Sunday November 9, 2008 - Pentecost 26, Proper 27, Year A (RCL)
It’s hard to believe
that it’s all over.
The ad slots on TV seem strangely empty,
I look at signs by the road to check out which way people are likely to vote, only to discover them advertising furniture liquidations
or yard sales.
On Tuesday, the voters of America
were asked to make a choice
between two candidates for president.
They did, and it doesn’t matter any more
who you supported: Obama will be the next president,
ad what remains for us
is to get on with our lives.
But I suspect that the election
has been so much in our minds
that when we read today’s Old Testament lesson
and hear the words of Joshua at the place called Shechem,
“choose this day whom you will serve”
we tend to hear it
as if it were an election.
The last forty years, since the people left Egypt - or maybe it’s the last few hundred, since Abraham left Ur of the Chaldeans - whichever it is, they’ve been the campaign. Now it’s election time.
Here are the choices, lined up on the ballot.
Gods of the Mesopotamians.
Gods of the Egyptians.
Gods of the Amorites.
And the Lord, the God of Israel.
Make a decision, mark the ballot.
And then tomorrow the winner.
will be announced.
“Choose today
whom you will serve.”
Except this challenge by Joshua
wasn’t part of an election campaign.
This isn’t the story
of some early
religious
democracy.
This challenge
is the culmination
of hundreds of years
of the story
of the people of God,
the people of Israel.
A story that all began
back with Abraham,
called by God from Ur of the Chaldeans
with the promise of descendants,
blessing, and a homeland to call his own.
A promise
that he first caught sight of in this very place, Shechem,
where he built his first altar
to God.
A story and a promise
that continued with Abraham’s son Isaac and his grandson Jacob,
who bought a piece of land and dug a well
here at Shechem,
and great grandson Joseph
who went to find his brothers at Shechem
before they sold him into slavery
And it was a story and a promise that sustained them all those years in Egypt,
and then for forty years wandering in the wilderness.
And finally
they crossed the river Jordan
and entered the promised land.
But the story and the promise
were not quite done yet.
Because the land wasn’t empty;
and there were long months and years
of battles to be won
and cities and kings to be conquered
Jericho and Ai and Jerusalem and Hebron,
Jarmuth and Lachish and Eglon,
and many, many more.
Until finally the land was theirs,
and the promise to Abraham
fulfilled.
Descendants, 12 tribes of them,
land, enough for each tribe,
and blessing upon blessing.
They have arrived. The story
has reached its obvious conclusion.
And so Joshua gathers the elders and reminds them
of the story
and of the promise,
and asks them,
“Choose this day
whom you will serve.”
And now
there are no strings attached.
There is no promise
hanging off the other end; nothing depends
on their answer.
They’ve got
what they wanted, got what they needed.
If they choose to serve God
it will be
of their own
free will.
Choose today
whom you will serve.
Although, while there are
no strings attached,
it’s not an entirely blank slate.
There is history, so much history.
All those times
when they thought
that they were hopeless,
when they thought that they would die,
and time after time
God came through for them and rescued them,
God fed them and gave them water, God protected them
and went before them in battle.
How could they do anything other
than to choose to serve the Lord?
It was obvious.
But then Joshua said it again.
Choose this day whom you will serve.
And there was a warning behind it.
Choose, and if you choose God, and then turn your back on your decision,
God will punish you.
Because of course, we know what had happened in the past.
We all know the stories - we’ve been hearing them for months.
When it was good, the people were happy to follow God.
But when things weren’t so good,
they began to complain. And question. And plot about turning round and going back to Egypt and Egypt’s gods.
You see, it wasn’t enough to choose God once. They had to keep on choosing, whom they would serve, keep on choosing God.
And so Joshua asked them, choose who you will serve, not just today
but tomorrow and the next day and the one after that. And on and on for the rest of your lives.
And the people said, “We will serve the Lord.”
***
Back in the 1940 Hymnal there was a hymn that you may remember. It begins,
“Once to every man and nation
comes the moment to decide.”
It was originally written in the nineteenth century as a poem to protest America’s war with Mexico,
but the way I remember it being sung,
was as a kind of commitment hymn, something to sing at a confirmation or something like that,
a hymn to stir a decision for Christ.
And it reminds me of the evangelists I’ve seen on TV and in movies,
and even some of the Christian books I’ve read,
that preach that each of us has one chance
to repent and turn to God.
One chance to respond to the altar call
and if you miss it
you risk being doomed to hell
forever.
Or in the evangelical culture that I grew up in,
where each of us was expected
to be able to give a testimony,
the story of the time and place
when we were converted.
It’s great to be able to look back at a time when we were totally and utterly convinced
that God was real
and that we wanted to commit ourselves to Christ.
But for most of us, it’s not quite so straightforward.
Faith for many of us
was more gradual;
it wasn’t so much one major conversion experience
as a whole lot of small decisions,
taken gradually.
I grew up going to church. Christianity was the brand of religious milk I drank.
But slowly, as I got older, I started to make decisions.
It began with small things.
Would I read my bible at night, or spend the extra 10 minutes
on my favorite novel?
When someone made a rude comment about another kid, would I defend them?
When they joked about people who went to church, would I admit I was one of those people?
And as a teenager, when my parents told me to get ready for church, would I get myself organized, or would I have to be dragged out to the car, the whole family late because I was feeling rebellious?
And then in college, would I make the effort to get to church, even when it meant a cold 15 minute bike ride on a frosty morning?
How would I respond, when people swore around me?
What would I put in the plate when it came round at church?
It didn’t really matter
whether I’d made some grand declaration for Christ or not - though of course I had in my baptism -
what really mattered
was those tiny decisions, day by day, to keep on following God.
Joshua
is realistic.
What he’s asking
is for the people to make a decision
to make a decisions.
Decide to serve God,
and decide to keep on deciding
to serve God.
Because following God
isn’t like voting in an election.
Pull the lever, fill in the bubble last Tuesday
and you were done for another 4 years.
But with faith, we have to keep on deciding, not just once
but every day.
There’s a cross stitch sampler
that hangs in the front hall of my house.
On it are embroidered the words,
“As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
I need those words of Joshua
because following God
isn’t a decision you just make once
and then forget about. It’ a decision you need to remember, and be reminded of, and make again and again, day by day. I need that reminder everyday as I leave the house, that yes, I have decided to follow God.
It’s the same reason
that I wear an engraved ring on my right hand,
and that I often wear a cross. Not so much to tell other people that I’m a Christian, as to remind myself
that I have chosen
and need to keep choosing
to serve God.
When I’m tempted to gossip or complain. When I face a choice between something related to church, and something else. When I decide how to spend my money. When I see someone who looks kind of lonely.
I don’t always choose the right thing. But time and time again
I’m invited to choose who I will serve.
And there’s grace in it.
Because thankfully, my relationship with God
doesn’t all rest
on one big decision. Miss it and you’re doomed for ever.
No, just as God gave the people of Israel
yet another chance,
God gives us those chances, God invites us
day by day, year by year
to choose who we will serve.
And when we choose,
God blesses us
in the most unexpected ways.
Choose this day...
© Raewynne J. Whiteley 2008