Naylor Community
Christian Church
26 May 2024
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Joshua 4:1-9
Joshua
4:1 When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord said to
Joshua, 2 “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, 3 and
tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from right
where the priests are standing, and carry them over with you and put them down
at the place where you stay tonight.”
4
So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites,
one from each tribe, 5 and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the Lord
your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on
his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, 6 to
serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do
these stones mean?’ 7 tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before
the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of
the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of
Israel forever.”
8
So the Israelites did as Joshua commanded them. They took twelve stones from
the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the
Israelites, as the Lord had told Joshua; and they carried them over with them
to their camp, where they put them down. 9 Joshua set up the twelve stones that
had been in the middle of the Jordan at the spot where the priests who carried
the ark of the covenant had stood. And they are there to this day.
-- in her song, “The Way We Were,”
Barbara Streisand famously sang these words:
“Memories
Like the corners of my mind
Misty watercolor memories
Of the way we were
Scattered pictures
Of the smiles we left behind
Smiles we gave to one another
For the way we were
Can it be that it was all so simple then?
Or has time rewritten every line?
If we had the chance to do it all again
Tell me, would we, would we,
Could we, could we?”
-- one of the most precious and
distinct attributes of human beings is our capacity to remember -- to remember
what has been -- to remember who has been -- to know who we are and what we have
done -- to remember and to be remembered -- to know and to be known
-- our personalities -- our lives --
our being -- are wrapped up in these memories -- we are who we are today based
on what happened in the past -- on the experiences we have had -- and our memories
of ourselves and those around us -- especially loved ones -- and the memories
of our shared experiences direct our paths in the future in ways we don’t fully
understand
-- memory is important --
remembering is important -- that is why dementia and Alzheimer's are such
devastating diseases -- it’s because those memories that Barbara Streisand sang
about are slowly erased and can cause us to lose who we are
-- “[several years ago,] BBC Radio 3, the
U.K.'s primary classical music station, ran a fascinating series of articles on
music and memory -- Adam Zeman, a Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral
Neurology, [was one of the authors and] wrote about amnesia and memory loss and
their relationship to epilepsy.
-- “Zeman mentioned two patients, Peter
and Marcus, who described their amnesia in very similar terms. -- One said:
"My memory of my past is a blank space. I feel lost and hopeless. I'm
trying to explore a void."
-- “Both [patients] described how
disconcerting it is to look at photos. Even though they recognize themselves,
they have no recollection of the moment. One said that it's like "reading
a biography of a stranger." He's conscious of recent memories slipping
away from him, like ships sailing out to sea in the fog, never to be seen
again.
-- “Two things stand out in Zeman's essay
-- First, without memory, it's hard to cling to an identity. -- [As] one of the
patients said: "I don't have the moorings that other people draw on to
know who they are." -- Second, it's hard to have hope when we don't know
our past.
-- As Zeman explained, "The inability
to invoke the past greatly impedes their ability to imagine a future."1
-- because our memory is so
important, God advises us in His word to remember -- to remember Him and the
mighty acts that He has done for us -- to remember our community and those in
our community -- and to remember ourselves -- who we are in Christ and who we
are in His story
-- we see this call to remember all
the way back in the Old Testament -- in Numbers 15:37-41, God tells Moses to
instruct the Israelites to add tassels on the corners of their garments, with a
blue cord on each tassel -- so that, when the people look at the tassels, they
will remember the Lord God Almighty -- they will remember the commands of the
Lord and obey them and not turn away from them -- they will remember who they
are in the Lord -- and how He brought them out of Egypt to be their God -- they
will remember they are the people of God
-- we see a similar call to remember
here in this passage from Joshua 4:1-9 -- one of my favorite passages in the
Bible -- let’s look at this together and see what we can learn about
remembering through this story of the Israelites crossing into the Promised
Land
II. Scripture Reading/Lesson (Joshua 4:1-9)
-- as we start, let me give you the background
and context of this passage so you can better understand what is going on
-- the events of the Book of Joshua take
place after God led the Israelites out of Egypt through the Red Sea -- because
of their lack of faith and trust in Him, God had prevented them from entering
the Promised Land until that entire generation had passed away -- so, because
of God’s wrath and judgment on them, Moses led that faithless generation in the
wilderness for 40 years without any of them ever going into the Promised Land
-- the Book of Joshua opens in a time of
transition -- it begins with the death of Moses -- the 40 years of wandering in
the wilderness are now over, and the time has come for the nation of Israel to
finally cross the Jordan River and enter the Promised Land
-- Joshua has taken Moses’ place as the
leader of the nation, and he has them all assembled on the eastern bank of the
Jordan River -- right where their forefathers’ faith had failed 40 years
earlier
-- at God’s direction, Joshua has the
people of Israel consecrate themselves in preparation for entry into the
Promised Land -- he tells them to cleanse themselves from their sin and renew
their relationship with God -- to symbolically show their faith and trust in
their Lord God -- with that final step, the nation of Israel is ready to enter
the Promised Land
-- God directs the priests to take
the Ark of the Covenant and step out into the river ahead of the people -- a
symbol of God going before them -- and as soon as the priests entered the
water, the river quit flowing -- the Bible says it "backed up and the
waters stood up in a heap" -- allowing the rest of the Israelites to cross
the river on dry land, reminiscent of the moment God had brought their
forefathers out of Egypt on dry land by parting the Red Sea
-- which brings us to our passage
this morning -- Joshua Chapter 4 -- if you would, look back with me at verse 1
Joshua
4:1 When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord said to
Joshua, 2 “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, 3 and
tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from right
where the priests are standing, and carry them over with you and put them down
at the place where you stay tonight.”
-- the nation of Israel had a memory
problem -- they kept forgetting what God had done for them -- all the way back
to when Moses led the people out of Egypt, the Israelites continually forgot
what God had done and what He was doing for them
-- when they first left Egypt and were
headed towards the Promised Land, they ran out of food and water there in the
wilderness -- so, the people complained and told Moses they should never have
left Egypt, because life was so much better for them there -- quickly forgetting
how they had suffered under the yoke of bondage and how God had led them out of
Egypt and out of slavery in such a miraculous way
-- and when the nation of Israel first made
their way to the Jordan River and God directed them to go in and take the land,
they refused because they were scared of the inhabitants of the land -- they
had forgotten the mighty power and working of God against the Egyptians -- they
forgot about the parting of the Red Sea -- and they didn’t trust that God was
able to deliver them against their enemies
-- God did miracle after miracle with the
nation of Israel, but they kept forgetting what He had done, and they kept
turning away from Him, time and time again
-- so, this time, as God is once again preparing
the people of Israel to finally enter the Promised Land, He wants to make sure
that the people didn’t forget Him and His mighty works again -- this time, He gives
them a physical reminder of His power and grace -- of His presence in their
lives -- of how He defines who they are
-- God tells Joshua to send twelve
men -- one from each of the twelve tribes of Israel -- back into the Jordan
River where the priests were standing with the Ark of the Covenant -- He tells each
of them to take a stone from the middle of the river and to put the stones down
at the place where they would spend the night
-- verse 4
Joshua
4:4 So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the
Israelites, one from each tribe, 5 and said to them, “Go over before the ark of
the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a
stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites,
6 to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you,
‘What do these stones mean?’ 7 tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut
off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the
waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the
people of Israel forever.”
8
So the Israelites did as Joshua commanded them. They took twelve stones from
the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the
Israelites, as the Lord had told Joshua; and they carried them over with them
to their camp, where they put them down. 9 Joshua set up the twelve stones that
had been in the middle of the Jordan at the spot where the priests who carried
the ark of the covenant had stood. And they are there to this day.
-- Joshua did exactly what the Lord
told him to do -- he sent the men he had selected out to retrieve the stones
and told them the reason why God had commanded them to do so
-- in verses 6-7, Joshua explains
that they were to do this so that "in the future, when your children ask
you "what do these stones mean?", they would be reminded of God’s
miracle at the Jordan and could share this experience with the next generation
-- telling them how God stopped the flow of the Jordan when the priests carried
the ark of the covenant into the river -- and how God had led them into the
Promised Land on dry land, just as He had led them out of Egypt on dry land by
parting the Red Sea
-- these stones were to be a
physical reminder of God’s faithfulness on behalf of Israel -- it was to be
something that the people could look at and touch as they remembered how God
led them from the wilderness and across the Jordan River to the Promised Land
-- it was to be their burning bush moment with God
-- so, the men did as Joshua
directed
-- now ponder this: why do you think God had
one man from each tribe get the stones? -- why didn't He just have Joshua do it
or just send out a couple of guys to gather up the twelve stones for the entire
nation? -- wouldn’t that have been easier?
-- it’s simple -- it’s because each tribe
needed to remember that moment -- each tribe needed to erect a spiritual marker
of their own -- by sending someone from each tribe to gather a personal stone,
God ensured that the story of His miracle that day would be preserved forever,
passed on from generation to generation -- if any tribe had been left out, the
story might not have continued to be passed down through the members of that
tribe
-- this is a reminder to us that our faith
and our experiences with God are personal, too -- our spiritual lives cannot be
based on the faith of others -- on what God did through them -- our spiritual
lives are formed as God touches each of us, individually, and as He moves in
our churches in the communities in which He has placed them
-- that is why it’s important for all of
us to pick up our own memorial stones to remember how God has touched us personally
and individually
-- that night, Joshua set up the
stones in the midst of the people, and they all looked at the standing stones
-- at the memorial to God’s mighty acts -- and remembered
-- in verse 9, the writer of the Book of
Joshua records, “and they are there to this day”
-- these twelve river stones became a permanent
physical reminder of an experience of the nation of Israel with God -- a
reminder of God’s faithfulness in bringing the people into the Promised Land
-- it was a place for the next generation
and the ones to follow to learn the stories of faith -- to see and touch the
stones that Joshua and the 12 tribes of Israel had erected -- to know the truth
of God’s grace and mercy and faithfulness -- and to be encouraged by their
remembrance as they walked forward in faith with God in their own generations
III. Memorial Stones
-- this story expresses to us the
importance of remembering -- of keeping the past alive -- of using reminders
like memorial stones or blue tassels or other spiritual markers in our lives --
so that we won’t forget -- because, truthfully -- just like the Israelites --
we sometimes have spiritual memory problems, too
-- sometimes we find ourselves in
the middle of a storm -- battling trials and tribulations -- and we take our eyes
off God and we forget the past -- we forget all the times when God was there
for us -- all the times that God helped us in similar situations in the past --
and this forgetting can cause us to lose hope
-- or sometimes we find ourselves
experiencing blessings in our lives, and we forget how God has led us to this
very place and moment, and so we forget to praise Him for His blessing and
grace and mercy in our lives
-- sometimes we just see our
churches as buildings -- as places or locations that we go to on Sundays and
Wednesdays -- and we forget the sacredness of this place -- of the miracles and
the moments that occurred in the past
-- how many lives have been changed at
this very altar? -- how many relationships were healed in this place? -- how
many people experienced the presence of the Lord God Almighty right here?
-- and, if we forget to remember what God
has done here in the past, we can also forget the promise from God that He will
never leave us or forsake us -- that He is here today and will be here in the
future -- that He still transforms lives and hearts in this place -- if we will
but remember and trust and believe
-- that’s why God encourages us to
have symbols of remembrance in our lives -- things like these memorial stones
that Joshua and the Israelites erected on the other side of the Jordan
-- memorial stones keep us from forgetting
-- they stand as reminders of who we are and where we've been -- and the
stories these stones represent become a legacy of God’s faithfulness in our
lives and in our churches that we can pass on to our children and those who
follow in our footsteps
-- I heard a story from a missionary
one time about how he gave a Bible to a congregation in Africa that didn’t have
one -- he presented it to the pastor and the pastor held it up and showed it
proudly to the church
-- and then, to the horror of the
missionary, the pastor proceeded to rip the Bible up -- the missionary had no
idea what was going on, but he watched as the pastor handed out pages and
sections of the Bible to his members -- for none of them had a Bible, either --
and he wanted his people to have God’s word in their homes and in their lives
-- after the service, the missionary
was talking with some of the members -- and he asked one excited man what
passage he had gotten -- “Lamentations,” he proclaimed -- and the missionary
thought, “Lamentations -- that’s like the worst book -- how depressing is that”
-- and so he told the man, “Let’s see if we can get you something else -- maybe
something from the gospels”
-- the man replied, “No, this is
what I want -- it says right here, “The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah” --
and if the word of the Lord could come to Jeremiah, then it can come to me,
too”
-- that is the power and the promise
of memorial stones -- to remember the past and look to the future
-- another benefit of memorial
stones is that they can help direct our path and our ministry in the future -- we
need to always remember that God doesn’t want us to just live in the past, but
He wants us to continue in faith by moving forward and doing great things for
Him
-- memorial stones can help us continue on
in our walk with Christ because they show us where we have been -- they help us
to see how God was leading us in the past -- and they can be a road-map to show
us the direction He intends for us to travel in the future
-- when the Romans conquered
England, they built roads throughout the country -- along each road at regular
intervals and at each intersection -- they put these large marker stones to
help travelers find their way -- these stones are six to eight feet in height
-- you can still see them today in the English countryside
-- travelers could go down one of these
roads and as they were walking, they could look back and see the markers behind
them and they could line these markers up and it would show them the correct
way to go, even when they couldn't make out the path in front of them
-- our memorial stones -- our
markers -- do the same for us and for our families and our churches -- they
help us line up our lives and keep us from veering off the path that God
intends for us to travel
-- when I learned about this idea of
setting up memorial stones and spiritual markers in my life, I went back and
tried to record all the major times God had touched my life -- how He saved me
from dying in an accident when I was a child -- the moment I gave my life to
Jesus -- the experiences I had with Him at a Promise Keepers event in Tennessee
and through Bible Study Fellowship -- how He led Kim and I to join the
Methodist Church in Morven -- and how that led to me teaching Sunday School and
Bible Study and then hearing the call to go into ministry
-- and looking back at these moments with
Him, I could see a clear path -- a direction that God had been leading me all
those years -- at the time, I couldn’t see it
-- when I was walking that path, I didn’t
know where God was leading -- but because I had set up spiritual memorial
stones in my life, I was able to look back and see how God had been with me the
whole time -- leading me and directing my steps and my path all along the way
-- I can see now how He led our
family to this church -- how it was His plan for us to be here and to share our
lives with you -- and how being here has grown our faith and our trust in God because
of our shared experiences with you
-- because I had set up spiritual markers
and memorial stones in my life -- because I intentionally remembered the
moments when I had experiences with God -- I could sense where He wanted me to
go in the future
-- that is the power of memorial
stones and spiritual markers -- it is important for us to remember these
moments -- and that’s why I want to encourage you to take some time to identify
these burning bush moments in this church and in your own lives so that you can
see the faithfulness and the hand of God that has been with you all along
-- to begin setting aside memorial
stones and spiritual markers, the first thing we should do is sit down and try
to remember the moments in our lives and in this church -- times when we had an
experience with God
-- these are events like your
baptism -- the day of your salvation -- the time when God answered your prayers
and healed a loved one -- the day God comforted you in the loss of a family
member or a friend
-- the day when God called you to a
special ministry -- the day when God used you to do something important for the
Kingdom, such as sharing the gospel and leading someone to Christ
-- as you sit down and try to
remember these moments, it might be helpful to write them down or to make a
timeline of your life and mark these moments on that timeline to help you see
how God has moved in your life over time
-- as you know, I volunteer from
time-to-time with a prison ministry called Kairos, and this was one of the
exercises we led the prisoners through back in the early days of Kairos -- we
had them make a timeline and history of where they had been and where they were
headed -- physically and spiritually
-- and it helped them to see how God was
with them early in their lives and it gives them hope that He would be with
them in the future -- even though they may have made choices that led them away
from Him and into prison, this timeline of spiritual stones reminded them that
God was not through with them -- and that He would continue to reach out to
them no matter where they were
-- seeing God’s hand in your life
and noting the moments with Him on a timeline can help you see how God has led
you in the past and where He is leading you now
-- additionally, these markers can
serve as reminders of God’s faithfulness -- if He worked in your life in a
mighty and powerful way in the past, then you can face anything in the future in
the knowledge that He will be there for you again
-- perhaps you have a physical
reminder of a special moment with God, like the memorial stones that Joshua
raised up for the nation of Israel -- like those rocks that Roger is always
giving out to people
-- find those reminders and keep them in a
place where you can see them regularly -- so that you won’t forget -- so that
you will remember
-- I am also a firm believer that
churches need to document these spiritual markers in their history by putting
up memorial stones, too
-- the stories of God’s hand and
work in a church community are powerful and can remind everyone of the great
things He has done and will do in the future
-- times such as the day when this
church gathered around one of its own -- to share in someone’s joy -- to share
their burdens -- to help them in times of sorrow and loss
-- we need to remember the
faithfulness of the founders of this church -- we need to tell the stories of
the lives that have been changed through the ministry of this church -- of the
salvations and the baptisms -- of the remembrances of lives well-lived -- of
times of fellowship and sorrow and joy -- of ministries that have occurred
-- we need to note the important
dates and events that occurred in this community, because these stories will
inspire greatness and increase faith and trust in God and point the way for the
next generations
-- the Apostle Paul routinely wrote
in his epistles that he had heard of the faith of the churches that he was
writing to -- he had heard of their experiences with God because they had
shared the stories with others
-- what are the stories of faith that come
from this church? -- what stories about you have others heard, and how has it
inspired their own journeys of faith?
-- we need to remember those stories
-- write them down -- put up memorial stones and tell the next generations
about them -- because we all need to remember how God has moved here in this
place and in your individual lives as we look forward to where He is leading in
the future
-- and, finally, tomorrow is a
reminder to us that countries need memorial stones, too -- tomorrow is Memorial
Day -- the day we remember those who sacrificed their lives for our country -- who
believed so much in the idea of America that they were willing to give their
lives for that dream
-- our country is broken right now -- it
is more divided than I have ever seen it -- we are hurting as a country -- and
it is time for us to remember our past -- to remember how God blessed this
country from the beginning and how God used America to change this world and
the lives of so many people for the better
-- these stories need to be remembered and
told, just like the stories of our spiritual lives need to be remembered and
told -- and the headstones of our veterans should serve as important reminders
for us of who we once were as a nation and where we need to go in the future
IV. Closing
-- as we bring this to a close, let
me share with you one more thought -- I was listening to an interview with John
Swinton on the Good Faith podcast this week -- Swinton was discussing how to
live in the memories of God -- focusing on the theological aspects of dementia
-- too often, we look at those with
dementia or Alzheimer’s and we only see them slipping away -- we see how they
no longer can remember who they are or who we are -- how their memories of the
past that were so important in defining who they were are slowly being taken
from them -- that’s why some have called their experiences with loved ones
going through these diseases as “the long goodbye”
-- but Swinton pointed out something
in this interview that I felt was profound -- as long as someone else
remembers, these people still live -- as long as someone else remembers who
they were and what they did -- the shared experiences they had -- then their
stories are not lost -- they are remembered and are kept alive as part of the
family and the community of faith
-- even though the person may have
forgotten, our remembrances of them keep them whole
-- that’s why memorial stones are so
important -- they are reminders of who we are -- as churches -- as communities
of faith -- and as individuals called by God
-- we are called to remember -- to
remember God -- to remember His faithfulness -- to remember who we are in Him
-- Jesus Himself made that point when He instituted the sacrament of Holy
Communion -- He told us to do this in remembrance of Him -- that by remembering
what He had done, we would remember the story and our part in His death and
resurrection
-- spiritual memorial stones serve to
remind us of God’s faithfulness -- they stand as living monuments of hope to
help us remember and they point to God’s promises for the future
-- In this passage from Joshua, the
Israelites needed to remember what God had done for them in the past so they
might have the courage to stand on His promises in the land in which they were
entering
-- because of the memorial stones God had
them place across the Jordan River, they knew that they could trust Him to help
them in this new land -- and where their ancestors had failed because of a lack
of faith, this time the Israelites succeeded because they remembered -- they
remembered God’s work in their past and trusted Him with their future
-- as we leave here today, I want to
encourage you to take some time to remember and think about the spiritual
markers in your own lives and in the life of this church so that you might be
encouraged in what God has done in the past and have hope in what He will do in
the future
-- to help you being this journey of
remembrance, I have a rock for each of you up here on the altar
-- they’re nothing special -- just a small
rock -- small enough to carry with you in your pocket or your purse -- a
reminder of God’s faithfulness and what He has done in this church and what He
has done in you and in your life -- so, I would encourage you to pick one up on
your way out today
-- with that, let me encourage you to take
a moment right now to remember who you are in Christ and what He has done in
your life so that you can face the future in hope and faith and share your
legacy of faithfulness with those who follow
-- let us pray
1
Modified from Mark Meynell, "The Pulpit and the Body of Christ,"
Covenant Seminary 2017 Preaching Lectures
