A Witness Against Us
Psalm 56, 57, [58] • Psalm 64, 65
Joshua 24:16-33 • Rom. 16:1-16 • Matt. 27:24-31
This morning, I would like to focus on the passage from Joshua. This snippet comes from the end of the conquest of the land across the Jordan river. Moses had led his people out of Egypt as far as the river. He died, Joshua took over, and then the Israelites had to wrest the land of Caanan from its original inhabitants in order to finally live in the land promised to Abraham a couple of hundred years before.
The piece that especially caught my attention was Joshua 24:27: “Joshua said to all the people, ‘See, this stone shall be a witness against us; for it has heard all the words of the Lord that he spoke to us; therefore it shall be a witness against you, if you deal falsely with your God.’”
Joshua had raised a monument to remind his people of the events that had led them to the land of Caanan - slavery, riots, hunger, thirst, military conquest, and rocketing between faith and doubt in the Lord.
This image of the stone as a witness is rich with connections. I think of the pilgrimage that the Becoming Beloved Community group took to see the dedication of the Elaine Massacre Memorial. The dedication involved recounting the history of racism and violence 100 years prior in Helena, Arkansas. The history was painful and gross, full of awful bigotry even within our beloved Episcopal Church. It was something we would love to just leave behind. But there was also a promise that remembering it would serve us in the future.
What symbols do you use to remind you of important moments? Do you have art or trinkets that bring up those rich memories, or know of a monument that reminds you of our shared history? How do those symbols prompt the stories of the past?
Written by Haley Hixson
During the pandemic, I’ve been thinking a lot about the imagery I miss from St Paul’s. I’ve made a mural in my home to remind me of the last stained glass I saw leaving the place in March—the stained glass above the western exit of the building. Below is a picture!
