Sermonette: August 23, 2021

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father. Amen

Joshua 24:1-2, 14-18

Joshua speaks of choices in this little bit of scripture. When we think about it, the whole Bible is about choices we make. Some of them are good choices; others, not so much. God chose to give us mortals the ability to think, to reason, and to make choices. From the very beginning this ability has been our downfall. The deceiver, my name for satan, talked to Eve in the garden. Through deception, he talked Eve into making the wrong choice. She could have stuck to her guns and refused him, but she gave in and chose to follow satan's words instead of God's. Adam made a bad choice here also. He could have refused to eat of the fruit and told Eve she had done wrong, and they should wait until God came for their evening stroll through the garden. Then they could confess what they did and ask for forgiveness. But, no, Adam made the choice to join Eve in eating the forbidden fruit. He compounded this bad choice by making more bad choices. They hid from God and when He came to walk with them, Adam chose to blame others for his bad choices. We learn early on that not only for Adam, but for ourselves also, one bad choice almost always leads to making more of them. Noah chose to follow God's instructions about building an ark. Abram packed up his household and chose to go to a land he knew nothing about, only that God said “I will show you.” When Joseph's brothers wanted to kill him, Rueben chose to not have him killed, but put into a pit. Judah then chose to not leave him there to die, but to sell him to Midianite traders on their way to Egypt. Moses chose to follow God's instructions to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt. Joshua chose to accept the leadership of the Israelites that was handed to him by Moses right before Moses' death. After Joshua leads them into the promised land and the Caananites have been conquered, the land is divided among the tribes. As they are about to settle in their respective lands, this is when Joshua tells them about the choice they have before them and tells them of his choice. This is the basis for this message.

Of course, the choices did not stop in the Old Testament. Heeding an angel's message, Joseph chose to keep his union with Mary and raise Jesus in his home. When Jesus chose his disciples, they chose to follow him as He requested. Judas chose to betray our Lord for money, the other disciples chose to abandon Jesus at His arrest and subsequent trial. I could go on and on here, but you get the picture. What becomes evident is that everybody, men, women, and children alike, all have choices to make, and we make them constantly whether we realize it or not. Quite often, the choices we make don't just stop with the one choice. They can affect future choices. We stub our toes, trip on a ball, step on a Lego block in our bare feet, whatever the instance and without realizing it, we make a choice to say certain words in our frustration. Sometimes those words are not very nice ones. That choice affects others and maybe later that day or the day after, we hear our three-year-old repeat that word. With our choice of words, we just taught our little one how to use profanity. We need to be ever so careful with our choices. Children emulate their parents' behavior as well as repeat the words they hear mom and dad say. Wouldn't it be great if they learned to pray, to read the bible, and come to church because we choose to do those things ourselves?

We do not make our choices in a vacuum. The car we buy, the house we live in, what we do on vacation is often influenced by our health or financial situations. The prevalence of the COVID virus influenced a great many decisions. In some cases, such as sporting events or concerts, the option of choosing to attend was taken away from us. When Moses lead the Israelites out of Egypt, many of their choices were taken away from them. Usually, they chose to complain about almost everything, even though God saw to their every need. Dear friends, we have a choice to make also. We can choose to show others our faith by how we conduct ourselves. We can teach our children the importance of faith in our lives. We can choose to show them that attending church is not just a school-year thing, but an all-year thing. We can show them that church is not just a Sunday School thing, and that once they get through confirmation, that church attendance isn't important any longer. We can choose to teach them that the church is a family function for all ages, not just the youth and the elderly. We can follow the choice made by Joshua in our scripture reading this week. Joshua tells the Israelites that they have a choice to make. They can choose to follow the pagan gods their ancestors worshiped if they want, but Joshua told them, “as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” It is my sincere hope and prayer that you make the same choice. Choose, for you and your entire household, to follow the Lord. Blessings to you all. Yours in Christ.