"Teaching about Dry Places"         2010

Joshua 3:14-15, 17-4:7      Acts 2:36-42

 

Joshua 3:14-15, 17-4:7  (NRSV)            Twelve Stones Set Up at Gilgal

14 When the people set out from their tents to cross over the Jordan, the priests bearing the ark of the covenant were in front of the people. 15Now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest. So when those who bore the ark had come to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the edge of the water, 17While all Israel were crossing over on dry ground, the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, until the entire nation finished crossing over the Jordan. 4:1When the entire nation had finished crossing over the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua: 2‘Select twelve men from the people, one from each tribe, 3and command them, “Take twelve stones from here out of the middle of the Jordan, from the place where the priests’ feet stood, carry them over with you, and lay them down in the place where you camp tonight.” ’ 4Then Joshua summoned the twelve men from the Israelites, whom he had appointed, one from each tribe. 5Joshua said to them, ‘Pass on before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan, and each of you take up a stone on his shoulder, one for each of the tribes of the Israelites, 6so that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, “What do those stones mean to you?” 7then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off in front of the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the Israelites a memorial for ever.’

 

Acts 2:36-42  (NRSV)  The First Converts

36Therefore let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.’ 37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, ‘Brothers, what should we do?’ 38Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.’ 40And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, ‘Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.’ 41So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added. 42They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

 

When the Viet Nam War memorial in Washington DC  was first built,

            its simple architectural design caused a lot of controversy…

                         … objections that the memorial didn't have any statues.

 

 But the week it first opened and was dedicated,   veterans came

            and they ran into old comrades they hadn't seen since the war,

                                         and there was an amazing healing of old wounds

                                                as they remembered and retold their stories.

 

The Viet Nam War Memorial,   over the longer and truer test of time,

            it has proven to be a most powerfully effective monument.

In fact, visitors spend a great deal more time

                              looking with a sense of reverence   at the wall of names

                                    than at the statues, that were added sometime later.

 

              Somehow seeing one's own image reflected in those dark panels

                        seems to encourage deep personal reflection and memories.

 Often, I used to see veterans hanging out, sharing their stories,

         or young children  hearing about a loved one   named on the wall.

 

 You  can read about the war, you can see old news footage,

     but it's not the same as a veteran sharing their sense of history.

 

    Something special comes with hearing someone share their story,

            for then the memorial takes on a powerful meaning and message;

                   it becomes relevant once we hear & know the story behind it.

 

When the Israelites crossed the Jordan River on dry ground

            that dry ground    was a very meaningful symbol…

*             …it was a sign of God's care, provision & presence with them.

 

A dry place    in contrast     to the watery dangers and threat of chaos

            is a subtle, yet recurring biblical theme & image of Scripture.

Maybe you never noticed, but dry places flow all through the Bible

            as places of rescue – where God is active, and at work.

 

e.g.  In the very beginning of Genesis, the Bible describes how God,

   'swept over the face of the waters', in Hebrew: 'the watery chaos'

 

By Hebrew thinking, at Creation, the act of Creation was à

            God pushing aside the watery chaos, separating out a dry spot,

                        which was the creation of the heavens and the earth.

 

                                    Creation was understood at God making land – a place -

                                                -  a 'dry place'   upon which to bless humankind.

So Creation is a dry place of God   amid the watery chaos all around.                                                  

What was Noah's ark?  - a 'dry place'   amid the stormy flood waters,

    where God provided rescue & safety amid the waves of watery chaos.

 

* Or when Moses was a baby,

       Pharaoh's command that Jewish baby boys be thrown into the Nile.

So his mother put him into a papyrus basket set on the Nile,

            which  became a dry and saving safe place surrounded by water;

*    a dry place God   was used to rescue  amid the threatening waters.

 

* Later, when the Israelites crossed the sea escaping Egypt's army,

            they crossed, walking on   the dry land, that God provided;

                    a dry place of rescue against threatening waters of chaos.

 

So when the Israelites crossed the Jordan into the Promised Land

            while walking on the dry land between the waters in Joshua 3,

                        it was a familiar and meaningful  sign and symbol to themà

               that God creates dry places  of rescue from the watery chaos.

 

In Joshua 3, they are instructed to bring stones from the river bed,

            and use them to build a memorial where they camped that night;

                        those river stones became a memorial of what God had done.

 

The stones, a day's walk from the river were a symbol and memorial,

            to serve as a reminder to encourage them to tell their children

                    of  God's rescue, a dry place across the waters of chaos,

                              and that it was a sign of God's love and care for them.

vs. 6    

    "when your children ask in time to come, what do those stones mean do you ?   then you shall tell them ...   so these stones shall be a memorial forever"

 

That was to be the way that future generations could know God.

          By telling their stories of God's rescue, dry vs. watery chaos;

                   they would know of God's care and presence with them,

                             they would know about their relationship to God.

 

See that memorial build from water smoothed stones from the river?

            Your ancestors carried them here

                        when God provided   a dry place of rescue and salvation.

 

The idea of the memorial was for telling & re-telling their stories

            to their children and to their children's children, and so on…

                        about God's saving dry places, & special relationship with them.

 

At families are gatherings for holidays, weddings or reunions,

       don't they retell their stories, as told many times before

             so younger generations learn about their family's history,

              they learn about who they are by hearing their family stories.

 

It is in the hearing & learning those family and ancestral stories,

       we to identify ourselves as those who belong to that heritage.

 

            It was in making that story of the river crossing their own,

                        that God's rescue of their family became   their rescue.

  Knowing the story allowed them to belong and share in that heritage

            thereby  they knew themselves to be the beloved people of God,

                        -- of those who shared in that common memory and stories.

 

So by the rescue crossing on dry land with  river rocks their symbol,

            it all became   as a sign of God's care and presence with them.

It identified who they were --- the people loved and rescued by God,

            and that pile of river rocks   they are our story and history.

 

We have that same sense of symbolic participation when we baptize,

     symbolically we too pass through the waters as a sign of rescue.

 

Also Communion, a sign that our God provides sustenance & salvation

                   – manna in the wilderness, Last Supper & banquet in heaven…

 

            … for do I not   retell the story each time we celebrate,

                        "… on the night our Savior was betrayed, he took bread …"?

 

I retell the story, remembering what the bread and cup mean to us,

   so that as a faith community, together we lay claim to its meaning.

 

            That's the story, that becomes  the family of God story we share.

 

Laying claim  & belonging to the stories of God's care & presence,

     we share in that common memory symbolized by baptism's water ---

            we declare we belong, we make it our own and for our children;à

àidentifying who whom we belong – we are the rescued people of God.

 

That's why we baptize our children, water as symbol of God's grace

            as we promise that we will encourage and nurture their faith.

 

And how do we do that?

            Joshua 4:6

                                    … so that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, “What do those stones mean to you?”

 

We teach our children

       what the symbols mean by telling them our Christ family stories,

                   of God's rescue, of dry places kept safe from watery chaos.

 

And we believe

            that in our telling and re-telling those stories of our faith,

                        that in time, our children

                                    will choose to belong to those stories for their own,

    à   and thereby identify themselves as the rescued people of God.

 

This is why Peter is able to assure his listeners in Acts vs. 39

            "the promise is for you, for your children"

 

If you go back read all of Acts chapter 2, you will notice

      that Peter's entire sermon is simply telling the story of Jesus.

                                    It is in response to the telling of that story,

                                                that his listeners ask, "What should we do?"

 

            to which, "Peter answers, ' Repent, and be baptized ....";

                        symbolically pass through the waters of chaos & be saved -

                                    share in God's place of rescue, salvation & blessing

                                                amid the raging and threatening waters chaos.

 

It is making   that story of Jesus –the Good News,  your own story,

            and thereby belonging & claiming God's promises for yourself

                        you will also tell the good news of Jesus to your children.

 

Many times we have made a solemn promise before God   that we will        

       teach this faith to children, we make that vow at every baptism;

                 that we will guide and nurture these children, raise themà

                                    to know the stories & the meaning of our symbols.

 

            We have promised to tell them the stories of God's promise,

                        tell about the dry places of God's grace,   so that in time,

                                    they will make those stories, their own stories,

                                      so that they will belong God's promises as their own.

           

We will do this by the way we live and teach the stories of faith,

            by the way symbols and stories reveal the truth of God's love.

 

It is for that same purpose that we put so much into VBS each year;

 … so that we can tell the stories of faith & meaning to our children.

 

And I sincerely doubt, that we can possibly fulfill our vows,

                        or carry out the promises we make during baptism,

                              unless we do involve ourselves somehow in their lives.

 

Children learn that God loves and cares them,

            by experiencing that we love and care them.

Their understanding of God's grace, mercy and love for them,

            begins with the experience of love that we choose to express.

 

They will believe that God actually does love & care about them,

                        and that they belong to God who does know them by name,

                                    only if we, if this congregation, the people of God,

                                            are involved in their lives in meaningful waysà

                              à and we do teach the stories and symbols of salvation.

 

If it's not us, if we won't do it,  then who will teach our children?

 

            And whose stories will they learn, if not our stories?

 

Will it be our stories of God's faithfulness, creating safe dry places,

            or will they learn from cartoon characters on TV or movies?

**                             Whose stories and truths will they learn to live by?

 

You know,  we have only a few and very short opportunities

          in which we can fulfill the vows we made at baptism, before God.

 

One time, a busy executive promised to take his kids to the circus.

            Just before they were about to go, the phone rang.

                        It was from the office,

                                    something urgent had come up, a crisis at work.

 

            The children braced themselves for the coming disappointment

                        that their day that the circus would have to be canceled.

But instead the executive said, "I'll handle that tomorrow"

 

The caller insisted,          "You know the circus will come back again."

            and the executive replied,          

                             "I know that,  but their childhood will not."

 

At the Table today, look around at the children    consider,

     what are you doing to teach the stories and symbols of our faith?

 

          There are just a limited few   teachable moments in life,

               only a finite number of opportunities to make a difference.