Sermon for Pentecost 24, Proper 26
 October 30, 2005
Christ Church+Washington Parish

Judith A. Davis, Rector ©

Joshua 3:7-17; Psalm 107: 1-7; 33-37 (RCL)             

+In the name of the triune God.  Amen.

If I were preaching on the Gospel for today, we could talk about what not to use as clergy titles (Father, Rabbi, etc), but I’m not going there. Since we started using the Revised Common Lectionary instead of the Episcopal Lectionary last Advent, we have heard some of the great stories of the Hebrew Bible, which we had not read on Sundays through the Episcopal Lectionary.  Today’s lesson from Joshua is one of those stories.   We don’t often read from Joshua.  Let me give you a brief outline to place this book of the Hebrew Bible in context.  

Joshua was probably written in the time of the Davidic monarchy during the Early Iron Age and gives us a picture of the nature of early Israel, or, as you’ll see, the time of the Davidic monarchy.  In reading this book, we have to be careful not to project modern notions of nationalism onto the ancient world.  It would be best to say that ancient Israel represented not a nation, per se, but a shifting confederation of tribes. These tribes were political networks of families united by external threats and claiming a common ancestor.  However this book was written long after the historical time of Joshua and reflects more the Davidic monarchy.  To inquire about the historical contexts of the book of Joshua means to look at the house of David and not early Israel.  In this regard, Joshua resembles the Pentateuch, which precedes it in the canon of Scripture. To understand the book of Joshua is to realize it is part of a much larger work that we call the “Deuteronomistic History,” a conglomerate of monarchic historical sources, tracing back to the court of David, that have been edited according to a single overarching conception--the House of David’s claim to the sovereignty of Israel.  The Deuteronomistic History was composed out of these sources mainly during the reign of Hezekiah and Josiah to support their programs of centralization. Joshua cannot be understood apart from this Deuteronomistic History. 

So, briefly, Joshua is divided into two parts. Israel’s land east of the Jordan has already been conquered under Moses.  The story of Joshua concerns mainly the west side of the Jordan, and the first part of the book of Joshua is about Joshua’s people conquering the west side of the Jordan. Then the second half of the book is concerned with Joshua’s distributing the land to the twelve tribes of Israel.  

Today’s story is about crossing the Jordan and in it we remember the Exodus. Joshua, you remember, is commissioned by Moses to lead God’s people into the Promised Land.  The book of Joshua opens this way: “After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD spoke to Joshua, son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, saying, “My servant Moses is dead. Now proceed to cross the Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the Israelites” (Joshua 1:1-2). 

Then today’s passage began this way, “The Lord said to Joshua, ‘This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, so that they may know that I will be with you as I was with Moses’” (Joshua 3:7).   The story of Joshua fighting the battle of Jericho may not ever get much press outside of Sunday School classes, but the story of Israel’s march through the Jordan is mentioned and alluded to often in the Bible. The significance of the Ark of the Covenant’s crossing the Jordan is clear: The living God, whose law of dispossession and centralization rests in the Ark and who gives orders through Joshua, will drive out the seven Canaanite nations before the Israelite host.   

So why do we have this story today and why does it matter to us?  Israel crosses the Jordan to reach the land granted to Israel by Yahweh at the very beginning of its history, beginning with Israel’s grandfather Abraham.  In the world of the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament, land was the fundamental good and the way that the Israelites knew that God was with them was in their getting to keep their land. 

Indeed the crossing of the sea and the river to the land serves as a great symbol in the traditions of Israel and the House of David.  It is repeated, recalled and recast as the nucleus of what it means to become the redeemed people of God.  

In this story, God promises to be with God’s people under Joshua and God’s people cross the river on dry land, like Moses’ people did. The Ark of the Covenant was that item that appeared to cause the waters to heap up. Then after this passage, the people crossed the Jordan and the priests stayed in the river holding up the Ark of the Covenant until everyone had crossed. After this they took twelve stones from the bed of the Jordan and made an altar, a cairn so that their children would know the story and would know that God is mighty and that they might know this God who delivered the people.  They enacted ritual to remember what God had done, just like we have ritual to remind us of what God has done for God’s people.  

The crossing of the Jordan River marks an important point in the salvation history of Israel as it begins to fulfill God’s promise to Abraham of a land for his descendants. The miraculous way that God brings God’s people through the swollen waters of the Jordan recalls the miraculous way that God brought God’s people through the Red Sea in the Exodus story.  The crossing is a solemn liturgical procession.  Joshua serves as a model of a true and faithful leader who instructs people in accord with God’s word.  And God, the mighty God of creation, the mighty God of liberation, the mighty God of presence, is the one who enabled them to cross over to safety.   

This same God enables us to cross the obstacles we encounter in our journey of faith and enables us to enter that promised land God has prepared for us.  The story calls us to reflect on how we can bear witness to the living God who died and lives anew, even today.  

Our task is to go out from this place and be a witness, too.  Each of us has at least one story like the crossing of the Jordan, and each of us has those rivers to cross, in small decisions, in overwhelming decisions, but crossing as a faithful people is the same and God has promised to be with us in all those crossings.  I think of Bob and Inez in the River they’re crossing in Houston, how they have waited patiently through all their ordeals so far as they prepare for Bob’s bone marrow transplant, how they have come through each trial—infection, waiting, eyesight problems, etc.—with faith and patience and how God has equipped them to cross that River.  One of the ways God has helped them is through their community of faith—through our praying for them and holding them up and sending cards and calls.  That’s how they can know the love of God through God’s people.  If Inez were here, she could help me remember those old Gospel songs of crossing that river. “One more river to cross” etc.  

Others of us have rivers to cross in standing up for what we believe in our work, in our homes, in dealing with relationships, in our finances or health. We remember especially this week the example of Rosa Parks and what she stood up for in all the River crossings she endured. We must remember that the God of Abraham and Moses and Joshua is with us even through the power of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.  What can each of us do this week to share that story of God’s faithfulness in our life? Let us go out from this place and remember to give God thanks for helping us cross those Rivers of life and let us be willing to join hands and help others cross as well. 

Amen.