Let us Pray: Bless I pray, the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts - in Jesus name. Amen.
A Time of Remembering - A Time of Decision - this is the focus of today's reading from the Book of Joshua
As Joshua - as an old man - about to die - called the people of Israel together - to remember and to decide - so we are called together here today - to remember - and to decide
We remember today - what for some
- the sacrifice, the pain, the loss
- the comradeship - the closeness - the hopes and fears
- the evil that threatened - the victory that came
We remember too - as we did in the Litany of Reconciliation and Justice - the deeper things of God and of this world - of the things in this world that divide families, groups, peoples, and nations one from the other - and of the need not only forpeace - but for the justice that upon which true peace is built - the justice and the love that shows mercy to those who seek it - and even to those who do not..
Value of remembering
- for some - is strictly in telling the story - in sharing what is important to them - in working out the good and the bad - the happy and the sad - one has encountered.
- for others it is the issues - the lessons - involved in any telling of the past - the education it can provide - for others it is a matter of honouring - of respecting - of evoking the emotions and feelings that are best in a person - laughter, joy, tears, peace, outrage, forgiveness, humility, determination.
Remembering is good - but primarily today, remembering is a call for decision on our part - and without the decision - without the deciding that we are called to do remembering has little power or purpose.
In our scripture reading this morning Joshua told the story of how God had treated the children of Israel - how he had chosen Abraham - and Isaac - and Jacob and promised them a land - how he had remembered Joseph in Egypt and raised up Moses to deliver the people - how he had led his people safely from the clutches of Pharaoh and watched over them in the Wilderness of Sinai - and how finally he had brought the 12 tribes across the Jordan and into the promised land, driving out their enemies before them, and giving them a land that they had not laboured for, grapes and olives that they didn't plant.
He tells the story - he remembers and he then calls the people to understand what has been remembered and to make a decision the decision to choose to follow and be true to the God who gave them life - or to choose to follow in the path of the nations around them and to worship their gods.
The people respond to this challenge by reciting back to Joshua the story as they remember it - of how God worked miracles to set them free and all though other nations were all around them the Lord protected them where-ever they went and they then say to Joshua that like him - they will serve the God of Abraham and Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Moses - the God that has been good to them.
And so we are called today to remember - to remember not only all those who suffered and died - who sweat and sacrificed so much - but to remember the reason for which all honourable men and women have fought through the centuries - namely the good of not only their nation - but of the whole world - AND - most importantly - We are called to choose.
When Joshua reminds the people of their history - of their experience - and then demands that the people choose what God they will serve - he tells them that this is no easy decision that there is a cost involved the cost of total commitment - and that should they falter - should they put their hand to the plow and look back; - should they attempt to live with one foot in the kingdom of God - the God who gives life - and the other in the world of idols that God himself will turn against them and make terrible things to happen to them - and then he will finally wipe them out - even though he has been good to them in the past.
Today we remember - and we are called to choose
We are called to choose this day much the same thing Joshua called the people of Israel to choose.
We are called to choose life or death, to choose God and the things of God - or ourselves alone - and the things of this world
And the message for us is the same as the message to the children of Israel, the same message that every veteran of every battle with this world's evil can tell you - namely they who forgot - they who choose to ignore the call of God and to instead be like everyone else - to be a people who look after only themselves - a people who seek wealth instead of justice - who pursue happiness rather the way of truth - who elevate peace as a value over that of the truth of God - are lost.
Should we follow other gods - should we value our own prosperity while ignoring the poverty of others - should we desire our own comfort more than we desire to help others - should we value the peace of endless compromise to the hard work of speaking truth to those who lie, and in doing justice even though it may cost us our own lives then not only will the sacrifice made by so many others on our behalf be in vain, and their memory dishonoured even as speak their names but we ourselves and our descendants after us - will perish.
The kingdom of God, the kingdom that is distinguished by joyful peace, by freedom from pain and death, by love that knows no hate, by plenty that knows no limit demands our all.
As Jesus gave himself wholly for us on the cross - and in doing so rose to new life on the third day so we are called to give ourselves completely for the sake of what is right. May His name be blessed day by day, Amen!
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