06.11.05 - Choose...whom you will serve

BACKGROUND TO THE READING

It would be helpful before today??s passage is read to describe its context so that it makes some sense. The Hebrew people had been through a great deal by the time the scene described in this passage took place. They had been liberated from their years of slavery in Egypt, and had escaped into the Sinai wilderness. They were there for forty years until Moses died and his successor, Joshua, led them across the Jordan River into the Promised Land. They had taken possession of the Promised Land, Canaan, which is modern Israel and Palestine. This necessarily involved some ruthless getting rid of peoples already living there; it also involved learning to live alongside other cultures and religions. Now that the Israelites have settled in the land, Joshua ?± who is by now very old and soon to die ?± summons the leaders of the people to a meeting. Today??s reading is about that meeting.

The entire passage depicts a formal dialogue between Joshua, representing God, and Israel. It is about choices. God, says Joshua, has delivered on the promise of liberation and a land to live in. Now Israel is being asked to decide whether or not to commit to God. The people gathered at the meeting readily agree that they will. Joshua seems to think they haven??t grasped the implications of what God, through him, is asking of them, and so puts the case and the question a second, and then a third time. And for a second and a third time, Israel chooses for God.

As is often the case with passages like this from the Bible, we have to say that we don??t know whether it actually happened like this or not ?± but we do know the story contains truth.

SERMON

There are three and a bit thousand years of difference between Joshua??s Hebrew people newly-settled in the conquered land of promise, and an urban kiwi family in 2005. We have to make more decisions before breakfast than they??d make in a day or two.

Do I get up when the alarm goes off or will I put it into snooze mode for nine more minutes?ñand then another nine? Will I listen to Paul Holmes on the radio, or will I listen to something worth listening to? Maybe I should turn on Breakfast TV to see if TVNZ have changed the presenters again, but that would involve a fight with the kids who want to watch their weird cartoons. Will I even let the kids watch TV, or will I check to see they did their homework? Shall I have a healthy breakfast, or shall I have an enjoyable breakfast? Shall I power dress to impress the boss or shall I go casual? Should I email my parents who are somewhere in Europe spending my inheritance? This is spring in Auckland ?± will I need an umbrella or sunscreen? So many decisions to make, even before breakfast.

There are three and a bit thousand years of difference between Joshua??s Hebrew people newly-settled in the land of promise, and an urban kiwi family of 2005. And there??s no difference at all. For all the little decisions we in 2005 might have to make before breakfast, like those ancient Jewish people we still face one ultimate decision. The only difference is that we don??t have a significant national and religious leader standing in front of us saying we have to make that decision here and now. We can make it here and now if we wish, or we could make it tomorrow, or next Thursday, or next year, or when the kids have left school, or when we retire, or ?± or never.

The question is, where do I place my ultimate loyalty? What is the ultimate source of my values and my sense of meaning in life? What are my directions and what is my goal? Joshua put it to his people in quite simple terms ?± "choose this day whom you will serve..." Three and a bit thousand years ago, such questions where clear-cut and obvious. In 2005 it is not quite so straight-forward and it is more a cluster of inter-related questions about ultimate loyalty, ultimate values, meaning and purpose, direction and goal. But the effect is the same, "choose this day whom you will serve?ñ"

The way twenty-first century urban kiwis live, we can get by for a very long time without even hearing the question, let alone answering it. Many of us have a pragmatic set of values and loyalties based on whatever it is that works for me now. Some people manage to live an entire lifetime without consciously hearing and answering any ultimate questions.

But sometimes the question sneaks up on us. It might be the diagnosis of a debilitating illness, or it might be the untimely death of someone close to me, that raises the question. It might be career or relationship dissatisfaction, or it might suddenly appear from nowhere just when I am inexplicably really happy and contented and successful, presenting itself as a nagging restlessness.

For some people it happens with the arrival of children, those little lives which are so dependant upon us ?± that is, until that time when they claim teenage independence, get some ghastly tattoo or embarrassing piercing, and regard their parents as hopelessly out of touch with reality.

But before then, at the beginning, there is a child, a new life, the beginnings of a real human being. The responsibilities of parenthood are awesome. They are awesome, because they touch upon this ultimate question about loyalty and values, meaning and purpose, direction and goal.

Sooner or later any responsible parent faces the question of what are the lasting things I want my child to have. What are the values I want to impart to Finn, or Charlotte, or whatever my child??s name. How can I impart awareness of their uniqueness and value, and the uniqueness and value of each other human life? How can I give them awareness that there is more to this life than just this life ?± and I don??t mean life after death. I mean that which is bigger and more than, and yet part of and flowing through this life? I mean that which is Other, that which is Sacred; I mean that which is symbolised by the word ?´God??.

Those of us who come to this place week by week come because we find that it is here, within the context of a rigorously explored and open-minded religious faith that we are both presented with and can respond to those ultimate questions. We come because hearing, wrestling with, and responding to those questions about ultimate loyalty and values, meaning and purpose, direction and goal, gives another dimension to our living. It enables us to experience and be changed by, to be enriched by and to share a quality of life that is more than just human life. A quality of life that has within it whispers of eternity and dimensions of divinity.

It doesn??t make us better than anybody else; and in this day and age where people are more likely to call themselves spiritual than religious, it isn??t something that can only be experienced here, or within Christian religion in its various shapes and forms.

But it is within Christianity that we find it; and because Christianity is the basis of our western culture, it is more likely that it is within Christianity that most kiwis will find it. And we know that it does make a difference to us, daily, weekly. It makes a deep difference to our ultimate loyalty, our values, sense of meaning and purpose, directions and goal.

According to the story, Joshua gave his people only one opportunity to hear and respond. Well, three actually, but all on the one day. In reality, hearing and responding is a daily, and a weekly, thing. It is a daily, and a weekly, decision, this "choose ?ñ whom you will serve?ñ" Sometimes it is far from easy to understand, sometimes it is the most obvious thing there is.

Being with happy parents and wider family and friends celebrating in baptism the beginning of a new human life, for some of us the question and the decision can seem blindly obvious. This is a day, a time, to hear the question and to make the choice. If this new life matters enough to do what we have done today in baptism, then my not-so-new life also matters, and its ultimate loyalty and values, meaning and purpose, direction and goal matter. "Choose?ñ."

Before coming here this morning there were no doubt many little decisions to be made, even before breakfast. Gathered in a set-apart place which speaks of the things of the spirit, of things that are of eternal significance, and sharing in the celebration of a new life in baptism, I suggest there is one big decision set before each of us ?± again, or for the first time.

It might just be that today is the day, and that this is the time and the place, when there really is a big decision to be made. Don??t discount the possibility that even here and now there is a decision to be made. Any decision would be slightly different for each of us. There is no ?´one size fits all??. But the God whose faithfulness and loyalty to Finn has been declared in baptism, is also declared to us through this baptism. And this faithfully, loyally loving God waits patiently for our response.

"Choose ?ñ whom you will serve?ñ"