Joshua 24: 1-15
For $69.99
at Home Depot you can purchase a 17 inch Cherry wall clock with the phrase “As
for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” At Walmart you can buy Thirstystone Occasion drink coasters
for $8.50 with that same verse emblazoned on it. And if you would like a cotton poly blend sweatshirt with
“As for me and my house…” phrase on it you can get it at Café Press for $34.99
and how about a Candle Pot with tea light illuminating these words to go with
that sweatshirt for $18 from Grasslands Road Nature’s Elements.
The fact
is this Bible verse from Joshua 24:15, “As for me and my house, we will serve
the Lord” has become, for lack of better words, kitsch! It’s over sentimentalized. Now I know that there is good, good
intent with the wearing or displaying this endearing verse. It’s a beautiful public statement of
religiosity. But I’d like for us
to think much deeper about this Bible verse and its meaning.
This
particular verse is at the very end of our reading today from the Book of
Joshua. Last week we were in
Exodus and since then a lot has happened which brings us forward into Joshua
today. The ten commandments were
given a second time only this time written on stone. The covenant was
renewed. An ark to house the
covenant was built. Moses dies
without ever stepping one foot into the promised land, the sweet land of milk
and honey. Then Joshua was
commissioned to lead the people over that glorious border and settle the land.
And those
people? Well they weren’t the same
people that Moses had sashayed through the wilderness for forty or so
years. It was their children,
maybe even their children’s children.
A long time had passed, generations. The land had been conquered and redistributed to the tribes
of Israel. They’ve settled in yet
the people still grappled with the cultures around them, they still kvetch,
they still wonder about who this ‘God’ is that seems to get angry at them but then
brings them out of their misery and loves them through it all. And now we come to another threshold
for them.
Let us now
hear the word as recorded in the Book of Joshua from the Hebrew Bible, the 24th
chapter.
Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of
Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders, leaders, judges and officials of
Israel, and they presented themselves before God.
Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the Lord, the
God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your ancestors, including Terah the father of
Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods.
But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the Euphrates and led him
throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants. I gave him Isaac, and to Isaac
I gave Jacob and Esau. I assigned the hill country of Seir to Esau, but Jacob
and his family went down to Egypt.
“‘Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I afflicted the Egyptians
by what I did there, and I brought you out. When I brought your people out of
Egypt, you came to the sea, and the Egyptians pursued them with chariots and
horsemen as far as the Red Sea. But they cried to the Lord for help, and he put
darkness between you and the Egyptians; he brought the sea over them and
covered them. You saw with your own eyes what I did to the Egyptians. Then you
lived in the wilderness for a long time.
“‘I brought you to the land of the Amorites who lived east
of the Jordan. They fought against you, but I gave them into your hands. I
destroyed them from before you, and you took possession of their land. When
Balak son of Zippor, the king of Moab, prepared to fight against Israel, he
sent for Balaam son of Beor to put a curse on you. But I would not listen to
Balaam, so he blessed you again and again, and I delivered you out of his hand.
“‘Then you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. The
citizens of Jericho fought against you, as did also the Amorites, Perizzites,
Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites, but I gave them into
your hands. I sent the hornet ahead of you, which drove them out before you—also
the two Amorite kings. You did not do it with your own sword and bow. So I gave
you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live
in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.’
“Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness.
Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in
Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you,
then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your
ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose
land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.
These beloved words that we hang on our walls or wear just
happen to be part of Joshua’s final parting words to the people Israel. Not
long after this oration that I just read he takes his last breath. He had been with them for a good long
while, through the battles and the trials and triumphs of life. And so he recounts their
history reminding them of all of those times in which the God of Israel saved
them from demise.
I don’t
think he is really sure that they get it, or if they do, he knows how they are
mightily tempted to worship other gods which prevents them from following the
God of Abraham. While we may think
that it is just a dry lesson in their history, Joshua is
really pointing out that they belong, that they are part of a narrative that
has been unfolding for many years, in fact many centuries before them, that
they now are a part of.
They are
part of an ongoing history of struggle and faith, of doubt and fear, of
trusting in this God above all other gods because this God, while perhaps at
times displays questionable actions, IS
the God of their ancestors, IS the
God who continually forgives them, and IS
the God who will consistently renew this beautiful covenant of steadfast love.
And so
Joshua calls the question! When
debate drones on endlessly, the question is called and you have to vote
immediately to determine if the debate should be cut off. He calls the question and cuts to the
chase…. Who will you follow? Where
will your allegiance be? Are you
willing to give up all of those other gods to follow the one true God? Are you willing to stick with this God
through the mucky muck of life, into the wilderness, and still declare that
this is your God? Good questions
Joshua! Thank you very much for
raising them for us.
Life was
messy for them as I suspect it is for most of us too. We’re happily skipping along and you come to a fork in the
road. Which path will you
choose? Imperfections of your
character or soul manifest at the oddest and most inconvenient of times and you
find yourself completely adrift in a sea of unknown. Will you blame God or call
upon God? Or will you decide that another sort of god could do a better job for
you?
Sometimes
the Israelites just wanted other gods.
A household god to make sure that the mana nut bread came out ok, a god
of plentiful harvest for the fields, a god who would produce rain during a
drought, a warrior god to best their enemies in battle. I mean, the Amorites had such gods, why
couldn’t they?
It would
be so nice to have a specific god in your pocket, wouldn’t it? A god for the stock market, a
more efficient god who will immediately cure ebola, a god who will take
terrorists down way low, a god who will straighten out the mess that you woke
up to this morning. But it’s just
not that way. Following God is
just not that neat and tidy. There will be unanswered questions and disappointments
along the way. So which god will
you choose?
Walter
Brueggeman, OT professor says this about what was set in Shechem that day by
Joshua. Following God ‘requires a purging of all competing loyalties…for
obedience’. ‘It is a rather
elemental decision to reorder life….within an entirely different set of risks
and possibilities.’[i]
And to
follow ultimately means to serve the Lord. And to serve is to follow the example of Christ who served
his Lord – to welcome anyone and everyone into your home and to sit at your
table. To serve is to look at this
world, or the world in you neighborhood and to do something to make it better,
to strive for the kingdom of God here on earth.
Following
this GOD of salvation won’t make your life perfect. But we do know that this God will be the one who is with
you, who calls you into the unknown and promises to stay with you until you see
some daylight. It is this God,
who, yes, created your imperfections and loves you more deeply because of them. It is the obedience of choosing God above
all others, at all times, and then serving with your most sincere heart and
hands.
Joshua
calls the question for us. Which
God will you choose?
Amen.
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