22nd Sunday After Pentecost, November 9, 2014

Joshua 24:1-3A, 14-25

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. 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. Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan and made his offspring many.
        “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. Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, [if not the LORD, then whom? Don’t be mindless; don’t live by default] 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.”
        Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; 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; 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.”
        But Joshua said to 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. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm, and consume you, after having done you good.” And the people said to Joshua, “No, we will serve the Lord!”
        Then 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.” He said, “Then put away the foreign gods that are among you, and incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.” The people said to Joshua, “The Lord our God we will serve, and him we will obey.” So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made statutes and ordinances for them at Shechem.

Reflections: The people of Israel have come to an intersection; Joshua makes clear that they must make a choice. It’s no good to drift into the future by default, our call is to move forwards along the path God calls us, to make a clear-eyed choice. The risk is that choices—even good ones—bring unanticipated difficulties; they always carry the possibility of pushing us beyond the limits of our current capabilities.

         Riding a wave of enthusiasm, the people choose to follow the Lord. It is, of couse, the right choice, but Joshua knows that hard times will come, that the peoples’ focus, interest, and determination will fade. Like a parent admonishing a teenager, Joshua warns them of their immaturity in the face of difficulties ahead.
        Naturally, Joshua wants them to follow the lord, just as we want our kids to make right choices. But we also don’t want to mislead them into thinking that life is easy. Joshua warns the people to steel them for the inner journey that lies ahead.
        Walking with fire—the living God—inevitably involves getting at least a little singed. We set out on our journey all wide-eyed. We reach the destination with gratitude (and often wonder). But sometimes in the midst it all, we struggle through doubt, anxiety, disappointment, grief: the many-faceted trauma of being born all over again.
        If we had known what we would face, we probably would have stayed under the covers and let life pass us by. What we would have missed!

Psalm 78:1-7

Hear my teaching, O my people; * incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
I will open my mouth in a parable; * I will declare the mysteries of ancient times.
That which we have heard and known, and what our forefathers have told us, * we will not hide from their children.
We will recount to generations to come the praiseworthy deeds and the power of the LORD, * and the wonderful works he has done.
He gave his decrees to Jacob and established a law for Israel, *which he commanded them to teach their children;
That the generations to come might know, and the children yet unborn; * that they in their turn might tell it to their children;
So that they might put their trust in God, * and not forget the deeds of God, but keep his commandments.

Epistle: 1 Thessalonians 4: 13-18

 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Reflections: I Thessalonians is St. Paul’s earliest surviving letter, and it gives us insight into the first Christians’ expectations of Christ’s immediate return. And what vivid images it gives. Paul’s small church had grown anxious because some of the older members were beginning to die, and Jesus hadn’t yet returned. Would those people be left out when he did come?

          Graphically as Paul pictures the End Times, it is a mysterious business, truly beyond our ability to characterize. As Jesus says in Luke 17, “They will say to you, ‘Look there!’ or ‘Look here!’ [but] do not go, do not set off in pursuit. For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day.” And as we read in I John just last week, “we do not know yet what we will be.” Or as Paul has put it elsewhere, “our life is hid with Christ in God.”
        However imagery of the Apocalypse might strike us today, one thing we can be sure: none who belong to Christ are lost. Paul says in Romans, his most mature work, “Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.”

Gospel: Matthew 25:1-13

Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids [virgins] took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom [and the bride]. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those bridesmaids [virgins] got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise replied, ‘No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut. Later the other bridesmaids [virgins] came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you.’ Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour [that the Son of Man is coming].

Reflections: I don’t know about you, but this reading troubles me. I cut my teeth on the image of a compassionate God, of a Christ who eats and travels with sinners, of the one who seeks the lost sheep, welcomes the prodigal son, proclaims that whatever kindness we have done to the “least” we have done to him. Yet in this parable, it’s the people who don’t share that win, and they don’t seem distressed that their companions get locked out. But the real clincher is that the bridegroom rejections them—and we know that the bridegroom represents Christ. What gives?

          The first thing I need to do is put this passage in context. We are at the close of the liturgical year, heading right into its culmination, the feast of Christ the King. The readings leading us up to that point are apocalyptic texts; they are about the End Times.
          So much as we may need a word of kindness, in this season, what we’re in for is rigor. There is, to be honest, something uncanny about reality. Life isn’t inherently gentle; sometimes it’s downright brutal. Neither can the nature of God be summed up in a glowing star, a good shepherd, a still, small voice. At one and the same time God brings Job to such an awareness of his finitude that he is brought to a trembling silence.
          Apocalyptic texts pepper the bible, and the church deliberately included them in the canon. Taken alone, such selections can warp our notion of God as judgmental and unforgiving, and breed churches that are the same. On the other hand, without rigor, we easily drift into platitudes and spineless sentimentality.
          Apocalyptic passages, then, are perhaps best understood in the context of the whole bible, in witness to a God Justice and Mercy are two aspects of a Love we cannot now fathom. As Dame Julian of Norwich, who lived in the terrible time of the Black Death, wrote in her account of her Revelations of Divine Love, “All will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of things will be well.”