Choose This Day

Robert E. Hall
Tarrytown United Methodist Church

November 9, 2008

Text: Joshua 24: 1-3a, 14-25

STONE MARKERS

On the campus of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, there is a stone marker with an inscribed plate on it.  The stone stands near where the old refectory stood, and where thousands of men and women dedicated to the ordained ministry or Christian education met for lunch or supper through the years. Since the seminary is so close to the UT campus, the stone marker is a reminder to anyone cutting through their campus that they are on consecrated ground-----real estate on which covenants were made long ago, and on which new covenants are made each year.

Cornerstones serve the same purpose. Often they have the names of the pastor and the Trustees who oversaw the construction of a building and then dedicated the building for sacred purposes.

These are signals that, on some bright day, people gathered there and prayed that the old, old story, “the riddle of things past” (Psalm 78) would be preached and taught and re-enacted until God brings in the kingdom in its fullness.Promises of God are claimed: that Jesus would be with them, that the God who had brought them thus far would give them courage for the trials and challenges ahead. And promises were made: that the congregation in that place, and their successors, would be “unswervingly loyal” to their God. Somewhere in the Middle East, near the ancient town of Shechem, in the valley between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, there is no doubt the same stone which was set down by Joshua. The account in Joshua 24 is strange to our ears:

Joshua took a large stone and set it up there under a pistachio tree, in the sanctuary precinct of the Lord. Then “He said to the people, ‘You see this stone----it will be a witness against us; for it has heard all the words which the Lord has spoken to us. If you renounce your God, it will be a witness against you.’” (REB.) Stone don’t talk; stones cannot hear----so far as I know! But stones endure as reminders and witnesses.

When I visit my father’s WW II grave marker, the stone “speaks” to me in my inward heart. Even the rust-colored boulders on the east side of US Highway 281 as you climb out of the Brazos River valley 10 miles south of the city, headed north, speak to me. They speak of heritage: the heritage of my forebears who settled and worshipped there, and served and sinned there, and knew forgiveness there. I have old photographs of my parents on an outing there before they were married; and of times we had picnics there when I was a child. The stones are silent witnesses, but they “speak,” in a manner of speaking!

JOSHUA’S SPEECH

Joshua has led the people to the promised land.

These people, these “wrestlers with God,” had spent the first 500 years of their life as landless nomads, wandering around the middle east. Then they had spent another 400 years as slaves in Egypt. With no place to call their own, they carried everything with them.

They traveled light. Then, after having been freed from slavery, they wandered for 40 additional years in the wilderness, as God prepared them for their life as a settled people in the little crescent of land which was inhabited by Canaanites.

The 10 Commandments, and the Ark in which the 10 “words” were carried in front of them, were signs of God’s gracious and demanding presence. Covenants made and broken, renewed and remembered: this was their way of life before God.

For Joshua, it was time to make sure that the people of God were committed to the One who brought them there. “After years of wandering in the wilderness, they were settling into houses and taking up farming in the promised land. It was easy for the Israelites to do what their new neighbors did and to forget what God had taught them in the desert….Joshua warns them that they cannot go along with the crowd and be God’s people. They have some choices to make.” (Carolyn C. Brown, Forbid Them Not, Year A, page 192)

Joshua’s placement of a stone was at the culmination of a Board meeting.  The elders, the heads of families, the judges and the officers were called to one place. In a pattern familiar to ancient peoples (for which we have parallels today), Joshua begins the covenant ceremony with a history lesson: He tells about old Abraham and Sarah, late in life, chosen by God to be the parents of a new people, blessed in order to bless the rest of the world.

And about Moses and slavery and liberation; all the battles in which God gave them victory against great odds against the Canaanites who, by the way, practiced child sacrifice and forced prostitution of teen age women---all in the name of their gods (which raises all kinds of questions for a later day). He tells of their settlement by tribes through the land, the kind of stories that get told at anniversary events, or on Veterans Day ceremonies. Joshua reminds them that none of this would have happened unless God had been with them.

DECISION TIME!

Then comes the “Nows.” In view of all of this help you have been given, it is now time for God’ people to decide.

14“Now therefore revere [fear, hold in awe] the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods [dig a hole and bury them, lest you want to dig them up and worship them later] your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.

15  “Now, if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.

16  “Then the people answered,

“Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; 17for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight. He protected us along all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed; 18and the Lord drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.” (REB)

DID THEY REALLY MEAN IT?

Well, the assembled leaders answered too fast for Joshua! So, he challenged them again: “You really want to make this vow? This is serious business, you know. You may not be able to stay loyal to God. And things will certainly not go well for you if you renege on your promises!”

Pastor Talitha Arnold wrote of her experience in baptizing children in her church, and her own ordination: “As a parish minister, I assume Joshua’s role when I invite people to affirm their covenant with God and one another. But I seldom have his courage in the follow-through. If I did, when parents brought their child for baptism, I would ask more than the generic ‘Do you promise to grow with this child in the Christian faith and offer him or her the nurture of the Christian church?’ Instead I’d ask, in front of God and the whole congregation, ‘Do you promise to get him or her out of bed, dressed and here every Sunday morning for the next 18 years, even when you’ve had a long week or you’d rather sleep in or there’s a soccer match or when this darling infant has grown into a surly, tatooed teenager who thinks church is ‘dumb’?"

“Had Joshua presided at my ordination, I doubt he would have let me get by with a simple vow to study, pray, teach and preach. He probably would have demanded, "Will you give up your personal gods of procrastination, perfectionism and the pursuit of trivia?"

“Yes, yes,” they say. “We will do as you have said you will do: As for us and for our house: we too will serve the Lord who brought who has brought us here and blessed us.”

OUR “Now” MOMENTS

We remember those “now” moments, moments when, after some form for remembrance of our heritage, we are put on the spot!

For me, when I had finished 7 years of higher education and been examined by the Board of Ordained Ministry, I was appointed (assigned) to my first charge, a three point charge in the only district out of two conferences I specifically asked not to be appointed to.

Will God go with us to Tonk Valley; will I serve the God who had brought me to this point---or not?! It is more than 150 miles from SMU and University Park in Dallas to Tonk Valley!

Among the most powerful moments for churches are occasions for consecration of buildings. Which God will be served by the use of this building? A god of our own creation or the God of Abraham and Sarah, Moses and Miriam, Esther, Deborah, the Exodus, the prophets Amos and Jeremiah and Isaiah; the God who Jesus called Abba?

We are in God’s presence when we as a congregation, for example, renew our commitment to uphold the parents of those being baptized.  When we sing hymns of commitment, such as “Her I am, Lord!” What if we believed that God holds us accountable for what we say to him?

EVERYDAY CHOICES

Every day, or week or month, we have to make decisions individually: will we show by our actions for example, that we believe that Mammon (wealth) rules our lives? Have we noticed that this god is very attractive indeed----but exacts a high price!  Will we choose God’s way of fairness when we decide how to treat popular or unpopular kids? Whether to join in cruel pranks or jokes at others’ expense?

Will we dare to hope that God can truly renovate our lives and help us with our despairing? In the quietness of our lives, we learn to identify the false gods which try to capture us----and we decide which God to which we will attach ourselves. Another name for covenant is “fetter,” an attachment, belonging to One who is worthy of our worship and our devotion To whom are we fettered?

And we teach can our children how to spot fake promises of happiness. (Especially as the well-lived life is pictured in advertisements.) Remember Martin Luther’s words: “That which your heart clings to is your god!”

BELIEVING IN AN INVISIBLE GOD

It is not easy worshipping and serving an elusive and invisible God such as the Most High, the I Am Who I Will Be God, the Triune God.  This God is the God of surprises!

So it is always tempting to worship something we can see and control or manipulate. But the Bible teaches us that, sooner or later, we experience the “twilight of the [phony] gods.” (H. Richard Niebuhr) They all prove to be no gods at all, but idols, deceivers and depleters.

Which gods tempt us where we live?

Gods of traditionalism (the dead religion of living people); nostalgia, success as the fallen world sometimes describes it, lives of having everything we could ever want; and extreme individualism bereft of a sense of the common good; and consumerism; or the disease of itching ears to hear something new. (We go through images and trends like we eat popcorn.) We may even substitute the gods of war, or violence or brutality.

TO SERVE GOD?

What does it mean to serve the Lord without reserve? After all, many who profess to serve their God end up doing horrendous things to their enemies in the name of their deity! We are wise to suspicious of ardent believers. But it means at least this:

*We resolve to “incline our hearts” to God. We commit ourselves to learn and ponder the “riddles of things past” (Psalm 78)

*We will keep on worshipping the God of our biblical heritage----a Triune God who comforts and critiques us; and we will resist the temptations to worship a lowest-common-denominator God-----a God who only blesses our prejudices and confirms us in our choices.

*To serve God is to pay attention, to listen, to be in conversation with God on a regular basis, as we would with a wise Friend.

*To serve God is to proclaim release to the captives, to bind up the wounds of those who suffer; to comfort the dying; and to advocate for social holiness in our common life as a people---- in other words, to love the neighbor.

HEART AND SOUL

Well, did the Israelites decide to believe because they were afraid not to? Maybe they did. (But it didn’t stop them from going astray: read Judges, which follows Joshua!)

But obedience over the long haul requires more than fear. And God wants our love, not just our fear. Obedience takes an answering love: love for God (standing by God in God’s loneliness, loyalty to God’s will for the world) because you and I have been touched the glory of God in the face of Jesus.

 John Wesley says this in what is now quaint but powerful words:

"We love him because he first loved us;" of which faith is the evidence. The love of a pardoning God is ‘shed abroad in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.’ Indeed this love may admit of a thousand degrees: But still every one, as long as he believes, may truly declare before God, ‘Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.’ Thou knowest that 'my desire is unto thee, and unto the remembrance of thy name.' " ( See John Wesley’s sermon on Joshua 24)

CHOOSING

Sooner or later, the people of God, then and now, settle down on some turf. We become an institution as well as a people. We settle in among people who do not necessarily know or agree with our way of life.

How do we continue to be a people “on the move” when we are settled? And how do we remain the worshippers and servant-children of the God who brought us to this time and place, when there are so many other attractive gods all around us vying for our lives. It is the perpetual crisis of the church: how can we be in the world but not of the world? Will we decide and re-decide to keep our end of the Covenant?  As one has put it: "Who shall we be in light of what God has done?" (From Lectionary Sermons.com)

Whom will you worship? Whom will you honor in your home, with your family? Whom will we serve as TUMC?

On our campus, perhaps it will be the giant Elm trees that hear what we promise, and will be a reminder to us that we belong to Abba, the God of Jesus of Nazareth.