Make God-Centered Decisions

 Do you want a salad or roasted vegetables?

For some of us this might be an easy decision.

For others, it might be more difficult.

When I was a child and I couldn't make this kind of decision,

my father would figuratively put one in his left hand and one in his right hand

without telling me which was in each hand.

Then I was to choose a hand, right or left?

I was supposed to go with whichever of the choices in the hand I chose

But most of the time, in that second after he told me which I had to go with

I realized either that I was happy with the choice

or sad that I didn't get the other

and knew which I really wanted.

In this case, usually the salad.

You never knew which vegetables were going to be in 'roasted vegetables.'

A salad is usually more predictable.

This way of choosing is a decision making game

and one that I occasionally still use to help make simple and fairly unimportant decisions.

But what about when the decisions are much bigger

much harder?

In the Undercroft here at St. Peter's, where our After School program and our Vacation Bible School takes place

there is a poster

its one of those typical school posters

empowering and pithy

encouraging and a little cheesy

There are a number of these posters in our Undercroft

but the one I am thinking about today is one that reads:

Poster

The poster draws a straight a=b line

from thoughts to destiny

in the light of our actions and habits and character along the way.

Most of the time we think of these things as things that just happen to us

we aren't in control of our thoughts, they just wander through our heads

we control some of our actions, but most of the time we are simply responding to what is happening around us

our habits and character and destiny... well...

most of the time we forget those are patterns and aspects of our lives

we are too busy keeping track of where we need to be and what we need to do

Yet, All of these things can be changed.

We can direct and shape our thoughts

we can control our actions and habits

which shape our character and destiny

In effect, while this poster is trying to get students to realize that they have agency in their lives

it is also a free will based, theologically charged, wisdom text.

Reflecting on this text could lead to higher functioning.

This is what I have been reflecting on with the passages we heard this morning.

God calls us to make God-centered decisions.

This connection between words and actions is very present in our readings and prayers for today

The Collect of the Day says, "Grant that by your inspiration we may think those things that are right, and by your merciful guiding may do them"

thinking leads to doing.

Jesus tells Matthew to follow me and he gets up and follows him.

The way the story is recorded, its a split second decision that changes his whole life.

And then also in the Gospel text,

While they are having dinner, a synagogue leader comes to Jesus and tells him he needs his help

Jesus gets up and goes

no questions are asked, no dilly dallying happens

there are words and then there are direct actions

The decisions are moved by the Holy Spirit and lead to new life.

I don't think we don't need to moralize or overthink every decision we make,

but in some ways, we do have to be careful what we think, say, and do

because Jesus does ask us to pay attention to our decisions and make God-centered decisions.

Jesus calls Matthew, all the disciples, and in perpetuity, all his followers

to follow him.

Which means, to make Jesus-God-the Holy Spirit the central aspect of our lives

to listen and act from God-centered decisions.

And all Christians say, of course.

But how we make decisions in our lives affects more than we realize

And many times we say we follow Jesus, when our thoughts, actions, decisions

show something entirely else.

Other people can tell a lot about us from the decisions we make and how we make them.

In the passages we hear this morning, Matthew and Jesus both make decisions in the moment that

put their trust in God

they are in line with other ways in which we see them make decisions later on.

Jesus regularly responds to people asking for help in an immediate way.

Matthew becomes a disciple and while we don't hear much about him specifically afterwards,

we assume he traveled with and witnessed and was sent out with the other disciples.

There are a lot of frameworks for how we can make decisions in our world today.

Many people simply react to the world around them, doing things without necessarily thinking about the decisions behind the actions.

Lots of people, communities, and groups have guiding frameworks.

Rotary has the four way test. Doctors and nurses have guiding frameworks for how to triage and make medical decisions.

Lots of businesses have practical tools to help employees in situations in order to have the best decisions made for the whole company.

Christians are called to make decisions through discernment, prayer and listening to God and putting Christ in the center of their thoughts and principles.

Some of us learn these frameworks explicitly

like when a doctor is told, this is how to act and make triage decisions

and others, implicitly, through experience and mistakes along our journeys.

Later this month I will be joining the youth from Christ Church Short Hills

on a pilgrimage to California to learn about the Spanish missions.

We will be using the guiding theme and acronym

LOVE: learn, observe, verify, empower

This is a way for us to teach the youth to love and give them a framework for making loving decisions.

On the trip we will be learning about the Spanish Missions in California and the ways in which they colonized the region.

The Franciscan friars who started the missions were trying to bring God to the indigenous people who lived there.

But since they were also accompanied by Spanish and later Mexican and then United States military presences,

there were also other agendas, God was not in the center of the decisions

so the ways in which colonization happened were frequently not very loving.

However, we will be working with the youth to show them how when love, God's love, is the guiding framework,

we can learn from others, we can observe where God is already at work, we can verify with the people involved,

and we can empower others to know God's love already present with them.

God calls all of us to make God-centered decisions

and for our teens, that means learning and practicing what that looks like.

As those of us who have lived a few more years than our teens have already learned,

we are going to make mistakes.

Making decisions can be tricky business

how do we know we are making the right decision?

Is salad or are roasted vegetables better for me?

there are decisions that are right for us in one moment, that aren't right for us at other times

there are objectively right decisions, those that impact ours and others freedom and ability to live

decisions to offer love and care for ourselves, others, and the planet

but sometimes it can be very hard to figure those out.

All decisions come down to grace and love

grace with ourselves in making the decisions and recognizing that some of the decisions we make are going to be mistakes

and love in trying to find the best decision for those who are most impacted by the decisions we make.

In our Baptismal Covenant we recognize

that we are going to mess up and we are going to need to repent

we are going to need to start over

and we need God's grace and help and guidance

we think and say and do everything with God's help.

As we go on our pilgrimage of life, we learn, we grow,

we can get better at making God-centered decisions.

(this is our hope and promise for Ophelia as she publicly joins the family of God this morning)

So that when Jesus calls us in our lives

we are able to make the God-centered decision.