As for Me and My House

As for Me and My House

Joshua called the people of Israel together.  "Choose this day whom you will serve!"  It wasn't an arbitrary choice.  It was a response to their history, their story.  Joshua's response was "As for me and my house we will serve the Lord.  Each of us lives out a story.  Your story is important, and it is a story that is based on a shared history--a history shared with Jesus Christ.

One of the young medical officers at the Naval Air Station, Corpus Christi, Texas, grew up on the mission field in Central Africa. Her father provided technical support for the missionaries. An interesting young lady, she lived in the Congo from the time that she was a kindergartner until her Junior Year of High School. She said that at one point the local hospital had run out of any and every kind of medication to relieve pain, down to and including aspirin. She wondered what could be done to relieve pain without medication and decided that she would become a chiropractor when she grew up. When she returned to the states someone mentioned that she should become an osteopath—which would give her the best of both worlds. She could use chiropractic techniques and practice medicine also. On several occasions, she mentioned that she would like to get her father and myself together.

One evening when her parents were visiting, she invited Susan and myself over. Her father started talking about ways in which to enhance the work of missionaries. He was a list man—Point one, point two, point three, point four, point five... At the end of forty five minutes, I had to say STOP!

My brain couldn’t absorb any more. One of the things I remember vividly from the conversation was the importance of stories. One of the things he pointed out was that the tribesmen in the bush sat around a campfire in the evening and told stories. What if, he said, you could design a simple DVD player that was multiple screened, so that it could be viewed from all sides and you could use it to tell the stories of Jesus.

To the tribesmen it would be like sitting around a campfire. Think of how well that would communicate. Think of how easy it would be to remember what was said, and how easy to pass along. Stories are important, but you have to tell the whole story. One of the things that bothered me about the Old Testament lesson today was that it left out the heart of the story. We were only told that Joshua gathered the people together and reminded them that their ancestor Abraham came from a land beyond the Euphrates River. Then the text skipped over to a choice—“Choose this day whom you shall serve...” It sounded something like a salesman trying to close a deal. It left out the reason that they should choose to serve God.

You have to know the story. The story is that God made a three-fold promise to Abraham. Abraham, in spite of his age and his wife’s age, would have a child—a descendent. God would give Abraham a land, and ultimately through the descendents of Abraham all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Isaac was the fulfillment of the first part of the promise.

Isaac and his son Jacob would become the promise bearers—then Joseph would bear the promise. But with Joseph the children of Israel ended up in Egypt and ultimately in slavery. Even there God did not abandon his people. Moses was called to lead the people out of slavery and out of Egypt. Plague after plague fell on the Egyptians, almost as if this were a contest between the stubbornness of Pharaoh and the tenacity of God, until finally Pharaoh broke and released the people. Almost released them!

He thought he had them trapped between his on-rushing army and the Reed Sea, but once again God intervened. The time in the wilderness was followed by the conquest of the Land—the Promised Land. Moses was only permitted to view the land from across the Jordan River. It was Joshua who would lead the people forward. You know the story of the conquest of Jericho.

Warfare in those days was harsh and brutal. It wasn’t a matter of sitting in an office chair operating a toggle switch ten thousand miles from the battle as some fight today. It was a matter of smelling the sweat of an opponent and watching his blood flow. Each tribe—the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites—each with its foreign gods--constituted a distinct danger to the integrity of the people of Israel. Even there they were not abandoned. Even then God sent—and we’ve lost the meaning of the Hebrew word—hornets is the normal translation--but it probably means that God sent a terror of the Lord that preceded the children of Israel in battle and destroyed the effectiveness of their opponents.

At the end of the conquest of the Land, Joshua called the people together and rehearsed their history—told them their story. The whole book of Joshua is geared to this moment. Joshua reminded them of all that God had done for them from the very beginning. He spoke of the defeat of those who followed other gods, and then, only then, he asked whom they would serve. The choice for Joshua was clear—“As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

The story is important. The other evening during a small prayer service some of the members of the congregation shared their stories. The subject was the gifts which God had given them, and it was amazing how a person was sometimes led in an entirely new and unexpected direction to find a whole new life opening before them. The stories were important, because they were their stories. It was their own lives they were talking about, but more than that, the stories were about how their lives interconnected with God. The Children of Israel were not simply asked to make a blind choice—pick one. Rather, they were responding to the story of something which God had done. God had taken the initiative in the life of a people to bring them to the moment of our text. But the story did not stop there.

In Joshua’s time only the second part of the promise was fulfilled. There was yet one more part and that would not occur until God gave his only begotten Son. Jesus Christ is the continuation of the story. His suffering, death, and resurrection have become intertwined with our own story. His death becomes our death. His resurrection becomes our opening to a new life. His forgiveness overcomes our failures. His story brings our story to completion. Through Jesus Christ all the nations of the world are blessed.

Dr. Schey’s father spoke of many things that evening, but one image has remained etched on my mind. Sitting around a campfire in the heart of central Africa stories are shared. Then a voice begins to tell the story of Jesus—not the voice of a missionary, but the voice of an evangelist, a member of their own tribe—one who has shared their life, their history, their story. The story is told once again—a story that is not afraid to face reality—to face failures—to face both heartbreak and joy, a story of forgiveness and redemption, with which their own story is intertwined.

At some point a response is called for. At some point the speaker must like Joshua say, “As for me and my house we will serve the Lord.” Each of us lives out a story, the story of our own life. That’s what I learned that night. Your story is important! It’s a real story, filled with hopes and dreams, successes and failures. It is a story that intersects with the story of God. It is a story that has a history. It is most certainly your story and my story, but it is also God’s story. And it is a story that it some point brings us to Joshua’s question: “Choose this day whom you will serve,” not as an arbitrary choice, but a response to a shared history—a history shared with Jesus Christ.

Author: Jan Withers

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