This sermon was preached at the First Presbyterian Church of Ashland on August 26, 2012. The lectionary text I used in the sermon was Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18.
On Friday, as I shared this passage of scripture with the folks at the Skylark Assisted Living community, when I got to a certain line in this passage, almost all of them either mouthed or said the words along with me…can you guess which line it was?
“But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”
This is indeed, a very familiar verse from scripture. And while I won’t ask for a show of hands, I’m guessing that there might be a few folks here today who, at some point in their lives, have had this scripture verse hanging in their homes…sometimes it is a nice print, or perhaps cross-stitched with a nice design and framed on a wall…often put close to the front entrance to the home, so that people entering might know that for this family…they have decided to serve the LORD.
I know I’ve seen some of these before in homes I’ve been in, and realize that for some, it’s important to have that visible reminder of a call to commitment to serving God.
Choose today whom you will serve.
At the core of this passage from Joshua lies the question: “Whom will you serve?” Here we see Joshua gathering together all of the tribes of Israel. They’ve been wandering throughout the desert and are on the verge of entering the Promised Land. Joshua decides that perhaps it’s time to gather everyone for one last chat…a chat to remind them about a few things, and to ask them the important question: “Whom will you serve?”
And so he gathers them together…much like we are gathered together here today, and he shares with them a word from the Lord. And it begins with the reminder that long ago, their ancestors lived somewhere else serving other gods.
For me, that’s an important reminder for us as we are a community of faith looking toward the future and toward where God is wanting us to be. I’m sure that many of us can look back at some of our own parents, grandparents, ancestors and people who have gone before us in the faith, and point to moments when our faith was shaped by their faith…point to the ways in which their commitment and the way they served God has helped us get to where we are today.
But I wonder if we might also be able to look back and say, along with the Israelites, that our ancestors lived somewhere else, across the river, and at times, served other gods. Were there ways in which the faith of our ancestors, the way they viewed God, the way they thought about church…the way they interpreted certain portions of scripture…were there ways that we can now look back on and know that we’ve had to move on and separate ourselves from.
It wasn’t too long ago when our ancestors believed that they served a God that wouldn’t allow women to be ministers. It wasn’t too long ago when our ancestors believed that they served a God that condoned the possession of slaves and the practice of slavery.
And so, in some ways, we too can hear the words of Joshua this morning, in a new light…and realize that long ago, some of our ancestors lived somewhere else and served other gods.
Choose today whom you will serve.
After Joshua’s reminder that their ancestors used to worship and serve other gods, gods that were located geographically, gods that were limited by the bounds of certain land and tribes…he offers them this challenge:
So now, revere the LORD. Serve the LORD honestly and faithfully. Put aside the gods that your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates and in Egypt and serve the LORD.
Joshua calls them to revere the LORD…he’s already reminded them about the gods of their ancestors, and now he challenges them to put those aside…to focus on serving the LORD honestly and faithfully.
But what I find intriguing, is that he actually gives them a choice in the matter. Joshua continues and says:
But if it seems wrong in your opinion to serve the LORD, then choose today whom you will serve. Choose the gods whom your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live.
He’s not going to force them…and I think that’s a good thing too. One of the common arguments for why we must have free will as humans, to some degree, is that if God forced us to be in relationship with God, it just wouldn’t work. It’s difficult to force someone to love another, to want to be in relationship with another, and so that’s not how God works…and Joshua knows that.
We do have a choice, so…
Choose today whom you will serve.
Joshua is offering them a choice…to serve the gods of their ancestors…the gods from across the river…
Or they can, like Joshua and his family has, decide to serve the LORD, the God who has been with them as they’ve journeyed and wandered through the wilderness…the one God who has never left their side, no matter where they were, through all their trials and tribulations…
Exodus 13:21-22 says, “The LORD went in front of them in a pillar of cloud by day, to lead them along the way, and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light, so that they might travel by day and by night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.”
This is the God whom Joshua and his family have decided to serve.
And this is the God whom Joshua hopes that others in all tribes of Israel will serve.
And this is the God whom I’d guess that Joshua would want us to serve, as well.
Choose today whom you will serve.
I mentioned earlier the cross-stitched patterns of this passage that I’ve seen. Stephen Johnson, a professor of preaching at Abilene Christian University, has some concern about these. He writes:
“While familiarity with this phrase is not in and of itself a barrier to hearing the word of God from Joshua 24, the domestication of these words certainly is. These words of Joshua have found themselves neatly printed as artwork, stitched as needlepoint, and carefully encased in beautiful frames to be hung on walls in houses. There, rendered one-dimensional, they drip with a syrupy sentimentality that leaves little room for the hard, gritty edginess of these words. Quite literally, Joshua’s “choose this day” has been domesticated.”
And this is where I think we are left with this passage today…the question being “Whom will you serve?” I think that many of us would agree with Joshua and his statement that “My family and I will serve the LORD” and when we hear that familiar line from this passage, we might smile and think of a nice cross-stitched pattern we’ve seen of this verse, or perhaps a Thomas Kinkade painting with the words written underneath in a beautiful script font…
But I can see where Johnson is coming from when he fears the domestication of the words…when he fears that we will miss out on the hard, gritty, edginess, and real challenge to serve God amidst all of the other gods of our ancestors, and gods that we all struggle with on a daily basis…
For clearly we have plenty of gods in our daily life who are ever-eager for us to serve and worship them instead:
- The god of prosperity, assuring us that all will be well when we’re able to amass just a bit more money and worldly goods.
- The god of nostalgia, who promises us that if we can just get things back to the way they were, then things will be good.
- The god of security, insisting that we put all of our nation’s money and resources into weapons, that we as Americans have a right to bear arms and buy any kind of gun we want, so that we can ‘protect’ ourselves.
- The god of busy-ness, that tells us that the more activities and sports and hobbies that we find for ourselves and our children, the happier we will all be.
- The god of technology, assuring us that our lives will be better with each new advance, each new software update, each new product upgrade.
And the list just goes on and on and on…
Choose today whom you will serve.
Joshua asks the people of all the tribes of Israel this very question. He gives them a choice…who would they serve? The gods of their ancestors across the river? Or would they serve the LORD?
And their response is…essentially…of COURSE we’ll serve the LORD – why would we ever leave the LORD? The LORD is our God…listen to all of the ways in which God has been with us and saved us and redeemed us and rescued us…
Much like we find throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, especially whenever we find versions of the 10 Commandments, they Israelites take time to remember…they remember all the ways in which God has been with them, protected them, never left their side, God has been that pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night.
When we are presented with this question today, this very morning, and as we weigh the gods of our ancestors and of this world today versus the God who has always been by our side…I hope we’ll be able to see clearly who we are called to serve and who we are called to worship here, this morning, and as we go throughout our lives the rest of the week.
Choose today whom you will serve.
‘But my family and I will serve the LORD.’
The way Joshua states that, it almost sounds as if it is a one-time decision…he and his family have decided, and that’s that.
But I don’t think it works like that.
Sarah was reading a book about will power recently, and part of it talked about how to either start, or stop doing something, and it gave the example of someone who wants to stop eating junk food.
If that’s truly your goal, to increase your will power to fight against eating junk food, you can’t just say “I’m going to try and not eat junk food” and expect that it’s just going to be a one-time fix. We aren’t powerful enough to just speak a change like that into existence.
The author of the book said that you need to start off each day by simply saying what it is that you’re going to do, or not do, and give a reason for it. So, getting up in the morning and just saying “I’m going to try to not eat junk food…” isn’t as convincing or beneficial for you, as if you were to get up each morning and say, “Today, I’m not going to eat junk food – because I want to be healthy and lose some weight.”
“Choose today what you will eat…but for me and my body, I will not eat junk food, because I want to be healthier.”
By simply starting off your day, each day, with a more clear, concise, goal and your reasoning behind it, it can actually do wonders toward your ability to stop eating junk food, or whatever it is that you’re working toward.
And really, to some degree, it’s common sense. We aren’t that bright sometimes, and we need to hear things 3, 4, 5, 10 times sometimes before they start to stick…and so repetition and remembering and having a simple, clear, sense of our goal…that’s what’s going to help us the best.
The Israelites also needed this reminder too. The decision to serve the Creator God was a decision that to be made every day. Each day the Israelites woke up in the desert HAD to begin with a renewed commitment to follow God for that day…and by making that commitment every day, they are able to stay connected with God, and stay focused and remember why it is that they would choose to serve God…for the Lord is their God.
God is the one who brought them and their ancestors up from the land of Egypt…from the house of bondage. God has done these mighty signs in their sight…God has protected them the whole way they’ve gone and in all the nations that they’ve passed…
And so maybe it’s NOT such a bad thing that this verse has been domesticated to cross-stitched wall-hangings…if by that we simply mean that it’s become a part of our homes, a part of our lives and faith, more than just a Sunday morning thing. Maybe we should ALL go home today and do some cross-stitch, or grab a Sharpie marker and a sheet of paper, and write, “Choose today whom you will serve” on it and place it somewhere visible in our homes like our bathroom mirror.
And so, as we leave this place today, let that question be rattling around in our minds as we continue on with our days and our weeks…”Whom will you serve?” Will it be the gods of our ancestors…gods that don’t make sense to serve in light our knowledge, and experience, and understanding of God today? Will it be the gods of our world today? Gods that rally together and cry out for our attention, making promises that they can’t keep…?
Or will we remember the God who has been with us from the beginning of creation, from the beginning of our created lives, through all of the muck and mire that we’ve all experienced on our spiritual journeys, through the hard times and the good times and every time in between…through all of it, leading us, going before us as a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire…will we choose THAT God?
Choose today whom you will serve.
