Choosing and Receiving: Joshua 24:1-18 - 21st Sunday after Pentecost

I never like to shop for groceries alone, because I always feel like I need to read the minds of my wife and daughter. Sometimes, they put things on the list that are extremely specific.

Shampoo is probably the best example of this. Each prefers a specific brand of a specific type and specific scent. If you’ve been to Walmart lately, you know that sell hundreds of varieties from dozens of brands. Finding the correct one is like finding a needle in a haystack. To make matters worse, the major brands often introduce new varieties while discontinuing others. Then I’m texting them pictures of what’s available, and they must choose from the alternatives.

So many choices to complete the same basic task. No wonder the stores are so big.

Modern life overwhelms us with choices on what to eat, what to watch, what to read, what to buy, where to go, what to wear. Freedom of choice is a good thing. Unfortunately, many choices draw us away from God.

In today’s Old Testament reading, Joshua is standing before the Israelites who have finally arrived in the Promised Land. He leads the people through a liturgical remembrance of God’s faithfulness which freed them from slavery in Egypt, sustained them in the desert, and saved them from their enemies.

The pivotal moment comes in verses 14 and 15. Notice how Joshua does not say, “choose the God/god you will serve.” He says, “serve the Lord or choose another god.”

Unsurprisingly, everyone refuses to forsake the Lord to serve other gods. With all the people together in one place, their ancestors, why would they? Nobody goes to a pep rally and roots for the opposing team.

That’s not to say that the people did not have a choice. They did. But they’re not choosing gods like you choose Coke or Pepsi. Rather, the choice before them is to continue in God’s covenant relationship or reject God and serve someone else.

Keep in mind that Israel is a chosen people. God chose Israel first. God took the initiative. You and I are no different. Like the ancient Israelites, you are not a Christian because you made a choice. God chose you first. Not because you are better than other people; God chose you for God‘s own reasons. It’s not your choice or decision that saves you. You are saved because Jesus did what he was chosen to do: he bore sin and death in his body on the cross. Your faith is not your work but the work of the Spirit.

Faith is not an exercise of choice. It is the abandonment of choice for the will of God. The ones who cannot choose, we call them beggars. Beggars can only receive, and we are all beggars before God. But nobody wants to be a beggar. We want God to tell God what to do.

I remember telling my spiritual advisor about some difficulties I was facing. She interrupted me and asked, “how’s your prayer life?” At first, I was annoyed by her interruption, but she knows I’m a worrier. When you worry, your mind grabs onto a problem or uncertainty in the vain hope that you can wrestle it into your control. What ends up happening, though, is that the worry controls you. To worry is to forsake God. If left unchecked, it will pull you into despair.

So often, we think God is distant and silent when we are the ones who are distant and silent. God’s reaches out in love, but we keep reaching for other things. God’s hands are open in blessing, but we’re too preoccupied to receive them. God’s deliverance can only be received. Before you can receive you must surrender.

Privilege presents the same temptation. The privileged can choose whatever they want. But it’s no accident that the Christian faith flourishes among the underprivileged, such as in our partner presbytery in Rwanda or our partner synod in Madagascar. The more the world has to offer you, the easier it is to reject God.

Then we wonder why we’re exhausted, stressed, angry, envious, boastful, and mean... these are the symptoms of a life detached from God— in a world detached from God.

Life is full of choices, and you need God’s help with every single one of them since the world wants you to choose against God.

So what does your chosenness mean to you? That Christ had you in mind at the cross? That the Spirit has drawn you into the Body of Christ?

Only in gratitude can you receive the gifts of your chosenness. Only in abandoning your right to choose and your need to control can you know God’s perfect will and live it.

God has been faithful to bring you this far. The last thing God is going to do is abandon you. So stay on the path. Continue in the covenant. Remember and receive, then praise and serve. That’s what you were chosen for. That’s what you were made for.

Joshua 24:1-18 (NRSVue)

Then 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. ² And 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. ³ Then 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, ⁴ and 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. ⁵ Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt with what I did in its midst, and afterward I brought you out. ⁶ When 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. Afterward you lived in the wilderness a long time. ⁸ Then 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. ⁹ Then King Balak son of Zippor of Moab set out to fight against Israel. He sent and invited Balaam son of Beor to curse you, ¹⁰ but I would not listen to Balaam; therefore he blessed you, so I rescued you out of his hand. ¹¹ When you went over the Jordan and came to Jericho, the citizens of Jericho fought against you, as well as the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I handed them over to you. ¹² I sent swarms of hornets ahead of you that drove out before you the two kings of the Amorites; it was not by your sword or by your bow. ¹³ I gave you a land on which you had not labored and towns that you had not built, and you live in them; you eat the fruit of vineyards and oliveyards 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. ¹⁵ 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.”

¹⁶ Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods, ¹⁷ for 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, ¹⁸ and 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.”