"As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" Joshua 24.15

This is the verse that Luther Memorial has adopted as a guidepost for our living together.  The book of Joshua follows the people of Israel across the Jordan River and into the land promised to Abraham, then Issac, then Jacob and finally Moses.  This is the land 'flowing with milk and honey' where they shall plant vines and drink their own wine, build houses and live in them.  That is, this will not be a temporary 'stopping over' place; this will not be a land that will be overrun by others, but rather it will belong to the Israelites.

Moses cannot enter the promised land; God won't allow it.  Rather, Moses stood on a high mountain and looked to the horizon and saw the land that God promised to Israel.  [Just an aside, when Martin Luther King Jr. made his 'I have been to the mountaintop' speech, he is co-opting this story of Moses from Deuteronomy.]

Now Joshua has led the people into the promised land.  People are already living there; people who worship a god other than YHWH.  [In fact, each people/tribe of this time worshipped its own god].  What a temptation to the people!  They had quite a lot of trouble following YHWH when they were alone and dependent in the wilderness.  Now they must choose to remain faithful to YHWH in the face of other possibilities and under pressure from other people.  So Joshua tells them,"....choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in theregion 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."  24.15


It is a good text for our life together as followers of Jesus for we too are confronted with many gods, many voices, many demands and temptations.  Life is far from simple and faithfulness is a constant discipline.  Together we will continue to discern what it means to 'serve the Lord' but yesterday we were able to share the experience of being God's people in the world during On the Road with Jesus (see http://www.luthermemorialns.org/ for more information).  More than that, we were able to launch 7 of our young people off into the next phase of their lives following high school.  Our youngest could look at these [older] young people and see themselves down the road, having heard God's word and served in God's name.  It was a helpful reminder for us all that we need to continually pray for these young people.

Add to that our prayers of thanksgiving for the men in our lives: fathers, brothers, uncles, grandfathers, sons, and friends;  men through whom the Spirit works to help shape society and our lives.

Yesterday we were able to claim once again, 'as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord', and to do it with great rejoicing.