Sunday, June 21, 2015

Wisdom and Wonder


Wisdom and Wonder from Joseph Taber on Vimeo.


Proverbs 2:1-11
1My child, if you accept my words and treasure up my commandments within you, 
2making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; 
3if you indeed cry out for insight, and raise your voice for understanding; 
4if you seek it like silver, and search for it as for hidden treasures— 
5then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. 
6For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; 
7he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk blamelessly, 
8guarding the paths of justice and preserving the way of his faithful ones. 
9Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path; 
10for wisdom will come into your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; 
11prudence will watch over you; and understanding will guard you. 

This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God.

John 14:1-14
1‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. 2In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. 4And you know the way to the place where I am going.’ 5Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ 6Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.’

8Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.’ 9Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”? 10Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. 12Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. 13I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.

This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God.

I drove down to Charleston this weekend. Leah’s college roommate got married yesterday, and Leah was a bridesmaid. It’s about a four hour trip from Shelby to Charleston, and I was very cognizant of the connection between those two cities this week.

My heart is troubled by the connection. Wednesday night an angry young man walked into a Bible Study in  Charleston and killed nine people. He fled the city and was arrested a few miles from my house in Shelby. The church at which he opened fire is one of the oldest historically black congregations on this continent. It has been a sanctuary through centuries of racism and violence. This week in Charleston, racism and violence invaded the church again.

I drove down to Charleston this weekend. I was heavy-heartedly heading to a celebration. The news reports that drifted across the radio as I drove down focused on the story of the shooting at the Emmanuel church in Charleston.

My heart is troubled today because when I look at the world through the spectacles of scripture, I am left with few answers. Both of our scripture passages this morning make promises that God will protect us and provide for us. Proverbs tells us that “Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk blamelessly, guarding the paths of justice and preserving the way of his faithful ones.” The Gospel of John promises that “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.”

When I read the world through those passages, my heart is troubled. These promises are reliable and true, yet violence and injustice seem to seep out of every pore of our culture. How long, O LORD, until your truth asserts itself and justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream?

The Gospel of John is not stranger to the tension we feel when we see the promises of God, but do not see how they are being fulfilled. At Lunch Bunch this week, we wrestled with this text. Seeing the distance between God’s promises and the reality in which we live, they said that we have to have faith that this will happen, and the patience to see it in the Father’s time. John’s gospel emerges from a community of outsiders, whose faith and patience were under strain. They longed for comfort and assurance. In this long, final speech of Jesus to his disciples, he is preparing them for when he is most violently rejected by the world. He gives us words of comfort which we will not understand until after he has been crucified and raised again. “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.”

As we are carried along by the Gospel narrative, we are given a moment to float upon these words of assurance before we plunge into the violence and injustice that leads to the cross, and eventually the empty tomb. “I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.” 

The place where he is going is the cross. From there he will go to the tomb. From the empty tomb is will ascend to the Father. When Jesus prepares a place for us, that’s how he does it. The violence of the cross and the wonder of the resurrection are the centerpiece of Christian belief. But Thomas hasn’t seen those events unfold yet. So he asks, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”

I’d like to remind everyone that scripture never calls Thomas “doubter.” That’s a nickname we’ve added, and it brings a truckload of baggage along with it. In this passage, Thomas is asking for clarification, for direction, so that he can be ready to rejoin Jesus when he comes to take us to himself. He is, as Proverbs urges us, “making [his] ear attentive to wisdom and inclining [his] heart to understanding.” Thomas does “indeed cry out for insight and [raises his] voice for understanding;”

Jesus does not give him the answer he expects. Instead of a map, Jesus gives him an identity: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” When he tells the disciples, and us, that we know the way, he is promising that we know him. Our comfort is in the identity of Jesus Christ, whom we know because he made his home among us.

Jesus know where he is going. He knows the way, and the truth, and the life, all lead to the cross. So on his last evening with the disciples, he tells them as clearly as he can who he is. “If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” Jesus Christ has made the Father known, and we are amazed that this man whom we know is also the Word made flesh, God the only son has made God known.

One of my favorite theologians once wrote that "Revelation yields not the solution to a problem but the unveiling of a mystery.” It’s not difficult to find problems, although solutions sometimes evade us. But the mystery of faith is something more. It gives us a sense of wonder as we walk through God’s creation.

I needed a little wonder as I drove down to Charleston, heavy-heartedly heading to a celebration. Reports came over the news radio. The young man who is accused of entering that Charleston church and opening fire appeared in court this week also. he videoconferenced in from a secure room in the courthouse while the families of the victims gathered in the courtroom. After the young man answered a few questions, the families were given the opportunity to speak.

What followed was the most flabbergastingly powerful display of faith: Every family spoke of their grief, of how hurt they were. Every family also told the young man that they forgave him. That audio clip floated across the radio every ten miles or so, because that kind of radical forgiveness runs against the grain of every human instinct and wounded reflex we’ve got.

The days are coming when we can be guided by God’s gift of wisdom and wrestle with the history of violence and racial injustice which we have all inherited. We will work to “understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path.” But their courtroom forgiveness is a powerful witness to the gospel as expressed in John: A light shines in the darkness, and the darkness doesn’t extinguish the light. In the face of violent racism, one community of faith, one group of families, stood up to say that the grace of God is stronger than gunfire.

This morning, the people who are the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church gathered to worship. This morning and in the ongoing future to come, they will pray together, they will sing together, they will grieve together. They will proclaim the gospel together, because they have seen the darkness, but they know that a light shines in the darkness, and the darkness doesn’t extinguish the light.


Thanks be to God for that. Amen.

Sunday, June 14, 2015

Vaguely Particular


Vaguely Particular from Joseph Taber on Vimeo.


Micah 6:6-8
6 ‘With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with calves a year old? 
7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with tens of thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?’ 
8 He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? 

This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God

Romans 12:1-8
1I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.

3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgement, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, 5so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. 6We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; 7ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; 8the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.

This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God.

Last week, we explored why we do what we do. We remembered together our family history, and how our gratitude move us into the future as we seek to follow Christ. Our discipleship is a grateful response in faith to what God has already done.

The prophet Micah is looking for ways to respond to God. Yet he is so struck by the majesty of our Lord that he cannot find any gift that is worthy. Bulls? Not enough. Rivers of oil? Insufficient. Perhaps his firstborn? Not really God's style.

How about instead we live our lives differently in response to God's grace? God "has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" Looks simple enough. Do Justice, love kindness, walk humbly with God. Three things to make up a holy offering to the one who creates, redeems, and sustains us. Simple.

Too bad simple and easy don't mean the same thing.

The beginning of Romans 12 gives us a similar charge, "I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect."

Yeah! That's a great idea! We should totally do that!

Just one question.

How do we do that.

How do we present our bodies as a living sacrifice when body image is one of our culture’s the largest sources of shame? How do we not conform to this world when we're surrounded by it all the time? How do we be transformed by the renewing of our minds when we never have a chance to rest? How do we discern the will of God when so many other voices are shouting in our ears?

How do we "Do Justice" when our nation's criminal justice system is so obviously broken? How do we "Love Kindness" when we see so many examples of people who are taken advantage of in their moment of need? How do we "Walk Humbly" when our leaders are never able to show weakness for fear of losing political points?

You know, looking at all these questions, looks like these simple instructions are pretty difficult. Hey God, you sure you don’t want the burnt offerings? I mean, I could probably come up with some calves, some goats, we’ve got some cooking oil in the kitchen, you could have that! We could even get a discount if we ordered in bulk…

No? You’d rather have the justice and stuff? Alright.

Problem is, I think those things are beyond the reach of sinners like me. I know most of the time I’m going to choose to do what benefits me. Most of the time I’m going to love what’s entertaining. Most of the time I’m going to walk arrogantly in front of others. Most of the time I’m going to think of myself more highly than I ought to think.

And yet.

And yet God has shown us, fellow mortals, what is good.

We have seen what is good when God creates each new day, reminding us that God created all that exists with a word and then pronounced them good. We have seen what is good when God liberates the oppressed and brings them to the promised land. We have seen what is good when God sends us into an exile of our own making and then brings us home again so that we will know that the LORD is God. The mighty works of God have shown us time and again, that though we are unworthy, God is good.

God has shown us, fellow mortals, what is good. for god has show us himself, most clearly in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

The saving work of Jesus Christ shows us the ultimate good. We know that Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection have rewritten who we are, and the free gift of God’s grace has overwhelmed our selfishness and engraved God’s covenant upon our hearts. Our story is defined by God’s goodness that extends to the cross and out the other side at the empty tomb.

Micah asks us, “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high?” The give-and-go transactions fall short. We cannot repay what we have been given. But through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we have seen what is good. We can respond to the free gift of God’s grace and confidently approach the throne of the Holy One.

We shall come before the Lord and bow ourselves before God on high with the kind of justice that loves enemies and prays for those who persecute, praying even at the height of suffering, “Father forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing.” We’ll worship God with the kind of kindness that restores broken people to themselves and their community, that lifts up the fallen and tells them to go and sin no more. We’ll walk humbly with God even when God takes us places we would not choose to go, driven into the wilderness by God’s Spirit, taking the road to Jerusalem even though it means going to the cross.

We are already being transformed by the renewing of our minds. That transformation and renewal come only from the grace and power of the Holy Spirit who is present and active among us. The saving work of Christ defines our identity and is the center of our story. By grace through faith, we are liberated from sin and death, and are empowered by the Holy Spirit to face what challenges lie before us as we seek to worship God, grow in faith, and show God’s love to everyone. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, we are able to discern what is the will of God - what is good and acceptable and perfect.

For God has shown us what is good through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. That grace enables and empowers us to discern God’s will and to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God.

Just because we’ve seen it though, doesn’t make it easy. Justice, Kindness, and Walking Humbly with God are still very hard work. Part of what makes it difficult is that there’s not a formula for it! Justice in one situation make look different in another. An action that shows loving kindness to one person might be destructive to another. Walking humbly with God can take us to a variety of places. Our description of what is good, of what is required of us, is delightfully vague. It proclaims that God is free to act differently in particular situations. God’s grace always comes from the same source, but it often takes different, vaguely particular forms.

Part of walking humbly with God is not assuming we’re better than others just because God is acting differently in different communities. As we begin Bible School this week, we’ll explore the different ways God calls us to act, because in God we live, move, and have our being. We’ll have different stations at Bible School not as gimmicks to draw folks in, but because God speaks to people in different ways.

Part of our Presbyterian heritage is listening for God in a variety of places, because God can speak through any voice. “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgement, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.” God has assigned us each a measure of faith so that we can enact our Christian identity in different way as God calls us.

“For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function,” God not only embraces diversity, God demands it. God creates people who think, work, and act differently so that the body of Christ may be a more complete image of God.

“So we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.” We belong to one another, and more importantly, to God. As we respond to God, we may be called to do so in different ways, in different places.

“We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.” So long as we walk humbly with God, our particular calling will focus on the one who created us. so long as we love kindness, each member’s individual walk will be in the footsteps of our redeemer. So long as we do justice, our participation in builtding up the kingdom of God will be inspired by our sustainer.


I may only have a vague picture of the particulars, but God has shown us, fellow mortals, what is good. And I, for one, am excited about where God’s vision is taking us.

Sunday, June 7, 2015

Why Bother?


Why Bother from Joseph Taber on Vimeo.


Romans 5:12-17 (CEB)
12So, in the same way that sin entered the world through one person, and death came through sin, so death spread to all human beings with the result that all sinned. 13Although sin was in the world, since there was no Law, it wasn't taken into account until the Law came. 14But death ruled from Adam until Moses, even over those who didn't sin in the same way Adam did--Adam was a type of the one who was coming. 15But the free gift of Christ isn't like Adam's failure. If many people died through what one person did wrong, God's grace is multiplied even more for many people with the gift--of the one person Jesus Christ--that comes through grace. 16The gift isn't like the consequences of one person's sin. The judgment that came from one person's sin led to punishment, but the free gift that came out of many failures led to the verdict of acquittal. 17If death ruled because of one person's failure, those who receive the multiplied grace and the gift of righteousness will even more certainly rule in life through the one person Jesus Christ.

This is the Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God

Joshua 24:1-25 (NRSV)

1Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel; and they presented themselves before God. 2And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel; Long ago your ancestors - Terah and his sons Abraham and Nahor - lived beyond the Euphrates and served other gods. 3Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan and made his offspring many. I have him Isaac; 4and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I gave Esau the hill country of Seir to possess, but Jacob and his children went down to Egypt. 5Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt with what I did in its midst; and afterwards I brought you out. 6When i brought your ancestors out of Egypt, you came to the sea; and the Egyptians pursued your ancestors with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea. When they cried out to the LORD, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and made the sea come upon them an cover them; and your eyes saw what I did to Egypt. Afterwards you lived in the wilderness a long time. 8Then I brought you to the land of the Amorites, who lived on the other side of the Jordan; they fought with you, and I handed them over to you, and you took possession of their land, and I destroyed them before you. 9Then King Balak son of Zippor of Moab, set out to fight against Israel. He sent and invited Balaam son of Beor to curse you, 10but I would not listen to Balaam; therefore he blessed you; so I rescued you out of his hand. 11When you went over the Jordan and came to Jericho, the citizens of Jericho fought against you, and also the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hitties, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and I handed them over to you. 12I sent the hornet ahead of you, which drove out before you the two kings of the Amorites; it was not by your sword or by your bow. 13I gave you a land on which you had not labored, and towns that you had not built, and you live in them; you eat the fruit of vineyards and olive yards that you did not plant.

14Now therefore revere the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. 15Now if you are unwilling to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”

16Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the LORD to serve other gods; 17for it is the LORD our God who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight. He protected us along all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed; 18and the LORD drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the LORD, for his is our God.”

19But Joshua said the the people, “You cannot serve the LORD, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. 20If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm, and consume you, after having done you good.” 21And the people said to Joshua, “No, we will serve the LORD!” 22Then Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the LORD, to serve him.” And they said, “We are witnesses.” 23He said, “Then put away the foreign gods that are among you, and incline your hearts to the LORD, the God of Israel.” 24The people said to Joshua, “The LORD our God we will serve, and him we will obey.” 25So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made statues and ordinances for them at Shechem.

This is the Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God

I grew up with this our Old Testament passage, or rather, a portion of it. Both my parents and my Grandparents have a plaque prominently displayed in their respective houses that read “The Taber House, Choose this day whom you will serve...But as for me and my house, we shall serve the LORD.” My presence with you today is a testament to how my family has adopted this almost defiant challenge as a motto. So when I read those lines in this text, I immediately connected it to my rich family history, and all the things that have happened with my ancestors to bring me to the point in my life when my vocation is to actively pursue God.

This text begins with a reminder for the people of Israel, a reminder of all the things that have happened with their ancestors to bring them to this point. Joshua makes sure everybody is there to be reminded. One could imagine the scene, everybody gathers together, closes up their shops, ties up their animals, puts down whatever they’re doing, and goes to listen to Joshua deliver the word of God. Then Joshua calls up all the community leaders, for us it would be the teachers, the lawyers, the doctors, the preachers… They get to sit in the hot seat, or as our passage puts it, “They presented themselves before God.” All of Israel are about hear the word of the LORD, and the elders get to sit right under God’s nose while it is spoken.

They get a History Lesson from author of all creation. “Long ago, your ancestors...lived beyond the Euphrates and served other gods.” But God intervened, and brought Abraham out of Ur and into Canaan. Abraham was childless, but God intervened. “I gave him Isaac, and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau.” Jacob, the same man who would wrestle with God, father the beginnings of the twelve tribes of Israel, and in chapter 35 of Genesis tells his household to put away their foreign gods in Shechem, the same city where all of Israel is now gathered. The same man who would lead his family to Egypt, where they survived a great famine, and eventually became slaves.

But God intervened, and brought the people out of their slavery in Egypt into the wilderness, where God transformed a slave population into a nation. And many battles later, God reminds the people standing in the land given to their ancestor Abraham hundreds of Godly interventions before that “I gave you a land on which you had not labored, and towns that you had not built, and you live in them; you eat the fruit of vineyards and olive yards that you did not plant.”

God has given the people these things, they did not earn them. It is not a matter of deserving, it is a matter of God giving freely as God so chooses. In the face of the free gift of God, Joshua responds “Now therefore revere the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.”

Interestingly though, this is an option, not a command. Joshua says “Now if you are unwilling to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living;” There’s no downside offered here, only an account of what God has done. If God has not intervened in our lives and in our history enough for you, go ahead and worship the gods of other nations, and remember that this was their land first, and that the LORD gave it to us. Do what you want, “but as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”

The people speak in one voice: “Far be it from us to forsake the LORD and serve other gods!...We too will serve the LORD, for he is our God.” There is no mention of what God will do in the future for the Israelites. As far as this passage is concerned, the promise has been fulfilled. God has intervened in their history and freed them from slavery, and the people are now committed to serving the LORD despite Joshua’s warnings that they will fall and be punished because there’s no way we can live up to the gifts God has given us.

So why bother? Joshua gives them the out, they won’t be expelled if they choose not to serve the LORD. They aren’t promised eternal life for serving God, or even extra “stars in their crown.” So far as I can see, this passage offers no advantage in choosing to serve God, the only threat I see is when one claims to serve God and falls to idolatry. Joshua’s call to “…therefore revere the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness;” is an invitation to enter into relationship with God, an ordination of service in gratitude to God who has already done so much for the people of Israel.

I remember when I was in high school, I was sitting on the front lawn of the school waiting for my parents to come pick me up at the end of the day, and one of my classmates, a very intelligent young woman taking upper-level classes, asked me why I was a Christian. She saw me as an equal, but what I believed did not make sense to her, and she wanted to know how I got there. I told her that’s the only way my world made sense. My story is built on the foundation of my rich family history, and all the things that have happened with my ancestors.

Christianity doesn’t erase life’s hardships, in fact, we’re told to take up our cross and rejoice in suffering. There’s no magic prayer that will solve all our problems, in fact the psalms of lament give us language to address the brokenness of the world. Calvinists like me affirm  that our salvation is not at stake based on anything we do or believe, and Christianity is a faith of doing and believing what is difficult. So why bother?

This passage provides the answer for me. The people speak with one voice saying “for it is the LORD our God who brought us and our ancestors up... out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight.” We are Christians not because it gives us a special connection with God. We are Christians because serving our Christ is how we show our gratitude for all God has already done for us.

Our slavery was to sin and death, and had been since the fall of Adam and Eve. But as Paul’s letter to the Romans tells us “The free gift of Christ isn’t like Adam’s failure. If many people died through what one person did wrong, God’s grace is multiplied even more for many people with the gift - of the one person Jesus Christ - that comes through grace.” We were slaves to sin, but now we have been brought out of the house of that bondage, and Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is our liberator. And we remember that our salvation is not earned, it is a free gift. And it is given to us by a God of love, through the one person Jesus Christ.

That is why we choose to serve Christ. We were buried together with him through baptism into his death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too can walk in newness of life. We are freed from sin’s power because we belong to God, and in gratitude to God for all God has done for us, ““The LORD our God we will serve, and him we will obey.”

The people of Israel are gathered at Shechem, and are waiting to hear the word of the LORD. We do not know what is ahead, but we know what God has already done for us, God brought our ancestors to the promised land, turned an old man into the father of a tribe, protected our tribe from a famine, brought our people out of Egypt and made us a nation. God gave the nation of Israel a home, and they chose to serve the LORD.


It is a scene of devotion. The people of Israel don’t know what is coming, but we do know what happened next. Although they are free from their Egyptian slavery, they are still under the power of sin and death. So God intervenes, and Christ breaks the power of sin and death for all of us. We’ve seen more than these Israelites could have dreamed of, and the question is still put to us, Whom will we serve? As a response in faith to all God has done for us, me and my house will serve the Lord.