I doubt there’s anyone here that doesn’t know Tuesday is Election Day. You may have already voted early. We can look forward to Tuesday’s TV or radio news coverage about the voting turnout, and the partial results all day, then into the night when the results are projected and winners announced. Some will have voted for their preferences of candidates and issues, others will vote for their political party’s choices. Candidate’s values will rarely agree entirely with our own, but polls and voting tallies track what various groups supported. Parties want to know how general groups voted, such as minority, gender, and religious groups, even in geographical sectors in order to develop future platforms and gain needed support. Even if you didn’t vote for the winning candidate or issues, it will have been your opportunity to express your opinions and values. Your vote can further influence the direction of our country that can ultimately impact your way of life. Your vote counts not only in this election, but may well influence candidates for future elections. So, it’s important that you vote. I’m not here to influence who you vote for, but rather to influence the values your votes reflect.
So, this morning, we’re going to be talking about making value based choices, not for the sake of this election, but those that influence our spiritual life and daily living.
As a veteran, and the head of a household, I have always appreciated our OT lesson for this morning. God had chosen Joshua to take command of Israel as it began its military conquest of the land God had promised to Abraham. God had established His laws and expectations of Israel that shaped the values of that people during their 40 year desert journey under Moses. Remember they had been slaves in Egypt and had taken on many Egyptian values and their false gods, and had fallen away from their Hebrew roots. Joshua had been Moses’ aide during the journey, and had come to know and trust God. When Moses sent the12 spies into Canaan to scout the land, it was Joshua and Caleb who returned and were ready to trust the Lord and enter the Promised Land. But the people chose to listen to the other ten spies who saw the inhabitants as being too big, too strong to conquer, and refused to enter the land. Consequently, God would have them wait forty more years and name the God fearing, Joshua the leader to take them in.
Our passage from Joshua takes place many years and many battles later in conquering the land. Joshua had probably lived longer than he expected to, and is now old and has chosen to retire. He’s addressing the nation of Israel, reminding them of the history of their conquests under God’s care. They had won decisive battles with God’s leading, like the battle of Jericho, when God caused the thick walls to fall when Israel did exactly as God had directed, resulting in not even one Israelite being killed or wounded.
They had not conquered by their own abilities, but through God’s protection. They were living in cities they had not built, eaten from vineyards and olive groves they hadn’t planted, but that God had delivered to them. But now it was time to begin living in the land, and Joshua is blunt as he lays it on the line with commands rather than suggestions. Fear the Lord. Serve Him with all faithfulness. They had seen the power of the Lord time after time, battle after battle. They had come to know that God would expect certain things of them, as well as the consequences of failing to do so. Joshua tells them to fear the Lord, as is in respecting His power, but also knowing His discipline. Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge, not as in being afraid of Him, but knowing what His power can do. For example, we should fear electricity, knowing its power to do great things, yet knowing that improper handling can have fatal results. Fear of the Lord allows us to do great things when we trust and obey Him.
He tells them to serve God with all faithfulness. Notice the standard of service Joshua demands: “with all faithfulness.” He doesn’t leave room for casual faith, but total faithfulness. Not just serving God when it’s convenient, or when things are going well, or when life is easy. Not faith on our terms. He commands them to throw away the idols of false gods they may have been brought from Egypt. The generation that had left Egypt had all passed away, and some may have continued to worship the gods of their ancestors. But God has no tolerance for anything that detracts from the love of His people.
Now here’s where Joshua makes it a kind of Election Day mandate, saying, “If these commands are undesirable for you, then choose for yourselves this day who you will serve.” No threats or ultimatums. Simply, choose for yourself who you will serve. And then he casts his vote: As for me and my household we will serve the Lord. What a great declaration for Christian families.
It's gratifying then to hear the people’s vote, reiterating what Joshua had reminded them of their history, crediting God for their victories and protection. We too will serve the Lord, because he is our God. Seemingly a unanimous vote. I thought it was a good verse to end our Scripture reading with, because it would be the response I’d expect from you here if I had asked you to vote. But further on, Joshua’s response is shocking. After spending all this time to get the Israelites to commit to serving God, and after getting the affirmative answer he was seeking, Joshua says: “You are not able to serve the Lord.” Because the Lord is holy, and jealous.
Wait, what? This is a strong shift in focus. Until now, Joshua’s focus had been on all the things God had done, but his focus now shifts to who God is. Holy and jealous. “The people affirmed all that God had done for them and then said they would serve Him ‘because He is our God.’”
Joshua saying “You are not able to serve Him” is because God’s character is so far beyond our comprehension and ability to manage. God is holy – meaning by definition that God is unfathomable, so morally perfect that we cannot hope to have anything of merit to offer Him. And God is jealous – meaning that God’s love for His people is so strong and perfect that He will not accept anything less than total commitment, total fidelity, total faithfulness.
God is so much more than we can even dare to imagine. We have nothing He needs, nothing that will make Him more complete. He is holy and we are not. He is a perfectly faithful God of love, and we are fickle. We can’t serve Him just by saying “OK, I’ll serve Him.” We might then ask what’s the use of trying if we can never measure up. The answer is simple: Grace. We aren’t capable of meeting God’s standards, but God gives us grace. Grace that forgives us, yet is not deserved, but freeing us from the penalties of our sinfulness. Because of God’s grace, we’re invited into relationship with God despite our inabilities. Jesus came and died for us, to bridge the chasm that separated us from God. Now, we are invited to be in relationship with God, invited into a reunion with the Holy and jealous God Joshua describes. We can’t serve Him on our own terms, but God gives us the grace to serve Him. So here is the heart of the Gospel: we can serve a holy and jealous God because He has invited us to by His grace.
With grace relieving us from not having to measure up to God’s perfect and holy standards, Paul says we are called to freedom. Not to legal bondage under the Law, but to freedom. But we must not make freedom a pretext for self-indulgence. Like Joshua’s presenting the people with a choice of who they would serve, Paul is writing to the Galatian church presenting a choice of using their freedom to choose between serving the Lord, walking in the Spirit…or gratifying the desires of the flesh. Paul compares the acts of the flesh, which are listed and obvious, with walking in the Spirit, which are also shown in our reading. Obviously, those two choices conflict with each other. Paul further states that those who choose to live according to the desires of the flesh will not inherit the kingdom of God. Those who are led by the Spirit are no longer under the Law and its penalties, but belong to Christ, having crucified the flesh’s passions and desires.
On Tuesday, many will face a choice between two candidates. Some may find the choice easy to make. Others will struggle with the choices. Some won’t even make a choice, unable to commit to either. But Joshua’s words don’t recognize that third alternative of noncommittal. Choose this day whom you will serve! We either choose to serve God, with all faithfulness, or we don’t. If we don’t serve God with all faithfulness, we don’t serve the Lord. Jesus said that no one can serve two masters. Either we will love the one and hate the other, or hate the one and love the other. Joshua even shocked us with the words that we cannot serve God as sinful humans with all faithfulness.
But as Paul writes in Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” That’s the key verse by which to interpret Joshua’s words. I can’t serve God on my own, but through Christ, who gives me strength, I can do all things.
So we must decide who we choose to serve, and I encourage you to choose wisely. Rhea Miller wrote the poem that George Beverly Shea put into his joyous hymn that we sang as our Hymn of Preparation, “I’d Rather Have Jesus” than silver or gold, or riches untold…. or houses and land, but instead be led by His nail pierced Hand. It’s not a tentative decision, but rather a bold, decisive choice. Wouldn’t it have been even more powerful to weave in a fourth verse from Joshua saying he’d rather have Jesus for him and his household than anything this world could afford.
Some will, in Paul’s words, choose to gratify the desires of the flesh. To seek the pleasures of this world. They may even feel they can perform particular obligations, like attend church on Christmas and Easter, and satisfy God. But that’s not “all faithfulness”. That only puts them in a place where the Holy Spirit might yet reach them. But they deprive themselves the joy of knowing Jesus as their Savior. Being convicted of their sins, but knowing the joy of forgiveness. Knowing a relationship with Jesus in this life, our hope for an even better life with Him in eternity.
Jesus chose to give His life for us to know such a life. Communion is our way of affirming our choice. Jesus offers us His body and His blood, symbolizing His giving His all for us. When we eat the bread, reminding us of His body being broken for us, we accept His substitution for us on the Cross. When we drink the juice reminding us of His blood, the essence of His life, shed to pay the price of our sins, we accept His life given for us. If we take Communion in this way, how can we not serve Him with our whole hearts in response?
Election Day on Tuesday will reveal this country’s choice of its President for the next four years. In Communion, when Christ offers the world His body and blood, who will we choose as our Lord? May we, like Joshua, be decisive in choosing wisely, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord!” – forever. Amen.
