This year represents the 80th anniversary of the closing of the Los Alamos Ranch School. I’ve seen different dates, one for a graduation and closure on January 23, and another on April 15, but regardless the Army’s Manhattan project with which we are so familiar took over control of the property in the spring of 1943. And so, while we have this idea, or I might better say the outside world has this idea, of the Army sort of creating Los Alamos out of nothing, there were already buildings and homes here for the project to us. Although if they had known how big the project would become, they later admitted they would not have chosen this location, and then where would we all be? But it seemed like the right place for so many reasons for a small collection of scientist to do their thing without having to create everything from scratch. And while many of those who came during the war certainly didn’t think of this being the promised land, in fact some probably said some words about it that can’t be repeated here, many came to love the place as so many of us do. But, like those who first came, we might also take for granted what we already have, or maybe even think that we had everything to do with the fruit we are harvesting now, for lack of a better metaphor. And in that, we are not any different from generations of our ancestors, including the ancient Israelites.
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I think the passage we heard today is a great reminder of that. The people have long since moved into the promised land and defeated their enemies and they have been successful and apparently, they have let this all go to their heads. And even though they have made a covenant with God in the promised land, Joshua and then God have to remind the people what has actually happened. The people want to say, we did this, we built all this, and maybe even started worshipping other gods. Now its certainly possible that this is literally others gods, but perhaps its also other things that can take the form of a god, property, wealth, prestige, to name just a few. But God says to them, amongst other things, “I gave you a land on which you had not labored, and towns that you had not built, and you live in them; you eat the fruit of vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.” That is God is reminding them that they may have prospered, but God is the one who gave it to them first, and they also inherited all the other things. The land was already prepared with crops, and the homes were already there, and the vineyards and orchards were in place before they arrived. This is not to say that they didn’t have to do work in order to maintain it and harvest it and keep it going, but the hardest work was already done, and it was given to them by God.
In some ways this is related to what Paul is talking about
in Romans of being saved by faith alone. And one of the reasons Paul emphasizes
this fact is because, he says, if salvation, if righteousness, was dependent
upon our actions, or the actions of Abraham in the case he’s making, they he
could boast about it. And perhaps we might even create a hierarchy of
righteousness so that they more we do, the better we are, or the better we want
people to think we are. But, once again God is saying “you didn’t build that.”
You didn’t plant those crops or build those homes, I did that and you received
it from me as gift, as a blessing, not as payment or reward for what we have
done, but because of who we are and whose we are. That we are God’s people and
God is our God. It’s all a gift freely given to us, we didn’t earn it and we
should give credit where credit is due. And so, Joshua then tells the people
that they need to choose this day who they are going to worship and serve, and
then a famous line from Joshua, he says as for me and my household we will
worship and serve the Lord. And then he asks the people what they are going to
do? Whom are you going to worship and serve, Joshua asks? And warns them that
they shouldn’t make this decision lightly, because to say that you are going to
serve the Lord means that you have to put all the other things behind you, for
as Jesus says you cannot serve two masters, you cannot serve God and anything
else, so choose this day whom you will serve, and the people, just like Joshua,
say that they will serve the Lord and so Joshua makes with them a new covenant.
And so, where do we find ourselves in that story? Well I
hope that it starts with the confession of faith and the desire to put everything
else behind that commitment to God, especially as we think about our vision of
who we are and what we are called to do. Number one on our list of values is
that we are Christ-centered, and so I hope that we can also say that as for me
and my household we will serve the Lord. Can we actually say that together? If
you remember nothing else from today’s message, or even this series, remember
that it starts with this confession. And one of the things that we believe as
Methodists is that we don’t just make this confession once, we get the
opportunity to make it every single day, or even every single moment of every
single day. That means that we can celebrate when we do something good, but not
rest on our laurels because we have to move forward, and it also means that we
can move on when we make a mistake because now is a new opportunity to be a
servant of God. And notice that it’s about serving the Lord, which means doing something,
not just believing something, and also listening to what God is calling us to
do. And it also means recognizing the faith that has been passed on to us from
all of the others who have made that same commitment, that same dedication over
the millennia. And so, if we are talking
about building upon what God has done for us, the fields and houses with which
we started, that’s a good place to start, and then more specifically to the
founding of this congregation. Those who had the vision and desire to form a
Methodist church in Los Alamos, and did the work to bring us this location and
the current structure of the building which has had different forms over time.
We stand on their shoulders to be here today. And one of the things that people
mentioned was the faithfulness of our members, and a desire to grow and deepen
their faith, or to answer Joshua’s question in the affirmative.
It’s also about a sense of being welcoming, friendly and
loving. Which fits nicely into our newest saying about ourselves that we are
God’s love in action. And that too is a gift that we build upon that’s given to
us by God, why? Because we love because God first loved us. And honestly that’s
the foundation upon which everything else is based because if we don’t do that
right, nothing else we do right will matter. If we aren’t authentic in the love
that we show to the world, people can sense it right away. I’m sure that some
of you have been to a church that wasn’t welcoming or friendly, although they
probably thought they were, or you can go somewhere and you get swarmed as if
they haven’t seen a guest in a hundred years. But that sense of welcoming and
community are important and becoming more so, especially in a community that is
highly transient and in which few people are native, finding and building
community is important, and that’s true for all ages, and as Los Alamos
continues to grow that plays a critical role. Because let’s be honest, people
don’t really care what you claim to believe, what they care about is how it is
lived out and how what we do impacts their lives and not only helps them but
they are also concerned with how we are making the world a better place, and
before we move onto that, let me just add one additional comment. Several
people mentioned having young adults and youth more involved in worship. We
make those opportunities available to everyone, and just as I don’t make anyone
else do it, the same is true for those who are younger, although I will mention
that many of them are very involved in things that happen behind the scenes, so
just because you don’t see them up here, doesn’t mean they aren’t involved. But
back to celebrating and building upon missions.
Because our missions, our being God’s love to the world, is
also clearly built upon those who have come before, and we should celebrate
that and recognize that, while also knowing that those things don’t always have
to look or stay the same. Moses led the people through the wilderness and was
their guide and leader, but it was Joshua who led them across the river and
into the promised land, and through the new challenges and opportunities that
lay before them that Moses probably could have never expected. And the same is
true for us. We have opportunities before us, great opportunities to offer the
good news, hope and healing and peace, to the world. And we have the resources
and assets, including financial assets, to be able to do it. And while some it
of may look the same as what we have done before, some of it may look
different. We may use the fields and houses that we have inherited in new and
different ways, but with the same goal and purpose of being God’s love and
making disciples of Jesus Christ, calling people into relationship with God.
And that work starts with that proclamation of faith of saying that we and our household, we are going to serve the Lord, and then recognizing all the blessings that God has already given to us, the things that God has done to get us to this point, to recognize the giants of the faith who have come before us upon whose shoulders we stand. And those who have passed the baton on to us to do what is necessary, to change where needed, and to keep harvesting the fruit that has already been planted, to be God’s people here in this place, to continue to seek God’s vision for us as individuals and as a church and to do the Kingdom work that God has called for us to participate in working with God to do amazing and miraculous things. I pray that it will be so my brothers and sisters. Amen.
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