November 9, 2014, Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25

Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel; and they presented themselves before God. And Joshua said to all the people,

“Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Long ago your ancestors—Terah and his sons Abraham and Nahor—lived beyond the Euphrates and served other gods. Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan and made his offspring many. I gave him Isaac;

…“Now therefore revere the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

Then the people answered,
“Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight. The Lord protected us along all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed; and the Lord drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for the Lord is our God.”

But Joshua said to the people,
“You cannot serve the Lord, for the Lord is a holy God. God is a jealous God; God will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then God will turn and do you harm, and consume you, after having done you good.”

And the people said to Joshua,
“No, we will serve the Lord!”

Then Joshua said to the people,
“You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord, to serve him.”

And they said,
“We are witnesses.”

He said,
“Then put away the foreign gods that are among you, and incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.”

The people said to Joshua,
“The Lord our God we will serve, and him we will obey.”

So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made statutes and ordinances for them at Shechem.

***

You cannot serve the Lord, Joshua says, and there is a way in which I concur. I cannot give back even one tenth of my day, for my time is limited - it is 24 hours to God’s from alpha to omega. I can not give one tenth of my gifts, for I know not how to bring a sunset, nor change the leaves in fall. I cannot serve the Lord, for the Lord is a holy God. I cannot give back the gifts of the Lord, but for me and my house I am going to try. I am going to raise up my camera and try to capture the way a lake turns silver in the gloaming under a full moon, and then try to share a piece of the dusk and I pray that 1/1millionth is captured and transcends the film, and makes someone’s day a little better, and little closer to the holy. I am going to stop and give thanks for the golden leaved lake of the backyard maple and point it out and try to share like pointing out one leaf of the entire tree. I cannot serve the Lord, for the Lord is a holy God, but for me and my house I am going to try.

Joshua says, “God is a jealous God; If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then God will turn and do you harm, and consume you, after having done you good.” It is hard to put away my foreign Gods, to not think that a Pinterest page will transport me from where I am to a dream of a life, to not think that if I run one more mile I will be more of who I want to be. But I look at the time after pages of images and I know that I would have been happier curled up with a good book or getting one chore done, and I run that one more mile and it helps me to forget unattainable standards of health and bask under the unattainable glory of a mountain valley on a uncharacteristically warm and foggy November day. No I cannot truly serve the Lord, but for me and my house I am going to try. I am going to try to remember where the God of my heart lies, and not the lies of other Gods. For me and my house, I am going to try.

Over and over the people and Joshua repeat, “Whom will you serve?” “We will serve the Lord,” It is a liturgy that needs repeating. We cannot say it only once, for we cannot truly serve the Lord, but we can always try. This is a new November, a new stewardship campaign, we could simply do the same as last year and not notice like a new years without a goal. But instead each year we say it over and over, we are going to serve the Lord, for me and my house, we are going to serve the Lord, or at least we are going to try, and I think it makes a difference, because each year, I have seen more and more of you involved in this ministry, in the ministry of our community, and in the ministry of family and home, I see us grow and try, and keep trying,

list of ways - looking around congregation


I have seen us grow, a am thankful for the ways we in this church try
we have never quite made it, we can never fully serve the Lord, we cannot give back even one tenth, but we can and do try, and I tell you, in this house of God, we serve the Lord. Alleluia Amen.