WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?

Joshua 24:14-18

Sunday, August 20, 2006

I loved it. Having come of age during the 1970’s, I tend to notice those things that might indicate that not everyone has surrendered to the status quo. I was stuck in traffic behind a minivan. As I had the time, I noticed the bumper sticker. It read, “Question Authority.” On a minivan, no less, here was a challenge. Question authority.

I will admit that I might be reading more into that bumper sticker than the author intends, but it made me wonder: what authority was I to question? Certainly, the author wanted to do more than question current leaders or specific institutions. I hoped he wanted us to question foundational, cultural assumptions and cause the reader to reflect on those important fundamental influences that lead you and me to make the decisions we make.

How do you make the decisions you make?

Joshua is asking a similar question of Israel. He asks them whether they will adopt the gods—and so the cultural presuppositions and foundational principles—of the past (Egypt) or the present (Canaan) or would they serve the Lord? What are you going to do? Joshua asks Israel. What are you going to do? Joshua asks you and me.

Certainly, the gods of Egypt and Canaan are not tempting us away. However, more and more our culture (what we do and believe) and our identity (who we are) are defined by what we have—our stuff. Now, don’t misunderstand. It is not bad to have stuff. It is bad when your stuff has you.

More and more today, accumulating stuff has the power to give meaning to life and construct identity. We become Ford or Chevrolet people—brand names define us and separate us from others. What faith and religion formerly did, stuff does for us now. Therefore, Joshua’s question is oddly appropriate today. What are you going to do?

Joshua raises a profound and important question. Should culture, experience, and environment shape faith or should it be the reverse? Now, the families who just gathered at the rail and promised that God’s Word and faith would shape their decisions and actions for them and their children, now the answer to this question. You and I as happily catechized Lutherans know the answer. Faith should shape. Does that always happen?

Those families who just promised really intend to carry through on those promises. You and I fully intended to fulfill those promises made at our confirmations and baptisms. The spirit is indeed willing, however, the flesh is weak. Do we live as we promise? Do the people you work with know that you are a Christian? Do your actions, decisions and choices show that truth to your neighbors and friends at school? Probably not, remember that culture is like Denver’s famous brown cloud—if you can see it all around you, you’re in it.

We live in a culture that craves fulfilling experiences. That sneaks into our faith-lives and our worship. We want that mountaintop, life-transforming experience in worship or at some event. We crave that WOW that tells us that something is different. However, while we want that life-transforming experience, we really do not want it to change the way we live. We really do not want faith to shape our decisions—according to our human, culture-influenced nature. Let me share an interesting statistic. Today, probably 25 to 30 per cent of Americans are doing what you’re doing—attending church. Of those not attending worship on a regular basis, an amazing seventy per cent consider themselves committed Christians. They really want to be faithful; they just do not want it to change how they live.

We really cannot point fingers at them. We struggle with the same issues. You and I have the same wrestling match Joshua described for the Israelites. How can we choose? Like those Israelites, we have a history and an environment that confuses our choices. We really cannot get away from the “brown cloud” of culture and be objective. We are children of our culture and our culture is defined by consumption—having stuff. Here is another statistic to show you just how pervasive our “stuff” has gotten in defining culture.

Do you know what the “number one” favorite leisure time activity is for Americans? This is true even in Denver—it’s not watching the Broncos. It isn’t sports or enjoying the mountains, either. It is shopping! Shopping—and stuff we buy—has taken away from faith that role of giving meaning and structure to living. We are defined by what we buy and the brands we own. One consequence of this is that faith becomes just another purchase—another brand. Christianity is considered just one brand among many that might give meaning and identity to life.

What are you and I going to do? Joshua’s question waits for answer. Where can we begin, if we cannot begin with ourselves in answering this question? What are we going to do?

Joshua begins with God. He contrasts the many gods of other nations with the God Israel knows. God answers the question. God has shown Himself to Israel and to you and me to be Lord and not merely a label. The Scriptures show Him to be a jealous God—and so He is. He makes a claim on us. He is not One among many gods—He is the only Lord.

He makes a claim on us as His people because He has purchased us. Israel had just lived through the events of the Exodus. They knew that the gods of the Egyptians failed. They were gathered before Joshua at the end of Joshua’s career, having taken possession of the Promised Land—the gods of the Canaanites (the Amorites) had failed them. Israel knew the Lord had rescued them from slavery and given them an identity and their lives meaning.

He has given you and me an identity and filled our lives with meaning, too. Our story of rescue doesn’t involve the Red Sea and wandering in the wilderness—our rescue has been accomplished by Jesus. The weakness that keeps us from following through on our promises, that keeps us from letting faith shape our decisions is sin. Sin runs us—sin leads us to let our stuff run us. We sell ourselves out to brand names and our stuff because we cannot cut ourselves loose from sin and selfishness. So Jesus did it for us.

He rescued us from sin’s power by purchasing our lives with His blood on the cross and accomplished our rescue, defeating even death (sin’s last claim on us) with His resurrection. You and I are not for sale to the highest bidder. We are not for sale at all. We have been purchased and won, not by “gold or silver, but by the holy, precious blood of Jesus and His innocent suffering and death.” We are not for sale and our value does not depend on what we have, but it is set by the One who has us.

We are valuable to God. He has shown us just how valuable. I have said it before, I will say it again, even if you were the only one needing to be rescued from sin’s power, and the only one suffocating in the “brown cloud” of culture, Jesus would have still come and done what He did on the cross for you. You are that valuable. You are loved that much.

Joshua directs us to our God. Our God has shown Himself to be more than one choice in a culture of choices of ways to live. He has shown Himself to be the only choice for life.

What are you going to do?

Joshua’s question is not unique. The Bible asks the same question many times—in Genesis, the Proverbs, and the prophets, even Jesus asks the same question. What are you going to do? Whom are you going to serve?

Are you going to let the world—give into the “brown cloud” of culture—lead? Will you let culture, experience, environment—your possessions—define faith and life according to current needs and trends? In such a choice, we give into the moment and what we think we need—and look for immediate satisfaction. We set up the measure for success and meaning. We even measure God—we set up what we will let Him be. We value God, deciding what’s important and meaningful according to what we want. Unfortunately, living this way—serving ourselves and our stuff—always leaves us wanting more.

Are you going to stand with Joshua? Will you let faith follow God’s Word and live as His Spirit leads? In this radical culture of faith, God’s Word forms and informs our true needs—we wouldn’t know we needed saving without God’s Word to call us out from the cloud. God’s Word—and His Word Made Flesh, Jesus—shapes what is valuable and gives meaning to our lives. Yes, God measures us—and that’s scary because we know by ourselves we don’t measure up—by His Word but that same Word assures us how valuable we are and tells us of the rescue God has made for us.

Answer with Joshua. Answer today with Israel. Answer with the families and young people of our Head to Heart confirmation program. Serve the Lord, not labels. As we are led by the Spirit to be willing and active, something amazing happens. That counter-cultural goal that bumper sticker had in mind, becomes real for you and me. I just love that, we step out of mainstream culture and live counter-culturally. Questioning the authorities of culture and consumption, we live free.

What does that look like? Remember Joshua’s words. He did not say, “We will believe the Lord.” He said, “We will serve the Lord.” Service is so counter-cultural. Every time you decide to give your time, dedicate your gifts and treasure, or donate your talents to serve the Lord, you declare that you run your stuff, it does not run you.

What are you going to do? Answer with Joshua and Israel, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”