Sermon for the Lord’s Day

August 30, 2009

Rev. Lorelei Hillman

University Presbyterian Church

Joshua 24

How many of you have seen “The Prince of Egypt”?  Do you remember Moses?  What did Moses do?  …That’s right; and that story happened a long, long time ago, didn’t it?

Did you know that even though Moses led the people out of slavery in Egypt, they didn’t find a new home for 40 years?  That’s right, for 40 years they walked around in an area called The Araba – the wilderness.  The Araba was a hard place to live, but with God’s help, the people did okay.  Well, after about 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, Moses knew that he wasn’t going to make it any further.  He thought about it carefully, and with God’s help, he chose a younger man named Joshua to lead the people. 

In the Bible, there’s a whole book written about Joshua, and how he took the people of Moses into the land where God wanted them to live.  At the end of that book, Joshua is an old, old man.  One day, he gathered up all the people at a place called Shechem.  He gathered the people, and their elders, and the heads of their twelve tribes, all the judges and the officers of the people, and “they presented themselves before God.”

Then God spoke to them.  God said:

“First, I brought your ancestor Abraham from far away, and brought him here to live.  Then his son Isaac lived here, then Isaac’s son Jacob.  But Jacob was taken into Egypt by some slave traders.  All of your ancestors became slaves in Egypt.  It was horrible!  But I heard their cries, and sent the brothers Moses and Aaron to help them escape.

After your people left Egypt, they wandered around in the wilderness for a long time – for 40 years!  Moses grew old, and you needed a new leader, so I gave you Joshua.  He brought you here.  Along the way a lot of people tried to keep you out (the Amorites, the Perizites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites and the Jebusites), but with my help you finally made it.  Since then, your life has been very good.”

When God was through reminding the people of how they came to live in the land God had brought them to, Joshua said to them:

“God did all of that for you.  Now therefore revere (honor) the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and faithfulness.  You have to choose – are you going to serve God or serve someone or something else?”  Then Joshua said, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord!”

The people agreed with Joshua.  They answered him, “We know God has always been there to help us, so we want to serve the Lord, too!”

Joshua wasn’t sure that the people really understood what that meant.  He knew that serving the Lord was a BIG responsibility.  He thought about it a minute, then he reminded them that they would have to be loyal to God, and not pretend to serve God while they were busy thinking of other things first.  But the people were serious.  They made a vow to be loyal to God alone:

“The Lord our God we will serve,

And him we will obey.”

So Joshua wrote down all the things that God expected from the people, and made a book out of it.  He put the book under a big rock in the place where the people worshiped God, to help them remember whenever they saw the rock that they had promised to serve God and to be loyal to God always.

Colossians 3:1-4, 12-17

So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.

As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.  Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.  Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.  And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body.  And be thankful.  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.  And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

On the front of your bulletin are some pictures of a gentleman who is using American sign language to say the word ‘Practice.’  Do any of you use sign language?  You may have seen it used in public settings – some churches even have a signing translator for their worship services.  It’s really quite lovely to see.

I took sign language for one semester in college.  I really enjoyed it, especially as the teacher, who was profoundly deaf himself, had a lovely sense of humor.  One morning I knew I was going to be late for class, so I called his office and left a message…  Needless to say, when I got to class he asked me why I was late.  I said, “I called your office and left you a message.  Didn’t you get it?”  His eyes twinkled as he stood smiling at me, until I got the joke he had set me up for – of course he didn’t get the message!  He didn’t use the phone!

Sign language is like a lot of other things we learn in life.  It’s not that it’s hard.  It’s not that it’s easy.  We start by not knowing how to do it, learn the basics, then learn more and more.  We don’t have to be geniuses.  It just takes practice, practice, practice.

Our faith is not so different.  First, it requires a commitment.  We have to decide that our relationship with God is worth something.  Like the Hebrews in the passage from Joshua, we have to choose; will we honor and serve God or not?  What convinces us that making that commitment is a wise thing to do?  Our past understanding and experience of God.

We’re Presbyterians, so statistically we tend to be pretty well educated.  We like to read our Bibles, like to know the history and political context of the Scriptures, and like to have the text explained to us in a logical way.  But we’re just like all other Christians in that our personal experience of God seems to be the center of our belief.

Now I’m sure that you can find articles on psychology which would relate how we feel about God to the way our parents treated us when we were little; and yes, how we feel about authority (not just our parents) affects how we feel about God, but the truth is, a lot of things go into our picture of who God is. 

We talked about some of the negative experiences last week when we discussed why people stay away from church: they had a bad experience of church or church people, they couldn’t agree with church doctrine or dogma, there were other things they would rather – or had to – be doing.   In Joshua, God recites all the good things the people have experienced: protection, nurture, security, abundance.  That can take a bit more reminding, since we are much more apt to remember the negatives than the positives.

Today in America, it’s less common to find people who come to church because ‘it’s what we’re supposed to do.’  Faith in general is much more a matter of choice – and I believe that is a good thing.  Joshua asks the people to choose who they will serve, but history is full of stories of shaming or coercion, and in all cases the ‘faith’ provoked is not sincere, nor is it long-lasting.  If all the televangelists had really converted all the people they say they have, and those were sincere conversions, we’d be ‘done’ by now…  It is only when we think of God as good, and experience God as loving, that the door is open to a full-hearted commitment, “We choose God.  We’ll be loyal to God, and serve God only.”

I, for one, think it would be absolutely grand if that were all we had to do.  We make our commitment and then we go home, and in some mysterious way, all our faults are corrected and all our weaknesses are reformed.  Personally, it’s taking a lot longer than I wanted!  I’ve got the ‘alphabet’ (of faith) down, and some important ‘signs,’ but I’m far from ‘speaking’ fluently…  Catch me on a day when I’m tired, or interfere with my plans, and you will probably find that my faith needs a lot more work.  But how do we ‘work on’ faith?

That work is what we call ‘The Christian practices.’ 

Think of anything that you like to do and want to do well.  Maybe it’s cooking, or playing an instrument, photography, or gardening.  Now remember back to the first time you picked up a skillet or a trumpet, or a camera or a trowel.  What did you know?  What did you not know?  How much was there left to learn?

If you want to learn sign language, the first step is to learn to fingerspell.  When you came in this morning, you were given a card with the American Sign Language alphabet on it [from www.signgenius.com].  If you practice, by this afternoon you will be able to spell out words and names.  Slowly, you will get faster and faster at it until you could well be able to spell even sentences out to another person.  But at that point, if you tried to enter into a conversation with someone who uses sign language as their primary communication, you’d probably feel pretty ‘lost.’

Next, you would need to learn specific signs.  Signs are a much more direct, and less time-consuming, way of talking.  Let’s fingerspell the word ‘practice.’  Okay, once more so we start to get the hang of it.  Now, let’s make the sign for ‘practice.’  It’s easier, isn’t it, and we get the word across much more quickly.

In the Christian practices, the practice of our faith, it is also possible to start with the basics.  We take what is essentially the total practice of our faith, and break it down into parts.  The parts chosen by our UPC church leadership for particular study and learning are: Peacemaking, Worship, Caregiving, Spiritual Formation, and Hospitality.  If you’ve been here two years or more, you experienced our month-long study of Hospitality, and know that we went quite a bit deeper into what it is and how we become people of hospitality.  We learned that Christian hospitality as a practice goes well beyond a potluck supper and good conversation (although those are certainly welcome parts of hospitality!).  We found that true Christian hospitality makes a ‘free and fearless space,’ where others can enter in safely – and in which we, ourselves, as the hosts, may well be transformed.

By ‘taking the practice apart’ and analyzing it, we were able to see much more deeply into the model for Hospitality which we had received in Jesus Christ.  Over the next year, two months at a time, we will be making this same exercise with each of the five practices.  For each practice, we will ‘learn to spell’ – what is that practice, what does it entail?  We will have opportunities to read about it, to discuss it, and to experience it firsthand.  We’ll learn the ‘signs’ for it – how do we act on each Christian practice, both as an individual and as a body?

Perhaps you are a new Christian, and aren’t sure of all the ways that your new faith affects your life.  Do you talk about Christ with your friends at school, or is it better to show them the ‘new you’ and then answer their questions about why you are changing?  How will you react to the stresses of work in a way that honors God’s love for you and for all other persons?  What should you teach your children about Jesus and serving God? 

Or if you were raised in the church, or have been a Christian for a long time, it may be that over the months or years your own faith has gotten less exciting.  Where you once spent time reading your Bible, took time out of the day to sit with God, asked ‘what should I do, as a Christian?’ before you acted, today you are in something of a mode of autopilot. 

Either way, we hope that you will join in this year’s studies and activities, and stretch yourself a bit more.  Please don’t be intimidated!  When we read the passage from the letter to the church at Colossia, it may seem like there’s not much point in even starting – be compassionate, kind, humble, meek and patient; forgive each other as Christ forgave you; love everyone!; be ruled by peace, be thankful, be wise; sing!; and in everything you do, give praise to God!  Goodness!  Like a child’s tower of blocks, the list just gets higher and higher!  On my best days, I don’t get anywhere near accomplishing such a wonderful challenge!  I’d say most of the time, my faith journey is more like one of those toys for toddlers where they whack one shape with a hammer until it goes down, and then at that moment another shape pops up!

But we’re on a journey, and, like the Hebrews, we have a loving, faithful God who goes with us.  So we make that commitment, having confidence that the God who has shown up in the past will be there for us today and every day.  We think about our faith, we study the stories of the Bible, listening carefully for God’s guidance – how does this compare to what we are going through in our own lives and what can we learn from it about our own choices and behaviors?  We talk about what we are learning, taking advantage of this wonderful community of believers and the collective faith and experience of our brothers and sisters in Christ.  We let the things we see in the world around us stir us to new understandings and challenge our old complacencies.  We hear the Word of God speaking through people we are unfamiliar or even uncomfortable with.

We go to school, we go to work, we go home.  The challenges and stresses of our everyday lives help us practice, practice, practice our faith.  Did we speak up for kindness?  Did we stand for ethical decisions?  Did we humbly acknowledge the truth when it was hard to admit we were wrong?

One thing is certain – we will fail; practice will never make us perfect.  We’ve had an powerful reminder of that this week in the tributes to Senator Edward Kennedy.  He was a man who made some spectacular and tragic mistakes.  But he went on to participate in some equally profound and important legislation, which has affected the lives of thousands if not millions of people in the United States and abroad.  No one is saying that he was a perfect person.  But he had faith – in God, and in the country he honored and served.  And he kept on trying, right to the end of his life, to make that difference for others.

As practicing Christians, then, we are not trying to measure up to an impossible standard.  God is not asking us to.  God knows we are far from perfect.  Trusting in God, we move forward again.  We hold on to any progress we make.  We are thankful for what we learn.  We get up and try again.  Over time, over days and years, we become more and more fluent in our faith.  Suddenly, the ‘letters’ of a Christian practice will feel natural to us.  Then a ‘sign’ will take on new significance for our life of faith.  Someone else will ‘read’ what we are doing and see how we are growing.  We will be able to hear and understand what others are ‘saying’ with their own lives of faith.

You will grow.  You may become quite proficient.  You may become a ‘professional,’ recognized by the community for your ability, your depth, your commitment.  People may come and ask you, “How did you get to be so strong in your faith?”  Tell them what you know!

“Practice, practice, practice!”