LIFE MATTERS-7
Deuteronomy 30
February 16, 2014
In 1998 the movie, The Truman Show, was released and achieved great critical and commercial success. It was nominated for several awards including Academy Awards and it made hundreds of millions of dollars. The premise of the movie is not that complicated but the questions it asks are. The premise of the movie is that one man has lived his whole life as the central figure of a reality TV show and everyone knows about it except him. The main character, Truman, was put up for adoption as a baby but his adoption fell through countless times until finally a corporation adopts him. This corporation turns Truman’s entire life into a reality TV show. A large set akin to a giant dome is built for Truman. He is conditioned to stay within the confines of this fabricated world. He is told on a regular basis to not seek adventure or explore. He shouldn’t go out on the water because it is dangerous. He is trained on a regular basis to accept that life as he sees it is life as it is. In a lot of ways, Truman’s life is a good life. He grows up to have a good job and live in a comfortable neighborhood in the town of “Seahaven.” He has friends that he says hello to everyday and a wife who is kind to him all the while she is consistently using product placement to help sell revenue for this reality TV show. Millions of people buy into Truman’s life and watch it every week. Truman’s life is perfect until it all comes crashing down, literally. The fabricated world begins to lose some of its reality through a series of events. One day a stage light falls from the set and crashes down in front of Truman. In this moment, reality is cracked and Truman starts to wonder if there is a greater reality that he cannot yet comprehend, a life beyond his comfortable job, his beautiful house and his daily life. He starts to wonder if there is more.
The movie culminates with Truman, through a series of events, becoming convinced that there is a real life beyond the world he can currently comprehend. He begins a journey that is dangerous and bold to find true life, the ultimate reality. Every step of the way, the majority of Truman’s friends and neighbors exhort Truman to follow the life that they are all following. To forget the possibility that reality and the life in front of him might be cheap and temporary and that a greater life might be around the corner. The movie culminates with Truman sailing to the edge of the dome and finding an exit door. He is faced with a choice: choose life here or choose life beyond. He takes a final bow and exits to a new adventure and a life beyond the normal.
This was a great movie for many reasons but I think it resonated with millions of people because it introduced an idea that gnaws at all of our souls. Is there something more? Is this reality, isthis current life all there is to live for, or is there more? And here is the really amazing conundrum of this movie and the idea it introduces: choosing life isn’t simple. I think we would all agree that with a full understanding of Truman’s experience – that his life was fabricated and shallow, it would be easy to leave through the exit door. Truman’s eyes are opened to the idea of a life bigger than his small comprehension, but the choice of stepping out through the exit door was difficult. His life was comfortable and full of many good things. He had a career, friends and a nice place in “Seahaven.” Leaving that behind would be simple in retrospect but not when you place yourself in his shoes. The exit door leads to an unknown world and an unknown life. Leaving the comfort and success of his current life was counterintuitive.
I think this story resonates with all of humanity but especially with Christians. The truth is that we live in a temporary and created world. We are born into it, it is our reality. The message of God is that there is an exit door and a much greater life to be lived. The difficult thing is that choosing life, God’s life, isn’t simple. Because in much the same way, we have friends, neighbors and coworkers just like Truman’s. People that directly and indirectly caution us from venturing beyond the known. We are surrounded by people in our own little “Seahaven” who are chasing the American Dream and they seem to have a good life, so life beyond the exit door seems hard to comprehend, it is fearful and it is counterintuitive.
Ultimately this whole concept is about standing on the edge of a major decision and figuring out the life you will choose. The problem, of course, is that choosing God’s life for you is not easy. It makes more sense to choose to pursue the reality of life in “Seahaven.” The Israelites came to a very similar fork in the road. Moses is in his final days and he is going to pass on the mantle of leadership to Joshua. Moses will die in the next few chapters, and the people of God are going to be coming to a major shift. Theirreality has been the desert. They have been following Moses for 40 years. This new guy is taking them to what is supposedly the “land of milk and honey.” For those of you who have been to Israel, it is a no-brainer to choose the “land of milk and honey” compared to the desert. But they hadn’t yet stepped through the exit door. These are the same people who a generation before lamented being delivered from Egypt when they made it into the freedom of the desert. It is a big step of faith and Moses tells them what to do.
Deuteronomy 30: 11-14
We are in the final week of our series Life Matters. Today we are concluding the series and we will spend a little time further discussing our third life goal- Life for Others. At SFC, we believe that to be a disciple of Jesus, you need to be practicing these three things: 1) Life in God, which is essentially Christ-centered worship and includes prayer, music, scripture and gathering with other believers 2) Life with Others, which is practicing your faith in the Christian community. As I said a few weeks ago, Life with Others is really a laboratory of love. It is an opportunity to grow in your faith not only by studying scripture and praying with other people but also sharing your life with them, warts and all. 3) Life for others, which is serving and sharing in the name of Jesus. This includes serving inside and outside of the church because that is just what the people of God do. Early on, God called Abram and told him to be a blessing to all nations. In Jeremiah 29 we see it again, we are to work for the good of the city we are in. Again in Isaiah 58 it says that true worship is caring for and blessing those in need. Paul says it, then James says it and of course Jesus says it time and again. You don’t serve to gain salvation but it might prove that you have it. Serving, doing justice, loving intentionally with your time, talent and treasure is the non-teleological function of the people of God. Maybe you remember that from a few weeks ago. It’s just what we do, it’s how we should be known. And as I told you last week the ultimate purpose of service is not conversion, it is worship.
In our passage today, Moses is really giving his last lecture. He has given them the law and this is his final effort to get them to embrace it. I have told you throughout this series that God’s law is a gift, not a set of religious hoops for you to jump through so that you can please a capricious deity, but rather a gift given to you so that you may thrive. That is sometimes hard for us to believe. The phrase that I introduced to you that has popped up repeatedly in this book of the law is for us to do these things “so that it will go well with you.” Our passage today will say the same thing, the law is not a set of speeds bumps to slow you down, control your behavior and limit your fun. The law is given as a set of guardrails to set you on the path that God has for your life.
Moses starts off today with an amazing and simple set of phrases that speak to the human condition. He tells them to keep the law and then he says it is not far off or obscure. It isn’t esoteric and ethereal. It isn’t in the heights of Heaven that someone must ascend and find it. It isn’t in the depths of the sea that someone must go to the abyss and obtain it. He says, it is very near to you. It is in your hearts and your mouths because I have given it to you today.
David Freedman wrote a book in 2010 called Wrong: Why Experts Fail Us and How to Know When Not to Trust Them. A central premise of Freedman’s book is rooted in the old streetlight joke. A drunken man is wandering a street late at night and obviously looking for something valuable that he lost. A policeman sees the drunken man and begins to help him look for his lost wallet. After several failed minutes, the policeman asks him where he thinks he lost the wallet. The drunken man says that he lost it down the street. The outraged officer says, “Then why are we looking over here?” The drunken man, standing under a streetlightsays with great certitude, “Because the light is better over here.” Freedman says the fact is that many experts look where the light is best and not where the truth is more likely to be.
The world has a lot of streetlights shining down into our lives and Moses knew this. He knew the world was full of people saying that truth is far off. It must be sought out at great lengths up to the Heavens and down to the depths of the sea. It’s over here. It’s way over there. But he says, in effect, you are looking under the streetlights of the world. He says, “The truth is right where you left it, right where God gave it to you.” The problem is the majority of your coworkers and neighbors will spend the majority of their lives under streetlights but the truth is right in front of you. They will think you are the one who is missing the point. Moses knew this and that’s why his next words are so important.
Deuteronomy 30: 15-20
Moses makes it easy and simple, at least on paper: choose life, don’t choose death. Choose life and the way of your Maker’s design and you will flourish. Choose death, and destruction will follow. Moses has a lifetime of experience walking with God. He actually had his own personal time in the desert. He grew up as a prince in Egypt. He had his own personal Truman Show. In many aspects, the world was his oyster. While Israelite slaves were toiling, he had power, wealth and influence, his own personal “Seahaven” in the middle of Egypt. Moses ended up committing murder and fleeing to the desert for 40 years. He started a new life there and eventually God called him to go and do the one thing he feared most, return to Egypt and not only that, but speak the truth to the most powerful man in “Seahaven.”
Moses tried to duck and dodge and make excuses for why he couldn’t go back. All of Moses’ excuses were streetlight excuses. Moses finally gave in and you know how the story goes. He spoke truth to the King of the Land, he saw 10 miraculous plagues strike down on Egypt, he saw the Red Sea part and he saw daily provision for an obstinate people for 40 years. Moses learned something from all of this-choose life. Choose the life God has called you to live. Come up with all of the excuses you want, all of the streetlight versions of truth that you can, but ultimately, if you choose life, God will show up and show off. God will surprise you with what happens when you step through that exit door.
With that rich legacy and experience, Moses is turning to his spiritual children, who now number in the millions. He is pleading with them to not make the same mistakes he made. Like a well-traveled and loving grandfather he is telling them to keep it simple and choose life. Though the world thinks you are crazy, though their concept of reality seems more plausible and tangible, you have to choose the counterintuitive life that God has set before you.
Evel Knievel passed away in 2007 at the age of 69. His death was accelerated after a lifetime of hard living. You probably know him as the stunt performer who jumped and crashed over some really large monuments. He also did a lot of drinking, was frequently violent and pursueddisastrous living. In his later years, Evel Knievel changed his ways and he began trying to tell his son, Robbie, to avoid the same mistakes he made. Those decisions lead to death. And some of you know, Robbie is a hard drinking stunt performer to this day. For some reason, we don’t listen to clear advice even when the truth is so obvious.
Moses is telling the Israelites to choose life. Choose the life God has to offer, because his life really mirrors their collective life. Over a millennium later, a carpenter would say something very similar but with a divine twist. Jesus is in the last day of his life; the cross is awaiting him the very next day. And he turns to his disciples and says this:
John 14:1-6
Jesus lets them know that he will soon be heading for the exit door. He is not long for this world and then he gives them the comfort of all comfort: Jesus tells them that one day they too will breathe their last breath on this planet and that he has a plan for them in that moment. He says, “I am going to prepare a place for you, a place beyond the confines of this world. One that is much bigger and more beautiful than this.” And then instead of saying, choose life, He says, “I am life, so choose me.”
Jesus knows that these men will have their reality shaken time and again over the next several years. Some of them will die for their faith, in fact most of them will. They will be abused and castigated by society. Everyone else will be hovering around the streetlights of this world but Jesus is saying, the truth is right here in front of you. I am the way, the truth and the life. Choose me.
That is the invitation for you today, to choose life, to choose Jesus daily. Many times the Christian life is distilled down into a prayer of salvation, which isn’t really even Biblical. You are invited to choose life every single day, to choose Jesus every single day, because “Seahaven” will always beckon. Our “Seahaven” is Silicon Valley and the riches, beauty and meaning it can supposedly offer. Everyday, you must live with an eye towards the exit door, knowing full well that God has placed you here for a purpose. A purpose to make a difference, but also knowing that this world is not your home and that it gets much better than “Seahaven.” But you need to choose life, the Jesus life.
In order to do that, we encourage you to do three things well: Life in God, Life with others and Life for others. Daily choose to follow him. Daily choose to turn your eyes upon Jesus. In this last week, we are focusing upon Life for Others. Here is the thing about Life for others; you can’t offer what you don’t have. Life for Others, which is serving and sharing in the name of Jesus, is ultimately pointless if it is not rooted in the life you have in Jesus. Doing good things for people is nice. But we don’t want to just be nice. We want to offer life.
Next week, we will have Serve Sunday. We will meet together at 9:00 am in the Sanctuary and then we will go out to serve. We do this because we think life thrives when we serve. We think people will get a small glimpse of the world to come whenever we serve and promote life. Jesus said as much, in the prayer he gave for the disciples. The very first “ask” in the Lord’s Prayer is what? Thy Kingdom come. Let it make it on earth, as it is Heaven. When we go out next week, we are hopefully showing people a glimpse of a world they do not quite understand, a world beyond this one. Bringing a little bit of Heaven down to earth. We are showing them there is a bigger story and a brighter world if they have the eyes to see. We are going to shine the light of our faith into dark places to help, so that people might stop loitering under every streetlight the world has to offer.
Towards the end of The Truman Show, we see the real nefarious intentions of the show’s executive producer and director named Cristof. He is almost analogous to the great deceiver. This man cares about The Truman Show, because it is the world that he presides over. He is the prince of that world. Towards the end of the movie, he is defending his desire to keep Truman from leaving his little world. And he says, “I’ve given Truman a chance to live a normal life. Seahaven is the way the world should be.” Today the invitation is simple. A normal life is on the table. It’s yours if you want it. But there is more, Jesus offers you a road less traveled. He offers you eternal life but he also offers abundant life, an adventure. Listening to and following the Spirit of God that is within you means saying no to a lot of things your neighbors might say yes to. It means denying yourself and living with others and for others when the world thinks that is insane. It means following the light of faith when the streetlights of money, success and education are available. It means choosing abundant life. Choose life today. Choose Jesus today.