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The Rev. Frank Logue Choose whom y'all will serve How different are we Christians to be from other people? Or stated oppositely, how much like our friends and neighbors who are not Christian are we to be? Should we be more or less like everybody else, or completely different? This is not a new problem of course, but a question that has been renewed in each generation. For example, in the late 50s and early 60s long hair was seen by many Christians as being incompatible with true faith. Forget the fact that Jesus’ hair made him look like a hippy in the stained glass windows that surrounded the sanctuary. The people within were to keep their hair cut short, if not in a buzz cut. It’s the Christian thing to do. A quite literally burning issue of the 16th century was the language of worship. Would it be appropriate to translate the liturgy—the words of worship—from Latin into German, or French, or English. And what of the Bible? Did it have to be in Latin as well? But the unwashed peoples also spoke German, and French and English. Shouldn’t God’s Word be in Latin alone? Never mind that the Latin text was itself a translation. In fact that translation by Jerome was called the Vulgate, because it was a translation into the vulgar language of Latin—the language of the common people. The church’s response was quite clear. The Bible was to remain in Latin alone. William Tyndale was the man who did most of the initial work for what would become the King James Bible. Yet he was burned at the stake for daring to translate the ancient Hebrew and Greek texts into English. Within what should have been Tyndale’s lifetime, this changed. Soon Bibles in English would be chained to the pulpit of every parish church in the land, chained lest anyone attempt to remove God’s word from its public place where any who could do so was allowed to see and read the text. Much earlier, in the earliest days of Christianity, the question was whether one had to adopt all of the Jewish ritual laws and observances in order to become a Christian. Guided by the Holy Spirit, the answer of “No” was a surprising one to the apostles who were all faithful Jews. We no longer concern ourselves with Jewish dietary laws, or whether one can read the Bible and worship in English. And we no longer view the length of hair as an outward sign of an inward faith. And yet, we still must decide to what degree we are in the world and to what degree we are of the world. In our first reading this morning, the Israelites face a similar dilemma. It comes at the close of the Book of Joshua. This ends a very long story which began with Moses bringing the Hebrews out of Egypt. Joshua became Moses’ second in command and then on Moses’ death the leader of the children of Israel. As this book is ending, Joshua has led the 12 tries to successfully take over the Promised Land. He then calls a gathering at Shechem where an altar to the Lord had been established. The elders, commanders, magistrates and officers are brought summoned. These leaders are charged with a serious decision and it has everything to do with how the children of Israel will now live in the land. A clear choice is laid before the leaders—Choose this day whom you will serve. The word Joshua is given by God is this, “Revere the Lord, serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness.” This is not to be a halfhearted assent to the one True God while continuing to live like the peoples around them. For the Canaanites kept a mix bag of religion worshipping Baal and Asherah and a variety of other local gods. And we are told that the Israelites had fallen in to such a cafeteria plan while in Egypt. God reminds the Hebrews that worship is not a buffet line but a fixed menu. Joshua is clear that he and those in his household will serve the Lord. And he warns that our God is a jealous God and takes offense when we say we know him and want a relationship with him and then go and act like everyone else. Joshua lays it on the line and says that if they serve any old god alongside the one true God, that God will no longer forgive their sins. Now there is a fine howdy do on this pleasant late summer morning. If we give only a halfhearted assent to God and go on putting other things in that God spot in our lives, God will not forgive our sins. Yikes! It’s like that most troubling line from the Lord’s Prayer where Jesus said to pray to be forgiven our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And whether you read that as “Forgive us at the same time as we are forgiving others” or “Forgive us in the same way we forgive others” or any other way you choose to understand Jesus’ words you still must face the fact that Jesus taught a changed life was part and parcel of the whole forgiveness of sins thing. You can’t keep praying to be forgiven while still being an unforgiving person yourself or while continuing to sin. Yes, you can fall, get up and fall again. But you can’t wallow around in sin continually asking for forgiveness while planning in the back of your mind on your next chance to do the same thing. The issue for the Israelites was participating in the worship of other gods. That is god with a little “g.” The gods worshipped by those around them. We don’t face the problems of Baal worship or Asherah worship or what have you. But we do face the issue of whether to put our faith in God while hedging our bets with a Navy retirement or placing our real trust in the New York Stock Exchange. It’s not that retirement benefits are bad or that stocks are evil. But putting your trust in these things to take care of you is no better than what those with no faith in God do. But moving beyond this we can see that Joshua did not ask the leaders to line up one by one and give their personal assent to the question. Joshua doesn’t even seem to care what each person will do. So this is not an occasion to sing 27 choruses of “Just As I Am” while every head is bowed and every eye is closed. Joshua expects every head to be up and every eye to face forward. This is clear because the leaders are to be witnesses for one another of the commitment made that day and a witness has to see. The commitment was to be a communal one. Joshua did not answer for himself alone, but for his household. This is no doubt why this reading is paired with one from Ephesians about how husbands and wives are to inter-relate in a family. And in case you think I wimped out in not preaching on the reading from Ephesians about wives being subject to their husbands, know that I preached that text three years ago and have copies of that earlier sermon available. But in both texts, the question is how a group will act. What will the family do? What will the community do? The issue is not exactly presented “Choose this day whom you will serve.” The Hebrew is plural and so a better translation would be “Choose this day whom y’all will serve.” Y’all. The group. This helps answer the question of how we are to act. For the question is one of households and communities. Instead of asking what is right for you, perhaps the question is what is right for your family. Perhaps being in church every week is not what you have to have in order to stay faithful to God. But what if being here every week is what your spouse needs, or what your children need. Choosing this day whom y’all will serve may make for a different answer than considering the question on your own. What TV shows and movies you watch may have as much to do with what you children will see and hear as what you will see and hear. And I could go on, but y’all are smart and you’ve gotten the point already. Decisions about the family are group decisions, but it is not a democracy. As heads of the household husbands and wives, or single Moms and Dads, set the pattern for their house, choosing whom the house will serve and discerning how best to guide the whole family into the Kingdom of God. And this discernment about what is right is a package deal. There is not a church part of your life and a work or school part of your life and a home life. It is all one life. The decisions you make in work or school effect home and church. After all a decision for soccer may mean that many Sundays will be wiped out by games. I’m not dictating what you should do, but just pointing out that the decision is an integrated one. And you will need to decide for you and your house. Then at the broader community level, I hope that those of you who consider King of Peace to be your church home do so because you have decided that it is in this place that you can grow in faith as you learn to follow Jesus. You have decided that this is the community that witnesses along with you, a place where you can be held accountable for the faith that is in you. If King of Peace helps you and your family to grow in faith and love, then choose this church. But if you are not being fed spiritually here, then choose to move on. It’s about finding the community that will nurture you in your spiritual life and then entering as fully as you can into the life of that community. So how different should you be from those around you? Well the difference will not be necessarily one of clothes or hair length. But the difference that comes from making a conscious choice for you and your house whether that is just you and the pets or you and a lot of other family. And the difference made by that choice is that you will live and intentional life. An examined life where you do pause to consider whether the things you do are compatible with your faith. It is that examined life that is worth living. The life where you don’t get bounced around from thing to thing more a victim of life than an active agent. Instead you can choose this day whom y’all will serve and then each and every day make the little choices that live into that decision. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Amen.
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