Choose This Day Whom You Will Serve

Scripture: Joshua 24: 1-18, 1 John 2: 15-17

Topics: covenant

Sermon: Choose This Day Whom You Will Serve

Preached: July 17 am baptism service

Rev. Mike Abma

Joshua 24

The Tribes Renew the Covenant

24Then 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. ²And 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. ³Then 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; ⁴and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I gave Esau the hill country of Seir to possess, but Jacob and his children went down to Egypt. ⁵Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt with what I did in its midst; and afterwards I brought you out. ⁶When I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, you came to the sea; and the Egyptians pursued your ancestors with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea.^{* 7}When they cried out to the Lord, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and made the sea come upon them and cover them; and your eyes saw what I did to Egypt. Afterwards you lived in the wilderness for a long time. ⁸Then I brought you to the land of the Amorites, who lived on the other side of the Jordan; they fought with you, and I handed them over to you, and you took possession of their land, and I destroyed them before you. ⁹Then King Balak, son of Zippor of Moab, set out to fight against Israel. He sent and invited Balaam son of Beor to curse you, ¹⁰but I would not listen to Balaam; therefore he blessed you; so I rescued you out of his hand. ¹¹When you went over the Jordan and came to Jericho, the citizens of Jericho fought against you, and also the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and I handed them over to you. ¹²I sent the hornet^* ahead of you, which drove out before you the two kings of the Amorites; it was not by your sword or by your bow. ¹³I gave you a land on which you had not laboured, and towns that you had not built, and you live in them; you eat the fruit of vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.

14 ‘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. ¹⁵Now 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.’

16 Then the people answered, ‘Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; ¹⁷for 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. He protected us along all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed; ¹⁸and the Lord drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.’

1 John 2: 15-17

15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world; ¹⁶for all that is in the world—the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches—comes not from the Father but from the world. ¹⁷And the world and its desire^* are passing away, but those who do the will of God live for ever.

THIS IS THE WORD OF THE LORD

THANKS BE TO GOD

INTRODUCTION — Shechem

In many ways, the story that begins in Genesis 12 finds its ending here in Joshua 24.

In Genesis 12, Abraham leaves his home in Ur among the Chaldeans.

He finally arrives in Canaan, and finds himself lounging under the shade of an oak tree in this village of Shechem.

It is there that God gives him a promise:

“To your offspring I will give you this land.”

This is a big promise that took a long time to fulfill.

Years later, Abraham’s grandson, Jacob returned from his uncle Laban.

And where did he settle?

Where did Jacob buy a piece a property from the sons of Hamor?

It was again here, in this place called Shechem (Genesis 33)

And later yet, when a young Joseph goes to find his brothers pasturing their sheep, he sets out for where — for Shechem. But that journey takes a terrible turn, and before he knows it, Joseph is being led into slavery in Egypt – a foreshadowing of Israel enslaved in Egypt (Genesis 37).

And so, this place, Shechem, in the middle of Canaan, was a place filled with hopes and dreams but also with disappointments.

The promise that was given to Abraham in Shechem in Genesis chaper 12

is fulfilled here in Shechem in Joshua chapter 24.

This is a surprise since when the book of Joshua begins, things look less than promising.

The book of Joshua starts with a rag-tag bunch of desert nomads camping on the east bank of the Jordan river. But miraculously, by the end of the book, Israel controls the land north of the Sea of Galilee all the way south to the Negev desert.

The book of Joshua is a book of conquest.

And each tribe of Israel receives a designated parcel of land.

You would expect the last chapter of this book to be a huge Victory Feast.

And so, here in Joshua 24,

You might expect a lot of hoots and cheers,

a lot of high-fives and fist-pumping,

a lot of back-slapping and self-congratulations of We did it, We did it!

You might expect the crowd to suddenly break out into a chant, singing: Is’ ra’ el’, Is’ ra’ el’

JOSHUA’S SERMON

But surprisingly, the crowds gathered are rather quiet.

They are all straining to hear what the aging Joshua has to say.

And what Joshua has to say is

not a post-victory speech,

not a way-to go,

I’m-so-proud-of- you,

way-to-give-it-your-best

kind of rah, rah speech.

No, what he has to say is more like a sermon.

It begins with a covenant-history lesson from the perspective of God himself.

Did you notice how many times the pronoun “I” is used?

It runs like a river all through this passage.

God says,

“I took Abraham from beyond the River

I gave him Isaac.

I gave Isaac Jacob and Esau.

I brought the plagues to Egypt.

I rescued you from slavery.

I saved you from the Egyptians.

I brought you through the wilderness.

I handed your enemies over to you.

I sent the hornet, the panic, ahead of you.

This victory, this conquest,

Was not by your sword;

It was not by your bow.

I gave you this land you did not work for.

I gave you these towns you did not build.

I gave you these vineyards you did not plant.

All these promises stretching back to Abraham and Genesis,

All these blessings you now enjoy,

All the abundance of life you now have,

you neither earned it,

nor even deserved it.

But I have given it to you,

because I….I am a God who keeps my promises.”

TWO BATTLES

The author Frederick Beuchner writes about two types of battles in our life.

One battle is to do well in the world.

It is the battle to achieve,

to get ahead,

to be recognized.

It is the battle to live in a nice house

surrounded by nice stuff

and to be known by others as a success.

But there is another battle, a more important battle.

It is the battle that goes on inside our skin.

We may get the nice house but not feel at home;

We may get the nice stuff yet remain restless;

We may get the recognition, yet it does not satisfy.

BAPTISM – THE GIFT

In a way, we are all looking for that other place,

that Promised Land

where we feel loved,

where we feel secure

where we feel we will be forgiven even when we stumble and fall.

Where do we find that other place?

That other place exists, but it isn’t something we battle for — it is something Jesus already battled for, and won for us.

We begin looking for this place in our baptism.

Regardless of whether we are baptized

when we are 5 months, like Naia^[1],

or when we are 50 years old,

the reality is that in baptism

we are given a life we did not earn,

a blessing we do not deserve,

and a gracious promise that when we sin we will be forgiven.

Baptism opens up for us the Promised Land,

a life lived enjoying the goodness and mercy of God.

These broad and deep promises of baptism are what the 16^th century Reformers stressed.

In the late medieval church,

the sacrament of baptism only addressed our Original Sin,

the sin we are all born with.

It was the sacrament of penance that addressed all the sins we committed after baptism. That is why penance was stressed so much.

But the Reformers did not like this.

It made baptism as a sacrament of grace too narrow, too limited.

They stressed that in baptism,

the Lord promises to forgive us throughout our lives.^[2]

Baptism is a sign of a lifelong reconciliation.

It is a God-given gift that sin cannot wipe away,

and that death cannot destroy.

But the gift of baptism must be responded to,

it must be lived.

We may receive the gift of baptism once,

but it takes a lifetime to unwrap and unpack.

BAPTISM – THE RESPONSIBILITY

That is why Joshua’s sermon that begins with all God’s gracious gifts,

“I did this, I did that….”

ends with such a stirring challenge:

“Now what about you?”

Now that the Lord has given you the gift of this Promised Land

what do you say?

What will it be?

Will you revere the Lord and serve Him,

or will you serve the gods of Canaan?

Will you worship the Lord and serve Him,

or will you go after the old gods of Egypt or the Chaldeans?

What will it be?

Choose this day whom you will serve?

That is also the continuing challenge of our baptism.

Baptism isn’t only about enjoying the goodness of God,

of being made right with God.

It isn’t only about what we call “justification.”

It is also about “sanctification.”

Baptism gives us a job to do.

Baptized people have the job of being God’s people in the world.

Being baptized,

being God’s people in the world

means accepting the call and the challenge to live differently from the

world.

Eugene Peterson, the translator of The Message,

writes about when he was 7 years old in December of 1939.

His parents had just read Jeremiah 10:3 for their devotions.

There it says:

Do not learn the way of the nations…

For the customs of the peoples are false,

A tree from the forest is cut down and worked with an ax.

Eugene Peterson’s pious mother heard that verse and immediately thought,

“We should not have a Christmas Tree. That is worldly.

This Christmas, no Tree, just Jesus.”

Well, this was a shocker, to everyone.

All the relatives wondered what was going on.

And young 7 year old Eugene cried himself to sleep every night.

He was terrified his friends would find out that they did not have a Christmas Tree.

Today, Eugene Peterson is nearing his 80’s.

He writes that for years he wanted to forget the Christmas with no tree, just Jesus.

But now …..now he wants to remember it.

Why?

“Because the feelings I had that Christmas when I was 7 years old may have been the most authentically Christian feelings I have ever had.

Feelings of being an outsider, humiliated and misunderstood on the one hand,

and yet feelings of celebrating the greatest gift ever given on the other hand.”

Peterson writes that this event had a lifelong impact.

It taught him that belonging to Jesus meant being different — different from the world.^[3]

CHOOSE THIS DAY WHOM YOU WILL SERVE

Choose this day….. is not a once-in-a-lifetime challenge.

The challenge of living out our baptism is a daily challenge.

The Reformer, Martin Luther, once said,

“Each morning I place my hand on my head and say,

I am a baptized person.

Today I will live out my baptism.”^[4]

Every morning when we wake up

All the wishes and hopes

All the dreams and demands

All the expectations and exasperations

Of the day coming rushing at us like a herd of wild animals.

But in remembering our baptism,

We push all these things aside.

We create a silence that listens for that other Voice.

We clear out all the distractions surrounding the doors to our heart,

And we allow

That larger, stronger, quieter, deeper life

To come flowing through us.

C. S. Lewis writes that when it comes to baptism,

there are paint-people and stain-people.

Paint-people are baptized, but like paint,

the water of baptism, the reality of baptism,

never seems to soak in.

It simply dries on the surface.

Then there are the stain-people.

Stain-people are baptized,

and the water of baptism

the reality of the death and resurrection of Jesus

soaks into their lives like stain soaks into wood.

It soaks in, and changes them:

It changes the way they speak, the way they live, the way they look.

It changes them, inside and out.^[5]

What kind of person are you?

CONCLUSION — I SIMPLY CANNOT GET OVER IT

Recently I read something surprising that Stanley Hauerwas wrote.

Some of you may be familiar with that name.

Hauerewas is a Methodist from Texas who has taught ethics in Notre Dame and Duke Universities for years. He has written dozens of books. He has spent his career emphasizing that what we say we believe must make a difference in how we live.

He is in his 70’s now,

and by his own admission,

he has always been loud and outspoken,

he has always been rather crusty and curmudgeonly.

That is why I was surprised when he wrote that he often cries during baptisms.

This is what he writes:

“I am not sure why I cry.

You would think I would be used to them by now — I’ve spent my whole life in church.

But thank God that I have never gotten used to being a Christian.

I think that is why I cry.

I simply cannot get over what a surprising and wonderful life God has given

me.

I simply cannot get over that.”^[6]

Amen

Prayer:

God who at the font once name us

Child of God, forever mine

In your gift of faith confirm us;

Shape our lives to your design.

Holy Spirit, Loving Spirit, let your light upon us shine.

Amen

1. Naia, the name of the child being baptized ↑

2. Explained further in John Witvliet’s “Baptism as a Sacrament of Reconciliation in the Thought of John Calvin,” in Worship Seeking Understanding, Baker Academic, 2003, 149-162. ↑

3. Peterson, “The Treeless Christmas of 1939” in The Pastor, 50-55. ↑

4. In Duba Arlo’s “Take Me to the Water” in Reformed Worship, 62(2001), 22-25. ↑

5. C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Bk. 4, ch. 8. ↑

6. Stanley Hauerwas, Hannah’s Child: A Theologian’s Memoir, p. 279-280. ↑