Proper 26 / Pentecost 24 / OT 31
Devotional
Water From the Well
Lectionary Devotional For Cycle A
Object:
When the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters of the Jordan....
-- Joshua 3:13
The crossing of the Jordan River was a key transition in the life of Israel. Now Joshua, rather than Moses, was their leader. They would begin to be a settled people rather than a wandering people. To make this transition, they had to demonstrate a faith in the impossible. This was not the generation that had crossed the Red Sea. This was a new generation who had only heard stories of that crossing. The Jordan looked formidable as it overflowed its banks. The people had to walk through it as on dry land. They had to reexperience the power of God in their lives. They could not live off the faith of their parents. If they were to be able to stand strong against their enemies that would threaten their living in the promised land, they had to experience that "the living God" was among them.
Notice how this story becomes a template for our own experiences. For example, some very courageous leaders have led us out of the Egypt of legal discrimination. We have been wandering in the wilderness of racism for a number of years. There have been people who have tried to spy out the land of a society free from racism, but after a time they report back that it is a land of giants too difficult to conquer. We have been wandering in this wilderness for so long that we begin to doubt that anything will ever change. There is this huge Jordan River, with its flood-swollen waters, that stands between the promised land and us. There is the tree of job discrimination, the rock of intermarriage, and the flotsam of religious styles that keep hurtling down this Jordan River and preventing us from crossing over: These are our Canaanites, Kittites, and Perizites. How could the living God drive out these enemies who are so much a part of who we are? Where do we get the faith to get our feet wet in the Jordan? How do we learn to trust in the "living God" who is among us and risk crossing the Jordan and tasting the fruit that is waiting for us?
-- Joshua 3:13
The crossing of the Jordan River was a key transition in the life of Israel. Now Joshua, rather than Moses, was their leader. They would begin to be a settled people rather than a wandering people. To make this transition, they had to demonstrate a faith in the impossible. This was not the generation that had crossed the Red Sea. This was a new generation who had only heard stories of that crossing. The Jordan looked formidable as it overflowed its banks. The people had to walk through it as on dry land. They had to reexperience the power of God in their lives. They could not live off the faith of their parents. If they were to be able to stand strong against their enemies that would threaten their living in the promised land, they had to experience that "the living God" was among them.
Notice how this story becomes a template for our own experiences. For example, some very courageous leaders have led us out of the Egypt of legal discrimination. We have been wandering in the wilderness of racism for a number of years. There have been people who have tried to spy out the land of a society free from racism, but after a time they report back that it is a land of giants too difficult to conquer. We have been wandering in this wilderness for so long that we begin to doubt that anything will ever change. There is this huge Jordan River, with its flood-swollen waters, that stands between the promised land and us. There is the tree of job discrimination, the rock of intermarriage, and the flotsam of religious styles that keep hurtling down this Jordan River and preventing us from crossing over: These are our Canaanites, Kittites, and Perizites. How could the living God drive out these enemies who are so much a part of who we are? Where do we get the faith to get our feet wet in the Jordan? How do we learn to trust in the "living God" who is among us and risk crossing the Jordan and tasting the fruit that is waiting for us?
