February 13th: "The Great Re-Commitment: The Rocks Stood as Witness"
The First United Presbyterian Church of Loveland
“The Great Re-Commitment: The Rocks Stood as Witness”
Rev. Amy Morgan
February 13, 2022
Psalm 78:1-7
Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old,
3 things that we have heard and known, that our ancestors have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children; we will tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might, and the wonders that he has done.
5 He established a decree in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to teach to their children; 6 that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and rise up and tell them to their children, 7 so that they should set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments.
Joshua 24:1-3a, 6-7, 13-15
Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel; and they presented themselves before God.
2 And Joshua said to all the people, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Long ago your ancestors… lived beyond the Euphrates and served other gods. 3 Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan and made his offspring many. 6 When I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, you came to the sea; and the Egyptians pursued your ancestors with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea. 7 When they cried out to the LORD, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and made the sea come upon them and cover them; and your eyes saw what I did to Egypt. Afterwards you lived in the wilderness a long time.
13 I gave you a land on which you had not labored, and towns that you had not built, and you live in them; you eat the fruit of vineyards and oliveyards that you did not plant.14 "Now therefore revere the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. 15 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."
The rocks stood as witness. And there were plenty of them. On the rocky hills of Shechem, God appeared to Abraham and promised to give this land to his offspring. Abraham dug up and lifted and stacked the rocks into an altar, a solid reminder of the God who brought him to this land and promised it to his descendants.
The rocks stood as witness two generations later when Jacob and his family passed through Shechem, and Jacob commanded his family to put away the foreign gods among them. Jacob collected the gods carved of stone, gods that were, as the Psalmist says, “the work of human hands, They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; they make no sound in their throats.” These stone gods were not the God who appeared to Abraham, the God of Jacob’s father, Isaac, the God who had wrestled with him till daybreak and blessed him. And so there, at Shechem, Jacob buried those foreign gods in the rocky ground.
The rocks stood as witness as the people of Israel, God’s chosen people, prepared to settle in the land God had promised to Abraham. God’s faithfulness had proven to be rock-solid as the descendants of that wandering Aramean had finally received that promised land. There at Shechem, perhaps near the remnants of an ancient altar and standing over buried idols, Joshua calls the people to re-commit to covenant relationship with God.
This is a crucial moment in the history of God’s relationship with Israel. What they are being asked to do is both radical and dangerous. In the ancient near-east, monotheism, the worship of just one god, was rare and pathetic. Because gods were understood as transactional entities. You give the gods what they want, and they give you what you want. Obedience equaled reward. Worshiping the strongest gods meant you were defended by the strongest power. So the more gods you worshiped, the more divine power you had on your side.
Gods were also understood to be territorial. There were geographic bounds to the influence of the gods. So if you moved from Egypt to Canaan, say, it would be wise to drop your devotion to the Egyptian deities and take up worshiping the Canaanite gods, lest the gods in your new region become jealous and smite you.
So the idea that the Israelites, who had left Egypt, wandered around in the desert for a generation, and finally came to the land of milk and honey, would continue worshiping just one god, a god without any affiliation to this particular land, was a really strange concept. What could this god possibly do for them here? How could this one god possibly have more power than the mighty Canaanite gods? How could this one god give them everything they needed? Protection, provision, procreation. The Canaanites, the Amorites, all the surrounding cultures had specific gods to handle each of these needs, and much more. Just one god? Pathetic. No way these people will survive with one puny god.
So they are reminded of what God has already done. Taken Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan and made his offspring many. Brought their ancestors out of Egypt, destroyed the Egyptians as they pursued them across the Red Sea. And gave them a land on which they had not labored, and towns that they had not built, and vineyards and oliveyards that they did not plant. This God made them who they are. They would not be a people if it were not for this God. They would not have a place to live or food to eat if it were not for this God.
These are not rewards for the people’s faithfulness or fortitude. These are the results of God’s faithfulness and forgiveness. This God is not transactional. This God is relational.
And Joshua invites them to re-commit to this relationship. This means they can’t go begging favors from other deities when they don’t immediately get what they want from God. It means they can’t have some idols stashed around just in case things don’t pan out. It means they have to trust in God completely, and yes, that means exclusively. Not in the sense that they have to condemn anyone else’s gods. They just can’t worship them alongside YHWH. Because that would mean their trust in YHWH was weak or incomplete.
This is a crucial decision the Israelites must make: continue to worship the one God who has brought them this far, who has kept the promise made to their ancestor Abraham, or wipe out this relationship entirely, worship the gods of Abram’s ancestors, worship the gods of this land, worship whichever god you believe will bring you the most benefit. The decision is between a transactional association or a covenant relationship.
This may seem like an easy decision. They know that God has been faithful to them, faithful to the promise, powerful enough to overcome their enemies. Why would they even think about worshiping any other god? What other authority could possibly be worthy of their devotion?
And yet. Here we are, friends, surrounded by people who worship all kinds of transactional gods. Gods made with human hands – possessions that confer status and power, institutions that assert authority, weapons that promise protection. Some of our gods are tied to our geography – nationalism, exceptionalism, and my personal favorite, NIMBYism (which stands for Not In My Back Yard and describes the worship of a place exactly the way it is and in service to those who already live there). We are tempted to worship the gods who will reward us with wealth, safety, personal liberty, or self-fulfillment. Because that’s who everyone around us is worshiping.
In Jesus Christ, we are inheritors of God’s promise, “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ,” as Paul says. We are a people because of God. We have a purpose and a future, the promise of eternal life and resurrection because of God. What could be more powerful than the god who defeated our greatest enemy – death itself? What other authority could possibly be worthy of our devotion?
But when life isn’t going so great for us, and it seems to be going swell for everyone else, we really start wondering if we backed the right horse. We start digging up old idols and dusting them off. Our trust in God is weak or incomplete, and we are tempted to make a deal with someone – devil or god or stock broker or whomever – to get out of the mess we’re in.
And we’re all in a mess one way or another. Life hasn’t been easy on anyone lately, and we can clearly see the uptick in idol worship around us. We’re willing to give the gods of empire and esteem, the gods of shame and fame, anything they want in return for status and security and power over our enemies.
As things begin to settle, as the pandemic becomes something we just learn to live with, as we find our new way in this new world, we are at the point of making a crucial decision: will we continue to worship the God who has brought us this far, who has been faithful to us, or will we wipe out this relationship entirely, worshiping the gods we believe will bring us the most benefit? Will we worship the gods of transactional association or the God of covenant relationship?
It is a radical and dangerous decision, friends. It requires our complete trust and devotion. And the stones will stand as witness.
The Israelites did re-commit to their covenant relationship with God, echoing Joshua’s declaration that he and his household will serve the Lord. In verse 26 of this last chapter of Joshua, it says, “he took a large stone, and set it up there under the oak in the sanctuary of the LORD. Joshua said to all the people, "See, this stone shall be a witness against us; for it has heard all the words of the LORD that he spoke to us; therefore it shall be a witness against you, if you deal falsely with your God."
The stones of this church have been listening for 117 years. As people have faithfully worshiped our faithful God. And as they have faltered and failed, smuggled in the idols of the world around us, been tempted into trusting in the power of institutions or individuals. These stones stand as witness, to all our faithfulness and all our frailty.
But these stones also stand as witness to all God has done for us in Jesus Christ. They have seen all the children baptized, the guilty forgiven, the broken healed, the grateful rejoicing. They have heard words of love and grace and hope. They have sheltered those without a home, surrounded those who were lonely, comforted those who were grieving. These stones stand as witness to a people who have a covenant relationship with a loving and gracious God.
And so today, I invite us all to re-commit to this covenant relationship, to reclaim our identity has Christians who worship the one, living God, and to devote ourselves to this God, to serve and obey this God. Let us choose this day whom we will serve. The God who has brought us this far, the God who has been faithful and fulfilled promises, the God who has defeated the power of sin and death. Or the gods of transactional association, of give and get, want and need. Choose this day whom you will serve.
Joshua doesn’t tell the people what choice to make. In fact, he all but tells them not to commit to serving God, because he doesn’t think their up to the task of keeping up their end of the relationship. He presents worshiping other gods – those of Abraham’s ancestors or those of the Amorites – as completely viable options. He makes his decision clear, but he doesn’t compel any of them to follow him.
If we’re more interested in getting what we want from God than in having a relationship with God, that’s fine. But it’s a choice we’re making. We are choosing not to trust God and choosing to trust something else. Maybe ourselves. Maybe some other power or authority. But we are making a choice.
God invites us to choose a relationship of love and trust with the God who created heaven and earth, the God who loves us and forgives us, the God who claims us and saves us. Today, we have an invitation to re-commit to this covenant relationship with have with God in Jesus Christ. And the rocks will stand as witness.
At the front of the church, we have river stones, and we’re invited to come and take one and write on it your commitment. Maybe it is an image or a word that reminds you of the God you choose to serve. Maybe it is a more specific way you want to commit to serving God right now. But I invite you to keep that rock somewhere visible, and allow it to bear witness to the commitment you are making today.
If you are with us at home, I’m so sorry I can’t send a rock through the internet. But I encourage you to find some way to mirror this activity, whether that means finding your own rock at home or even just writing on a piece of paper that you post somewhere in your home.
I invite us all now to take a few minutes of prayerful consideration, choosing whom you will serve, and selecting a rock that will stand as witness to your re-commitment.
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