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Stones and Stories
October 17, 1999
Pastor Dan Baumgartner
Joshua
4:15-24
“What
do we do now?” Joshua had heard the question
many times before, but it had never been his problem. Joshua
hadn’t been the leader of God’s people Israel,
Moses had. But Moses was gone now, and Joshua was
leading the people.
And
Joshua had been obediently listening to God, and they were
on the way to a land God had hand-picked for them, “a
land flowing with milk and honey.” The people
followed behind the ark, the box that represented God’s
presence. But they had come to a river…the
Jordan River. It wasn’t a huge river, but it
was flood season, and so the river was deep and wide and
fast. And rumor had it that there were strong, hostile
tribes on the other side. The uncertainty and fear made
this river seem as deep and wide as the Grand Canyon.
“What
do we do now?” Joshua heard the questions. But
he also heard God, and so they moved ahead. The priests
went down the bank first, carrying the ark…and as
their feet touched the water, it happened…the water
stopped. It just stopped. To the left, it roared
away downstream. To the right, it piled up upstream,
and the place where the priests stood quickly became dry
ground…holy ground. And a hush came over the
Israelite people, for they knew that God was there. All
of the people crossed over to the other side. And
Joshua called upon twelve leaders to grab a stone from
the newly dry riverbed, and take it with them to the other
side.
Joshua
4:15-24
Our
family LOVES stories. Since our kids were little,
we have told them countless stories…bedtime stories,
camping stories, stories at dinner, true stories, slightly
embellished stories, totally fictional stories. And
the thing is…our kids REMEMBER stories. For
a LONG time.
Long,
long ago when I was in college, I lived in an apartment
with Bethany member Charlie Allen. It may not be hard
for you to imagine that I accumulated some great stories
from that experience. And when the kids were young,
I started sharing with them a few “Charlie and Dan” stories.
Their
favorite is about the time that Charlie and I lived on
the fourth floor of an apartment building. As bachelors
are prone to do, we were living very busy lives, staying
up late and being pretty exhausted in the morning when
we had to go to work or school. Well, one December
morning, just for something to do, I woke up early, snuck
into where Charlie was sleeping, and put a record on the
turntable. (Do
you remember what those were?)
It
was none other than Andy Williams, singing “White
Christmas.” I put the volume way up loud, hit “play,” and
snuck out of the room. When Andy started belting it
out, Charlie just about hit the ceiling. The next
morning, of course, Charlie returned the favor to me. This
went back and forth until the morning he turned up the
volume ALL the way, at 5 a.m.
When
that music started blaring, I guess I lost my head. I
bolted out of bed, snatched the record off the turntable,
opened the sliding balcony door, and Frisbee-d Andy off
the fourth floor balcony…never to be heard from
again. To this day…my kids will periodically
say, “Dad, tell us the story about you and Charlie
and that CD-thing!” They know the story better
than I do. It’s become a part of them.
Now,
ancient cultures were oral cultures. That is, the
history of a people was passed from person to person, generation
after generation, by speaking. People told and retold
the important stories until they were imbedded inside of
them…memorized beyond any chance of forgetting. We
have been systematically losing that in our modern world. Today
we have such a vast amount of information bombarding us,
it’s hard to sort out what’s important. We
do less and less storytelling, and therefore less story-remembering. We
throw a few facts onto a computer screen, hit the e-mail
button, and presto…we can instantly forget even
the little bit of information we just sent.
Joshua
knew about stories. He’d grown up with them. But
in his day, the memories of the Israelite people often
grew dim. Despite the fact that God had saved them
from slavery in Egypt, brought them across the Red Sea,
provided them with manna from heaven to eat, and water
from a rock to drink…OFTEN the people would almost
immediately begin to complain and moan. “Doesn’t
God care about us? Won’t He take care of us?” They
would always come to the next fork in the road, and the
first words always seemed to be, “God, what have
you done for us LATELY?”
Then
here…in this story…as the people are poised
to enter the land that God has prepared for them, as they
stand fearfully on the east side, wondering how they’ll
ever make that last 100 feet…God does something
big. Really big. He dams a river. He not
only gives them safe passage, as he had at the Red Sea…but
in doing so, again says to them “Don’t be afraid. I’m
right here with you. Keep walking ahead.”
But. God
wants them to remember. So he has Joshua choose one
person from each of the twelve tribes to pick up a stone
from the dry riverbed…a big rock that normally was
underwater…and carry it to the other side. And
then stack them there all together.
It
seems strange, at first. Just a stack of rocks. Why
not build a commemorative statue of Joshua, to remember
his leadership? Or why not duplicate the Tower of
Babel, to remember what human ingenuity could accomplish? Or
how about a soaring cathedral, right there at the edge
of the river…an architectural wonder.
Not
here. Just a pile of rocks. A pile of rocks for
just one purpose…so that the story of GOD would
be told…and remembered, deep down inside…and
never let go of.
“Dad,
Dad, tell us the story about these rocks piled here by
the river! C’mon Mom, tell us, what are they
for? What do they mean?”
“Oh,
yes, let me tell you that story. It was right here
that we crossed the river…ON DRY GROUND. It
was right here that your Dad and I suddenly knew we were
in the presence of God…a mighty, powerful God who
cared about us. We saw it with our own eyes…God
gave us a highway -- no, a freeway -- into the land…JUST
LIKE HE PROMISED. You see, kids, God is faithful. Don’t
ever forget.”
To
this day, the Jewish faith has a wonderful way of remembering
the story of God’s faithfulness. On the night
of the Jewish seder, the Passover meal, as they eat their
bitter herbs and unleavened bread, it is the role of the
youngest child to ask the question:
“What
does this meal mean? Why do we do this?” And
the father then tells the story of the Exodus…God’s
story. “We were slaves in Egypt…and God
brought us out with a mighty hand.” They don’t
want to EVER forget God’s story with His people.
But
people do forget. We forget. We hide from God,
or think our life will turn out well because of our own
ingenuity. So we build skyscrapers and monuments and
towers and think, “Now we’ve really accomplished
something.” But they don’t amount to…a
pile of rocks. And so God acted again…in many
times and ways, but at one particular time, God came and
gave every bit of Himself…gave His Son. He
went beyond saving people from war, from enemies, went
beyond finding them a new home. Went beyond even death,
chose to come right here, right among us, in Jesus Christ. He
came and said, “Oh, people, you’re missing
it. You’ve forgotten me. Life is consuming
you, and you’re far away. I’ve come to
open a highway…a highway back to God through both
life and death. I’ve done it on the cross…and
I will never leave you.”
We
need piles of rocks. Rocks that will chain us to the
story. That will intertwine our story with God’s
story. When our kids say to us, “Mom, Dad…Grandpa,
Grandma, Uncle…what does that pile of rocks mean? Why
do you wear that little cross around your neck?” we
get to answer, “I wear it because this cross
reminds me that God loves me so much, there is NOTHING
he wouldn’t do…and He loves you like that
too. Don’t ever forget.”
Rockpiles
tie us to our past. They remind us of things that
God has done. But it doesn’t stop there. When
we remember something God has done, somewhere that God
has met us…it builds our trust for the future. Each
time we remember God’s faithfulness, our trust deepens,
and we become a little more likely, the next time a challenge
arises, to say, “Wait, why am I so scared? I
know God will be with me through this. He has before…I
can trust Him. And we realize that we follow after
a God who didn’t just act thousands of years
ago…but a LIVING God, present and active now. We
need rockpiles to remind us.
In
my desk drawer at home, buried under a pile of rulers and
paper clips is a little envelope. And in that envelope
is a $1 bill, and 2 quarters. That $1.50 is like a
pile of rocks to me. I got it about seven years ago. It
was 7:00 in the morning, and I was sitting down at the
SPU cafeteria, reading before going into the office.
Actually,
I was pretending to read…but I was really worrying. I
was worrying because Anne and I had become convinced that
God was calling us out of business, out of a fair amount
of security, and out of Seattle into full-time ministry
in only God-knew-where.
I
was worrying about money, because I was a businessman,
and I was running cost-benefit analyses in my head, and
the “cost” part kept coming out way ahead. How
could we do it? How could we leave a solid job and
head off to seminary for three years with three little
kids? Wasn’t that irresponsible? How could
we make it?
And
as I sat there worrying, lost in my thoughts, a woman I’d
never seen before (or since) came up to my table and said, “Excuse
me. You don’t know me, but I had the strongest
sense that God wanted me to give you this.” And
she plopped a little bag down on the table, and hurried
off. I stared at the bag for a minute, and then opened
it up. Inside it was the $1 bill and 2 quarters. Now,
that wasn’t going to get us too far across the country,
was it? But for me, it was a profound message from
the Lord, at just the right moment, that we were going
to be all right. And every time I look in that drawer,
I’m reminded of how faithful God has been…it’s
a pile of rocks to me.
Sometimes
we need other people to act like a pile of rocks for us. We
get so caught up in the events of life that we lose sight
of where God has brought us…we need somebody to
remind us, bring us our perspective, remind us that God
has been faithful in the past, that things have happened
that we NEVER could have guessed. Sometimes we just
need somebody to remind us that God is STILL at work.
I
had a friend years ago who EVERY, SINGLE time we were together
for coffee or breakfast would look at me across the table
and say, “So, Dan…what’s the Lord teaching
you right now?” And I would have to stop and
think about where I had seen or felt or heard God that
week…and it was a reminder that our God is not just
a God of history, but a living God who is active.
This
week Anne and I went down to visit the new building that
houses ECOM…Emerald City Outreach Ministries, the
group that is doing such great work in the Rainier Valley. As
we drove up Rainier Avenue, we could see the little tiny
cramped brick building that housed the ministry for several
years. And then, right next door, the spacious modern
building that was brand new. It was an obvious contrast. And
when we went inside, we could see the ministries that God
had faithfully raised up. A computer lab, job training,
parenting classes, marriages seminars… great stuff. As
we drove away, I took a good look at those
two buildings… not because of the buildings, but
what they represented…God being faithful, God growing
this ministry, God being trustworthy in new ways. A
pile of rocks.
There
are piles of rocks all over this church, as well. Bethany
folks on the mission field, people that God has called
in impossible circumstances, and has been faithful to use
in ministry. There are folks sitting beside you in
the pew that are rock piles (note: you don’t need
to call them such!)…people who have quietly lived
out their faith day by day, year by year, following Jesus,
telling His story. And we look at them, and we are
reminded that God is at work. And we can only say, “Thank
you. Thank you that you won’t let us forget
the story. Thank you that you persist after God…it
reminds me that I want to too.” And I would
encourage you to tell those folks thank you, as well.
Friends,
the past has everything to do with the future. The
piles of rocks remind us of how God has BEEN faithful,
and they tell us He is faithful still. God does not
always act in the same way, nor in the way we necessarily
expect. But he WILL act.
The
Lord has given us Himself in his only Son, Jesus Christ. And
no matter how deep the waters may roll back and resume
their course…we are different people as we learn
to trust God.
And
then…there is the one pile of stones which cannot
be shaken…not by earthquake or water…that
is the cross of Christ. And this we MUST not forget. We
must not take it for granted…and we do, sometimes. We
must not let each other forget. We need to see this
precious pile of stones and be reminded of the mighty,
roaring, tender, mysterious, persistent love of God, shown
in Jesus.
And
when OUR children (grandchildren, nieces, nephews, neighbors)
ask us this question… “What about this cross? What
does it mean?” Then for God’s sake…for
our children’s sake…for our sake…let
us be ready to answer. To tell of what God has done…to
tell of what God is doing. Amen.
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