Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord!

And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

The 24th chapter of Joshua begins with Joshua reminding the tribes of Israel of their history from Abraham all the way to their entry into the promised land. Joshua does this in a way that reminds the people of Israel of all that God has done for them in their lives. As such, this chapter is a summary of most of the first six books of the Bible from Genesis 12 through the majority of the book of Joshua. In light of this history, Joshua then challenges the people of Israel to serve the living God. Joshua makes it clear that regardless of what the people of Israel do, he and his house “will serve the Lord”.

Calling people to remembrance of how they got to where they are is both a past and a very present and real way to bring people together to work towards a common goal or vision. In looking at what is going on in the news, I can see the need for this type of message again. Instead of calling people to rally around what has united us in the past, we now see politicians throwing mud at each other and at the spouses and children of their opponents while so many children in this nation go to bed hungry and face an ever increasing risk of homelessness as families lose homes each and every day. While the future of our society and our country’s way of life becomes more and more bleak, those who presume to lead us are engaging in innuendo, smear and outright lies while failing to see that such behavior guarantees that we will continue to be defined as a nation by what divides us rather than by what unites us.

We, as the people of God at St Paul’s Lutheran Church, can choose to be different. We can look to each other and remember that we are all praying for pretty much the same things. We pray to be able to not only proclaim, but live the Gospel in this time and place. We pray that the youth of this congregation will continue to be nurtured in the faith and develop values that will serve them well in their adult lives. We can also most certainly pray that God will inspire people to work and act so that all children can find such safety, nurture and care as our youth at St Paul’s benefit from. We pray for the continued growth of St Paul’s and the ministries we support. I pray that we can choose to remember our past and look to the present in terms of what unites us as we go forward into the future looking for ways to serve the living God and teaching our children to do the same. As our farmers work in the fields to provide a harvest for their families’ futures, our prayer is that our children may reap a harvest of knowledge, love, care and compassion that will guide both them their future families in happy, productive and faith filled lives lived to the glory of the Risen and Living God.