Stories of the Saints

Joshua 24:1-3a Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders of Israel, its leaders, judges, and officers. They presented themselves before God. 2 Then Joshua said to the entire people, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Long ago your ancestors lived on the other side of the Euphrates. They served other gods. Among them was Terah, the father of Abraham and Nahor. 3 I took Abraham your ancestor from the other side of the Euphrates. I led him around through the whole land of Canaan.

Joshua 24:14-25 “So now, revere the Lord. Serve him honestly and faithfully. Put aside the gods that your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates and in Egypt and serve the Lord. 15 But if it seems wrong in your opinion to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve. Choose the gods whom your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live. But my family and I will serve the Lord.” 16 Then the people answered, “God forbid that we ever leave the Lord to serve other gods! 17 The Lord is our God. He is the one who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. He has done these mighty signs in our sight. He has protected us the whole way we’ve gone and in all the nations through which we’ve passed.

18 The Lord has driven out all the nations before us, including the Amorites who lived in the land. We too will serve the Lord, because he is our God.” 19 Then Joshua said to the people, “You can’t serve the Lord, because he is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He won’t forgive your rebellion and your sins. 20 If you leave the Lord and serve foreign gods, then he will turn around and do you harm and finish you off, in spite of having done you good in the past.” 21 Then the people said to Joshua, “No! The Lord is the one we will serve.” 22 So Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the Lord.” They said, “We are witnesses!” 23 “So now put aside the foreign gods that are among you. Focus your hearts on the Lord, the God of Israel.” 24 The people said to Joshua, “We will serve the Lord our God and will obey him.” Joshua makes a covenant 25 On that day Joshua made a covenant for the people and established just rule for them at Shechem. ]

INTRO

There is something sacred about the gathering of kin, whether that be our church family, our friends, or the gathering of Thanksgiving that is fast approaching. When we gather, there is often storytelling, laughter, reflection, sometimes tears, and of course, food. Whether we gather around campfires or at the tables filled with food, stories are almost always shared. It is a way to remember, to feel more connected after time apart, to hold onto memories that have shaped and formed us. Our stories bring us together and speak to who we’ve been, who we are, and who we hope to be - together - as a community - whether made up of friends, family, church members, work colleagues, neighbors, and so on.

It is here, gathered together and sharing stories, that we meet Joshua and the Israelites in our scripture reading today. The entire people of God - leaders, elders, judges, officers, tribes - gathered at Shechem, where Joshua recounted the story of what God had done for their ancestors. This is God’s story, their ancestors’ story, their story. Joshua is reminding the people where they have come from. Abraham, their ancestral father, is not an Israelite. The formation of the Israelites’ identity is not primarily biological, genetic, or ethnic; rather, God has chosen them. They have been brought together and united in the identity that God has constructed for them. And it is our story, too.

We like the Israelites are a People who are brought together by our willingness to say ‘yes’ to God. Brought together as one people in Christ. Brought together as the entire people of God - saints who have died, those who live today, and the saints yet to be born. Brought together by our shared story of God’s love, redemption, and salvation - to be God’s people, a community sent forth with a story to tell. A good story - good news indeed!

We know what it is like to have ancestors who came from faraway places and different cultures. Our upbringings and the cultural understandings of our parents are then merged with those of our spouses. We hear the stories that shaped them and create new traditions from those stories as we begin to create our own family narrative. Yet, the binding theme is that God has called us together. God acted first, God called, we respond as new relationships are formed in and through the grace of God.

We see this responding throughout scripture as God’s people are called together again and again. In our text today, the Israelites respond to the story Joshua tells. But ultimately, they are not simply responding to the story but rather to the One whom the story speaks of and tells of.

One author notes, “Joshua told the people an ancient ancestor story to speak of a God who made them a people - in effect - out of nothing, out of no prior allegiance. They responded with their allegiance to their God, who had done something even more remarkable than that. It would have been enough if God had simply called Abraham and given him descendants. But their story was their God did more…. How could they not pledge sole allegiance to their God?”

God acts. God calls. We respond. This is the story. This is the good news.

The saints knew this story all too well. The ones where they turned away from God, worshiped idols, sought after other gods, and broke their covenant with God. And yet God remained faithful and continued to seek them out, call them back, redeem them, and bring their story back into the rhythm of God’s story. This is the story Joshua recounted as they gathered. This is the story the saints have been telling for generations. This is the story the saints we remembered last Sunday on All Saints Day bore witness to. And this is the story that we, too, are invited to share today.

The question for us today, then, is, what story do we choose to share? [share personal examples of stories shared at family gatherings and why those are the stories we tell over and over again?]

One commentary notes, “Choices are important in our lives. Our choices impact the friends we have, the careers we enter, the spouses we marry, and the places we live, among many other things. This passage is about the ultimate choice of faith and life: determining whom we will serve and whether to submit to God. The people following Joshua are serving two masters. They are clinging to the gods of old, while not fully committing to YHWH…….”

The stories we choose to tell are important, too. So often, we want the happy stories, the stories where all went well, where everything panned out, we often neglect to name the process that led to those moments of joy. Or we tell the stories that point to others’ shortcomings and failures rather than our own. Because it's easier to speak about others’ sins than our own. Yet, Joshua’s telling of the story includes it all - their shortcomings, the times when they failed to live into the expectations God has set for them, and how God has continued even now to call them back, to offer them grace, to love them abundantly while also holding them accountable.

God acts. God calls. We respond. This is the story. This is the good news.

And yet, this story calls us beyond the past. We remember who God is and what God has done, but we don’t simply sit there reminiscing till the end of time. Instead, we are invited to enter into God’s story, to embrace the God of the story, and choose to walk faithfully with God as our lives bear witness to God’s story of redemption, grace, and love. To make someone’s story our own means we have to participate in that ongoing story. If you think about it, we do this in the life of the church through the sacraments. In baptism, we renounce sin and the idols we have been worshipping. We commit to Christ and following God - as Joshua says, ‘choosing this day whom we will serve’. We enter into God’s salvation story and seek to live as redeemed people going forth. And often, we do this on behalf of babies and children. Promising to help raise them up in the faith - to tell them the story of God’s grace - so they too can choose to say ‘yes’ to God.

In communion, we see this too. We gather at the table, each from our own households (tribes), bringing our own failures, our own brokenness, and meet together for a holy meal that calls us into God’s story of redemption. We remember the story of God’s work in creation, redemption, and salvation. We remember and recognize the ways that God acts, God calls and we are invited then to respond as we partake of the bread and wine and pray for God’s Spirit to make us one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world. We who were once broken and scattered are gathered together and invited to become one people of God.

There is a call and response, a question and answer literary structure to our lectionary text that is similar to the liturgy found in the baptismal covenant and in the holy meal of the Eucharist. The liturgical flavors of the text bring to mind the expectations that God has for those who say “Yes” to Christ. Joshua asks if the people are willing to renounce other gods, we ask baptismal candidates if they will renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness, reject the evil powers of the world, and repent of their sins. Joshua moves them towards the affirming to “choose this day whom you will serve.” While we call on the candidates to accept the freedom and power God gives them to resist evil, injustice, and oppression and to serve Christ. In the communion liturgy, we are called to offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice in union with Christ’s offering for us.

God acts. God calls. We respond. There is an invitation and expectation for the people who claim to follow God. We are invited to accept the freedom and God gives us. We promise to walk faithfully with God all the days of our lives. We are expected to offer ourselves, to share ourselves with others, to share Christ’s love to the world. To serve Christ. The first portion of the covenant ceremony found in Joshua, in our baptismal liturgy, and the communion liturgy is a recollection of God’s gracious acts towards Israel and towards us. The stories of God’s salvific acts are told that it might invoke within us a response of obedience and devotion at God’s invitation. “Make them be the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the body of Christ redeemed by his blood,” “The Holy Spirit work within you that being born of water and spirit you may be a faith disciple of Jesus Christ” - it is a call to live into the story!

Storytelling is a key tool for building a communal embodied identity. The Israelites tell the story of God’s salvific history to remind them of their call to love as God first loved them. Joshua’s telling of the story included the painful parts of the story. How, at the beginning of Exodus, Joseph’s family was cared for until a pharaoh ascends into power who does not know Joseph, and the Hebrew people are enslaved in the land of Egypt. His story reminds them of their wandering in the desert, yet at some point, the salvific history of God begins to fade from the minds of the people, the story isn’t told as often… Judges 2 attests that, over time, people can be both victims and perpetrators of injustice as memories fade and the unfortunate consequences of it.

You see, stories are told not just for their hold and shaping on our identity but for our healing and our growth. What is the story you are telling others? What is the story you are bearing witness to as you live and walk each day? Is it a story of God’s grace, abundant love, and salvation? Is it a story of brokenness that is redeemed and filled with hope? Is it the story of our ancestors, the saints? God’s story is full of good news that calls us beyond ourselves, beyond our sin, beyond our brokenness to a life lived and shared with each other in Christ. May this story be our story. May we tell it. May we claim it. May we live it.

One commentary notes: “Don’t lose the story of the saints, fellow saints! For every one of us seeking to be saints, our truest story is never only about ourselves or about other people. Our story is about a loving, saving God, who is out to save us all and renew all people and all relationships and all things in the universe. Keep telling that story, saints to be! Love to tell it. And then love to live it. Love to let God work out God’s salvation to the uttermost in and through you.”

Saints - love to tell it and then love to live it!

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.Amen.