Readings: Joshua 24:1-2, 15-18; Psalm 34; Ephesians 5:21-32; John 6:60-69
Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus be with you. In the first reading of today, Joshua assembled the leaders of the people of Israel at Shechem and asked them to decide on who they want to serve, God their deliverer, or the gods of other nations.
Today, many people are living their lives back and forth, postponing visions and missions, indecisive and unstable. At some point in life, we just have to make decisions, what we want in life, who we want to be, how we want to live, who we want to serve.
The key message of Joshua to the people is the same message to us, choose today whom you wish to serve.
Dear friends, who are we really serving? Are we really serving God? Are we serving God as He desires?
Among other things to serve God requires these four things.
A. Exclusive worship:
We can’t serve God together with anyone or anything else. God doesn’t collaborate with any idol, we are either totally for Him in pure faith or we are for other gods. There is no partial or double commitment. God is supreme and sufficient and so it is an offence to His sovereignty and supremacy to try to complement Him by honouring another entity as god (Exodus 20:3, Deuteronomy 5:7).
B. Total obedience:
A person who serves God must surrender his/her will to God. We serve God principally with a surrendered will. We follow what He says, go where He leads and accept what He wills. It doesn’t have to be where or what we want (1 Sam 15:22).
Surrender of will entails complete obedience. Obedience to God’s word. To serve the Lord means to bring our life under the direction of His word, allowing the Word of God to guide and direct our steps and living within its dictate and provisions.
C. Unconditional service
A person who claims to serve God must serve unconditionally. God will be God in all seasons, no matter the condition, no matter the gain or loss, whether we receive what we want or not. This is what it means to serve in truth. Some have stopped serving God because of tragedy and ungranted wishes.
In today’s Gospel, some people stopped following Jesus because they didn’t get the bread they wanted and they didn’t want the message they got. This is not the kind of service or worshippers that God wants.
D. Serving Him in others
A person who serves God must serve Him in his/her neighbour. We must see, love and serve God in others. This is why people like Mother Teresa, St Elizabeth of Hungary, and St Damian of Molokai etc. could leave their comfort to serve God in the poorest of the poor and the lowly.
We must treat others with the love of God for the sake of God. This is how we can understand the second reading of today. St Paul admonishing husband and wife to see, love and respect God in each other.
It is very disheartening the state of many homes today. I have seen heartless, insensitive, selfish, cruel, abusive husbands as well as wives. It’s so sad how some people only honour and invest in weddings and destroy the sacred institution of marriage
Today, let us heed the message of Joshua; God has called us not just to be churchgoers or nominal Christians but to be people who serve the Lord.
To those who serve the Lord faithfully, He will say to them when they meet Him, “Welcome, good and faithful servant.” To those who are unfaithful and unserious, He will say, “I do not know you.”
Sermon preached by Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Baraka-Gukena Okami on August 22, 2021