In Sunday’s first reading Joshua challenges the people of Israel, “If it does not please you to serve the Holy One, decide today whom you will serve.” Joshua makes this challenge at the grand ceremonial gathering to reaffirm the covenant between God and God’s people in which the book of Joshua culminates. Joshua’s challenge puts the question of God’s prominence in our lives front and center. Who we will serve? Do we attend to divine or worldly matters?
I can make some stray worry or bad habit the centerpiece of my life. This rarely leads to good. Bob Dylan sings, “You have to serve somebody sometime.” In moments when my beloved relationships call me back to reality, I find that I cannot serve God well when I am also in service to the god of my own plans and desires!
I find myself nudged into changing when I encounter some idea or habit that has become a kind of god for me. Commentaries on the book of Joshua suggest that for Joshua and the assembled tribes, the law was not something constructed by humankind, rather, it was God’s own handprint on the world of the ordinary. The law is a living and sacred reality within our everyday lives.
Thinking of God’s law in this way raises the question of obedience. Whom will I serve? What order do I embrace when I attempt to impose my own will on events, people, experiences? How much control do I really have over that amazing river of creative spirit which I find in my everyday life?
The people of Israel put away their gods and renew the covenant. They see their lives from deep within the context of God’s eternal, everyday presence among them. This reality motivates their faith commitment. “Far be it from us to forsake the Holy One,” they say. Would that I am so wise! Would that I can follow their example!
Joshua prepares to die.
Joshua gathered together all the tribes of Israel at Shechem, summoning their elders, their leaders, their judges, and their officers. When they stood in ranks before God, Joshua addressed all the people.
“Thus says the Holy One, the God of Israel: In times past your ancestors dwelt beyond the river and served other gods. If it does not please you to serve God, decide today whom you will serve, the god your ancestors served beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites in whose country you are dwelling. As for me and my household, we will serve the Holy One.”
But the people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the Holy One for the service of other gods. For it was the Holy One, our God, who brought us and our ancestors up out of the land of Egypt, out of a state of slavery. God performed those great miracles before our very eyes and protected us along our entire journey and among all the peoples through whom we passed. Therefore, we will serve the Holy One.”
Joshua 24.1-2,15-17,18
- How much control do you want over the amazing river of creative spirit in your everyday life?
- How much control do you have?