How do you read the scriptures? How do you interpret the scriptures? What weight do you give to our history and our tradition? How does the Spirit move your heart and mind in study and prayer? What do you choose to do as a faithful man or faithful woman, a disciple and friend of Christ? These are, in broad terms, a few of the questions grabbing our attention today within the church.

We are a people who value questions and honest dialogue. The emphasis upon personal responsibility is one of the things I most like about the Episcopal Church and it is also one of the qualities that make it difficult to be an Episcopalian. Keeping the balance between personal responsibility and our responsibility to the larger community in both space and time, speaking the truth with charity, present Episcopalians with a constant challenge.

The readings from both Joshua and the Gospel according to John remind us that some things never change. God’s demand of personal responsibility is highlighted today. Joshua’s story begins with these words spoken by God to his servant, Moses: "The Lord said, ‘I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey….’" (Exodus 3:7-8)

God delivered his people and indeed brought them to the land. As we listen to Joshua today, as we listen to the response of the people to Joshua, we hear that in this moment of decision they choose to remember his deeds of power, they choose to remember God’s fulfillment of the promise (of deliverance) made to Moses, they choose, household by household, to serve the Lord along with Joshua and his household.

Hundreds of years later the moment of choosing for Peter and the others begins with a hungry crowd and the work of Jesus to feed the five thousand. It is the story we have been listening to over the last 3 weeks. The crowd is pleased and wants to make Jesus the bread king. Sensing this and knowing what his true mission is, Jesus retreats. The crowds find him. He reveals that he is the Bread come down from Heaven. He teaches that the one who eats his flesh and drinks his blood will live forever. On one level it sounds as cannibalistic today as it did then, and it was all together too much for many who simply wanted Jesus to feed them and not talk about the Bread come down from heaven and life eternal.

As that group left, grumbling, Jesus turns to the twelve and asks "Do you also wish to go away?" Simon Peter answered him, "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." (John 6:67-69)

Thousands of years later the pattern is the same for you and me. We have experienced something of the power of God, the grace of God, the work of God in our lives. We have experienced something of a personal relationship with our God. Each of us has already had to do some choosing in order to be here today. My experience is that choosing to follow the Lord must be renewed daily.

After our morning prayers, on our way to work or school or play, when we least expect it, when we feel ill prepared, we find ourselves in a moment of decision. In the midst of our daily routine, something happens and we must choose again. The moment comes differently for each of us, but it comes. Perhaps more importantly, it is not a once and forever moment. The moment of decision—as it was for Joshua and the people around him, as it was for Peter and the eleven (even for Judas)—comes repeatedly, sometimes in small ways sometimes in momentous ways as depicted in today’s readings.

Think about it. Look no further than Peter. The moment of decision in Capernaum is met and Peter and the others choose to continue to journey with Jesus. As Peter utters these words of belief he has yet to experience the betrayal of Judas, and his own denial of knowing Jesus. His choice at Capernaum is put to the test and he comes up short.

Peter has yet to see his teacher, "the Holy One of God," stripped, beaten, and humiliated. Peter has yet to experience the tortured death of Jesus on the cross, has yet to experience the burial of Jesus. Peter, with the others, chose in this moment of decision to hide, to save himself, to reconsider (perhaps) his earlier decisions.

When he receives the news that the Lord is risen Peter chooses not to believe, chooses to think that the reports of the women are some form of hysteria and misplaced love.

So it is with us. Perhaps in a moment of clarity and strength we choose to follow our Lord. We choose to respond with gratefulness and love to the work of God, the grace of God, the power of God in our life. Like Peter, we come to believe and know that Jesus is the Holy One of God. We choose to journey with Jesus.

Then, like Peter, we come to another moment of decision. Perhaps it is a moment of crisis: the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, declining health or the diagnosis of a terminal illness. Perhaps it is the overwhelming flow of bad news into our hearts and minds: natural disasters destroying homes and lives in a chaotic and capricious way, corrupt regimes serving their own interests rather than the interests of the people being governed, poverty and disease killing innocent children in the thousands. How could a good and loving God permit this? What’s the point of it all? Is this the world that God so loved that he sent his Son? Decision time. And after this moment will come another and another.

Our journey of faith is marked not by once and forever decisions for Jesus, but rather daily decisions to trust and follow the Holy One of God—Jesus. I’ll say again, as I hear these stories, as I look at you, as I prepare to celebrate and share the sacrament, the dynamic of personal responsibility valued by our Episcopal Church is a quality that appeals to me, engages me, gives me hope.

As I look out at you this morning I see men and women, young and old, who have chosen this day to come and hear the Word of God. I see men and women who seek to know Christ a little better, who come despite their doubts, misgivings, and past failures, to receive the Lord in both Word and Sacrament.

I also see men and women who come with the light of conviction that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. I see men and women who have decided that to live and love as Jesus did is the way to Peace and Justice.

As I look out at you this morning I know that each of us has chosen to know, love, and serve the Lord to the best of our ability and in full acknowledgement that we could do better (with God’s grace). Your choice and mine is no small thing in today’s world. Your choice and mine is not something to take for granted.

It is by the grace of God that we are here this morning, that we have chosen again today, to follow our Lord, chosen again today to make our Lord known through our words and actions. No matter where we may stand on the questions being talked about in our Episcopal Church, here, in our worship, we stand side by side and heart to heart as men and women who have chosen to seek and serve Christ—with the help of God. That gives me hope.

We are part of a long and glorious history that includes heroes like Joshua and Peter; we are part of a vast people—spanning the globe and spanning thousands of years of individual and communal decisions—who has come to believe and know that Jesus is the Holy One of God. Today, especially in our worship, let us rejoice in this knowledge, let us encourage and strengthen each other in this knowledge. Let us build each other up in love and for the love of God. This year, let us continue to invite others to come and share our joy, our hope, our strength, Jesus Christ, who is also our brother and savior.