It’s breakfast time.
Oatmeal or granola? Sourdough toast or a bagel with cream cheese?
Since it’s winter, my favorite choice—and I love to contemplate this while thinking of friends in frigid Nebraska or icy Wisconsin—involves sauntering a few steps from my kitchen. Should I drink OJ from the supermarket or head outside to determine which oranges are ripe on our backyard trees? After grabbing a few, I’d then squeeze dee-licioius citrus nectar into a glass!
Choices for each person are more bountiful than the hairs on our head, the sand on the beach, the stars in the sky, or other clichés I could keep using. Tree-ripened or store-bought? Leaded or unleaded? Arise or punch the snooze button? Peets or Starbucks? Packers or Steelers?
The 6th Sunday of Epiphany – for February 13, 2011
I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live . . . (Deuteronomy 30:19)
“I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life,” Deuteronomy declares, blatantly speaking for the Holy with ancient words that are as fresh as the oranges dangling from my tree. Life or death . . . choose!
If only choices were that simple.
In 2010, Hurt Locker received the Best Picture Oscar. Though it holds the dubious reputation of being the least seen of any Best Picture, I believe it deserved the award. Of its many startling scenes (and I’m not spoiling the story for the zillions of you who didn’t see director Kathryn Bigelow’s flick), one that still lingers a year later comes toward the end. William James—actor Jeremy Renner—home from war, home from disarming bombs on the streets of Baghdad, goes shopping in a local supermarket. For long, long seconds, James stands in an aisle, surrounded by breakfast cereal. I set before you life and death. Choose: Cheerios or Cap’n Crunch or . . .? Continue reading →