Choose One Chair

Background Passages: Joshua 24:14-15, Matthew 6:21, 24, Luke 10:25-28

In one of those humorous snippets in the Reader’s Digest a few years ago, a woman shared about flying on a small airplane. The lone flight attendant came down the aisle and asked the man in the row in front of her if he would like dinner.

He said, “What are my choices?”

She smiled sweetly and replied, “Yes or no?”

On one hand, we’d like life to be that simple. The choices limited and clear-cut. Most of the time life is not that simple. In our chaotic world we face multiple decision points daily that impact the way we live and relate to one another and to God.

Too often, we straddle the fence, holding on to the ways of the world on one side and trying to please God on the other. In reality, in the question of a choice between what the world offers and what God requires, the answer is a simple “yes or no.”

Famed tenor Luciana Pavarotti once talked about the influence of his father upon his life. The star of the Metropolitan Opera said his father, recognizing his gift, urged him to work hard to develop his voice. Pavarotti studied under Arrigo Pola, a professional tenor in Modena, Italy. Covering his options, Pavarotti also enrolled in a teacher’s college.

When he graduated, he asked his father if he should be a teacher or a singer.

“Luciana,” his father replied, “if you try to sit on two chairs, you will fall between them. For life, you must choose one chair.”

Pavarotti said, “I chose one. It took seven years of study and frustration before I made my first professional appearance. It took another seven to reach the Metropolitan Opera. And now I think whether it is laying bricks, writing a book…whatever we choose…we should give ourselves to it. Commitment, that’s the key. Choose one chair.”

I marvel at the father’s wisdom. It is difficult to split our focus if we want to find success in anything. It is especially sage advice as we enter a new year in faith and service to God.

When it comes to our faith commitment for 2022, maybe it’s time to say “yes or no.” Maybe it’s time to choose one chair.

It had been a period of rest for Israel. The pitched battles fought to conquer the Promised Land, were now a part of their history. They had lived for years in the land God promised in relative peace. Joshua, their leader during this tumultuous time, had grown old.

Knowing his time on earth was ending, Joshua called together the leaders of every tribe. He took the opportunity to remind them of God’s promises fulfilled. The battles he fought for them. The victories he had secured on their behalf. He told them to remember it all.

Joshua reminded them of God’s unfailing presence, provision and protection. Then, he challenged them to live out their lives in service and worship to the one true God.

“Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the river and in Egypt and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether it be the gods your forefathers served beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. But, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:14-15)

Joshua said, for all intents and purposes, “Choose one chair.”

He laid his challenge clearly before them. Do what you will, but I will serve the Lord.

Joshua chose his chair.

In one way Jesus also talked about choosing one chair.

Jesus warned his followers that…

“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also…No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” (Matthew 6:21, 24)

Jesus taught that the things we value reveal our hearts. If all the things we value and set our hearts upon are of this world, then our only interest will be in things of this world and not on the things of God.

William Barclay wrote, “Jesus never taught that the things of the world are unimportant; but he said and implied over and over again that its importance is not in itself, but in that to which it leads. Therefore, a man should never lose his heart to this world and to the things of this world for his eyes ought ever to be fixed on the world beyond.” In other words, yes or no. Choose one chair.

Jesus reminded his disciples that splitting our loyalties between two worlds never works. The passage in scripture suggests that no one can serve two masters, but that meaning is not nearly strong enough. The Greek word translated “serve” means “to be a slave to.” The word for “master” equates to “absolute ownership.” The more literal translation is that no man can be a slave to two owners.

Barclay emphasized our relationship to God. He, and he alone, must be the absolute and undisputed master (Lord and boss) of our lives. It is never a matter of what I want to do, but what God desires of me.

Jesus declared to his followers, “You cannot serve God and money.” The Hebrew word for “money,” is better translated “material possessions.” It speaks in some ways to the way we allow other things to take hold of our lives. Do we put our trust in God or in the things of this world?

We enter a new year with a world of chairs…a world of choices. It has been that way since Adam and Eve tasted the apple. We determine the God or gods we serve by the decisions we make. By those things we choose to chase.

I ended last year knowing that I didn’t always make the best choices in my service to God. I ended last year knowing I often tried to hide parts of myself from God. I ended last year recognizing how often I held back certain aspects of life, unwilling to completely surrender my life to him.

Those aspects of my life are the gods beyond the river to which I tend to cling. They are the choices I made to serve a different master while claiming to serve God.

Nicodemus, a devout Pharisee, came to Jesus under the cover of darkness, to ask a probing and penetrating question. “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Not the standard trick question asked by so many of the religious leaders who wished to silence and discredit Jesus. Nicodemus approached Jesus sincerely, with a desire to know.

Jesus asked him to clarify what the law said. Nicodemus replied with words from the Torah.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength and with all your mind…and love your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:25-27)

Jesus’s reply was straightforward. “Do this and you shall live.” What came next was a rich discussion about being born again. Reprioritizing one’s life. Choosing one chair.

This verse, along with those in Joshua and Matthew remind me that when I get attached to my things or my desires, when I put my focus somewhere other than God’s will for my life, I cannot serve God with all my heart, mind, strength and soul. There can be no fence straddling. No neutrality. Those verses draw a line in the sand. I am called each day…each hour of the day…to choose whom I will serve. Yes or no. I must choose one chair.

Joshua made a radical, public statement: “I have chosen the Lord!” I must be willing to state the same.

A new year is a time for resolutions, those internal promises we make to eliminate the bad habits and embrace a higher version of ourselves. Maybe you face the same choice in this new year.

Joshua invited the people of Israel to make their choice. Choose one chair.

God extends this same invitation to us and we must decide. Choose one chair.

Will we love him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength? Choose one chair.

Once we choose God’s chair, we put our decision into practice. We choose to come to him. We choose to serve him daily.

Joshua’s passionate choice was personal and permanent. As I look to the new year, I join him in his commitment. I ask you to do the same. Only then will we change our lives, our families, our church, our community, our country, our world.

Today, I make this my new year’s resolution, “But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

Together in 2022, let’s choose his chair.