Joshua 24:1-15 on October 18th, 2026
Above is audio of the sermon pulled from the video and amplified.
Below is transcript pulled from the video and formatted by artificial intelligence. There may be inconsistencies or errors.
Tags:
Today we do hear one of the most famous verses in all of the Old Testament. Choose this day whom you will serve. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Some of us may even have a cross-ditch pillow or a sentimental picture of that verse hanging in our house. But reading the verse alone leaves out the context in which Joshua stakes his claim.
A reading for today comes in the final chapter of the book of Joshua. After all the Israelites wandering in the wilderness is done, Joshua recounts the history of the covenant relationship. God spoke to our ancestors and made the covenant with them. It was a covenant of land and descendants and blessing for Abraham and blessing for the world. God sent Moses and Aaron and thus saved Israel from slavery in rather dramatic fashion. Now having entered the promised land as God pledged, Joshua is recounting all of this history because he wants the Israelites to remember and rededicate themselves to God.
In summary, Joshua essentially says, y'all do what you want. But for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord. And Joshua's famous line is the culmination of a sermon meant to bring the Israelites back in line. Despite God bringing them to this point, they are still tempted by other gods. So it's a choice, a clear cut decision for the Israelites. Joshua puts it plainly. Serve the Lord or serve other gods. You can't have it both ways.
Joshua knows his answer. He and his house will serve the Lord. But what about us? The way that question or the lesson ends, it leaves the question of who to serve hanging in the air. It's almost as if that question is meant for us to answer too. Here and now, on this very day, serve God or serve another.
Now we, Lutherans, are fairly notorious for our anti-decision theology. Most of my sermons, the good ones at least, kind of say that each and every week. We don't choose God. We don't accept Jesus into our hearts and we don't find the Lord. That God chooses us. Jesus comes to us and changes our hearts. The Lord finds us in whatever mess it is we've gotten ourselves into. And for us of Lutheran slant, deciding or allowing or welcoming Jesus is the utmost in works righteousness. And here we stand, firm that we are saved by grace apart from works of the law.
Grace is why we baptize babies. What creature has a fewer decision-making abilities than a baby? Baptizing an infant shows the power and depth of God's grace instead of leaving things up to our choice, our decision, our work. God chooses us even when we can't do a darn thing about it. That is grace. And grace is what the Lutheran faith is founded on. We are given a gift that we haven't earned and nothing we do can win us that gift. It is salvation that we surely don't deserve.
But maybe I'm getting ahead of myself by declaring Joshua unLuthrin. Because Joshua also talks a whole lot about what God has done. In fact, by my count, God is the subject of 21 active verbs. God took, God led, God gave, God rescued, God as the subject of active verbs. Now, that is very Lutheran. And it is only then, only after recounting all that God has done is doing and promises yet to do that Joshua poses the question of serving. God's faithfulness comes before Israel's commitment.
The question Joshua asks looked at it in this way is less about a decision and more about a response. Now that God has done all that, what are you going to do about it? And while Lutherans may be highly averse to saying that our decisions get us into heaven, we surely are not ashamed to say that we make decisions about how to live, about how to respond to God, about how to treat our neighbors.
We make decisions today and every day about who we serve. Because those other gods that Joshua is warning about, they're still around even if they go by different names. We may not bow down to carved idols, but we certainly put our trust in promises of other things. Money promises security, power promises control, looking out for ourselves promises that will never be forgotten about. And those promises can be pretty tempting, which means that Joshua's question is still our question.
We decide how we respond to God's good gifts with gratitude or self-interest. We decide how to live in God's covenant with love for our neighbors or concern only for ourselves. We decide how we shape this world with generosity and compassion or with greed and fear.
As for the Israelites, they do answer Joshua's question. And though it's not in our text for today, the Israelites respond in verse 18 by saying, we also will serve the Lord for He is our God. But as we probably know, their commitment won't last. The Israelites will fall away once again, get distracted, make pretty poor choices.
I'm the same with us too. As excited as we may be to serve the Lord, as committed as we may be today, as ready as we may be in the here and now, tomorrow can bring a different story. And that's the thing about sin. We know what God asks of us, and yet we still put our trust in other things, which use what is comfortable over what is faithful. We look out for ourselves when we're called to love our neighbors. We cling to the things that promise security even when those promises come up empty. Sometimes our decisions fail us. Sometimes we fail to serve the very God who has given us everything.
But God won't fail us. In Christ we see just how committed God is to us. God just won't part seize and leave us be. This God will come to us as one of us. We'll go to the grave and come out the other side for us. We'll keep feeding us with His very presence in bread and wine given for us. And though we fail, God's commitment to us won't. Though we fall short, God comes through. Though we mess up stumble, often serve another. God is lovingly, graciously, holy committed to us.
And as we've heard in our confession and absolution for the past several weeks, the God who parted the waters, who healed the outsider, who called even flawed people to repentance and service also forgives you. And matter your choices, decisions or actions, that forgiveness is God choosing you.
So on this day, when we hear, choose whom you will serve, it is my hope and prayer that we can respond to what God has done with the same faith as the Israelites. We can recommit ourselves to God and God's mission in this community and be with you. And when we falter, we look to the God who forgives us, who loves us and who sets us back on the right track. And then we try again.
And while we won't always make the best decisions, and sometimes our commitment will waver, we know that God's commitment to us never will. And that love, that love is what makes it possible for us to say, as for me in my house, we will serve the Lord. Amen.