Far Be It...

Far Be It…

 

Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18

Serve the Lord

24:1 Then 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.

24:2a And 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.

24:14 "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.

24:15 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, but as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."

24:16 Then the people answered, "Far be it from us that we should forsake the LORD to serve other gods,

24:17 for 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,

24:18 and the LORD drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the LORD, for he is our God."

 

What’s basically happening here—and NUMEROUS TIMES in the Hebrew Bible—is that Israel had too much idle time, so they made idols! It got them in trouble with Yahweh, who told them to not construct “graven images,” nor to “have other gods before me.” We’ve all read the part about God being a “jealous” God, so I guess the question we must ask ourselves as “enlightened,” 21^st century thinkers is: Do WE believe in a “jealous” deity who gets upset when she/he gets upstaged? The ancient prophets sure did. 

 

Personally, I have come to believe, based on my years of Bible study, theology, faith history, and cogitation (Scripture, Tradition, Experience, and Reason, we good Wesleyans might say?) that in the divine mind, what constitutes the “essentials” are love of God and love of neighbor, and building and sustaining a beloved community. God “hates” things that render these “essentials” either impossible or disingenuous. 

 

Sin, for example, is fingered and labeled as something that comes between people and God and/or people and people. Sin is poison to both the individual and the community at large. Therefore, God “hates” it and wants it conquered. And it’s not actually the “idea” of sin that is bad, but the actual committing of it, which is where the damage is done. Using this definition, a number of things that were “sin” to ancient Israel—or even the more recent New Testament era church—are not “sin” to us today. People and the collective community in our time are no longer “threatened” by the idea of same sex relationships, as we have a different understanding of human sexuality. (At least most of us do, including the worlds of science, psychology, and medicine.) I challenge the reader to examine what is labeled as “sin” in the Bible, including the historical context wherein it was identified, and separate this from its danger to either the individual or the community. 

 

In fact, if you take a serious look at the decalogue—the Ten Commandments for you non-seminary folk—each of them relates to a prohibition based on either its harm to the person, the family, or the community, hence God “hates” it. It’s not that God is somehow “angered” or “harmed” by it, as much as God “says,” DON’T DO IT, as a forceful, “threatening” way to stop people from doing things that keep God’s goal of redeemed, loving people, and the birth and nurturing of a beloved, harmonious community on earth from becoming a reality. Ancient peoples NEEDED to believe that these things were ruled out because GOD SAID SO, in the same manner that younger children need to be told “no” to harmful things with “because I’m the parent,” being the only justification. But humanity grew up, and a quantum leap happened when Jesus Christ “tented among us” and brought the “kingdom” of God onto the earth. Now, our personal redemption is there for the free taking, like ripe fruit at arm’s length on a small tree, and most everyone with more than three synapses firing sees the need to build a beloved community where all persons are treated with love, forgiveness, respect, and a sustainable life. So, rather than argue and split churches over some throwback understanding of what “sin” is, we now have the redeeming power of Jesus Christ working to reconcile the whole world to God, AND the teachings and admonitions of Jesus to fix our broken relationships and build that Beloved Community! Might THIS idea capture the idea behind Joshua’s “as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord”? Is not God “served” when we pursue God’s “essentials,” seeking to make them a reality in our time and our world? As the text says, FAR BE IT from us that we should forsake the Lord! Far be it, indeed!

 

There’s another “far be it” going on in this text, though, and it has to do with Israel and their penchant for making and bowing to idols. Joshua, as well as other prophets, not only burned with the anger of God over this WAY too frequent practice, but in Joshua’s case, he seems incredulous that they could do this, given God’s righteous actions and protection on Israel’s behalf. For Joshua, idol worship was “biting the hand that feeds you.” Why would Israel do it? For that matter, why do WE do it? Now, I know, you probably don’t have a golden calf, or a nicely crafted Marduk on your mantle, but is there one in your garage? Do you own stocks or a 401K that you spend hours each week monitoring, using up time that could be devoted to spouse, family, or community of faith? Or how about a career that takes precedent over all else in your life? Obviously, you see where I’m going. Having one’s priorities “out of whack” may indeed lead to a type of “idol worship,” can’t it? I guess we should ask ourselves Joshua’s question: Why do we so easily devote significant parts of our life to some form of “idol worship”?

 

The good thing about idols is that they are our own custom-designed gods. One of the timeless critiques of the Christian faith was leveled at it by a German philosopher, Ludwig Feuerbach, who said that what he so often saw in the “god” worshiped by many Christians was basically themselves, “writ large.” Idols make no such claim to even masked projection. The “idols” of our lives are things we spend time worshiping over which we have full control. Israel made gods out of their precious metals and baubles, and decorated their abodes with them, and had beautiful, valuable deities they could fully manipulate. Having these “gods” could assuage one’s guilt, provide the illusion of protection for the home, and entertain guests. Our own objects—be they physical or metaphysical—do exactly the same thing, and, like the false gods of Israel, they don’t ask anything of us, especially things that might involve generosity or sacrifice on our part. 

 

Unfortunately, it is even possible to make an idol out of Yahweh. We do that by believing we can have Yahweh do our bidding, and we can mete out our “worship” as we see fit, and when we see fit. The convenience and “empowerment” of home-brewed gods is hard to resist, as Israel found out. And even the modern Christian church has sometimes resorted to making and serving other gods: doctrines and rules that “protect” our way of thinking, even though they negate the central teachings of Jesus; buildings that receive more devotion and resources from us because of our “locational” memories attached to them; pastors who develop their own “cult” following, and who resort to preaching “comfortable” messages instead of challenging our people to love and justice; political “bedfellows” supported and advocated for based on our personalized interpretations of scripture; and skimping on our financial support of our congregation’s ministry because of something we don’t “like” about an action or position by our denomination. There are others, I’m sure, but these are bad enough.

 

Joshua DOES challenge both the ancient and modern hearer to be “Far Be It” people—ones who will flee such “idol” temptations and seek to live fully into the love and justice callings of God, the prophets, and especially Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior! “Far Be It” people may stumble over our own prejudices, desires, and “comfort zones,” but we keep heading God’s way on our journey, and eventually wind up FAR from those idols that seduce us. Unfortunately, we tend to be week, and those darned idols are HIGHLY seductive! Joshua doesn’t quit there, though, he gives his OWN course as an encouragement:

 

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.

 

Will we choose to be “Far Be It” people? There is another, wonderful “luring” force at work, trying to lead us God’s way: The Holy Spirit. We are not alone in our work to be formed as God-choosing, “Far Be It” people! AND, as Joshua says, we have our “household” encouraging us and walking the journey with us. For Joshua, this may have been his immediate family, OUR his “family” of faith, at the time. For us, both may be involved, as well, but for sure, I would hope that our community of faith would be on the parallel journey with us, encouraging each other, mutually, and heading toward the same goal—being God’s called, set-apart, “Far BE it,” people witnessing to God’s incredible redeeming, reconciling actions in Jesus Christ! Amen!