Morning Prayer and Sermon
23rd Sunday of Pentecost Year A
5 November in the Year of our Lord 2023
Joshua 3:7-17
Psalm 107:1-7, 33-37
1 Thessalonians 2:9-13
Matthew 23:1-12
Our Lord and His Angels are active on our behalf every day. When prayerful and alert, we are able remember this and remain thankful. Do you sometime sense a warning in your soul which causes you to avoid danger, whether ethical or physical? Did you find a solution seemingly coming out nowhere to a problem that you were facing? Is there a great desire in your heart that seems out of reach, yet circumstances change in a way that permit you to succeed? This is the work of Jesus. And there are Gods’ people at work on our behalf as well. St. Paul in Thessalonians told converts: “we worked night and day (as tentmakers) so that we might not burden any of you, while we proclaimed to you the Gospel of God.” I Thessalonians 2:9
At the Gallery opening Friday evening of Lucinda Wood’s most recent paintings, she introduced her works with an unforgettable lead in: Thankfulness for the environment that a winter rich with precipitation had given her to paint. Snow scenes in the winter months; some painted from inside her home through windows. Bountiful rainfall leading to dramatic waterfalls and creeks that she has long visited with her easels, brushes, and paints. And lastly, she was thankful for clear skies all Summer, not spoiled by smoke from wildfires. It was a reference to the framed images all around us. Every Christian present knew Lucinda was offering a prayer of thanksgiving and it gave her joy to do so.
Joshua was another of Gods workers. He has the rare privilege in the Scripture of sharing the name of Jesus (Yeshua); and is one of the few people in the Bible for whom no examples of sin are recorded.
The Israelites were very fortunate to have him as their leader when they approached the Promise Land. As a young man he had joined one Million Israelites who left Egypt. An eleven-day journey turned into 40 because of their lack of faith. All the people of that generation, died in the Wilderness of the Sinai Desert except for Joshua and Caleb, whom the Lord found faithful. Those two men, now in their 60s’ entered the promise land leading 2 million Jews, the next generation of Hebrews who believed in God’s promises.
That was just the beginning of what our Lord will do for Joshua, and through Joshua for Israel, as our OT reading today reminded us.
The Lord said to Joshua, “This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, so that they know that I will be with you as I was with Moses.” Joshua 3:7
And so that the people of Israel clearly understood that Joshua is their new divinely chosen leader, the Lord provided a miracle that matched the one when Israel crossed the Red Sea with the Armies of Egypt closing in on them. Moses stretched out his staff and the waters parted in two walls.
The Jordan river which overflows its banks every Harvest season miraculously stopped flowing once Joshua stepped into the river as he had been instructed by God. At Joshua command, the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant, and the people walked where the river had been on dry land. (Joshua 4:4) The Ark contained the Golden Jar with Mana, Aaron’s staff, which had budded, and the 2 tablets of stone with the 10 commandments written by the hand of God on Mt. Sinai. The miracle of passing through the Jordan on dry land is a way for God to show the Israelites that he will be with them as they fight for the Land of Promise.
As we read on, we find, that God will drive out from the land he promised his chosen people: “… the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorities and Jebusites.” He will do this through the military leadership of Joshua. We may wonder why? There are several reasons, mentioned in the Bible.
- The Lord promised to return his chosen people to their ancestral lands; lands that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had once lived in.
- The city states of Canaan were idolatrous, and their people and religious practices would have a corrupting influence, e.g., The worship of Moloch, a Canaanite god, required the cities to have regular Temple liturgies that involved the placing of infants and toddlers on a ramp which would drop the children one by one down into a raging caldron of fire to feed the god. This to little children born in the image of God.
There is a corollary to what would happen to the people of Canaan, in ancient times in a much larger in scale. This was when the Lord told Noah that he would destroy his creation with a great flood because …
The Lord saw how great how great mans’ wickedness on the earth had become and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continuously. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth and His heart was filled with pain. So, the Lord said, I will wipe out the human race, whom I have created from the face of the earth. Genesis 6:4-7
Earth was no longer the perfect paradise that had intended. Humanity forgot about God and only one family on earth still worshiped Him. Because of Noah’s faithfulness and obedience, God saved his family from a flood that destroyed every other human being on earth. The LORD may have a task for us that will take a good deal of time for a large of our life.
Noah became the father of Japheth when he was 500 and Shem two years later, Ham was the last of his sons. Sometime later he began building the Ark. God told him to build it 450’ long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high, entirely covered by a roof, with upper and lower decks. The ship was six times longer than it was wide, which I’m told is the same ratio used in modern ship building.
He and his sons spent half a century or more building it. But in so Completing the task God set for him, he became the 2nd father of the human race. After the flood receded from the earth, Noah immediately built an altar to sacrifice to the LORD. The LORD was pleased and made a promise: “… never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done.”
Noah and his family had a lot to be thankful for. They would inhabit a New World, one dramatically changed by massive movements of water, life in a world free of idolatry, civil violence, warfare, and debauchery. The great question for Noah and his descendants is whether they will remain faithful.
We live in a world greatly changed and believed by many to be very much at risk. We can do much for the good of those who inhabit it if we heed the voice of our Savior who said, ” the greatest among you will be your servant. And “All who humble themselves shall be exalted.”
Matthew 23:11,12
Joseph J. Muñoz
Professor Emeritus