I find this a really fascinating story. Joshua basically tells the people of Israel, “My family and I are going to serve God. How about you?” The people say, “Yeah, that’s for us. We’re going to serve God, too.” Joshua responds, “No, you’re not. You may think you will, but you won’t. You’ll fall away from God.” The people say, “No, really, we’re going to serve God. Yeah, we’ve fallen away in the past, but we really mean it this time.” So Joshua says, “Okay, but you better be ready to live that way, because if you don’t, there are going to be serious consequences.”
Those of you who know the Old Testament, of course, know that the people did not live that way. They fell away from God. Sure enough, there were serious consequences.
You know that thing in the Ten Commandments about not taking the name of the Lord in vain? We think that talks about using cuss words, but it really does not. This is what it really means. It means that when we swear to God that we’re going to do something, we’d better follow through on it. God takes that kind of vow seriously, and when we don’t live up to it, there are going to be serious consequences.
That’s kind of scary, when you think about it. Most likely, we’ve all taken vows before God. If you went through confirmation class, or if you went through a believers’ baptism, you took vows before God. If you got married in a church, you took vows before God. If you had kids who were baptized, you took vows before God. As a pastor, of course, I’ve taken some more vows before God. Some of you have also probably taken some more vows before God, too, either publicly or privately. It’s not something we should ever take lightly.
The thing is, or course, that when we take a vow before God, it’s not enough for us just to mean it at the time. We don’t know, but I think, in our story from Joshua, that the people of Israel meant it at the time. I don’t think they were intentionally lying when they said they were going to serve God. It’s just that, as time went on, they forgot. They started making excuses for themselves. They told themselves it would be okay for them to slack off a little. Of course, once we start making excuses for ourselves, it’s a slippery slope. We excuse ourselves once, and then we do it again, and then we do it again, and then we stop even bothering to make excuses. We just do what we want to do.
We have to start by meaning it at the time, but that, in and of itself, is not going to carry us through. When we take a vow before God, we need to re-take that vow every day. We need to affirm our decision to serve God every day. Sometimes, if we’re really in a tough spot, we might have to affirm it several times a day. We have to keep deciding, over and over, that we’re going to serve God, no matter what the circumstances are.
That’s where the people of Israel failed. That’s where we often fail, too. Making that initial decision is an important first step, but it’s only the first step. What’s really important is what we do in the second step, and the third step, and all those steps in-between.
Now, understand that when we talk about living up to our vows before God, that God is not expecting perfection from us. God knows how flawed and imperfect we are. God knows it better than we do, because God created us. God is not expecting us to never make mistakes. What God does expect is that each of us does the best we can. What God also expects is that, when we do make mistakes, we acknowledge those mistakes, ask forgiveness for them, and do whatever we can to undo the damage caused by those mistakes. Finally, God expects us to reaffirm our commitment to serve God, and go back out and start doing the best we can again.
You know, when you read the Old Testament, you see a cycle that repeats itself over and over again. The people of Israel vow to serve God. They fall away. Bad things happen to them. They pray to God to rescue them. God rescues them. They ask God to forgive them. They vow to serve God. They fall away. This happens in the Old Testament over and over again.
When you think about it, that’s often the cycle of our lives. We vow to serve God. We fall away. Bad things happen to us. We pray to God to rescue us. God rescues us. We ask God to forgive us. We vow to serve God. We fall away. It happens in our lives over and over again.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that every time something bad happens, it’s because we’ve fallen away from God. I don’t believe that. Bad things happen to us for a lot of reasons, some of which we don’t understand at all. It is true, though, that our actions have consequences, and that we have to deal with those consequences.
I don’t know where you are on the cycle today. If you’ve fallen away from God, though, take this time of Holy Communion today to come back to God. Ask God to forgive you, and vow to serve God again. God is waiting for each of us to do exactly that.
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