Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18
Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight. He protected us along all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed; and the Lord drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.”
Joshua asks the people of Israel “What G/god are you going to follow?” The people wanted this to be a religion only question but what Joshua was REALLY asking, as the people stood ready to enter this new land with more readily available resources than they had ever even IMAGINED before, was “Which way of living with each other will you choose as you move into this new, incredible land?”
Each deity choice, you see, comes with particular requirements for how the people were to live in the world. So this wasn’t just a decision about how they would spend just one hour, once a week. This was a decision about how they would live together 24/7 and it affected literally EVERY aspect of their lives… social, political, economic and religious!
The God behind curtain number one was the God of Moses. This God had provided them food and protection for decades as they wondered the wilderness. Out there, manna, quail, and water had been OBVIOUSLY worth the price of living the way THIS God had required. It was a way of living that required an “All In” commitment to justice… making sure everyone had enough… food, shelter, dignity, purpose AND it also required an economy that FAVORS the weak and vulnerable… not just throws them a bone every now and then, but FAVORS them! But now they weren't in the wilderness any more. Now they were looking into the land of milk and honey so Joshua knew that in THIS place, they had another choice.
That other choice was behind curtain number two. These were the local fertility gods. The gods of self-made wealth and power and they actually blessed people who got rich and powerful and didn't worry about their neighbor and here, unlike out in the desert, these fertility gods made sense. Here it was easy to believe, “I don’t need that wilderness God with His boring manna and His sissy, “take care of others” ways. HERE I can scoop up MORE than I could ever need all by myself and these local gods actually BLESS that way of living!"
Joshua's people were actually hoping they could pick a little from curtain one and the rest from curtain two. They hadn't fully forgotten the God that took care of them out in the desert so they were hoping they could make that one their "official" God. Do a little something for that One for maybe an hour each week, but then follow the ways of the local gods for the rest and get RICH! Because, hey, these local gods didn’t just let greed slide, these local gods proclaimed greed was a blessing! Bigger wealth, bigger power, bigger fertility symbols… ALL of it was a blessing! When I get rich taking advantage of you, that just means the local gods are using me to punish you for who knows what and, honestly, that’s between the gods and them and not my problem.
Joshua knew his people wanted it both ways and let them know THAT was NOT an option. Following the God of Moses meant following that God’s way of living full time, NO MATTER what the surrounding landscape happened to look like from one day to the next. Joshua also knew God required this way of living not to make life hard, but because THIS way, was THE way that led to lasting LIFE for individuals and the community as a whole! Joshua knew that following the local gods' ways of living would inevitably lead to the exploitation of the poor and the weak and the accumulation of wealth at the expense of their neighbors. That sort of “religion”… that way of living in the world… living without a commitment to social justice… living without self-giving care for your neighbors… living without an intentional preference for the poor and weak... living that way always, always, ALWAYS leads to the eventual downfall of the community.
This is clearly not JUST an old story about a long ago decision made by an ancient people. This is our choice too, and one we are asked to make every day. We too, as Walter Bruggemann points out, are confronted with this decision every day in every aspect of our lives. It's even right in the middle of our Pledge of Allegiance as it promises “justice for all” and “liberty for all” both at the same time. If Joshua heard this pledge I think he would press us now as he pressed his people then, reminding us we can not pick both. He would remind us that justice for all is in conflict with the idea of a personal sort of liberty and we must choose either one or the other as the way we will live in this world and with that choice for living, the G/god we will follow as well.
Like the people of Israel, none of us will really make that decision with the confessions we say or the words we pledge. We will make that decision, every single day in how we choose to live together. Will the ways we live this day be the ways of the God of Moses… the God of social, economic, and political justice with a bias toward the poor and weak? Or will the ways we choose to live this day be the ways of the fertility gods who insist there is no amount of wealth and power that is too much for me, myself, and I alone? Every day, it is the way we live that particular day and the way we plan that day for the next proclaims which G/god we will follow. Each day we must choose. May we all choose well. Amen.
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