If I could leave one book out of Scripture…it would probably be Joshua. Why? Because the book of Joshua is filled with violence and bloodshed …and throughout history has been used to justify more violence and bloodshed and atrocity than any other book in the Bible. Joshua is the story of the people of Israel’s conquest of the Promised Land…and the stories it tells have been favorites for Crusaders and slave traders. They have justified the murderous acts of lynch mobs. They justified the slaughter of the Native people in our own country…as our ancestors claimed they were entering their own “Promised Land” . And just last month, they were used to justify the destruction of Khan al-amar, a Palestinian village that stood in the way of a proposed Jewish settlement expansion in the West Bank.
With the assurance that “God is on our side”, the stories of Joshua, with all their brutality…have been used by those with power to claim God’s divine blessing for themselves while they kill and destroy those who stand in their way. And in the words of my daughter…”doesn’t anyone care that God is going around killing people?” God…the mass murderer. God…the avenger….the destroyer. This is everything that is wrong with our world, isn’t it? Atrocities justified in the name of God. Holy Wars. Genocide and acts of terror dressed up as faithfulness to God.
So what do we do with Joshua? How do we read these stories and make sense of them? For the Jewish community, marginalized and persecuted throughout history…these stories were told to remind them to trust God when odds seemed insurmountable. These stories were used to encourage people who lived on the bottom side of history…that God was the ultimate power in the world. More powerful than any army. More powerful than the corrupt leaders and nations that oppressed them. These stories were told after they had lost the promised land — to Assyria, to Babylon, to empire after empire — to remind them to be faithful to God and God’s law in the face of all odds. It is only recently, in the last half-century, with the ascension of Israel as a nation, that these stories have been read from the top by the Jewish community…and used as justification for Israel’s unjust oppression of Palestinians.
But Christians…we have co-opted them for almost 2000 years to justify the actions of our power-hungry nations and armies as we rolled over the landscape. Once we became the dominant religion of our empires, we have claimed our manifest destiny in the name of Joshua, and claimed God’s hand at work in our quest to dominate tribes and nations and continents.
Which is ironic…because we should know better. We, who claim to follow Joshua’s namesake — Jeshua — Jesus. As Christians, we are committed to Jesus — to following his way…his truth …his life. And the way of Jesus never justifies hate and violence and destruction in God’s name. The way of Jesus…is the way of Joshua…is the way of God. God, who chooses to free slaves and be faithful to wanderers…God who chooses the ones at the bottom of history …the despised and rejected…to raise up to be a blessing for the world. God who ”has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the lowly.” God who “has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.” That is God’s story. It is the story of Joshua and the people of Israel. It is the story of Jeshua…of Jesus. It is the lullaby his mother sang in his ear…it is his way, his truth, his life. God comes to seek and save the lost and forsaken.
No, the stories Joshua tells in our reading today are not told for those who are in power –” go and grind people in foreign nations into the dust that you might prosper even more”. Far from it. These stories are told to remind us that God desires to save those who are dying. To bring life. And to encourage us, who have much…who have freedom…to be the ones to seek freedom for those who are enslaved. To be the ones who find homes for those who are wandering. To share our vineyards and oliveyards, towns and land. To release our hold on our security…that others might live.
One of my friends attended a Lutheran Family Services event this past week in Nebraska. It was called “Stories of Survival: Three Generations of Surviving Genocide.” And three local women shared their stories…
Kitty Williams, who survived Auschwitz as a young woman…a walking skeleton freed by American GIs in April of 1945.
Channy Laux, a Lincoln High graduate, who as a 13 year old girl survived starvation and rape in the killing fields of Cambodia, one of the world’s largest genocides.
And Shireen Ibrahim, who was kidnapped and tortured by the Islamic State, one of thousands of Yazidi women sold into slavery who now lives in Lincoln and seeks justice for family members and others still missing.
These women shared their stories of survival…and their gratitude for Lutheran Refugee Services and the God who worked through Lutheran communities of faith to help find them a home. To save their lives.
The stories of Joshua are meant to encourage those who cry out for God’s help. But they are meant to encourage those who can help…to do so. They are the stories that encourage churches to sponsor refugees. They are the stories that encourage churches to support homeless shelters. They are the stories that encourage us to share with our food banks and welcome people who are strangers. This is the way God wants us to live. This is what it means when we say we will “serve the Lord”.
I am grateful for those women who shared their stories. But we also have stories to tell…each one of us. Stories that remind us of God who has been there for us…who saved us when were hopeless…who guided us when we were lost. Stories that encourage us to trust God..and stories that encourage us to reach out in love to others. I’ve heard many of you share those stories. Stories of survival. Stories of hope. Stories of comfort.
Stories that have bound us into Jesus’ story…who saves us. Who gives us life. Jesus who comes to us where we are….who finds us, even when we have completely lost our way…and who loves us….as we are…because we are God’s blessing in the world.
Here’s the thing. We get it wrong…we mess it up. As people of faith, we get our stories twisted and our wires crossed. We forget that God looks at the world upside down. But lucky for us, at the end of the day…or rather…at the end of history… this is God’s story. Not ours. God who saves. Jeshua. Jesus. And God resurrects the dead we have left in our killing fields and our gas chambers, on our lynching trees and on Roman crosses. God wins…but not with the power of armies and swords. Not through violence and hate. But with the power of love. Amen.
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