13th Sunday after Trinity year B – Joshua 24:1-2a; 14-18; John 6:56-69

Choices, choices, choices.

Life is full of choices.

Most choices we make however are pretty unimportant. I wonder … Football or rugby, owls or larks, dog or cat, vanilla or raspberry ripple.

All these are a matter of choice and happily we are all different so we all like to choose different things, different pizza toppings, different music to listen to, different colours to wear. It’s wonderful and important that we are all different.

There are however, some things we can’t choose, because it’s been decided that there is a collective good way of doing them. In the UK, we all drive on the left hand side of the road, there is no choice, if we want to avoid chaos and serious injury, we drive on the left. We all pay taxes on what we earn so that everyone, both rich and poor, can have access to education and health care provision.

Some choices are life changing. Where to live, who to marry, at different stages of our life we face a multiple of different choices. We are blessed, we have many choices to make. Other people have fewer choices available to them, the people of Gaza, Ukraine, those who are seeking refuge and shelter.

In our Old Testament reading from Joshua this morning, the conquest of Canaan is complete, and the promised land is occupied. Now, near the end of his life, Joshua wants the people to decide, whether they really do want to serve the Lord their God or not, whether they want to renew the covenant that binds them to one another and to God. It is a moment of decision: the renewal of a decision made before – perhaps by others, parents or grandparents, on their behalf – which involves breaking with the past and embracing the future Joshua holds before them.

The heart of this passage is verse 15 ‘Choose this day whom you will serve.’ Will they serve the God who rescued them from slavery in Egypt, or the smorgasbord of gods worshipped by their neighbours?

Joshua leads by example. ‘but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.’

He makes it clear that they will only be choosing wisely if they choose to worship God, as he is real and powerful and the other gods are not.

It’s a bit like asking Colchester United if they are going to play with a football or a tennis ball in a league match. There really isn’t much point in playing with anything other than the real thing.

In the Gospel reading, after a brief reminder of what we heard last week, John reveals that Jesus is speaking in the synagogue at Capernaum. I wonder, how did Jesus and his entourage get from the lake into the synagogue? Was the conversation happening on the way from the shore to the building? Or was it in the synagogue on a sabbath? Was it happening as yet more eating was taking place – synagogue gatherings usually involved a meal followed by a structured conversation?

All this leads up to the response of the people, including the disciples – still at this stage a loose band of people, from the very committed, to the hangers-on, and generally, the response is pretty negative – this teaching is difficult, they say – echoing the complaints of the people in the wilderness after the Exodus. They had been pleased to be fed but they couldn’t stomach the teaching. And Jesus doesn’t answer the complaint; rather he compounds it with words about the Son of Man returning whence he came, and implying that even if these people saw that happen, they wouldn’t find the teaching acceptable.

At that moment, many people left him.

Jesus asks the 12 if they want to go too, and we get Peter’s great confession in verse 68 ‘Lord to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.’

Perhaps this is the point of the whole section. Is Jesus sifting the wheat from the chaff, getting to grips with the group that he will have to work with for the next couple of years and trying to ensure that they have some inkling of what they are signing up for?

Jesus asks his followers to follow him, no matter what the cost. But the choice to do so is full of unknowns. The disciples who stay with Jesus will walk with him on his journey towards Jerusalem and the cross. Jesus does not offer easy answers; instead he requires commitment to a way of life that demands a leap of faith.

And yet as Peter says ‘Lord to whom can we go … you have the words of eternal life.

I wonder, if we had been there, what would we have done?

I wonder, what choices do we make today?

Jesus continues by asking ‘Do you also wish to go away?’

It is a choice, but one with eternal consequences. And how do people know how to answer, unless they are given the choice and the options in the first place?

One thing that kept coming up at the recent vision away day, as people thought and dreamed about what the parishes would look like in 5 years time, was that there would be regular courses like Alpha, for people to explore the Christian faith.

It just so happened, that I was planning on running an Alpha for the 6 parishes anyway in the autumn, but it certainly prompted me to set the dates, and begin the planning in earnest.

Alpha, presents people with the choice to find out more about the Christian faith, in an non-confrontational, non-judgemental, relaxed environment.

Just as food was important in the synagogue culture of its time. So food remains a central feature of any alpha course, because over food, relationships develop and deepen. After food there is a short film to watch, and then a time of discussion in small groups.

Running an alpha Course for the six parishes, presents us all with a choice.

Which of our friends and family would we like to encourage to come along?

Invitation is key to many people to finding their way to Jesus, Andrew invited Peter, with the simple words, Come and See, and Peter became the rock on which the church is built, the one who declares today ‘Lord to whom can we go, you have the words of eternal life.’ So who are you going to invite? At the back of the church, there are invitations that you can pick up and pass on to people.

There are choices about how much you want to be involved. Can you offer one or two evenings, where you help with the catering? Can you give up time every week to be a small group host, or small group helper? Can you offer assistance with transport if that is needed?

There are many ways in which everyone can help.

And above all, can you pray.

Can you pray, specifically for Alpha, every day in the run up to the 26th September, as invitations are sent out, to baptism families, wedding couples, given to friends and family, can you pray that people respond with open hearts and minds, and that any barriers to attending, might fall down, and that people come along. Pray for the team who will leading the sessions every week, for all who are helping with the catering and the logistics.

Finally could you be a prayer partner, praying throughout each of the sessions, that through the conversations, the films and through the love shown in generous hospitality, lives will be transformed and people will come to know, just as Peter did, that really there is no choice ‘to whom can we go, you have the words of eternal life.’

How do we choose to use this opportunity … the choice is there, for each one of us. Let us choose wisely.

Let’s pray.

To whom can we go, you have the words of eternal life. Lord Jesus, help us to bring others, that they might see, that through you, they can know life in all its fullness. Amen