The book of Joshua is about the battles and wars the Israelites fought when they took the Promised Land from those who were settled there. It is not necessarily a “PG” book. Frankly, the “v-chip” would block it out of most televisions. It is violent. It involves a lot of actions that we don’t accept and maybe don't understand.
Joshua chapter 1 says, "Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give...I will give you every place where you set your foot, ....5 No one will be able to stand against you..."
Joshua, with his army at his side, stands at the banks of the Jordon, and the verses being read are on the eve of the invasion. That sounds pretty familiar. They sound a lot like General George Patton, who on the eve of D-Day, said,
"I do not want to get any messages saying that we are holding our position. We are not holding. We are advancing constantly, and we are not interested in holding onto anything. Our basic plan of operations is to advance and keep on advancing regardless of whether or not we have to go over, under, or through the enemy"
Beverly's Grandfather was in that invasion. He landed on Utah beach, advanced across France, fought in the Battle of the Bulge, and liberated Dachau.
My own time at war was spent comforting the wounded, nurturing the living, and burying the dead. I lost 103 nights of sleep in 486 days of combat bringing units that were wounded or dead. Through his stories and mine, let me say this. There is no glory in war. At the very best, it is the lesser of two evils. Norman Schwarzkopf said it well when he said, "No soldier is for war." Certainly, no chaplain is for war.
So, how are we to think of this section of the bible that speaks of mass murder, death, invasions, and genocide?
The Lower Story is a Mess
The story of the Bible is your story. It is my story: it is the story of humanity - and it is an awful mess. And I will not make nice with the death and destruction of the Bible. But what I will do is try to help us understand it.
Yesterday was Reformation Sunday. It is the one Sunday a year that we recognize the contribution of Martin Luther, the founder of Lutheranism. One of his major contributions was something called the Two Kingdoms Theology. Luther's theology says, like the authors of the story, there is both an upper story of God and a lower story of God. Luther says there is the right hand of God - the upper story and the left hand of God - the lower story.
The lower story is a mess. Although God is in the world, he has allowed us to run it. He has put presidents and kings in charge of the lower story. He established armies and police forces. He has appointed state and local governments. All to control the mess. And the mess is costly. And when the world's nations go to war, whether it be the nations in the Bible or the nations of today, they almost always go in the name of God. What a mess!
To minimize the mess, the Apostle Paul said,
“Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. There is no authority except from God, and God appoints the existing authorities. Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves” (Rom. 13:1-2).
Luther will go so far as to say that even Church life is part of the Lower Story of God. I think he might be right. I carried around for years a cartoon of a room full of people who had been in a brawl. The caption read: "That settles it. We will paint the Sunday School rooms blue."
People get disillusioned with the church because they think it should be the upper story of God, but it's not. It is the lower story with all its warts and scars and differences of opinions. All of its insecurities, all of its pride, and all of its frustrating goofiness are present and accounted for in this life. It is a mess, and it is us. I have been a pastor for nearly thirty years, and I can say with honesty I have seen people at their best and their worse.
So, how is your life going? Is it a mess? If it is, you are in good company. And you are not alone. Help is here, available, and standing at the ready.
Have a great week.
-Pastor Corey