It’s that time kids … sermon #1 is up. This was from a few weeks ago, and because I like it I made it the premier. So tune in after the break for the whole of the sermon. For those interested, the texts used are at the top, and the basic theme is that God allows His people to choose not to follow Him. Enjoy!
Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18; Psalm 34:15-22; Ephesians 6:10-20; John 6:56-69
How is it that Simon Peter manages to either give the best answer or worst answer to any question Jesus asks? He confesses Jesus as the Christ then rebukes Him for saying He’s going to Jerusalem to die. He swears he will never betray Jesus but then betrays Him three times. At the Transfiguration, Peter wants to build three tents for Jesus, Elijah, and Moses. And in this week’s lesson he says to Jesus, “Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
It’s obvious that, at least some of the time, Peter “gets it”. He knows who Jesus is, even if he doesn’t want to admit what Jesus has come to do. And when presented with the choice, between leaving with some of the other disciples and staying with Jesus, he chooses to stay.
Now let’s rewind to the book of Joshua. Joshua was the commander of the forces of Israel after the death of Moses. Most of the book of Joshua is about the conquering of the Promised Land, so if you like military dramas look no further. I mean, Israel goes in, kicks tail and takes names. But nearer to the end of the book, most of the conflict is over. Joshua 23 begins, “After a long time had passed and the Lord had given Israel rest from all their enemies around them, Joshua, by then old and well advanced in years summoned all Israel…” Joshua is giving what he knows to be his farewell speech, much like Moses did in the book of Deuteronomy.
When everyone was gathered, Joshua tells Israel the story of how God has watched over them, given them victory, and kept them safe. Joshua then adds a command, to fear the Lord and serve him with faithfulness. He lays before the Israelites a choice – stating also that his house will serve the Lord. Joshua warns Israel that serving the Lord is not something to be chosen lightly, and the rest of the Old Testament follows what happens when Israel waffles between serving the Lord their God and the gods of the people around them.
Just as Joshua left the choice of service to God to the people, Jesus doesn’t force himself on his disciples either. When many leave because of the “hard teachings” of John 6, Jesus’ response is not anger, nor does he force himself on the ones leaving. He simply presents the same options to the Twelve, who choose to stay.
Now I’m going to get a little abstract here, so I want you to pay attention. God does not force himself on anyone. But because of sin, humans are incapable of choosing FOR God. Let me draw this out a bit for you. Before the Fall of Man, before Adam and Eve ate the fruit in the garden and brought sin into the world, humanity was sinless, but able to sin. After the fall, humanity is sinful, and only able to sin. Quoting Martin Luther, “‘Free will’ after the fall has power to do good only in a passive capacity, but it can always do evil in an active capacity.” It’s not a pretty picture of humanity, being stuck in sin with nothing they can do about it.
But even when we are stuck God intervenes for us. He gives us ways to atone for those things we do that are sinful. In the Old Testament he gave the Law, complete with its code of Sacrifices, so that there are ways to deal with the problem of sin. In sending his son, he sent the ultimate sacrifice – one that deals with the problem of sin forever for those who believe. God offers us an invitation, and He permits us to serve things other than Him: be it other gods, money, power, ourselves, whatever.
The trouble is that in our sin we cannot choose for God. Our free will, corrupted by sin’s influence, will always choose against God. This sets up an even worse conundrum, because it seems that we’re all hosed and there’s no hope for anyone. But God himself is the hope. Through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, we can choose to serve the Lord. It’s not something we do on our own, but the work of God in us that leads to the choice. Yet we can always say no to God; He doesn’t impose himself on us.
But even as we choose the serve God, our human nature is still toward sin and away from God. So every day, every moment, we recommit ourselves to serving the Lord. We ask for God’s help in serving him, so we don’t go after other things. Luther talks often about this, but he doesn’t use the same words as I have been. He usually refers to this as remembering our baptism – the time at which we died to our sin and were raised again to new life in Christ. For those of us baptized as infants, our parents and sponsors pledged that we would be raised in a way that we would serve God. Then, at confirmation, which is also called the affirmation of Baptism, we made our own commitment to serve God. For anyone here baptized as an adult, that was the commitment to serve God.
So when Luther suggests we remember our Baptism, he means to recommit ourselves to the service of God. One way to symbolize this is to dip your fingers in the Baptismal Font and make the sign of the cross. As we enter for worship and leave to serve God in the world, we have the opportunity to recommit ourselves to God – to remember our Baptism.
God gives us the choice to serve him or serve something else. Through the Holy Spirit we have the ability to offer ourselves to God, something we could not do on our own power. So I say to you today the same thing Joshua said to Israel: “Now fear God, and worship him with everything you are. Get rid of those other gods you may have had and serve God. But if serving God seems like a bad thing, then choose for yourselves whom you will serve. But as for me, I will serve the Lord.”