As For Me and My House

But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
Joshua 24:15b NKJV

This verse has been rolling around in my mind a lot recently. Our rector, vestry, and most of the staff have all resigned in order to leave the Episcopal Church. I suspect about half of the congregation is going to leave as well. Next Sunday is our rector's last day of preaching, as the Bishop has asked him to leave earlier than his resignation date. We never would have stayed at the church for this past year and a half if we had not thought that it would soon come to this. Yet, it is a little scary as we embark upon this new journey.

I am going to miss our church building. I'll miss the stained glass windows, the choir loft, the pipe organ, and the library that I was helping to organize. But, I am constantly reminded that the church is not a building, but people. Just as the house in the Joshua passage above is not the physical structure, but the people in the family.

If you keep reading the Joshua passage, Joshua wants the people to know that service to the Lord is not something to take lightly. When the Israelites finally respond, "The Lord our God we will serve, and His voice we will obey!" Joshua makes a covenant with them.

Dear Lord, may I take seriously what it means to serve You and obey Your voice.