Saugatuck Congregational Church, UCC
©Rev. Alison J. Buttrick Patton
Sunday, October 14, 2018
Scripture
Joshua 24:1-18 – New Revised Standard Version
Sermon
I spend a lot of time defending the Hebrew Bible, or what we Christians refer to as the Old Testament, in response to claims that it’s an the outdated story about an Angry God. That testament? It’s all about Divine revenge and jealousy. The New Testament? It’s all about love and grace.
Not only does this characterization of the earliest books in the Bible carry with it anti-Semitic overtones – after all, the Hebrew Bible IS the sacred text for our Jewish cousins – it dramatically distorts the picture. After all, the old testament contains the 23rd Psalm, with its promise that an attentive God accompanies us – even through the darkest valley (“The LORD is my shepherd…”) – and Isaiah, with its vivid portrayals of a divine kin-dom where swords will be hammered into plow shares and lions will lie down with lambs; not to mention the entire Exodus narrative, in which God frees the people from slavery and feeds them in the wilderness for 40 years before leading them into the Promised Land.
The Exodus story has been a powerful source of hope for Black folks in the United States, with its promise that God will liberate the oppressed: “Ours is a God who makes a way out of no way,” sang the Civil Rights leaders… “who brings down the walls of Jericho and tumbles the mighty from their thrones..”
But what is for some a life-giving narrative about liberation is for others an all-too-familiar tale of devastation. Chapter by chapter, the book of Joshua describes the destruction of the Israelites’ enemies: ie, those who already lived in the land that had been promised to god’s chosen people. The Israelites’ invasion of the land of Canaan mirrors the devastation rained down on Native Peoples who lived on this continent long before Europeans arrived on these shores.
Our Congregational forebears often referred to the so-called New World as the Promised Land and European invaders as god’s elect, called by god to build a City on a Hill. They invoked these texts, Joshua’s vision of the Promised Land – and god’s apparent insistence that its inhabitants be destroyed to make space for the Israelites – to justify the massacre of native peoples and cultures.
We pick up the narrative at the tale end of Joshua, after all the battles have been fought, when Joshua has reached a ripe old age. Chapter 24 is his swan song, his taking stock of all that has unfolded under his leadership. In one last effort to convince the Israelites to remain faithful to God, he recalls all that God has done for them – freed them, sustained them, stood by them, made for them a way in the wilderness; defended and delivered them into a new home. Then, in a climax so memorable it has been cross-stitched, quilted and hung in countless Christian homes for generations, Joshua said, “Choose this day whom you will serve, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
It’s a compelling speech, rooted in the conviction that God HAS been faithful, that god does deserve the Israelites’ devotion – and ours.
And when I first read the text, I wanted to use it as an invitation for us to look at our own individual and collective lives, to map out the moments when God has intervened, picked us up, given us courage or comfort or recalculated our course (like a divine GPS). I wanted to pose Joshua’s question to all of us: Whom will WE serve?”
It’s a worthy question, and we’ll get to it, but first, we need to grapple with that pesky context, and that image of god who allegedly ordered Joshua and the Israelites to destroy all the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites… in order to occupy “a land on which they had not labored, and towns that they had not built…” I know it troubles you as much as it troubles me. So what do we do with Joshua?
We might begin by confessing that sometimes we confuse god’s intentions with our own desires. We are worshipping on land once occupied by the Pequot, Matabesec and Paugussett tribes, just a few days after the Monday still listed on federal calendars as Columbus Day…. We are heirs to early Connecticut settlers who believed it was their god-given right to claim this land, so it bears asking:
How do we know when the winds that billow our sails and propel us forward come from the Spirit of God, and not our own bluster? When we are responding to God’s call rather than chasing our own interests? It is difficult, after all, to see through any eyes but our own. We tend to view the world as our ancestors did, from our own front stoop, according to the needs of our particular tribe. This history of the Israelites was written by the Israelites – one ancient culture among many. One could argue that their portrayal of god couldn’t help but be a bit nearsighted, shaped by their own fears and desires. They were a small nation, often under siege, so they needed a god that would be on their side.
But the lesson I’ve learned from Native American theologians is this: that we ought to be suspicious of all claims that god belongs to us and us alone, or that we have cornered the market on divine favor. God is always bigger than our geographic and social boundaries. If God is up to something in our lives, as I believe She is, then surely God is also up to something in the lives of our adversaries – including those who may be harmed in our drive to succeed. So we ought always to guard against the assumption that our success is indisputable evidence that God has endorsed us, or that our idea of good is necessarily God’s.
I once spent a week at the Rosebud reservation in South Dakota, guest of the Lakota people. Our professor made every effort to coach us regarding Lakota culture. But still we bumbled our way through the week: speaking when we should have been listening; imposing our own values on our hosts. We had our own interests in mind; we could not see how we might be offending. It was a hard lesson to learn.
So how do we know when God is doing the leading? Perhaps, if we look close enough, we might see the Spirit of God moving in the uncomfortable places – not to save us from our enemies, but to save us from our own tunnel vision. Not to give us what we want, but to offer what we need.
For example: Saugatuck is rightly proud of its role as one of the founders of the Gillespie Center, a homeless shelter in downtown Westport. But before we founded the shelter, back in the early 1980’s, Saugatuck’s pastors (Rev. Ted Hoskins and Rev. Martin Copenhaver) developed the habit of inviting homeless men to sleep here at the church, in classrooms. It was an uncomfortable arrangement; many members were distressed, perhaps even a bit frightened, to share space with men who smelled bad, suffered from addiction or struggled with mental health issues. It was out of that place of profound discomfort that members decided to build the shelter. I suspect God was moving among us during that season, using that discomfort to prod us into faithful action. Look what God has done!
Then there’s 1993, when this congregation began a series of conversations whether to declare ourselves “Open and Affirming”, that is: welcoming of people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. For four years, if I read the minutes correctly, this church held events, studied bible texts, wrestled with differences. It could not have been easy; there were beloved members who opposed the proposal. But in 2007, the church voted to approved an open and affirming statement. Not only did it clarify this congregation’s conviction that we are all made in god’s image; those who participated in the process describe it as a deeply transformative experience. Look what God has done!
Turn to 2011: When God’s Spirit moved among us in the wake of the fire that severely damaged our church home. Even as some of us stood among those ashes, God turned grief and displacement into a chance to deepen our interfaith and community ties. For three years, Saugatuck Church relied on our neighbors at Temple Israel, Christ and Holy Trinity, Greens Farms and the Methodist Church to share space and ministry. As your new pastor, I got to hear first hand some of what this church means to the town of Westport. And we re-discovered what all those partners mean to us. Those connections still shape our sense of identity as a congregation. Look what God has done!
Of course, I see God’s spirit at work among the scores of young people who make up our youth group. But I’m equally convinced that God is it work when only 2 or 3 are gathered. At one time, Saugatuck Church had a church school with classrooms for every grade level. Along the way, the demand changed. A smaller group of children compelled us to evaluate our approach to Christian Education. The result is a more dynamic, creative, multi-age, hands-on approach to Church School that excites and nourishes our young people. Look what God has done!
In the final analysis, God is bigger than any one book, any one perspective…God is the One who defends the oppressed and transforms the oppressors, who tends to lions and lambs, who sticks by a nearsighted people, believing that they – and we – can become more faithful, sometimes even despite ourselves.
What does it mean to serve that God? The God who both accompanies and disrupts? The God who shatters our expectations? Who shows up – not only when we need defending, but when we need re-forming, need to be encouraged to take risks, stretch our boundaries and expand our vision?
Perhaps it means cultivating a sense of curiosity, asking, every day: What is God up to NOW, in this place, among us, around us, and through the people we encounter along the way? What are we missing? When we are feeling a little holy discomfort, what would God have us see or do?
We can trust that God IS at work, transforming us, and this whole church. We can’t always know how. So we make a choice: to cling to the tribal gods we have conceived, or to embrace the God who never fails us, and never fails to surprise us; who meets us where we are, but does not leave us here…
Beloved in Christ, full of hope, full of anticipation, let us answer Joshua’s challenge, responding with one voice, “As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD!”
May it be so. Thanks be to God.
Amen.