Matthew 5:1-12, 48 (The Message Bible)
Introduction
Imagine you’re standing in a hallway lined with doors that extends forever into infinity, and you’re told behind each door is a prize. Now you can open as many doors as you want, but you can only choose one prize, and once you choose a prize, you can no longer open any more doors.
The dilemma becomes then, you may find a prize behind a door you like, but who’s to say the prize behind the next door won’t be just a little bit better? You should probably open it just to be sure, right? But the prize ten doors down might be way better? You should probably open that door too.
This exercise is called the Infinite Hallway and is designed to illustrate the tyranny of having too many options. Comedian Aziz Ansari referenced this exercise in his book Modern Romance, while talking about how dating apps can increase relationship anxiety and generate “FOMO”— “fear of missing out” because a better match could just be a swipe away.
But this tyranny of options can be felt in even the mundane. For instance, a study discovered that people in a grocery store were less likely to purchase a jar of jam when presented with more flavors and varieties because they were more anxious about making a regrettable choice in the face of so many options.
In his book, The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz writes, “The existence of multiple alternatives makes it easy for us to imagine alternatives that don’t exist — alternatives that combine the attractive features of the ones that do exist. And to the extent that we engage our imaginations in this way, we will be even less satisfied with the alternative we end up choosing.”
The consequences of too much choice extend far beyond our relationships, jam preferences, and endless Netflix scrolling. For example, a little over a hundred years ago, your career path was set before you were born. You’d do the work or learn the trade of your father (as he did with his father). And, if you were a woman, your career options were far more limited.
For the most part, we don’t live in that world anymore. And that’s a good thing. But, when faced with the illusion of infinite choice — in our careers, relationships, etc. — we hold onto the false hope that perfection is waiting just around the corner. But what so often happens is we end up mourning choices not made and roads not taken because we’re more aware of life’s possibilities and alternative branches.
But that’s not even the biggest problem with the Infinite Hallway. The bigger problem is how we trick ourselves into assuming our infinite hallway is infinite — as if we’ll always have time to explore more options and possibilities. But we don’t have infinite time. We are finite beings — we run out of time.
Which means then, we need to reframe our thinking. Yes, every decision we make is a trade-off that closes the doors to other opportunities. However, it’s the act of choosing in the face of so many choices that makes our decision so important and so powerful. They become decisions rooted in our core values, in who we are, in our true identity.
Move 1
Our text for today is from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and is the part of that sermon commonly known as the Beatitudes which articulate the core principles of our faith—of who we are as Christians. We can even say the Beatitudes encompass our identity. They are inclusive, compassionate, giving, supportive, hope filled, and loving. And they are straightforward and simple. You could think of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) as Christianity 101, and the Beatitudes is where the course begins. And this was how Jesus always presented the Kingdom of God. He unfailingly kept his lessons simple.
When Jesus is asked, “What is the greatest commandment?” he responds with the Shema— a foundational statement of Hebrew faith: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind.” He then adds, “The second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” — straightforward, simple, foundational, and key identifiers of those who followed Jesus.
The Beatitudes are straightforward, simple, and foundational core competencies, the knowledge of which is critical for mastering what it means to be a Christian. The repetition of the Greek word “makarios”—which means “happy,” “satisfied” or “blessed”— was what his listeners expected, but as was typical of Jesus’ teaching, he was actually turning common wisdom on its head—which is yet another identifier of those who follow Jesus.
As Matthew suggests with the phrase “the Kingdom of Heaven,” which brackets this passage (verses 3 and 10), Jesus is not describing life in the ordinary world in which sinful humanity seems to be in charge, but life in the emerging kingdom where God is sovereign. This is the New World in which those who mourn are comforted; where those who are meek receive their inheritance; where those who seek the Kingdom of God find their quest fulfilled.
This Kingdom of God is a reality that shatters the conventional limitations of space and time. It is the realm of the already, of the here-and-now, and of the not-yet. Paul describes it, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we shall see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully” (1 Corinthians 13:12).
The Kingdom of God is already here; it has always been here, manifested in God’s very act of creation. It is the reality that we, like the first disciples, experience in the presence of Jesus Christ as eternity is unfurled among us.
The Kingdom of God lies at the core of the Christian identity— holding onto the hope that the kingdom we now see only partially and hesitantly will ultimately be fully realized. Matthew’s Gospel presents the Beatitudes as an exposition of this hope. They are the ABCs of who we are. They are what we are not only called to share, but they are also what we are to embody so that these principles, these blessings are deeply engrained and seen as our identity.
We live in a world where we have infinite choices of who we will be. The infinite hallway is ever before us. But our choices influence how the world around us perceives us. Our choices impact and influence our identity.
Move 2
Popular television shows like Friends, How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, Modern Family, and New Girl depict modern life as an endless parade of zany misadventures, unannounced visitors, and group hangouts, where no one is ever bored, and no one is ever lonely.
And yet we find ourselves more likely to spend a Friday evening watching the very television shows that promise us a lifestyle of tribal community than we are to experience it for ourselves. And, paradoxically, we are not alone. According to a recent General Social Survey, the number of Americans who say they have no close friends has tripled over the past three decades, and the average number of people a person feels like they can talk about “important matters” has dropped from three to two.
Jennie Allen in her book, Find Your People writes, “We’ve replaced intrusive, real conversations with small talk, and we’ve substituted soul-baring, deep, connected living with texts and a night out together every once in a while, because the superficial stuff seems more manageable and less risky.”
People are, for lack of a better term, social animals. We all yearn for the support and validation that comes from being accepted by a like-minded community. But as we become more disillusioned with the trappings of modernity, we increasingly look toward technology to fill the relational void in our lives.
Allen continues, saying, “In a short evolutionary time, we have changed from group-living primates skilled at reading each other’s every gesture and intention to a solitary species, each one of us preoccupied with our own screen. Consequently, surface-level connections and validation from strangers will never be enough to replace our innate desire to be known, celebrated, and challenged by people willing to risk the social cost of vulnerability.”
We live in a highly individualistic consumerist culture, and we’re conditioned from a young age to place the fulfillment of our personal desires above the common good. We face broad existential threats — nuclear annihilation, ecological collapse, systemic injustice, the rise of authoritarianism, income inequality, etc. — and people all around the world still die from warfare, famine, and preventable disease. Humanitarian crises and exploitation abound.
But we may be living in the first era of human history in which the majority of that suffering and injustice can be prevented or held to account. We have the awareness, knowledge, technology, and resources to continue the global trend toward peace, prosperity, higher quality of life, and solution-focused public policy. But we are lacking the perspective, imagination, and agency to believe we can do anything about it because we want from the world what we are so often hesitant to dole out to others — justice, love, harmony, understanding, and kindness.
So what are we to do? The answer to that question lies in why I chose to read today’s scripture from Eugene Peterson’s translation of the Bible, The Message.” To quote Jesus’s words in the Sermon on the Mount: “In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You are kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.”
I love the bluntness of Eugene Peterson’s translation. It’s time to grow up. And it’s time to stop convincing ourselves there is something better behind another door, and start realizing the best prize has already been given to us.
Conclusion
For the last few weeks, we have been focusing on challenging the challenges of this world, this life, this culture—and we held one Church Chat to go deeper into that focus, and we will hold another one today.
And in these conversations, we are asking ourselves these questions… How would you describe First Christian Church of Stow when we are being our best self as a church? Based on what we are—when at our best—what challenges should we challenge in our community? What do you feel God is calling us to be now? What do you feel God is calling us to do next?
These questions are all rooted the call we discern from God and the direction God is leading us. But they are even more so rooted in our identity as a church. Are we a church that chooses the status quo? Are we a church that is ok still being known as “the pumpkin church.” Are we a church that is traversing the infinite hallway? Or are we a church that will show ourselves to be a little bit more like the Kingdom of God? The choice is ours. Amen.
Pastoral Prayer, August 27, 2023
Gracious God, in a word, in a manner of speaking, you call us to “grow up” and live like the followers of Christ we have become by showing the world around us our identity—our true identity—those who share and live and embody the Good News of your son, our Savior, Jesus. So renew a right spirit within us, O God, a spirit that knows our deep need of your grace and deliverance. Free us from trying to save ourselves. Free us for the fullness of your kingdom, for too often we slip back into thinking and acting like children who only take the care given them, and then simply go about until they need that care again.
We know you call us to more. We know you want us to do more than just receive your grace and love. We know you want us to embody it and share it so that your Kingdom that has come will be known and experienced by all your children.
Holy God, help us understand that the world we live in is yearning for connection—connection to something holy and sacred for sure, but also a connection with a caring and loving and trustworthy community that assures us we are not alone— a community that shows us there is something, and someone, far more real than what we see on the screens we hold in front of our faces.
So show us again Divine Creator, that your creation is filled with possibilities we are able to take hold of and embrace. Help us to know this truth deep within our spirits so we stop trying to convince ourselves there is something better behind the next door, or the next. Help us to know the very best has already been given, and that it is given each new day.
Help us to embody the identity that we have been given—that we are children of the most Holy. And then help us to share that identity, and your unending gift, to the world around us.
Hear now we ask, the prayers on our hearts we need to lift to you in this time of Holy Silence.
All this we pray in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ, who taught us to pray saying, “Our…”