Worshipping Choice

As Americans we grow up being sold the idea that we get to choose what we want. Our lives, our destiny, are up to us. We are sold products and we have an immense selection at our grocery stores and other retail outlets. We are pleaded with during election season to vote and we are told that we get to elect (or choose) our leadership. In other words, we are the owners of choices that we get to make. These choices impact our lives.

Growing up in a capitalist and republican society, we are sold the idea of freedom and we exercise this freedom of choice so often, it becomes thoroughly ingrained in us. Unlike most of the people throughout human history, we get to elect our leaders too. What a luxury to get to have a say in who rules over you! What a novel idea! But, have you ever been in a situation where you didn’t have a choice or the choices that you had were undesirable or only negligibly different? For an American, situations like these can bring out unsavory attitudes like pride.

Unfortunately, this mindset of freedom of choice bleeds over to the outlook American Christians take on their proclaimed Lord. How often have you seen or heard of people claiming that Jesus is their Lord and then proceed to act or speak in ways that Jesus would readily condemn? I am guilty of this as well; there are times when I pray and recognize Jesus as my king and the next moment, I act in such a way as to nullify the words I just prayed. I believe that we, Christians in America, have been pulled in two different ways and if we do not recognize this we may be making choices that have unintended consequences.

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus proclaimed:

As Americans, we tend to act as though we can have our freedom of choice and our Christianity too. What I mean is this: we easily pick and choose what pieces of the scriptures and Jesus’ life we want to follow and imitate. We also choose when and where we follow the Bible. We rationalize this in all kinds of ways, but you may not realize that something deeper is happening.

Jesus is our Lord (you have said so yourself). He is the King of Heaven. He is a king. As Americans, we don’t have a full appreciation of what this means since we do not live in a physical monarchy. A king is the supreme ruler of the nation. What he says goes. If anyone says or does anything contrary to the king’s direction, they are guilty, not just of breaking the law, but of treason. A subject of the King of France, for instance, who supported, advocated for, and advanced the causes of foreign rulers, was seen as acting against the state (truly against the king himself).

As Christians, when we choose to sin, we are not just making a simple mistake that Jesus will soon brush off and forget. We are committing treason. Are you fighting against your king? Did you think that you could just choose to follow this Lord when it is convenient? We are truly deceived when we think that we, ourselves, get to choose when and if we follow Christ. Once we submit to his rule, we are in the kingdom. There is no straddling the border (this does not mean that when we struggle to do good and still fail, we are enemies of the state; it simply means that we have a lot to learn). Our hearts must remain committed to serving our king.

We have committed ourselves to choose what Jesus would choose for the rest of our lives. As he said:

We submit ourselves to his authority and give up ourselves so that he and his realm can live and reign through us. We are conquered subjects of the greatest ruler in history. There is no king like him. We should not second-guess ourselves at this point; we should simply trust and obey.

So, what kind of subject are you? Are you a loyal servant? Are you a treasonous insurgent? Do you act as if you get to pick and choose when Jesus is your Lord? We are at times silly, capitalist, republican Americans, who think we get to elect our Lord. Don’t let your freedom of choice deceive you into thinking that Jesus is supposed to be subservient to your will. Trust and Obey. Submit to the Lord.

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