Ye cannot serve the LORD

Choose you this day whom ye will serve... (Joshua 24:15)

The Old Testament Lesson for tomorrow's Holy Eucharist is Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18 (that is, in the Revised Common Lectionary, the Gospel-related track). It would be better had the framers of the lectionary included verses 3 through 13, wherein Joshua rehearses how God had cared for the people ever since he first called Abraham “and led him throughout all the land of Canaan.” He sent Moses and Aaron, and brought the people out of Egypt and through the Red Sea and through the wilderness. God said:

And I have given you a land for which ye did not labour, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them; of the vineyards and oliveyards which ye planted not do ye eat. Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt, and serve ye the LORD. And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve... (v. 13-15a)

Joshua, by now an old man addressing the people for the last time, tells them that whatever they decide, “as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” The people answer that “we will also serve the LORD, for he is our God” (v. 18), and there the appointed passage ends.

By ending here, the lectionary entirely misses the point, which is in the next verse:

And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the LORD: for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins (v. 19).

This conundrum lies at the heart of the Old Testament; God calls a people to be his own, but we cannot live up to that vocation. All of the historical writings, from Exodus and Numbers right on through the Books of the Kings, and all of the prophets – from beginning to end they testify of this fact. We cannot serve the LORD. What are we to do? As St. Peter says in tomorrow's Gospel, “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.” (St. John 6:68).

The answer was foreseen throughout the Old Testament, right alongside the conundrum, for all of its writings speak of the anointed one who was to come, the Messiah. And we have it right here in chapter six of St. John:

Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him who he hath sent. (v. 28-29)

That's it. What could be simpler? A child can do this – and as Jesus implies elsewhere, a child can probably do it better than the adults.

The theology is more fully worked out in the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans: we cannot be justified by our actions, even the best of them, but we are saved by faith, by the unmerited gift of God.

Through this grace, all is made right. The way is opened for us to be his people in truth, and for the cleansing of all things.

And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him. (Revelation 22:1-3)