Desert Scribblings

November 2, 2008 - Twenty-fifth Sunday After Pentecost/All Saints Sunday

Joshua 3:7-17 - link to the NRSV text

"After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD spoke to Joshua son of Nun" (Joshua 1:1).

Next Tuesday in the United States will mark the beginning of a new era, a new time in our country's history.  Regardless of one side's attempts to link their opponent to President Bush and argue that it will be more of the same (I will not go into whether that is true or not in this space), power will change hands.  A new administration will be selected and a new thing will begin.

The truth is that time and again, change happens.  At the beginning of the book of Joshua, that change is happening to the Israelites.  "After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD..."  Moses is dead, and they were soon to leave the wilderness areas they had known for a generation and enter into a new land.  Though they believed the land was a good land, the truth is there was probably a little uncertainty.  For while change is inevitable, and even when it is welcome and anticipated, change is also frightening.

"...the LORD spoke..."  Yet when change happens, when new eras emerge, when times are different, again God breaks in and speaks to God's people.  And not just that God speaks.  "...the LORD spoke to Joshua son of Nun..."  God speaks to people and does not just blindly shout into the chaotic whirlwind of this world.

After centuries of slavery, God spoke to Moses.  Now, God speaks to Joshua.  Down the road, time and again, God will speak to the judges.  God will speak to Samuel.  The word of the LORD continues to break in and interrupt the way things are going in order to announce that God is doing something new.

Which sets the stage for Sunday's reading in chapter 3.  The LORD says to Joshua (there's that speaking thing again!): "This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, so that they may know that I will be with you as I was with Moses."

Joshua needs a pedigree.  He's got a little clout, he was Moses' side-kick for a good long while after all.  Back in chapter 1, the Israelites had banded behind Joshua (see 1:16-18), but maybe there were some murmurings.  This people had shown their ability to turn from their leader in a heartbeat before, after all, and Joshua needs to shore up his credientials.

So God says to Joshua, "You are the one who will command..." (3:8, emphasis mine).  No longer is it Moses' responsibility, but it nows falls to Joshua.  It is now his job to give the commands, to lay the course, to see it through, and here God is reminding Joshua of that responsibility.

But it does not all fall on Joshua, for the reason for this event is not just about Joshua but a reminder to the people who is their true leader.  Sure, Joshua is the face and name, but it is the LORD who goes before them and to prove to them that God will remain with them even without Moses there.  As Joshua puts it: "By this you shall know that among you is the living God" (3:10).

As leadership changes hands, as new eras begin, as the future unfolds, who goes with us?  Who is among us?  Or more correctly, who do we know is among us?  Will we despair if our desired canidate is not elected as we want, or do we cling to a higher hope that in all times and among all leaders the living God is among us and continues to speak?

"After the death of Moses...the LORD spoke to Joshua..."  O LORD, speak to us again and remind us that you, the Living God, are truly among us in all things, in all times, and in all ways.  Amen.

Shalom,
Geoff

October 5 – Twenty-First Sunday After Pentecost

Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20 - link to the NRSV text

There are many iconic images and stories in the Bible that shape our imaginations, but few rival this Sunday’s reading from Exodus, which is the giving of the Ten Words (or Commandments) to Moses on top of Mount Sinai.  For Jews and Christians alike, it is a formative theological memory, and the Ten Words themselves are foundational teachings that inform moral behavior.

All that being said, sometimes iconic texts are the hardest to preach because they come with so much baggage.  To quote Alan Rickman’s character the Metatron, the Voice of the Almighty from Kevin Smith’s Dogma: “Tell a person that you're the Metatron and they stare at you blankly. Mention something out of a Charlton Heston movie and suddenly everybody is a theology scholar.”  We assume that, “Yeah, the Ten Commandments.  I know those things [Note: Well, maybe not].  I know what they mean.  How can I not?  I’ve been hearing about them my whole life.”

But often what we think we know about a text gets in the way of what the text is actually trying to communicate.  At first glance the Decalogue seems to be a list of regulations, and that’s what we assume they are, a list of do nots.  But maybe they are more like a framework through which life,
specifically life with God, is interpreted.

Jewish tradition about the Decalogue gets this in a way that post-Pauline Christianity has seemed to have lost.  For many Christians, the Ten Words are “law” vis-à-vis the gospel or good news of God revealed in Jesus and even though we’ll still think following them is a good thing, they are seen as something distinct from the concept of God’s grace, as things that we as humans have failed to live up to and thus we need saving.

But in Jewish tradition, the Ten Words are a response to grace.  The Jews traditionally order their commandments differently; what the Jews regard as the first commandment or word, many Christians just dismiss as a prologue or introduction to the commandments.  But in Jewish tradition, the first commandment is not to have “no other gods before me,” but is instead: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the  land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery"  (Exo 20:2).

In other words, the first word of life with God is to, “Remember what God has done for you!”  All the other commandments flow from this, even the commandments about relations with other human beings because they flow out of response to God’s goodness.  Those that had been slaves in Egypt have been liberated and thus are called to a new allegiance, a new bondage to the one that has provided for them so graciously, and these Ten Words define what life with this new lord and master shall look like.

And note that life with God is defined by a dual relationship, a relationship with God and with other people.  Jesus noted this when he refused to separate the commandments to “Love God with all that you are” and to “love your neighbor as yourself.”  But that principle is traced back here, to the Ten Words, these foundational spoken commands from the liberating and life-providing God of Israel.

In many ways, the rest of Torah is a working out of what living out these Ten Words looks like in everyday life and is a continuing, on-going process of reflection and discernment in the midst of life’s toils and troubles.  The Jewish rabbis frequently understood that Torah observance must shift according to new times and contexts, and I think this principal is found in the character of the Decalogue.  For the Decalogue defines the boundaries of faithful living, but does not provide the answer to how this is to be lived out.

What does it mean to hallow the Sabbath and to rest?  How is an image defined?  What does it mean to honor your parents?  These and other questions are the work of discernment and God’s working in the community of faith to guide God’s people to faithful observance.

But first and foremost is the word: Remember!  Remember what has been done. "I am the LORD, your God, who brought you out of Egypt, up from a house of slavery."This is the Word on which all faithful living is formed and founded, that God has already done so much on our behalf.  How will we respond?

Shalom,
Geoff