CHOOSE THIS DAY WHOM YOU WILL SERVE
A
sermon by Rev. Richard Miller, Minister of Trinity United Church, Montreal, Quebec. November 6, 2005. Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25
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.
- Joshua 24:15
On
this Remembrance Sunday – on this Election Day – I have a question. Where is your allegiance? Where is mine? In our lives there are many things that compete for our first
allegiance. To what – or whom – will we
give it? Every day we are courted by
such gods as money, success, recognition, popularity....you can add others to
the list. To which of them do we bow
down and serve?
Sometimes
it may seem to us that the Bible is a strange book passed down from another
time and place which has nothing at all to say to us. At other times it is "right on the money," and we see
ourselves quite clearly in its pages – perhaps more clearly than we want
to. Whatever else the Bible is – or is
not, it is the story of competing allegiances.
From Adam and Eve in the Garden, to Jacob who was later called Israel
because he "contended with God," to David, and on to New Testament
people like Peter and Judas, this book is the story of people who struggled
with this same question: to whom did
they owe their allegiance? Indeed, the
apocalyptic vision of the end-time in the book of Revelation is about this as
well – giving a prophecy of the results of which allegiance has been chosen.
For
many weeks we have been reading the Old Testament narrative of the Exodus
journey to the Promised Land, and very early in that story those people – like
their modern counterparts – were serving many gods. And Joshua, who was their leader after Moses, put the challenge
very directly. He said, "Choose
you this day whom you will serve...."
You
know, most of us are seldom challenged so directly. When was the last time someone got in our face and put it so
bluntly: "Choose you this day –
right now – whom you will serve"?
How often does someone look us in the eye, or wave their finger in our
face, and in the name of God Almighty dare us to chose here and now – at this
very moment – what god we will serve? Umh? But that is exactly what Joshua did. And it is what Moses had done, and it is
what the later prophets did. It is what
John the Baptist did and what St. Paul did and, of course, what Jesus did. And it is what he continues to do as he
calls each of us to follow him. For
many of us today this is not an easy challenge, yet it is one from which we
cannot escape. We must make our
choice. And in the words of a poster
that has been around for quite some time, "Not to Decide is to
Decide." When we try to reserve
judgement, we have already made our choice.
And
there is also another sense in which we are challenged every day to chose what
god we will serve. You see, whether
someone puts it so directly to us or not, other choices which we make each day
are in fact choices of whom we will serve.
For example, we make the choice in how we respond to the person who is
hungry or cold. Or in how we respond to
the one who is oppressed or in some way discriminated against. Or to one who reaches out for our friendship
and we turn them away. These and many
other are also ways that we chose whom we serve. And yes, many of us are very good at giving persuasive reasons
for our choices. And there are times
when our reasons may even convince other people, but in our heart of hearts we
know what god we have chosen. And when
we are honest with ourselves, there are times – too many times – when we are
not happy with the choice we have made.
One
time I heard a moving, poignant lecture and it was entitled: "I've given up all allegiances but these." Yes,
life is a process of choosing – and giving up – allegiances. As we live and grow and hopefully mature, we
learn that some allegiances must be given up, others must become more important,
and still others must be taken up for the first time. Joshua of old said, "Choose you this day whom you will
serve..." The question of our
allegiance – of whom we will serve – is a question which is always before us,
and a question from which we can never escape.
Joshua put the question to his people quite directly, and he laid out
the alternatives. He said,
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. [And] 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 [people]
in whose land you are living. . . .
And then Joshua gave his own
witness: "....but as for me and my
household, we will serve the Lord."
Such
is the challenge that is before you and me even today – to choose what god we will
serve. And also before us is Joshua's witness,
and his exhortation to "revere the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in
faithfulness," putting away other gods that we may have served in another
place or at another time. Let each of
us respond in our own way, and let us do it with fidelity and conviction. Amen.