This Day

Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25
First Reading for the Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost (Year A)

Where do we go from here? That question seems to follow us around. After all, each morning presents new forks in the road. What kind of people are we going to be? Empathetic or hateful? Full of hope or cynicism? Looking our for others or only for ourselves? Those choices profoundly direct the trajectories of our lives and those around us. And each day provides a new opportunity for that.

But the question of where we go from here always seems weightier in moments of great transition. The road seems to bend in dramatically divergent directions. When Joshua was at the end of his days leading the people of Israel, he gathered them together with directions on which road they ought to take.

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.

Choose this day whom you will serve.

If you are someone who follows Jesus then that choice is pretty straightforward. We are called to love our God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength. We serve God not only with our devotion, our prayers, and gathering with fellow Christians. Yet we also serve the Lord with our love for our neighbor. For as Jesus said the second commandment is like the first. By loving our neighbor, we love God. What we do for our fellow citizens of this planet, we do unto the Lord.

It’s been an incredibly divisive season. And by season, I mean somewhere between four and thirty years. Maybe more? We cannot keep going down the road that we’re going down. A less divisive individual in the public eye does not automatically erase the great divides that we experience in this country. There is still immense work to be done. If we as Christians truly want to lead the way in that work then we’ve got to recommit ourselves to loving God and loving our neighbor. All our neighbors: Black, Latinx, Asian, white, the refugee, every socioeconomic class, the LGBTQ+ community, those who are differently abled, those with different opinions. Everyone. We don’t get to opt out of this. Reconciliation does not mean that people get to come in and continue to hurt people.

And we love by serving. Joshua says choose this day whom you will serve. We do not love God and neighbor as some fuzzy concept. It is not a private matter within our hearts. We love with what we do. We listen. We stand alongside. We repent. We listen some more. We identify ways we can help on the individual and systemic levels; remembering that there are already Christians serving in those places alongside God doing the work. We recognize the dignity in each and every person. We work for justice. We seek out truth and empathy. We speak up even when it’s scary. These are things that we can’t opt out of either.

Each dawn presents that choice for the follower of Jesus. Choose this day whom you will serve. Will it be the gods of division, deceit, pride, money, power, white supremacy, violence, or comfort that our ancestors and, yes, you and I have worshipped? Or will it be the God who fearfully and wonderfully made us and our neighbor in whom we live and move and have our being?

Where do we go from here? As followers of Jesus, we need to go in the direction in which we love God and neighbor. God, forgive us for the days when we do not choose You. There are more than most of us would like to count. I know there is for me. And help us this day to love and serve You and this beautiful world You have given us.