First Pass at This Weekend's Bible Lessons

[These passes are designed to help people to prepare for worship in the coming weekend. They're designed to be helpful to the people of Friendship Lutheran Church, Amelia, Ohio, although most weeks, people in other congregations and traditions may find them helpful. That's because most weeks, we use one of the Biblical texts from the Lutheran lectionary. Our lectionary is very similar to those employed by many other churches and is rooted in the Church Year. However, a bishop of the late American Lutheran Church, David Preus, urged pastors and churches to break free from what he said could sometimes be, "the tyranny of the lectionary." We'll be doing that this week at Friendship, using two texts suggested by the staff of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, Burnsville, Minnesota.]

The two lessons are Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18, from the Old Testament, and Hebrews 10:19-25 from the New Testament.

The Joshua Text:
1Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel; and they presented themselves before God. 2And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel...14“Now therefore revere the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.

15Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” 16Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; 17for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight. He protected us along all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed; 18and the Lord drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.”

The Hebrews Text:
19Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, 20by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), 21and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. 24And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, 25not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Some General Comments:
1. This coming weekend brings our congregation--and apparently, many other churches--to our annual Consecration Sunday. On this Sunday each year, we ask members of Friendship to prayerfully consider how they will commit themselves to the mission that God wants us to accomplish together. Specifically, we're asked to consecrate our time, talents, and financial resources to God and our mission.

2. What does consecrate mean? One definition offered by the American Heritage Dictionary, here, is: "To dedicate solemnly to a service or goal." Another suggested meaning says, "Dedicated to a sacred purpose; sanctified." That gives some sense of what we're about on Consecration Sunday. My working definition for Consecration Sunday says:

“On Consecration Sunday, we dedicate our time, talents, and treasures to God and to the mission of the Church.”

3. The Old Testament book of Joshua recounts what God did through the exploits and faithful leadership of Moses' successor, Joshua. Moses, you'll remember, was the person God chose to lead His chosen people, the Israelites (or the Hebrews), out of slavery in Egypt and onto the Promised Land. But, though God blessed His people, all but two members of the whole generation that rebelled against God and chased after other gods, both in Egypt and during their forty years in the wilderness, were not allowed to enter the land of promise. Moses himself was unable to go there.

But two members of that generation were allowed entry into the Promised Land: Caleb and Joshua. That's because they didn't rebel, always trusting in God and God's promises.

4. Last week, we mentioned that the widow who briefly appears in chapter 12 of Mark's Gospel, is a Christ-figure. That isn't to say that she was sinless or a deity. It means that there was something about her behavior and character that foreshadowed Christ. Joshua is the Old Testament figure who most strongly foreshadows Christ.

There are several reasons for this:

• His name, Yeshua in Hebrew is the same as that of Jesus. Jesus is the English transliteration of the Hebrew name and of the Greek version, Yesus. Jesus was Yeshua bar Yosef, Joshua son of Joseph (as was thought).
• Jesus was sinless. Joshua wasn't that, of course. But, unlike the other members of his generation, he trusted God, making him unique.
• Joshua led the people into the Promised Land. Jesus leads all who turn from sin and follow Him into eternity with God.
• The name Yeshua means God saves. Through Jesus Christ, God does save us from sin and death.

5. Our lesson from Joshua comes near the end of Joshua's life and career. He brings the leaders of Israel, God's people, challenging them to choose to follow God, not the gods of the generation that died in the wilderness or their ancestors. Joshua was calling the people to consecrate themselves to follow the God Who had faithfully led His people through the wilderness, even when the people were faithless.

6. You can read about some of the background on Hebrews here. The book was addressed to Jewish-Christians facing the prospect of persecution and the understandable temptation to abandon the Christian faith and to call themselves Jews. That's because at that point in history, Jews enjoyed a favorable place in the Roman Empire.

7. In this passage, the Jewish Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, lay in the background. This day, held annually, was a time when a spotless lamb was sacrificed on the altar in the Holy of Holies, the place in the Temple where the very presence of God was thought to reside.

Only once a year and only after going through elaborate rituals of cleansing, could the high priest enter this inner sanctum and offer the perfect animal sacrifice, a he-goat, for the sins of the people. After emerging, the priest would dip a hyssop branch into the sactificed animal's blood and sprinkle it on the assembled throng.

As was true of the enslaved Hebrews who were spared the loss of their first-born at the hands of the angel of death when they smeared the blood of a lamb on their doorposts, the people assembled at the Temple for Yom Kippur had their sins from the preceding year covered because a spotless lamb had been sacrificed, taking their rightful punishment for sin.

John the Baptist, according to the Gospel of John, proclaimed Jesus the lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world. And the book of Hebrews underscores that those whose sins are covered by the blood of Christ are saved from sin and death "once and for all." We are covered when we trust Christ as our God and Savior.

8. The book of Hebrews sees all Old Testament rituals relating to atonement and the life of the temple being temporary foreshadowing of what God has done in Christ and of what eternity itself will be like. Through Christ, Who has made us clean "once and for all," we can approach God with confidence.

9. The text ends with a call to consecration, making it appropriate for this coming Sunday.