08/25/2024 ~ Proper 16 ~ Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time ~ Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost ~ 1 Kings 8:(1,6,10-11), 22-30, 41-43; Psalm 84; Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18; Psalm 34:15-22; Ephesians 6:10-20; John 6:56-69 ~ VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/1003279816

Faithfulness

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

I’ve probably said here this too many times. I’m a Vietnam veteran, who drafted into the Army in 1967. (No, I am not going to nor will I tell any war stories connected with that.)

My younger brother, Jim, who is a lot smarter than I, managed to get deferred then by first staying in college, which I had not. Upon his graduation, having heard and not been enthralled nor impressed by my war stories, the ones with which I did not bore you, applied for ‘conscientious objector’ status.

To do this he got letters from many people including members of the clergy. Jim had graduated with honors from Fordham University, a Jesuit institution, and my Father taught at a Jesuit High School. So he was friendly with a goodly number of prelates.

His timing was impeccable. In 1972 (as opposed to when I got drafted) even Walter Cronkite, the most trusted man in America, had declared the adventure in Southeast Asia was a fiasco. So it was not hard for him to get supporting letters.

Additionally, our Draft Board consisted of just local community members. Jim was the first one to ever apply for conscientious objector status. No one in the entire history of teh Draft Board which dated back to WW II had ever applied.

These local citizens, did not know what to do with the application. Presented with supportive letters from impressive people they granted the status with the proviso that Jim do two years of community service work. He did that. (Slight pause.)

This story leaves a question. I, myself, am a fairly peaceable fellow. After all, I’m so peaceable I eventually became a member of the ordained clergy. I could have done what my brother did. Why did I not? (Slight pause.)

Even at the tender age at which I was drafted, I believed governance is not a one way street. I agreed with the ideal John Fitzgerald Kennedy expressed: “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”

I believed and still believe each of us has to take personal responsibility when it comes to providing for all. Citizenship is not about me, what’s in it for me or what’s good only for me. I believe each of us needs to care about each other, be committed to the ideal that governance which works, is effective, is a greater good for all.

I may disagree with some policies of those in office. But I also believe being committed to the larger community is a duty. Therefore, I did not join the Army. But when drafted I served because I felt a sense of responsibility toward all our citizens. After all, I, myself, had and have the privilege of citizenship. (Slight pause.)

I want to be clear: this does not question my brother’s decision nor anyone else’s decision. Indeed, my brother has done an amazing amount of good work for the citizens of this country, has proven he cares about this ideal I’ve described. In part because of his experience in community work, he became an environmental educator and served as a senior official in the Adirondack Park Agency in New York State.

My position is each of us needs to make a choice to accept responsibility which is or has the potential to be beneficial not just to us as individuals but for others and make that choice in our own way. It’s likely that means we will all make different choices. But the goal is to contribute to the whole.

My brother found ways to be individually responsible which benefitted others in ways I did not and never dreamed of discovering. (Slight pause.) Like I said: he’s not only younger than I am. He’s smarter. (Slight pause.)

These words are in the work known as Joshua: “…as for me and my household, we will worship Yahweh.” (Slight pause.)

It was suggested when this passage was introduced that the words recorded here mark an important watershed in the life of Israel. The people are about to embark on a new life— no longer nomads, but settled.

It is a point of transition from one crucial, formative era into another. So, the people are ceremonially summoned by Joshua listen to their covenant history with God before they embark on the journey.

This will not be a journey on which they travel a great distance. But the journey will be one in which, during which they grapple with their emotions— with their emotional life, with the emotions of their relationship with God.

You see, this passage cannot be taken as simply an invitation to be faithful by performing mindless actions. This is an invitation to make a fundamental decision concerning their allegiance and identity. So, the pivotal question becomes: how does that happen. How do the people of God traverse this emotional abyss called commitment.

Joshua’s words are what we, today, might call personal testimony. This commitment to be faithful is and needs to be a recognition and acceptance of personal responsibility. But another transition happens: personal responsibility becomes the key to communal cohesion and faithfulness.

Communal action starts with each individual making a choice. Without a personal commitment, responsibility, there is no communal cohesion, commitment, faithfulness, responsibility. In short, everything starts with you and me.

Taking on personal responsibility for the good of the whole is the essence of true faithfulness. Because God calls us to be responsible to each other, for each other, that makes us, forms us into community, empowers us to be community as the people of God.

No, this is not easy. It is hard. It’s hard because it requires us to engage our emotional life, our intellectual life, our time, our talents constantly. (Slight pause.)

While it is true that communal actions start with each individual making a choice, making a decision, is not easy. And I will be the first to tell you that sometimes these individual choices can feel pretty lonely. Look at what happens in the Gospel story. (Quote:) “…many of the disciples broke away and no longer remained in the company of Jesus.”

Indeed, there were folks who vilified my brother and others who made valid personal choices. There were folks who vilified me for my choice. But it turned out that many of those choices were valid for the whole community.

My point is not which choice was made or even its validity. My point is the necessity of making a choice by and through which we engage our emotional life as we strive to understand who we are as individuals and we strive to understand who we are as a community. (Slight pause.)

Taking personal responsibility for our relationship with God is a watershed. It’s a watershed we face each and every day. And, if we pay attention to the covenant with God, recalled by Joshua, the covenant which proclaims love of God and neighbor as central, then we will come to realize own personal choices can and do make a difference. (Slight pause.)

Seems like an easy formula, does it not? Make a commitment— choose. But, to the best of my knowledge, nothing involving our emotional life is easy. And surely emotional commitment is not easy.

But emotional commitment is, I think, the place to which God calls us. You see, the last time I looked another term for emotional commitment is ‘love.’ (Slight pause.) So, are we, you and I as individuals, ready to make a commitment, ready to be committed to loving God and loving neighbor? Amen.

08/25/2024
Elijah Kellogg Church, Harpswell, Maine

ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Benediction. This, then, is a précis of what the pastor said before the blessing: “I think church is the classic example of a situation where the whole can be greater than the sum of all its parts. But, of course, that only happens when each one of us is willing to make an emotional commitment to life with God. That’s called faithfulness.”

BENEDICTION: Let us trust God to provide all we really need. God knows us, loves us and blesses us in Jesus, the Christ. Let us love one another as Christ has loved us. And may the peace of Christ, which surpasses understanding, keep our minds and hearts in the companionship and will of the Holy Spirit, this day and forever more. Amen.