Liturgy: “Choose Life and Prosperity Over Death and Destruction”

“Life” and “prosperity” are our spiritual disciplines, prayer, worship, connections with family and fellow Christians, working to improve our communities—all of which bring increase and blessing.

2/16 Liturgy photo by jake-nackos from unsplash
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What is the King’s Liturgy? King’s Liturgy defines our experience together as a Christian community. It outlines the rhythms we celebrate with the Church at large: Scripture readings, Sabbath habits, and celebration of Holy Days and historical events.

This Week’s Lectionary Readings
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
1 Corinthians 3:1-9
Matthew 5:21-37
Psalm 119:1-8

This week’s liturgy is contributed by Dr. Ethan Campbell, Associate Professor of English and Literature:
In the reading from Deuteronomy this week, the nation of Israel sits at the border of the Promised Land, and God gives them a choice: “See, I set before you today life and prosperity, [or] death and destruction.”

For most of us, it’s rare to be faced with such a stark choice. But it does happen.

Last year, I attended the 90th birthday party of my friend Harry Davis, who recently retired from a staff position at the Christian drug addiction ministry Teen Challenge. Harry’s life-and-death decision came when he was living on the streets in lower Manhattan in the 1980s. He was 62 years old at the time, addicted to heroin, and had been homeless for many years. He spent most days in the shadow of the old World Trade Center, where he would bathe in a public fountain.

One day, a Teen Challenge counselor named Vivian Hernandez met him there and invited him to the center in Brooklyn for a meal. She told him that people were praying for him, hoping that he would come, that he could meet Jesus there and get help.

He could choose life and prosperity over death and destruction.

At first, Harry insisted it would do no good. “It’s too late for me,” he said. “I’m too old to change.” But Vivian persisted, day after day, and eventually he took up her offer.

I met Harry a decade later, he ran the kitchen at the Brooklyn center, which served hundreds of meals per week. He was a boisterous and wise-cracking boss, with a Bible verse for every occasion and an uncanny ability to sniff out workers who were slacking. Often I would hear rather than see him, as he belted out old gospel tunes from the depths of the kitchen. At his 90th birthday, his permanent smile was gigantic as ever; I won’t be surprised to see it look the same at his 100th.

For Harry, the choice between prosperity and destruction couldn’t have been more literal. In fact, Deuteronomy 30 is a favorite passage among recovering addicts at Teen Challenge, whose decision to stay in a rehab program is a daily life-and-death choice.

Their stories are important for us to hear, as a reminder that all of us make the same choice, even if it doesn’t seem as dramatic. For us, “death” might be isolation, freezing out relationships in favor of mindless entertainment. “Destruction” might be anxiety and stress, as we pursue academic and career success at the expense of spiritual health. “Life” and “prosperity” are our spiritual disciplines, prayer, worship, connections with family and fellow Christians, working to improve our communities—all of which bring increase and blessing.

As Dr. Johnson points out in his Hebrew Scripture course, when God gives Israel this choice, he’s not telling them it’s a one-time deal. It’s a decision they must make daily, as they “walk in his ways” and “keep his commands, decrees, and laws.” God sets these before all of us, just as surely as he did for Harry, and says, “Now choose life!”


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