What Would Joshua Say Today?

Text: Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25
Theme: “What Would Joshua Say Today?”
21st Sunday After Pentecost
November 6, 2011
First Presbyterian Church
Denton, Texas
Rev. Paul R. Dunklau

IN THE NAME OF JESUS

People in my line of work do a lot of reading. Of course, we ministers read the Bible – sometimes every day! And, if we are true to our calling, we’re going to base our messages on what we’ve read and meditated upon therein. But that isn’t all. I think it important to pick up a newspaper on a daily basis. Someone once said that a good preacher has the Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other. And I’m proud to report that I have USA Today sent to my Kindle. (That’s a device that allows you to wirelessly download books and newspapers.) I peruse the titles in my morning quiet time, and if something looks interesting I’ll read on. Unfortunately, my trial subscription is about to end, and I have to decide whether to go to a paid subscription. Then there’s good theological writing. When something comes out (Michael Horton’s The Gospel-Driven Life is a good example), I’ll at least read the previews and reviews to see if I want to take on the whole thing. I better get going because, later this week, the City of Denton is holding its annual Prayer Breakfast at the Gateway Center at UNT. The guest speaker will be the author of the book-turned-movie, Seven Days in Utopia. I’ve got to finish the book ASAP. (It’s on my Kindle.) Lately, I’ve been fascinated with history – both of the fictional and non-fictional variety. I like it when a writer, like Ken Follett, weaves a fictional tale in and around actual events. One really neat book of history I devoured recently was Erik Larsen’s In the Garden of Beasts. It’s the story of President Roosevelt’s ambassador to Germany in the early 1930s, when the “Third Reich” was just getting started under Hitler. And then there’s Edmund Morris and his masterful three-volume biography of Theodore Roosevelt: The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt (which portrays his pre-presidential years), Theodore Rex (which tells of his presidency which began shortly after the assassination of President McKinley), and Colonel Roosevelt (which tells us all about the adventures Teddy had after he left office). It was a quite a project – and really a great joy! – to read all three books, each of which being over nine hundred pages long.

But, in the interest of full disclosure, I have to confess a weakness for spy novels. Vince Flynn has written a series of books revolving around the doings of a fictional character, Mitch Rapp (even the name is the epitome of American cockiness and cool), who is a disgruntled navy seal/CIA agent who is always off on some worldwide manhunt to get the bad guys. I’m just about to finish Nelson Demille’s book, The Lion’s Game. His cool character, a semi-retired NYPD cop, is off chasing a bad guy who is out seeking revenge for the American bombing of Libya in the mid-1980s.

Did you know that the Bible has something of a spy novel in it? It certainly does. At a time when the Israelites were getting ready to enter the promised land, Moses sent spies into Jericho to see if they could take the city. The king and local officials got wind of this, and they went on a manhut for the spies. But Rahab, a prostitute, who was sympathetic to the Israelite cause, hid the spies away in her home, and they escaped out a window.

Interestingly, this wouldn’t be the first time in subsequent history when there would be such a daring escape. Later on in the New Testament, the apostle Paul escaped from the city of Damascus by being lowered over the wall in a basket to avoid persecution. And some say that the Bible is boring. It is, if you haven’t read it! If this isn’t enough, fast-forward to the year 1533.

The city is Paris, France. A young, Catholic man lived there. He was a law student and quite brilliant. He began reading Martin Luther’s writings. (not on a Kindle; they didn’t have those back then). Thus, he became a leader of the Reformation in France. This, however, did not come without risk. The risks for supporting the Reformation were arrest, imprisonment, or even death. This law student had written that “Only one salvation is left open for our souls, and that is the mercy of God in Christ. We are saved by grace…not by our works.” Shortly after that, this man assisted a Paris University official in preparing an inauguration address. The speech called for the church to turn back to the basic teachings of the New Testament. It took aim at all the modern theologians of the day who had distorted everything. The lawyer wrote: “They teach nothing of faith, nothing of the love of God, nothing of the remission of grace, nothing of justification, or if they do so, they pervert and undermine it all by their laws and sophistries. I beg of you, who are here present, not to tolerate any longer these heresies and abuses.”

That language got the lawyer in a whole heap of trouble. The king and church officials were furious. They sent the police after this lawyer. As it turns out, this lawyer left town by lowering himself from a window on bedsheets tied together. He escaped Paris dressed as a farmer. He took an assumed name, Martianus Lucianius. He made it to Switzerland and wandered around as a fugitive evangelist. Finally, he became one of the great leaders of the Protestant Reformation. In case you didn’t know, his name is John Calvin.

Today’s Old Testament Reading puts before us one of the great characters in the Bible’s story that, sad to say, doesn’t get as much attention as he deserves. He is almost always overshadowed by his more famous leader, Moses, who delivered God’s Word to the Pharaoh of Egypt: “Let my people go!” Eventually, under the leadership of Moses, Pharaoh got the message, and the Israelites marched through the Red Sea on dry land. There, participating in all these proceedings, was the man we’ve come to know as Joshua. Later, after the great exodus from Egypt, Joshua organized the spy ring that went into Jericho, as I previously mentioned. It could be argued that Joshua was kind of a CIA agent for God’s people.

Last summer, amid the searing heat of North Texas, we celebrated, on July 4th, the two hundred thirty fifth anniversary of American independence. Now the Israelites were slaves in Egypt not for two hundred thirty five years but for four hundred years! If one generation consists of twenty five years, then Israel was in slavery for sixteen generations. That meant that you, your parents, your grandparents, your great-grandparents, your great-great-grandparents, your great-great-great-great grandparents, and twelve more generations of grandparents preceding that were slaves in Egypt. Then, after the exodus, there was a period of forty years of wandering in the wildnerness.

There, at what can only be described as a pivotal moment in world history, stood that man named Joshua. Moses had died. Joshua, chosen by God, had taken his place. They had finally settled in the promised land. Joshua assembled all those people in all their tribes. He summoned all the elders and leaders and judges and officials. The moment of truth had come. He delivers to them the Word of God: “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your forefathers, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the River and worshiped other gods. But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the River and led him throughout Canaan and gtave him many descendants.”

The narrative, in the book of Joshua, continues as God Himself shares what God had done down through all those many years. God, speaking of the promised land where they now lived, said: “I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.” Joshua, preaching a sermon based on God’s World, concluded this way: “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served 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.”

The nation of Israel thought it was a very fine sermon! “Great job, Joshua! We’re with you all the way!” appears to be the attitude. They say: “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods!” They acknowledge all that God had done for them, and finish up their reaction this way: “We too will serve the Lord, because he is our God.”

But Joshua was having none of it. He said: “You are not able to serve the Lord! He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you.”
And the people of Israel had none of that either. They replied: “No! We will serve the Lord.” Joshua then notarized the entire conversation. “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the Lord.” They said, “We are.” Joshua said, “Throw away the foreign gods that are among you and incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.”

At front and center, as always, is the God question. How do people define God today? One of the definitions I like is quite simply this: a god is that to which you look for the highest good in your life.

If Joshua were here today, I think he would look at our congregation and ask us – as individuals and as a body of people – what the highest good in life is. What is the highest good in your life? Is it money? Is it the almighty dollar? Is it the Dow Jones industrial average and how it relates to your retirement account? Is it your health, your well-being, your serenity, your security? Is it your family? Is it your American citizenship?

And we would respond to a modern-day Joshua, and say: “No! It is the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jesus who died on the cross to forgive our sins.”
What if a modern-day Joshua would say “No” to that? What if he said, “You are unable to serve Him”? You see, Israel based it’s choice to serve God on the past. They remembered what God had done. In and of itself, that’s okay. But folks, we don’t live in the past. We live in “Realville” – in the here and now.
I hold in my hands a beautifully bound book that I have thoroughly enjoyed reading. It’s called History of the First Presbyterian Church, Denton, Texas. It was lovingly compiled and published to commemorate one hundred twenty five years of faithfulness to God by you, the dear people of this congregation.

I think Joshua would look at that book and say, “That’s great. But you can’t base your choice to serve the true God on your history. The question is: will you – right here, right now, and in real time – serve the Lord? Will you make that choice? Will you, today, incline your heart to the God who, through Moses, brought His people out of four hundred years of bondage, and, through Jesus Christ, brought the human race out of the jaws of death and hell? Will you entrust your lives and your future to this God who so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son? Will you notarize, with your affirmation of faith this day, that this is what you intend to do?” Based on the Holy Scripture, these are some of things I think Joshua would ask of us today. How will you respond? What choice will you make?

By the way, as you think about this, “Joshua” is the Hebrew name. The same name in Greek is “Jesus.” The name, whether in Hebrew or Greek, means the same thing: “God saves.” God grant that First Presbyterian Church – indeed, the holy catholic church throughout the world – always notarizes its choice with its words and its life.’

Amen.