“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil” (Deut. 30:15).

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

Indeed, God has set before you life and good.

He gives you life at conception and birth;

He pours new life into you at your Baptism;

today He feeds His life into you through the Body and Blood of His Son Jesus Christ who takes away your sin.

What He does NOT do is keep you alive against your will.

And whether you remain alive or end up eternally dead now depends entirely on you.

Now I know that may surprise you,

for as Lutherans you rejoice in the absolute assurance from God’s Word that your eternal life and salvation does NOT depend on anything you do –

and this is most certainly true!

You live with the confident hope that life and salvation are yours as pure gift, purchased and won for you in Christ crucified and risen –

given to you like a free pass to paradise through your Baptism.

But the bad news is, you can walk away from that life anytime you want.

You can turn from your Baptism and the promise of life given there –

You have that choice.

And that is the very choice that our OT reading speaks of this morning:

“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil.

If you love the Lord your God, listen to His Word, and go the way He shows you, then you will live.

But if you turn from God’s Word and blow off the way of life He has provided for your own good;

if you are not content to have the things the Lord has given you and insist instead on having those things He said you must NOT take, then you will die (Deu 30:15-18 paraphrase).”

It’s the decision you get to make every time temptation rears its ugly head.

It’s the decision you make every time you make a choice whether or not to sin.

God has given you life, but you can choose death any time you want.

Now, in all my years of preaching, I think I’ve probably had one or two “famous” sermons…

One began with a joke (everyone remembers a good joke), the other included an address I offered before prom night as a metaphor…

Well, today I’ve decided to resurrect the prom metaphor!

Granted – my daughters, John and Jo’s sons Ben and Eric, and a host of other young people are not sitting in the second pew the way they were the first time I offered this,

but it should still serve our purpose!

You see, in the beginning, God gave us the breath of life and said,

“I have given it all for you – the plants, the animals, the birds and fish…

the perfect mate in the perfect vacation spot –

Have a blast, kids – it’s all yours!

Just don’t take what has not been given to you, and everything will be good.”

You remember Genesis 1 and 2, right?

The starting point is pure gift, blessing, abundance beyond our wildest imagination –

It’s ALL good at the start.

But now that the man and woman are given life, they have a choice, don’t they…

They can hear God’s Word, trust God’s Word, and remain in God’s Word for the wonderful life He gives,

OR… they can give ear to Satan’s competitive word, take what the devil offers, and suffer the deadly consequences.

Seems like a no-brainer, right?

And yet, given this choice between perfect life and certain death, Adam and Eve choose poorly.

They reject God’s Word –

they take the thing they were TOLD would hurt them,

and they broke their Father’s heart and walked straight out of paradise and straight into hell –

the same thing YOU do every time YOU sin.

Which brings me to prom night.

For there are many things our young Adams and Eves have in common with the first Adam and Eve –

Fathers who love them and want the best for them –

a whole world wide open to them –

a young man and a young woman in paradise, nothing but given to:

fine clothes, fine food, fine music, good times… Pure gift.

On prom night, like that first day in the Garden of Eden, this young man and young woman are given the world on a silver platter.

And they are told by their father to have a good time,

to rejoice in all these great things they have received,

and not to ruin it by doing the things that can hurt them.

And as our young Adams and Eves walk out the door, corsages in hand, tuxes in tow,

the choice is now theirs –

Remember their father’s words, trust that what he says is true, and rejoice in the gifts he has given so that they leave the forbidden things alone,

or give ear to the devil, take the forbidden fruit, and suffer the consequences.

What do they do? They can do whatever they want! They have set before them life and good, death and evil…

They can ignore their father’s word and go their own way.

They can turn from the wonderful things they have been given to grasp hold of the very things that are forbidden.

They can actually enslave themselves to the prince of this world, giving in to peer pressure or whatever you want to call it that offers its bent and twisted temptations in a way that actually makes them look cool –

a little vodka in the punch,

maybe a hit of coke in the men’s room,

perhaps even a little sex at the end of the night if they’re “really lucky…”

They reject their father’s word,

they take the things they were told would hurt them,

and they break their parent’s hearts as they walk right out of paradise and straight into hell without even realizing the terrible mistakes they are making.

Now, Lord knows we all love our children.

Lord knows we want them to choose wisely and to be content with the wonderful gifts that we have given them.

And as we see in our reading today,

God our Father feels exactly the same way about each and every one of you.

For God does indeed love you as His own dear children –

He has given you life, provided for your every need,

and now He wants nothing more than for you to fear, love, and trust in Him, to receive the gifts He gives, and to have a blast.

But with the gift comes the choice:

You can Love God, walk in His ways, keep His commandments, and live (Deu 30:16),

OR… you can turn your hearts away, refuse His Word for your life, and follow whatever little god floats your boat –

money, pleasure, drunkenness, sex, popularity, whatever.

You are free to chose what you feel is right for you, regardless of what God’s Word says –

And THAT is the terrible choice that is always yours to make!

You want to take up homosexuality as a life-style? Nobody’s stopping you. In fact, the world is on your side.

You want an abortion? Get one – that is your right according to the law of the land.

You want to have sex with your girlfriend, get stoned, cheat on your exams? Be my guest!

Buy all the porn you can get your hands on, get drunk, gossip away, curse a blue streak…

You can have death any way you want it, any time you want it.

That is, after all, what sin is.

Sin is death, body and soul, pure and simple.

And it breaks your Father’s heart.

So why go there? God chose life for you –

In fact, even after Adam and Eve chose sin and death for the world, God has still chosen life for you!

He promised to reverse the curse, to rescue you from death, to destroy the devil,

and to deliver you back to the life for which we were created.

And all this He did only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy,

without any merit or worthiness in you.

Rather than handing you over to the beating, the grounding, even the very hell you deserved,

He sent His Son Jesus to save you from that.

He paid the price for you.

He cleaned up your mess.

He gathered all the deadly, bitter consequences of all those terrible things you have said and done,

and He pounded them back into the devil’s skull on Golgotha.

By His death on the cross, Jesus buried your sin in that hell so that you could be free to enjoy the life for which you were created –

the life He poured out in your Baptism, your Confirmation,

your new birth, your “new genesis…”

You don’t have to walk in the way of darkness anymore.

You don’t have to go the way of death to max out your enjoyment of life!

Not only that, but as a child of God, like the children of any other good family,

you actually get to help others steer clear of their bad decisions.

When you live in the peace and joy that come with being content in having all the blessings of God, people will notice –

And they will come to you with their broken lives and the terrible consequences of their deadly decisions…

And you can show them the way back to life.

You can be a part of the solution in this fallen world, and not a part of the problem!

“Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the LORD your God,

obeying His voice and holding fast to Him,

for He is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land of the LORD” (Deu 30:19-20) –

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Preached by Pastor Holowach

Sermon text: Deuteronomy 30:15-20