Ordinary Time 21
In today’s second reading, we see St. Paul addressing marriage and the role of husband and wife in marriage; he confirms the right relation between husband and wife which was ordained at creation. First, St. Paul speaks to wives: Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. This should not be so difficult for Christian wives if they see it as exercising their obedience to the Lord. The Apostle points to the reason why: For the husband is the head of the wife, just as Christ is the head of the Church, His body, of which He Himself is the Savior. Marriage is the one flesh union of one man and one woman. Every body needs a head, one head--in marriage that responsibility falls to the husband. The head--we see our head, where our brain is located, regulates all movements of the body: the brain tells the arm or finger to move and it moves. Jesus leads and rules His Church according to His will--He is the Head and Lord of the Church. Moreover, as the Church submits to Christ, so also wives are to submit to their husbands in everything.
Next, the husbands are admonished to love their wives in word and deed. And this, the harder part, love, falls to the husband. Why is loving the harder thing compared to submitting of the wife? Look at the comparison! The comparison is with Christ! Jesus showed His love for His Bride the Church, how? By dying for her! Husbands, love your wives, in the same way as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy… The Christian husband sees in this the example of the love he owes his wife. In the same way, husbands have an obligation to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. The husband is to regard his wife as his own body and treat her accordingly. In summary, St. Paul writes: In any case, each one of you also is to love his wife as himself, and each wife is to respect her husband.
Each day, because we are sinners, both husband and wife will fall far short of this. Within the marriage, the home and family, we daily live out our Christian faith forgiving our spouse as he/she does not live up to this ideal of marriage--where the wife does not submit like the Church does to Christ and where the husband does not love as Jesus loves the Church with that perfect self-sacrificing love. We dare never forget that marriage is something good: it was instituted by God with Adam and Eve--one man with one woman--in the Garden of Eden/ Paradise, before the fall into sin. Anything that is good/ that is of God is the very thing that the devil wants to corrupt and destroy. He especially has marriage in his sights!
And we also have another reason why the devil is so hell bent on destroying marriage: This is a great mystery, but I am talking about Christ and the church. Marriage, in its right and proper sense, is a preaching of Christ; it is a picture of the relation of Jesus to the Church and the Church to Jesus. So is it any wonder that the devil has a special hatred of and is always trying to destroy marriage--lest we see and are pointed to Christ in it? Look at how seemingly successful the devil is especially in our day and age. Yes, there has always been bad marriages in which the image of Christ and the church would not be noticeable; there has always been “shack ups”; there has always been adultery, divorce, etc.; but now what do we have? --the state redefining marriage, 2 men, 2 women? How vital for us today, seeing that marriage pictures that sacramental union between Christ and His Church, His Bride, with Luther we pray to God that of His infinite goodness and mercy that You will not let this, Your creation, ordinance and blessing to be disturbed or destroyed, but that You will graciously preserve it. And that is why it is vital as Christians we take a stand and say in the face of all the other attacks on marriage and other traditional/ Biblical values: But as for me and my household--we will serve the LOrd!
The thing is, we are always faced with decisions; we are always at a crossroads. But the vital thing is that we stand with the Lord and His will and His way, because always before us is the temptation to go from Him and go the way of the world. We always have before us the scene of today’s Gospel: After this, many of [Jesus’] disciples turned back and were not walking with Him anymore. Sounds like today, doesn’t it, with so many one time Christians falling away? So Jesus asked the Twelve, “You do not want to leave too, do you?” There’s that crossroads again! And St. Peter answering for the Twelve and for all Christians down through the ages says: Lord, to whom will we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God. May that be our response daily at the crossroads when we are attacked and tempted to give up the faith and go the world’s way!
As we turn our attention to Joshua’s words and his stand for the faith, we see that it is at a pivotal point of OT history. God had rescued the Israelites from slavery in Egypt; He led them 40 years through the wilderness by His servant Moses; now through Joshua He brought them into the Promised Land, conquering it and settling it. Here before he dies, Joshua brings the people together to renew the covenant, for the people to pledge their faithfulness to the Lord once again in the face of this great grace of the Lord. Joshua says to the people: But if you see no benefit in serving the LOrd, then choose for yourselves today whomever you will serve--whether the gods that your fathers served 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. Notice, at that crossroads, Joshua boldly confesses that even if he has to stand alone, if he’s the only one, he will serve the Lord. That is spoken by that Spirit-worked joy of faith. Joshua has known and experienced the grace and working of the Lord. There is no other way for him. He joyfully confesses But as for me and my household--we will serve the Lord and that’s the same joy of faith we heard from St. Peter and the Twelve: Lord, to whom will we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.
When Joshua says choose for yourselves today whomever you will serve, this is not some sort of “decision theology” like we hear so often today: Make your decision for Christ; I have decided to follow Jesus, etc. The unconverted person cannot make a “decision” for Jesus/ invite Him into the heart as St. Paul tells us [1 Cor 12.3]: No one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit; and as Jesus clearly tells us [Jn 15.16]: You did not choose Me, but I chose you… It is only when the joy of faith in the Lord is there first, that we can say: as for me and my household--we will serve the Lord. But when Joshua says, choose for yourselves today whomever you will serve, he says it to people who already have faith. And this leads us to a very important point: although we cannot by our own reason or strength choose to believe in Christ--faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit--we can choose to abandon the Lord or by the Holy Spirit already given us, we can confirm the faith that we have. Choose for yourselves today whomever you will serve--that is the question that we face each and every day, dear Christian; that’s the crossroads we face each day as we come face to face with the temptations of the devil and world working with our old sinful nature; there’s the crossroads when we hear the alluring call of the world: will we choose to turn away from the Lord or will we in Spirit worked faith remain faithful to Him?
In the joy of faith, the people answered Joshua that day: Far be it from us to forsake the LOrd in order to serve other gods. That is an expression of horror at idolatry! For the LOrd our God, He is the one who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, where we were slaves. He is the one who performed these great signs right before our eyes and protected us on the whole journey that we made and among all the peoples through whom we passed. All of this is God’s pure grace to His people. His grace is always first. He brought them great rescue and deliverance. And He brought us great rescue and deliverance. The Israelites were rescued from great physical enemies--Pharoah, slavery, certain death in the wilderness, hostile nations, etc. but that all pointed them forward to their great spiritual rescue from their spiritual enemies--sin, death, devil and hell--that the coming Savior, Jesus Christ, would bring them. And through their faith in Him they were saved. That great rescue from spiritual enemies the Israelites enjoyed, we, too, have. God’s grace is always there first; the work and merit of Jesus is there first--and faith clings on to it.
Look at that great joy of faith the Israelites had and they, by the Holy Spirit, confirmed that faith and recoiled in horror at the thought of serving other gods. In light of God’s overwhelming faithfulness, His people, in the joy of faith, can only pledge Him total allegiance. How vital, then, that we remind ourselves of our Lord’s faithfulness to us! That’s why we daily read and ponder God’s word, the Bible; that’s why we daily examine our heart and life and remember our baptism and that there God has washed away our sins, brought us into His holy family, clothed us with Christ’s holiness, and made us heirs of heaven; that’s why we rush to church to the absolution to receive the forgiveness of our sins; that’s why we yearn to receive the sacrament of Jesus’ body and blood and to eat and drink His body and blood, to have Him come to us and unite with us giving us the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. As for me and my household--we will serve the Lord. Serving the Lord/ true worship of the Lord has its roots in and springs from the heart full of Spirit worked faith. As we are daily at that crossroads: Choose for yourselves today whomever you will serve, may we answer with Joshua as for me and my household--we will serve the Lord.
The thing to remember is that our service to the Lord has always been God’s intent for us. That’s how God created us--for union, fellowship with Him, service and worship of Him. God intended always for us to love and serve Him freely. He did not create us as robots--otherwise that wouldn’t be love. But there has always been the crossroads: Choose for yourselves today whomever you will serve. In Eden, Adam and Eve chose to abandon the Lord; and because of that all of their descendants--you and me--are born sinful and hostile to God. But the Lord, through His word and sacrament, gives us His Holy Spirit and works faith in our hearts so that we come to know and love Him rightly and serve Him. We see and experience His grace and mercy to us in Jesus and receive His gifts and graces. In faith and joy we now say: As for me and my household--we will serve the Lord.
Precisely when we are serving the Lord, is when we are most complete and fulfilled. Remember: God created us for fellowship with Him. Where we are separated from the Lord, where we reject Him and serve other gods, the gods of this world be they money, pleasure, power, etc., they are just as worthless as the gods that your fathers served beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living that Joshua talked about. If you feel a lack in your life, like something is missing, if you feel incomplete, as if there’s something more--there is! --The Holy Triune God. You are at that crossroads--will you follow the worthless things this world offers up as worthy of serving--money, pleasure, power--or will you hear the voice of God and in faith serve Him, now and for eternity? With the Israelites that day, may each of us say: We too will serve the LOrd, because He is our God! Will it be easy for us as we all the time have before us the crossroad: Choose for yourselves today whomever you will serve? Hardly! We know that after the time of Joshua the people fell back into idol worship. But our good and gracious Lord is with us strengthening with His good gifts and Spirit so that we serve Him in joy. INJ