Joshua 3:7-17
Matthew 23:1-12
1 Thessalonians 2:9-13 

Today is All Saints Sunday! Yesterday, November 1st is celebrated by many nations as the Day of the Dead.  It is a joyous time of remembrance.  For nearly 2,000 years the Christian church has celebrated November 1st as Memorial Day as we focus on those who have graduated to be with God.  The church believes that all persons are in the process of Sainthood which is only completed when we have achieved complete God consciousness. 

Unfortunately, our Christian holidays have been co-opted by our national culture.  This is true of All Saints Day as we have focused on All Hallowed Eve and on Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.  We don’t have to get rid of these others but we do need to recognize that the greed of commercialism can take over so that we miss the spiritual significance. So on this day of the year we focus on the promise of an everlasting journey.  That journey begins with a first step toward God consciousness.  We’ll get back to that later but first let’s examine our Old Testament lesson for today.

We join those weary people whose parents were slaves in Egypt.  They have been wandering in the desert for 40 years following Moses lead.  Now they have made their way north through the mountains of Moab and as they are approaching the Jordan River they see the long awaited promised land.  There must have been a great deal of excitement mixed with fear as they assembled at the West bank of the Jordan.  Those who had been sent ahead to scout the land came back with such fearful stories of giants and what seemed like an insurmountable task of battling the Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and  Jebusites.  Was it worth it?  What would be the cost?

So Joshua stands on the embankment, slowly surveying the landscape before turning towards the huge crowd of weary, fearful travelers.  Through God consciousness, Joshua has been given his instructions.  So he tells the crowds that “God has assured me of God’s continuing presence.  The priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant shall march into the Jordan River swollen from Spring rains and stand in the middle until all had safely passed over to the other side.”  And Joshua continues “the living God among you will be with you in battle.” 

Amazingly, as soon as the souls of the feet of the twelve selected priests touched the edge of the water, the waters parted much as they had done some 40 years earlier when they escaped certain death while fleeing from Egypt.  Can you imagine the watching that first step and the gasp of the crowd.  Can you imagine the anxiety of each of those priests as they moved to the edge of the water.  Every journey begins with the first step.  The same is true with faith as we continue our spiritual journey.

Now Joshua’s Hebrew name is translated in Aramaic as Jesus.   Both of them had God consciousness so completely that, God spoke and acted through each of them in miraculous ways.  When Jesus said that God was in him and he was in God, it was due to God consciousness.  He also said that even greater things could be accomplished by you because you too will come to a God consciousness when you take seriously what Jesus continues to teach you.   

God consciousness is what Jesus taught his disciples for three years before getting killed.  God consciousness is radically different from what most people believe!  It is the expectation of a total new way of life.  That is why Jesus kept talking about the new kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.  God is the new political power to the people.  It is a new creation, the old is passing away and the new is coming.  The earliest church sought to live that God consciousness.  Yet it only took 200 years before the original vision began to erode.  That’s because people become too self complacent about the dynamic God has in mind for his creation.  That’s because people talk a good line but don’t walk the talk.

That brings us to our Gospel lesson assigned for today.  Last Sunday we talked about the ultimate law in the new kingdom of God on earth.  It is simply love – love of God so complete that we are one in mind with God!  It is love of others, especially those who need it the most, and especially those who seem threatening to us.  Today’s gospel lesson finds Jesus again struggling with the teachers of the law and the Pharisees.  He says to the crowds that while the teachers of the law and Pharisees have the authority by virtue of sitting in Moses’ seat, you must obey them and do everything they tell you.  But don’t do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.  Everything is for show to impress you with how important they are.  They place tremendous burdens of law on all the people but ignore those same laws themselves.  They look down on those they consider inferior to themselves.  You are not to do that if you are to have God consciousness.  When you look to your servant, recognize that he is the greatest among you.  Beware of exalting yourselves.  

There it is!  Our first step in the waters of our spiritual journey is rediscovering Jesus for the first time.  That means that we must stop trying so hard to impress others and to be so easily offended by them.  We must also stop trying to impress God.  In doing so, you block the path to God.  Instead we must risk getting our feet wet by seeing ourselves through the eyes of God.  God seeks you to be the light of the world.  That means you don’t judge others, so that you may not be judged.  “Before you try to take a mote out of your brother’s eye, first remove the log from your own.”  You are to proclaim the equality of souls so that you treat the rich and the poor equally in the name of God.  That’s God consciousness and the first step as you get your feet wet in this new kingdom of God on earth.    

So what gets in the way?  Our pride mostly!  It’s all about love!  Love that is selfish, conditional, and demanding cannot be turned into love for God.  We have to love one another as Jesus loves us and that takes time.  Jesus, aware that each person needs to rise from their present state to a higher one, tells them to live as if they were already there.  Yet that can seem impossible without a hand up.  God needs your hands and mine to do that.  With each step, God supports us and leads us forward.  The Gnostics understood this.  Their version read, “Love your brother like your soul, guard him like the pupil of your eye.” (Thomas 46). Only when another person is as close to you as your own soul is your love like Jesus.  This is not just nice sounding ideas, but the reality of what God seeks for each of us.   

Deepak Chopra tells of a friend who had become disenchanted with the church and no longer attended.  However, on a particular Easter, he attended services at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.  He loved the pomp and circumstance and the beautiful music.  But he was bored by the sermon as t he Bishop droned on.  Right beside him a man in shabby clothes knelt on the cold marble floor for the  entire hour.  The man obviously knew every line of the responses and prayers as he continued with his hands folded and his eyes closed.  Tourists had noticed the man and had used their cell phones to take his picture.  Chopra’s friend told him that he was tempted to also join the man by kneeling but he was the only one around doing it.  Obviously his friend missed the opportunity of getting his feet wet.  What was he afraid of? 

Most of the time, it is fear that keeps us from humbling ourselves.  We fear loss of prestige or loss of money or loss of health or..  Think about it, what keeps you from getting your feet wet when God nudges you.  How often is it you and I rationalize our neglect of others in need?   Perhaps we are afraid there would be some risk involved because of the litigious nature of our culture.  Perhaps we are afraid that we can’t afford to help out that person who is seems so undeserving.  Perhaps we are afraid of what others would say.  We get nowhere if we just stand there frozen either in fear or in disbelief.   We need to take the first step and get our feet wet.  The Holy Spirit continues to nudge us and we need to move!  Spirit, like water, only remains fresh if it flows.  The love of God in Christ constantly seeks to flow in you and in me if only we risk letting go of fear and our self preoccupation.

Years ago, I was serving as a student intern in a small church in Trenton, NJ.  The community had greatly deteriorated and our Presbyterian church had been sold to an African American congregation.  I had elected to stay in the community working now with a Baptist church doing community organizing.  Most of our neighbors were the poorest of the poor.  A number of suburban churches agreed to help with resources.  One day we were working on the restoration of a row house that our neighborhood ministry had purchased for a community center.  During a break, one of those who had come to help said to me: “I would love to come down and help more often but it frightens me so.  You see I used to live here and it took everything I had to finally manage to move to the suburbs.  I know that I am only a banana peel away from losing everything I have worked so hard for and ending back here.   It is so frightening that I can’t keep coming back to help.”

I understand that kind of fear.  I also know that perfect love casts out fear.  I am far from perfect and my love and faith are also weak.  It seems impossible to think about creating perfect love and it is.  That love and faith only comes as a gift when I am willing to get my feet wet.  Then I experience a hint of that God consciousness which reveals unique truth that the world resists.  It doesn’t nicely fit our lifestyle.    

Years ago I read about the time when Albert Schweitzer stepped off the train to accept his Nobel Prize and other dignitaries stepped up to shake his hand.  At that moment, he waved them off stating, “Just a minute please.”  He then proceeded through the crowd to where a single Asian woman was struggling with her baggage and young child.  He helped her to the train and after seeing her aboard, returned to those waiting to greet him.   One person commented that he had just seen a sermon walking. 

We live in a critical age. Global warming is screaming for attention.  Half the population lacks adequate health care resources.  Now as the economy continues to shrink, it strikes one person after another like a tidal wave.  We are beginning to understand that we are in the middle of a financial epidemic of global proportions.  At the same time, the church finds itself with the opportunity of God consciousness as it goes beyond self preservation and seeks to be all that God has created her to be in the world.  We can no longer afford to just go about business as usual.  We need to position ourselves to be part of the answer rather than part of the problem.  The answers must come from God.  We need to be much more serious as we seek God consciousness through prayer and practice. 

Lewis Austin, in This I Believe, wrote: “’Our maker gave us two hands.  One to hold onto him and one to reach out to his people.  If our hands are full of struggling to get possessions, we can’t hang onto God or to others very well.  If, however, we hold onto God, who gave us our lives, then his love can flow through us and out to our neighbor”.

This should sound familiar to us for we believe that we are Experiencing Christ’s love and Extending Christ’s hands!
    

Joshua 3:7-17 
And the LORD said to Joshua, "Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses.  Tell the priests who carry the Ark of the Covenant: 'When you reach the edge of the Jordan's waters, go and stand in the river.'"

 Joshua said to the Israelites, "Come here and listen to the words of the LORD your God.  This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites.  

See, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you.  

Now then, choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe.  And as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the LORD -the Lord of all the earth—set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap."

So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them.  Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water's edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (the Great Salt Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho.  The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.

Matthew 23:1-12 Seven Woes
Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples:  "The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat.  So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.  They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.

"Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; 6they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them 'Rabbi.'  “But you are not to be called 'Rabbi,' for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth 'father,' for you have one Father, and he is in heaven.  Nor are you to be called 'teacher,' for you have one Teacher, the Christ. The greatest among you will be your servant.  For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

1 Thess. 2:9-13  The Word at Work  
Surely you remember, brothers, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you.  You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed.  For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.  And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe.