The Fools Pledge
“The Lord our God we will serve, and his voice we will obey.”
Abstract art depicts the Covenant Renewal at Shechem, which we read about in this week’s Old Testament lesson (Joshua 24). Artist unknown. The seed of God’s redemptive acts wrought on behalf of the tribes of Israel have at last taken root in the land, and forged a people, the people of God. Their promise, their unison cry of “We are ready to serve the Lord!” is lifegiving and hopeful, but also inevitable and terrifying. “You are not able to serve the Lord.” Joshua respond. “He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you” (vv. 19-20).
Indeed, as we read forward in the sacred histories, it’s an oath that doesn’t work out so well for the children of Israel. They end up again and again ensnared through their own fault by all the things they foreswore, and enduring those punishments promised for their rebellion. The good news, however, is that the ultimate fulfillment of the covenant rests not on the faithfulness of God’s people, but on the faithfulness of God himself, even in the midst of this grossest chastisement. More: it is the faithfulness of a God who has already proven himself to be faithful. In this way, the essence of the covenant is not about the (probably foolish) vow that the Israelites made in the desert that day, but about the recounting, remembrance, and celebration of God’s faithfulness.
The impulse to respond to this wonder is appropriate. Evoked in us is a lamentation at our casual forgetfulness of God’s grandeur and glory on display for our salvation, and a desire to firm our resolve to meet his faithfulness with our own. Yet on this side of the Cross, we see these in a new light: our failures and foolish vows add nothing to the grandeur of God’s salvation, but rather are part of the great burden that is lifted from us as we recognize that Jesus died for us, and it worked.
It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
— John 6:63
Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Texts for This Week
Prayer
Let your continual mercy, O Lord, cleanse and defend your Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without your help, protect and govern it always by your goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
The Great Jehovah (final chorus from Handel’s Joshua)
Among his Biblical oratorios, Handel is of course most famous for Messiah, and especially the Hallelujah Chorus, but his larger body of work in this genre is amazingly broad, and is as a body of literature a hidden gem of English theology and national aspiration during the Georgian period. His oratorio Joshua is one example of this genre.
If you have a couple of hours, it’s worth listening through the whole thing, probably with the libretto (and maybe a Bible!) open in front of you to follow along with the story, to attend to how the music helps give shape and texture to the storytelling. (And here are some further program notes as well, if you want a little more background).
Joshua is replete with the dramatic representation of the ambivalence of the people of God, who at one moment celebrate the collapse of the “strong cemented walls” and “tottering towers” of Jericho, and in the next, lament their the collapse of their own “towering hopes.”
But the ultimate hopes of Israel lie, not in the earthly Joshua, but the heavenly one, who is the true conquering hero lauded in the biggest hit from the oritorio.
Caleb at last intones the worship of God’s people, crying out:
While lawless tyrants, with ambition blind,
Mock solemn faith, waste worlds, and thin mankind,
Israel can boast a leader, just and brave,
A friend to freedom, and ordain'd to save.
Thus bless'd, to Heav'n your voices raise
In songs of thanks, and hymns of praise.
So shaped by their experience of God’s salvation and stirred by this invitation, their worship rises in reply:
The great Jehovah is our awful [=awe-filled] theme,
Sublime in majesty, in pow'r supreme.
Hallelujah!
This performance done by the Sierra Harmony Choral Society — a choir based in Freetown, Sierra Leone — may not be the finest quality recording of the chorus (it is not difficult to find professional recordings of the track, such as this one), but it is very much worth attending to the echoes that our little artifacts and traditions have around the world.
