What We Carry

Focus Statement

We carry our histories into God’s new beginning as testimonies to God’s faithfulness—

not instructions limiting what God may do next.

Point of Relation

When I was ten years old, my pastor was preparing to retire.

He gave my mother two sets of biblical commentaries to hold onto for me.

He told her he believed I would become a pastor and could use them someday.

I was there when he said it, and his words confirmed a call I already felt.

Almost a year ago, I connected with his daughter and showed her those commentaries.

She told me something I had never known:

they had been part of a library damaged in a car accident in the rain.

Those volumes were rescued,

rebound as a gift,

and eventually entrusted to me.

They had already survived destruction and restoration

before helping carry me into ministry.

Now they carry my pastor’s story,

the affirmation of my calling,

and a connection between his daughter and me.

They are more than books.

They are a testimony to what God has done.

Things to Consider

We all carry histories into new beginnings.

The question is how we carry them.

Our histories can testify to God’s faithfulness,

or they can become instructions demanding that the future reproduce the past.

But honoring what came before does not mean repeating it.

Again, friends, we carry our histories into God’s new beginning as testimonies to God’s faithfulness—

not instructions limiting what God may do next.

What Scripture Says

That kind of carrying is at the heart of the passage we just heard.

The Israelites have crossed the Jordan River into the land God promised them.

Once everyone is safely across,

God tells Joshua to choose one person from each tribe to carry a stone from the riverbed.

Together, those twelve stones will become a memorial.

Israel was one people made up of twelve distinct tribes.

God did not erase their identities or disregard their histories.

Each tribe carried its own stone—its own story—

but those stones were placed together

to bear one shared witness to God’s faithfulness.

That has something important to say to us.

God sometimes takes faithful tribes

and forms them into a faithful collective.

God does not eliminate what makes each community meaningful,

but God does call us beyond tribalism—

the belief that our history is the whole story

or our way is the only faithful way.

The stones are meant to provoke a question:

“What do these stones mean?”

Deuteronomy tells God’s people how to answer:

Tell the story. Tell how God delivered you, guided you,

and brought you into a new future.

The stones tell them what God has done;

they do not dictate what God must do next.

What This Means for You

So, what stone are you carrying?

Each of you You bring memories, traditions, wounds, and stories of God’s faithfulness into this new beginning. God does not ask you to erase them. Your stone matters—but it is not the whole memorial.

Carry your story forward,

then place it alongside the stories of others.

Together, they can bear a greater witness

than any one story could alone.

What This Means for Us

As we begin this new season,

we bring our histories together as one witness to God’s faithfulness.

We honor the past without demanding that the future reproduce it.

The stones tell us what God has done;

they do not dictate what God must do next.

God has been faithful.

God is faithful.

God will be faithful.

Amen? Amen.

Written by Rev. Todd R. Lattig with the assistance of ChatGPT (OpenAI).