Choose This Day Whom You Will Serve

August 23, 2015
Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
First Reading: Josh 24:1-2a, 15-17, 18b
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/082315.cfm

In most relationships, we eventually arrive at a decision point. The choice can be tough. Do we go forward and allow the relationship to blossom into marriage? Do we step back, grow distant, and allow ourselves to drift apart? But once you have married the choice is much starker: Will you continue in your vowed commitment to your spouse or betray him? In this Sunday’s first reading from the end of the Book of Joshua, the people of Israel are presented with such a grave decision.

The Story of Joshua

The Book of Joshua narrates the Israelites’ conquest of the Promised Land. After dithering in the desert for forty years, they finally cross the Jordan River and start taking possession of the land that God has called them to inhabit. At first, things go gloriously as the walls of Jericho fall down before the shouts of the Israelites. They conquer the city of Ai (chap. 8). The sun stands still (chap. 10). Yet there is a lingering sense of incompleteness—some places are not really conquered (13:1-7), some compromises are reached (chap. 9), the Canaanites remain in the land (Judges 1). After the conquest, the land is parceled out to the various tribes of Israel (Josh 13–21). At the very end, after the dust has settled, Joshua summons the people to Shechem to reaffirm their commitment to the Lord.

Renewing the Covenant

There are many covenants in the Bible, so this can get a bit confusing, but here Joshua does not initiate a new covenant, but he instead sets up a covenant renewal ceremony. Think of it as a renewal of wedding vows. He brings the leaders of the Israelites to one place and challenges them to renew their vows to the Lord—the vows that their grandfathers had made to the Lord at Mount Sinai. In the same way that many ceremonies begin, Joshua starts off with a speech. Speaking on the Lord’s behalf, he re-tells the whole story of the people of Israel, from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to the plagues against Egypt, the crossing of the Red Sea, the conquest of the Transjordan and the conquest of the Holy Land proper. Joshua’s narration of the mighty acts of God in calling his people, delivering them, guiding them and blessing them is nicely summed up at the end: “I gave you a land on which you had not labored, and cities which you had not built, and you dwell therein; you eat the fruit of vineyards and oliveyards which you did not plant” (Jos 24:13 RSV).

“Choose this day whom you will serve”

The blessings that the Israelites now enjoy are the result of the Lord’s fierce faithfulness of his chosen people. The Lord’s past performance as defender and provider is a guarantee of future results. Yet discussion of the blessings gives way to a challenge. Joshua confronts the Israelites with one of the choicest lines of the Old Testament: “Choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond 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” (Josh 24:15 RSV). Many times, we skip over the middle part of this passage because it doesn’t seem to apply. (I mean, when was the last time you were tempted to worship the gods of the Amorites?) Yet Joshua is illustrating for the Israelites how deep their choice must go and how relevant it is to their daily life. Neutrality is not an option. Either you will serve the Lord or you will serve false gods. And while Baal and Ashtoreth worship might not be temptations for us today, how easy it is to fall into idolizing youth, money, power, security, even retirement! Whenever anything takes the place of God in our lives, we have become idolaters.

A Second Challenge

The leaders of Israel respond to Joshua’s challenge the right way—with assent. They say, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord, to serve other gods” (Josh 24:16 RSV). One would think that this would be enough, but Joshua challenges them a second time, even more emphatically, by saying “You cannot serve the Lord; for he is a holy God; he is a jealous God” (Jos 24:19 RSV). It doesn’t seem fair to give people a choice and then when they make the right choice to say, “You can’t!” Joshua wants the people to reaffirm their commitment in the face of a direct trial. They withstand the test and double down on their pledge to serve only the Lord.

The Israelites made the right choice that day when Joshua put them to the test. They passed the test and pledged their fidelity to the Lord. To demure would be to succumb to idolatry, to forsake the God of their fathers. There is no middle ground. This scene is similar to the Two Standards meditation from St. Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises, where the saint invites retreatants to envision two armies with two commanders, one is God, the other is Satan. Both are recruiting for their armies and we must choose between them. Making the right choice at a public ceremony might be easy, but we know the rest of the story—how many times the Israelites were led into idolatry and sin (just read the Book of Judges). To remain faithful to one’s commitment from day-to-day and year-to-year requires both grit and grace. If we again choose to serve the Lord like Joshua and the Israelites, he will be ready to receive us and to help us stay true to the path we have decided to trod. It was the Master, after all, who told us, ‘the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matt 7:14 RSV). I’d like to find it.

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Mark Giszczak (“geese-check”) was born and raised in Ann Arbor, MI. He studied philosophy and theology at Ave Maria College in Ypsilanti, MI and Sacred Scripture at the Augustine Institute of Denver, CO. He recently received his Ph. D. in Biblical Studies at the Catholic University of America. He currently teaches courses in Scripture at the Augustine Institute, where he has been on faculty since 2010. Dr. Giszczak has participated in many evangelization projects and is the author of the CatholicBibleStudent.com blog. He has written introductions to every book of the Bible that are hosted at CatholicNewsAgency.com. Dr. Giszczak, his wife and their daughter, live in Colorado where they enjoy camping and hiking in the Rocky Mountains.

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