"Choices"
Sermon Presented August 27, 2006
Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18
Woody Allen once remarked that humanity is at a crossroads: "One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness, the other to total extinction. Let us pray that we have the wisdom to choose correctly." Here, Allen sees life on the horns of a dilemma, with both choices negative.
Our text this morning is about real choices - choices that will determine the future. I chose the Hebrew text - a reading from the book of Joshua - and this is the first time I have preached from Joshua. Before doing any research, I tried to recall what I remembered about this man and only two things came to mind. First, Joshua was chosen by Moses to lead the Children of Israel into the Promised Land, and the second remembrance was a bit of trivia I learned in Vacation Bible School. We were asked this question: "What Bible personality had no parents?" The answer: Joshua, who was the son of Nun - spelled N-u-n and not "n-o-n-e"! So I did know the name of Joshua's father.
The book of Joshua is a historical book that is meant to explain the meaning of certain historical events and how God worked in those events. This is part of our Faith History! The Exodus from Egypt is completed and God's people are in the Promised Land. Joshua is elderly and doesn't have long to live. He knows the importance of having the people renew their covenant with God, so he calls the leaders to Shechem to make a decision. I invite you to hear the choices Joshua presents, and the people's response to these choices.
Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18 (Read text.)
We all have times when we must make choices. Some are easy and others are difficult. What Joshua asks of the people seems like a no-brainer, because this master of persuasion has already reiterated what God has done for them, and then he asks them to make a decision as to whether or not they will continue to follow God - Yahweh - or follow other gods. He asks them to decide by reaffirming their covenant with God.
This covenant is referred to as a discipleship covenant because those who enter it become disciples of Yahweh. The covenant created a community of disciples out of a mixed people, so it was important that the covenant be renewed to keep the agreement before the people. We here at Roundy renew our covenant at each quarterly business meeting by reading it aloud together. This process helps us to recall what we are about and what we stand for as a Christian community, but our covenant renewal doesn't carry the same significance to us as that covenant renewal carried for the people of Israel.
After Joshua relates God's past faithfulness - the fact that God keeps promises, he tells them the choice he has made. He has chosen to follow God - NOW - this day and he expects them to make a choice immediately! He wants them to reaffirm their allegiance to God - singular instead of "gods" - plural. He isn't calling them to a religion, but to serve the true God - Yahweh!
Now I want you to consider something you may not have considered. There was then - and still is - an evolution in the theology of God. The Israelites began by worshiping many gods. If you read the psalms, you will see passages like this from Psalm 97: "For you, O Lord, are most high over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods." Over time, the people of Israel realized that there was only one God - Yahweh!
We see another profound change in people's understandings of God when Jesus came. Through Jesus, the gospels show a more gracious, loving, and inclusive God than do the Hebrew Scriptures. And following that pattern, I understand God differently than my parents and former pastors understood God AND differently than I understood God 15 or 10 or 5 years ago. It isn't that God changes, but our understanding of God evolves over time as we experience God in new ways. If it were possible for humans to understand God completely, God wouldn't be God.
And just as our theology develops over a lifetime, so does our commitment to serve God get lived out over a lifetime. I commit differently today than I did as a teenager, a newly wed, or a seminary student because God leads me in different paths today than then. However, no matter where we are in life, we find that the path isn't direct or smooth or well marked. Losses, betrayals, and promises of success from other gods of wealth, position and power challenge our commitment to God no matter what our age or station. Just as the Israelites struggled daily to remain faithful to God as God was saving them from slavery, we, too, live out our commitment to God in the midst of our struggles.
This text reminds us of the value of remembering our salvation history, who God is and who we are in relation to God. Familiar Scripture comes to mind when we need it. The activity of God in our past and the past of God's people helps us to recommit to God anew so we can better serve God.
Last week, some of us were discussing the failure of people - especially children - to memorize Scripture today. We don't memorize Scripture, and we all read from different translations of the Bible. Your knowledge of Scripture may well be from the King James Version, but you hear me read from the New Revised Standard Version and the Scripture readers read from The Message, The Jerusalem Bible, The New International Version or the New English Bible. (And Lawrence reads from the Greek and Hebrew texts!) It doesn't matter which translation you use, as long as it exhibits good scholarship and is understandable. Just read - and remember! I also encourage you to write your own faith history through journaling.
There is an old saying: "If you want to hear the train, you need to be near the tracks." If you want to be faithful, position yourself in a place where you hear and recite God's story through biblical history and in your own life again and again so that you can know who you are in relationship with God.
The 24th chapter of Joshua looks back to God's past faithfulness and forward to establish the basis for the life of God's people in a covenant relationship with God. The people of Israel choose to follow Joshua's leading by recommitting themselves to serve God.
But there is more here than making the right mental choices! It's easy to say we make a certain choice, but it's not easy to follow through with that commitment. We must act on our promise. If I tell a family member that I will stop watching soaps and clean the house and fix dinner, but don't follow through with what I said I would do, then my commitment is useless. If I say I will spend 30 minutes a day in prayer and Bible reading and don't set aside the time to do it, my promise means nothing. If I promise to see an elderly aunt in the nursing home on a weekly basis and don't go, I show no commitment. My mother always said: "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." Good intentions are worthless unless we follow through.
Our commitment to follow Jesus - our conversion - is a process - a life-long process. What I understood as a child or as a young adult is different than my understanding today. God continues to work in my life to mold me into the person God wants me to be. God wants my conversion to occur on various levels: spiritual, moral and intellectual. A spiritual conversion unites us with God in a sense of freedom and not bondage. A moral conversion brings an ever-expanding set of values and priorities, as we serve the Lord with acts of worship and seek God's priorities for our lives. An intellectual conversion brings a radical change in our world view, as we gain new insight into the nature of reality. We learn commitment by doing, and we make mistakes and start over again and again. That's why we need to renew the covenant.
When I was a child, we had revivals every spring and fall. At these revivals, we were urged strongly to come forward and either "be saved" or recommit our lives to follow Jesus. Much of this process was manipulative as we were first scared by the flames of hell and then plied with Just As I Am for 20 minutes. However, these revivals did cause me to reconsider my commitment to God on a twice-yearly basis. Revivals are a thing of the past, but recommitment should be an ever-present process.
Our lives are filled with choices - some faith choices and some life choices, but they all intersect. Some of you will be deciding where to go to school, whom to marry, which job to take, whether or not to live a healthy lifestyle, where to live, or what God wants you to do to become closer to God. The question we should consider in making these choices is: will my choice help me serve God and people, or will it move me in the path of the false gods of security, wealth or prestige? Will my choice be one that exhibits love of God and other people or one that is self-centered? You can choose to serve God or to serve other gods. What will you choose?
