to bring relief to such a barren place –                         

it becomes a place of springs.

Choosing God then,

results in us becoming a source of blessing to the world, and to others.    

And what of reaching the final destination?

In Verses 10-12, the psalmist speaks of finding a place in God’s home  –                     

and that home is better than anywhere else could possibly be…

even the wonderful world of Oz:                                  

‘Better one day in your courts than a thousand days elsewhere. 

I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God 

than dwell in the tents of the  wicked.’ 

The psalm is about our lives as a journey of faith – as we choose to follow God.

We live our lives as pilgrims with our eyes set on our true home.         

That home is a place where God withholds no good thing,        

a place where our restless hearts find rest.

We come home

when we choose God - 

And:

there’s no place like home.   Amen.