November 12, 2023 ~ Proper 27 ~ Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Pentecost ~ Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time ~ Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25; Psalm 78:1-7; Wisdom of Solomon 6:12-16 or Amos 5:18-24; Wisdom of Solomon 6:17-20 or Psalm 70; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Matthew 25:1-13 ~ The Sunday After Veterans Day ~ VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/884796946

Other gods

“…as for me and my household, we will serve Yahweh, we will worship Yahweh Who is our God.” — Joshua 24:15b.

If I prove anything by telling you the following story it’s that I can be really, really boring. But it gets worse. I have friends who can also be really, really boring.

Here’s the first step on this journey to boring. One evening last week I sent an article to a friend by email about the inadequacies of Scripture translations. “Interesting article,” responded my friend.” Then we went back and forth about this by email. Like I said— I am boring. I have boring friends.

Next he wrote, “I always felt Christianity lost touch with its roots, its beliefs because so often we don’t realize translations can be so inadequate. So what we really need to do is focus on the teachings of Jesus.”

“That’s easy to do,” he said. “Much of what Jesus taught was political and proposed a revolution against Rome. But the leaders in Israel at that time supported the Roman power structure.”

“The scholar Reza Aslan says the revolutionary teachings of Christ can be seen as both new and subversive but peaceful. They needed to be peaceful because Israel was not powerful enough to confront Rome even while Roman culture undermined Judaism.”

I responded— more boring— I responded. “The observation that the teachings of Jesus being new is inaccurate. All of what Jesus taught can be found in the Hebrew Scriptures.”

“Many people ask: ‘Who is Jesus?’ And Jesus is quoted as asking, ‘Who do you say that I am.’ But that brings us back to issues of translations. A literal translation of those words is, ‘Who do you say me to be?’”

“I maintain Jesus here takes the traditional Jewish position: God is One. But at the same time Jesus asks if God is One, how do I, Jesus, fit in? This leads us to some basic questions. ‘How do we, how can we describe God?’”

“If Jesus is a part of the description of God, a Trinitarian description, God Who is One and three, then becomes valid. But if Jesus is just about teaching, not a part of the description, what comes into play is a unitarian description of God. However, God the Creator, God Redeemer and God Spirit are all evident, all referenced in the Hebrew Scripture.”

I continued, “It takes over three centuries for Christians to formulate a Trinitarian description of their own. And this description tries to say how Jesus fits in with this Jewish God Who is One and also tries to fit that description in with what is found in the Hebrew Scriptures.”

I signed off the correspondence with this: “If you say ‘God does not exist’ that becomes your God because from a philosophical perspective God is an a priori concept. In 1781 the philosopher Immanuel Kant addressed that idea in The Critique of Pure Reason.” Then I said. “All this is really too much thinking for one night.”

“Yeah,” said my friend, “that definitely makes my head hurt!” (Slight pause.) I know. A discussion about the definition of God is proof that I am really, really boring and I have really boring friends.

I am so boring… now all you Johnny Carson fans out there know what happens here. When I say “I am so boring…” you say, “How boring are you?” (Pause.) I am so boring… my hobby is watching paint dry. Let’s try that one more time. I am so boring… I sometimes wonder why Bonnie married me. (Slight pause.)

We find these words recorded in Joshua: “…as for me and my household, we will serve Yahweh, we will worship Yahweh Who is our God.” (Slight pause.)

I have said this here before: theologian Walter Brueggemann says the God of Scripture is written with remarkable, intentional, artistic illusiveness— very complex ideas, a very complex God. And if it does not make our heads hurt to just think about a description of God, we’re doing it wrong. We cannot domesticate God, reduce God to a manageable package, reduce God to meaninglessness platitudes.

And yes, many people do try to make the concept of God simple, friendly, accessible, put God in a box, domesticate God. This is not really n option offered by Scripture. Equally, to reduce the reality of Jesus to mere teachings, cast Jesus as simply a revolutionary, as my friend tried to do, is doing it wrong. (Slight pause.)

So, does God exist? I hope this is obvious. For me the answer is ‘yes.’ Therefore, the words uttered by Joshua: “as for me and my household, we will serve Yahweh,” resonate with me. (Slight pause.)

Now, there is something said in this passage which is often overlooked. Joshua tells the people to (quote:), “…throw away the foreign gods among you and turn your hearts toward Yahweh….”

Monotheism as it was understood in this era was not how we see monotheism today. The Israelites would have admitted there were other gods who were real and people would carry around little statues which represented other gods.

Therefore, when Joshua tells them to throw away the foreign gods, what is being addressed are these little statues. But throwing them away is not just a physical gesture. It is an emotional gesture. Joshua invites the people to turn their hearts towards God, be emotionally attached to God, emotionally embrace God. (Slight pause.)

Question: what little statues, foreign gods, what gods might we have, might we be invited to throw away? I think many of us, myself included, probably have a stash of foreign gods, other gods.

I will not be foolish enough to try to name my set or your set of gods. And they are probably not little statues we carry around, either. But we really have them— little gods— for instance cars, sports, politics… the list could be endless.

So, instead of delineating these little gods, I want to ask a question. Since I’ve made a statement, the statement that God does exist, “to where does this God of Scripture call us?’

I think God calls us to mission. This mission is to work toward the reality of the Dominion of God, the realm of God— here, now. But how do we work toward that reality? (Slight pause.)

I believe we work toward the reality of the Dominion through the mission of helping others. And each local church in the Congregational tradition finds its own mission.

Here, in this church, your Missions Committee, your Deacons, other boards and committees, are deeply involved in mission. Further and as Carol reminded us last week, your stewardship support empowers the work of mission in this place.

All that says two things. First, yes— thinking about how we describe God should make our heads hurt. If it does not, we’re doing it wrong.

But second, working toward the Dominion of God means working on mission. And the mission of this church is to help people.

Helping people is an outward sign that we, this church, seek the justice, peace, freedom, equity of the Dominion toward which we are working. And here, in this place, things like the Holiday Fair and suppers both support mission and bring people together. That mission— helping people, bringing people together, points to the reality of God.

You see, there is one description of God on which we can rely. God calls us to help others. And working on mission, helping people, will not make our head hurt. Indeed, working on mission helps us turn our hearts toward God. Amen.

ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Choral Response and Benediction. This is a précis of what was said: “This is an old, often told story. Someone walking on a beach saw another person lean down, pick up a starfish and fling it back into the ocean. And they did it again and again, starfish after starfish. The person who was walking along went up to the one tossing the starfish into the ocean and said, ‘This beach is miles long— they weren’t in Maine— this beach is miles long and there are thousands and thousands of these starfish. How is this of any help?’ The rescuer of starfish reached down, picked up another starfish, tossed it into the water and then said, ‘It helped that one.’ This is what the mission of the local church is about. We can’t do everything but dealing with one starfish at a time, helping one person at a time, is what we can do. And yes, mission connects our hearts with God.”

BENEDICTION: The knowledge that God loves us frees us for joyous living. So, let us trust in the love God offers. Let us also be fervent in prayer as we make choices daily, and seek to do God’s will and walk in God’s way as we travel on our Christian journey. And may the peace of God which surpasses all understanding and the abiding truth of Christ keep our hearts and minds in the knowledge, love and companionship of the Holy Spirit this day and forever more. Amen.