"I want you to stop partying," a father says to his 21 year-old son. The two are speaking over the phone because the son is many miles away from home at college. The father caught wind of his son’s reckless behavior through friends, and he'd seen a few pictures of it on Facebook too.
"Ok." The son's reply is disinterested at best.
"It’s not a good idea to do that, son!"
"Dad, I’m just having some fun. I'm just having a good time."
"Well...you need to make a choice. You know the rules. You need to do what’s right."
The conversation goes on like this for a while--the father telling his son to make better decisions, and the son downplaying his behavior. And then the call ends. It’s a Friday afternoon when they speak. A little later that night, the son goes to a party at a friend’s house. He drinks a lot of alcohol. He smokes some weed. And he hooks up with a girl he barely knows.
The father tells the son to make a choice, and the son chooses poorly.
2.
The set-up of this story is not unlike the final chapter of Joshua. The legendary leader of Israel tells the people, "You need to make a choice. You need to do what's right." As a young man, Joshua was a strong and fierce leader of God's chosen nation as he battled for the land the Lord had promised to them. By and large, Israel has conquered and is now dwelling in this land. And now, old and stooped and wrinkled, Joshua motions with crooked fingers for the Israelites to come near and listen.
He says, "Now therefore fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."
The old man declares, "Make a choice! Do it today! And if you care to know, me and my house are serving the LORD!"
3.
But this is not all there is to the text. Granted, this is our favorite part. This is the most well-known part. We love to rip out Joshua's call for a decision and his own declaration of faith and place those words in frames for our walls. But there's more here. Before Joshua gives the ultimatum, he tells a story. And not just any story. This story has been imparted to him by God. In essence, he says to the people, "Gather around here. Let me tell you a story."
What do you think about when you hear those words? A family dinner or annual reunion? Grandpa or grandma or a great-uncle telling another yarn about the good old days? Children's eyes rolling back into their heads and someone whispering to another, "Here we go again--another story"? Or maybe you're thankful for the times when grandpa or grandma said, "Let me tell you story." Maybe you realize that all those stories you heard not only provide a glimpse into who they are, but into who you are--into your story.
The great preacher Fred Craddock tells the story of Scott Momaday, an American Indian writer. When he was a small boy, Momaday's father woke him early in the morning and said, "I want you to get up and go with me." His father took him by the hand and led him, sleepily, to the house of an old squaw, and left him saying, "I'll get you this afternoon." All day long the old squaw of the Kiowa tribe told stories to the boy, sang songs, described rituals, told the history of the Kiowa. She told the boy how the tribe began out of a hollow log in the Yellowstone river, of the migration southward, the wars with other tribes, the great blizzards, the buffalo hunt, the coming of the white man, the starvation, the diminished tribe, and finally, reservation, confinement. About dark his father came and said, "Son, it's time to go." Reflecting on this experience, Momaday later said, "I left her house that day a Kiowa."
4.
Joshua says, "Gather around. Let me tell you a story." And the LORD through Joshua reminds the people of their masterful story:
"A long, long time ago, your ancestors lived beyond the Euphrates River. Terah was among them, and his sons Nahor and Abraham. In those days, they worshipped other gods. But I, the LORD, took Abraham and led him beyond the river and all through Canaan’s land. And I gave him many descendants. I gave him Isaac. And to Isaac, I gave Jacob and Esau. I gave Esau the mountains of Seir to be his home, but Jacob and his children followed Joseph down to Egypt. Things got extraordinarily bad there, so I sent Moses and Aaron. I hit Egypt hard with plagues for what they had done to you, my people. And then, I led you out. I brought your ancestors up out of Egypt. And you came to the Red Sea. The Egyptians were in hot pursuit with their chariots and horsemen. The people were pushed to the very edge of the sea, and they cried out to me. And I put a cloud between you and the Egyptians and I let the sea loose on them and it covered them. You saw what I did in Egypt! You watched the whole thing! Then, you lived in the wilderness for a long time; longer than you had to because of your lack of faith. And I brought you to the country of the Amorites. They lived east of the Jordan. They fought against you, but I fought for you, and we won. I gave them into your hand and you took possession of their land, and I destroyed them for you. And then Balak the king of Moab made his appearance. He prepared to fight Israel by sending Balaam to curse you. But I would not listen to Balaam, so instead, he ended up blessing you. I saved you from him. And then you went over the Jordan and came to Jericho. The Jericho leaders ganged up on you. And so did the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. You had many enemies! But I gave them into your hand. I sent the hornet before you and it drove out the two kings of the Amorites. You didn’t have to do a thing, not so much as raise a finger. I gave you a land on which you had not labored and cities that you had not built, and you dwell in them. You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant."
"So now. Now. Therefore fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and faithfulness. Put away the gods that your father served, and serve the LORD. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."
The story comes before the choice. Yes, the choice is vital, and it's a choice between right and wrong, good and bad, and ultimately, the LORD God and other gods. But the choice is not made arbitrarily. These categories are not floating around in the air, disconnected from the way things are. They're rooted in a story, The Story. And when we know The Story, and when The Story becomes our story, our children's story, my story, it becomes easier to choose to serve the LORD. Israel was presented with their story, and then asked to choose whom they will serve. The story comes before the choice.
5.
So I'm wondering.
I'm wondering how this matter between the father and his partying son might have turned out if the son knew his story. If the son knew that "the rules" were not just an arbitrary set of regulations thought up by dad, but rooted in The Story itself. What if the son had been told his story growing up? What if he had heard The Story when he got up in the morning, put his head back on the pillow at night, gathered around the dinner table, and rode along in the family car?
"Son, God loves you with a fierce love. He sent his Son to the earth and his name was Jesus. Son, I know this is confusing, but Jesus is not only God's Son, He actually is God. And so Jesus shows us who God is and He also shows us what a perfect human life looks like. When we follow Jesus, we are becoming more like God, and more like the humans God made us to be. But when Jesus was a young man, He was arrested on trumped up charges and put on trial. He was sentenced to death, and executed on a cross."
"A cross, dad? A cross?"
"Yes, a cross. It was horrific. They nailed his hands and feet to that coarse wood, and they lifted him up on a hill outside Jerusalem for all the people to see. Son, I know this is confusing too, but this horrific event is actually good news for us. In fact, it's the best news. You see, we were separated from God because of sin. You'll come to understand what sin is more as you get older. But the Bible tells us that through the blood that Jesus shed on the cross, we can be in relationship with God again (Col. 1:20). And what’s more, Jesus didn’t stay dead. On the third day after he died, he came back to life! He was raised from the dead and He’s alive today! And through baptism--and son, I hope and pray that someday you will be baptized--we can enter into this new life too. We can become a member of God’s family, the church--you know, those people we love that we get together with on Sundays and Wednesdays? And everyday, we get to live to bring Him glory so that He knows how grateful we are. And we no longer have to fear death. Son, someday I'm going to die. And your mom's going to die. And someday, a long time from now I hope, you'll die. But because of Jesus, we don't have to fear death since the life He gives us extends into eternity. You see, son, you have a Father who adopted you. You’re part of a family you were not born into. You have forgiveness of sins that you didn’t earn. And you have a future that you don’t deserve."
6.
"Son, I want you to stop partying. You know The Story. You know it's not just my story, it's not just your mom's story, and it's not just the story of all the Christians who have long since died. It's your story. You're a part of it, a character in it. And your behavior doesn't match up with The Story you're a part of. It doesn't match up with the story I know you want to tell with your life. So I want you to stop. You know who you are. Now, make your choice."
Maybe, just maybe, the son decides not to go the party that night.
