So today I want to tell you a story; a story from the Old Testament in the Book of Joshua. This story has captured my imagination for quite some time now, one reason being I hadn’t really heard it until about a year ago. Like many hidden wonders of Scripture, this story is nestled between two grand and dramatic stories that are often preached about on Sunday morning, causing this incredible story of God’s faithfulness and power to be missed if we’re not watching closely.

Today’s story begins in Joshua chapter 3. Joshua was the leader, chosen by God, to lead the Israelites to the land God had promised them once Moses had died. Joshua and the Israelites were on the move, on their way to the city of Jericho, where, as we all know, God eventually wins a major victory for Israel, fulfilling His promise to deliver them to a land of their own. But they’re not there yet; and as this entire nation of thousands and thousands of Israelites arrive at the riverbank, they realize that crossing over the Jordan might be slightly problematic. You see, on a normal day the Jordan River measured about 100 feet wide and ranged from about 3-10 feet deep; Scripture tells us, however, that when Israel arrived at the River Jordan, it was harvest season, and during harvest season, the Jordan River was known to flood. And we’re not talking about minor flooding. During harvest season, the Jordan was known to expand to up to 600 feet wide and up to 150 feet deep.

Is this story starting to sound familiar to anyone? If you are starting to experience a feeling of deja vu, you’re not going crazy. Just a short time before the events of Joshua chapter 3, these same Israelites were stranded on the edge of another threatening and supposedly uncontrollable body of water: The Red Sea- with Pharaoh commanding all the armies of Egypt to destroy them, nonetheless. So even if you’ve never heard this story before, I’m sure you can guess at the ending. When Israel starts to panic about their inability to cross the river, God speaks to Joshua, commanding him to tell the leaders of the twelve tribes of Israel to walk out into the Jordan River holding the Ark of the Covenant over their heads, and the water would cease to flow, allowing all of Israel to cross over in safety. And of course–it worked!! God pushed aside the waters and cut off it’s flow and the Scripture tells us over 40,000 people miraculously walked on dry ground through the middle of the Jordan that day.

But what happens next is what most grabs my attention about this story. Turn with me in your Bibles, or glance at the front of your bulletin, and we’ll read today’s Scripture together:

Joshua 4:1-7; 4 “When the entire nation had finished crossing over the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua: 2 ‘Select twelve men from the people, one from each tribe, 3 and command them, “Take twelve stones from here out of the middle of the Jordan, from the place where the priests’ feet stood, carry them over with you, and lay them down in the place where you camp tonight.”’ 4 Then Joshua summoned the twelve men from the Israelites, whom he had appointed, one from each tribe. 5 Joshua said to them, ‘Pass on before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan, and each of you take up a stone on his shoulder, one for each of the tribes of the Israelites, 6 so that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, “What do those stones mean to you?” 7 then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off in front of the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the Israelites a memorial for ever.’”

So even before God is done with this act of wonder, while the twelve leaders of Israel are still standing in the middle of the Jordan holding up the Ark of the Covenant, God commands Joshua and the Israelites to collect stones from the riverbed to build a monument in the neighboring town. After the miraculous story of God parting the waters of the Jordan, you might be wondering just what’s the big deal about a pile of rocks? Why does the writer of Joshua spend an entire chapter detailing the construction of a spur of the moment statue when all of Israel was just supernaturally guided through a tremendous body of water? Why did God insist the Israelites pause their trip to Jericho, where they are launching a giant military campaign, to erect a monument out of mere stones? Why, you might ask, is THIS the part of the story that’s so intriguing? Well today, we’re going to explore that very question.

One of the most exciting realities this story illustrates for us, however, is God’s ongoing, unceasing faithfulness to us as His people. Just look at Israel’s journey up to this point in history. God not only rescued them from slavery, and helped them cross the Red Sea, but sustained them for months and months in a hostile desert environment, where they had few resources and little shelter, making water come out of rocks for hydration and manna reign down from Heaven for food. Shortly after this passage God leads the Israelites to Jericho, an enemy city, and causes its walls to come tumbling down without the Israelites lifting a finger or a sword. When it became obvious that Israel’s sacrifices were never going to be enough for her to atone for her sins, God sent Jesus to bridge the gap and bring salvation for us all. Once Jesus ascended, God didn’t leave us alone, but sent His Holy Spirit to live inside us, among us, and in between us–to guide, shape, and form the Church into a people worthy of inheriting and bringing about the Kingdom of God in the world. There has never been a time in the history of all Creation that God has not been pursuing us, redeeming us, and delivering us.

And to be sure, we don’t even have to open the Bible to find examples of God’s presence and faithfulness, because everyone in this room has been blessed beyond measure by God’s grace and love. We all have experienced the wonderful truth that God isn’t just faithful to the nations or to His church, but to each of us on a very personal level. He is a God who not only hears our prayers, responds to our suffering, and swoops in to save us in our time of need, but a Father who blesses us with the sweetest of gifts, truest of friendships, and beauty of Creation.

What’s so hard for me to understand, though, is in light of all of this evidence of how committed, powerful, relentless and unfailing the love of God for us really is, why is our faith still so small? Why when we find ourselves in times of trial, trouble, or turbulence, do we still cry out in fear, wondering how we will withstand besiegement? Why do we still curse God or proclaim He isn’t listening, doesn’t care, could never understand, or won’t answer our prayers? Why do we lay in bed at night, beset with anxiety and turmoil, because life is not going as we planned? Why, even as we say with our lips that we put our faith in the Almighty, do we quietly create back-up plans, or find refuge in other places? Why, at the end of the day, can’t we quite get ourselves to trust in God’s provision?

The truth of the matter is this: we are plagued with the same sickness that humanity has always suffered from, the same infiltrating disease Israel struggled with from the very moment they were set free from bondage in Egypt; friends, we are a FORGETFUL people.

Since my mom is here this morning, I thought I would interject one of her favorite stories from when I was a little girl, which happens to be about forgetfulness, a tendency which I began to exhibit from a very early age. At the time of this incident, I was about four years old, and from the age of about 3 to age 10 my sister and I were absolutely obsessed with barbies. My mom’s rule about Barbies, however, was that they were what she referred to as “inside toys.” Meaning, of course, we weren’t allowed to take them outside. Being the born rebel that I was, I naturally deemed this rule as ‘optional’ and decided to sneak my barbie out of the house to play in my backyard. Unfortunately, I wasn’t a sneaky as I thought I was, and my mom had glanced out the window at some point or another and noticed my deviant behavior of playing out of doors with my barbie. She didn’t say anything, though, until I decided I wanted to come inside. It was a really hot day and I came inside and plopped down on the couch, ready for a popsicle or something to cool me off, when my mom entered the room and asked, “Babe, where is your barbie? I saw you playing with it outside.” To my abject horror, I realized I had no idea where the barbie had gone. I told her I didn’t know, and she told me I had to go back outside and look around until I found it. Well I did this, for what seemed like hours but was probably only about 4 or 5 minutes, to no avail. The Barbie was nowhere to be found. I was getting increasingly hot and more and more discouraged and for the next fifteen minutes kept coming inside begging my mom to let me come in and leave the Barbie for dead. She stood her ground, however, no doubt trying to teach me a lesson about not taking barbies outside. After one such interaction where she said I couldn’t come inside without the Barbie, she recounts that I threw myself on the ground in front of her and said with all the dramatic flair I could muster, (which was a lot, even back then), “This is worse than slavery in Egypt!!” Obviously at this point, she had a hard time not finding my plight amusing and decided she would temporarily alleviate my discomfort with a glass of water, before sending me back out into the torturously hot conditions to continue my search. When she opened the refrigerator door, however, much to her surprise and mine, the Barbie was sitting there on the second shelf of the refrigerator, right next to my sippy cup!! Apparently, I had come inside for a drink of water, and when I picked up my sippy cup for a momentary drink, I had laid my Barbie down in the refrigerator and forgotten to pick it back up!

In this case, forgetting about my Barbie only caused me temporary and rather superficial distress, but I think forgetfulness can create a larger problem in our life of faith. As you know I’ve been at camp for the past couple of weeks, and one thing I like to do at camp is bring my journal with me. Unfortunately, and for all you people that journal out there–you’ll best understand my distress in this situation– I completely used up the journal I have been using for the past year the day before Youth Camp started! Not wanting to hastily purchase another journal without shopping around, I searched throughout my house and came upon a partially used one from a few years back that would serve until I could return home and carefully select my new writing companion for the coming year. The first night of camp, once I was tucked into bed (around 3am haha) I opened the journal and started to read the few entries that were already there, discovering they were from the years 2010-2011. In these pages, I had written out prayers to God. I had written about personal struggles I was experiencing, and anxieties I had about Courtland and I’s future; I had written about my fears that I would never actually be able to become a pastor because I was a woman, or I wasn’t smart enough, or no churches would be hiring; I had written about family issues and tensions that were going on at the time and the financial difficulties of being a working student. As I read I was amazed at how intense my emotions were at the time of my writing because I had mostly forgotten having those problems that obviously majorly affected me at the time. But what I was even more shocked to realize is that going through the list of trials and afflictions I had enumerated in my entry, God had seen me through each and every one of them, and I hadn’t even realized it. I had prayed the prayers and reached out in supplication to God, and then simply went on my merry way; and when God responded in faithfulness to deliver my from these issues, I didn’t even think to give Him the credit.

Israel, like us, was also outrageously forgetful when it came to God. Just after God had delivered the Israelites from Egyptian domination and oppression and sustained them through the desert, they arrived at Mount Sinai, and God had Moses climb atop Mt. Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments to deliver to them. While Moses was on the mountain, however, the nation of Israel became restless. As time went on, they began to worry something had happened to Moses, and that Yahweh, their deliverer, wasn’t in control after all. So Israel, in her fear and desperation, abandoned her faith in the God who had saved her, forgetting all his miraculous works in the past, and built an idol in the image of a golden calf, and began to worship it instead, hoping it would save them from imminent destruction. God cries out in distress in Exodus 32:7-10, saying to Moses, ‘Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely;8 they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshipped it and sacrificed to it.” God also cries out through the prophets about his utter devastation at how quickly His people forget His unrelenting commitment to them: In Jeremiah 2:32, God says “Can a maiden forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number.”

I think we, as Christians, often wonder why our faith doesn’t grow. We grow confused at how year after year we can go to church, participate in our youth group, go to youth camp, attend retreats, and read our Bibles and pray and tithe and give to the poor–yet when storms come along, we find ourselves frozen with fear instead of standing strong, triumphantly sure that God is in control. And I strongly believe its because we don’t remember or recognize the ways God has worked in our lives. Like the Israelites, our lives are rich with miracles of God, but we have been too distracted and self-centered to notice, or we are too wrapped up in our fear to remember.

So we find ourselves back in Joshua chapter 4 and the Israelites have just crossed over the Jordan; and God is telling them before they can move on, before they take one more step, they MUST pick up stones from the Jordan, and build a memorial that REMINDS them of the way God has worked and moved and been faithful to them on this day. God doesn’t do this because He wants a shrine built to Him, or because He needs them to be thankful to boost His ego, or because he’s trying to teach them to be grateful. God commanded this memorial be built because He knows us all too well: HE KNOWS WE WILL FORGET!!! God knew if He didn’t command the Israelites to create a place that they could see with their eyes and touch with their hands and remember His faithfulness, that it wouldn’t be long before times got tough again and they built another idol, or descended into despair, or lost hope in the strength of their Creator.

So ultimately, we need to do the same thing. But this may seem like an abstract concept, and some of you may be wondering how exactly to build memorials for our faith? I mean, obviously we’re not going to all run into the middle of town and start building a make-shift tower. The truth is, though, we participate in memorials all the time. One of the biggest memorials our country celebrates is the Fourth of July! On this day, almost all of us will participate in memorializing one of the most important values we celebrate as Americans: FREEDOM. We will come together as a community and shoot off fireworks, eat lots of barbeque, skip work, and celebrate our independence. Those of you that love history, as I do, may even reflect on the tremendous stories of the Revolutionary War, and how people from all over with all different backgrounds and opinions and political views and careers came together to fight for one goal. And we actually were victorious. Celebrating the fourth of July reminds us that freedom is so important to us that we were willing to die for it–and makes us passionate about protecting that freedom and also extending it to others.

Another important day of memorial in our country is celebrated each year on the third Monday of January: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. America celebrates this heroic man not only to pay homage to him and his work in the Civil Rights movement, but also to remind us that as a people, we are committed to ending the demonic grip of racism and discrimination in our world. You see, that’s how a memorial works. It not only reminds us of something important that happened in the past, but fills us with hope to move forward into the future, having learned more about ourselves and the world.

In preparing for my sermon this week I read something that went like this: “Without remembering, there is no identity; in amnesia one loses one’s identity, and without common remembering, there is no community.” As a church, as families, as friends and brothers and sisters in Christ, we need to start building memorials to the faithfulness of our Savior–to remind us that when things get hard, we serve a God who has delivered us time and time again. Because if we don’t use the hardships of our lives to learn of God’s faithfulness, if we keep on forgetting the times God HAS acted on our behalf, then we’re never going to grow in Christ, and our faith will remain small and anemic.

I’m not sure what this will look like in your life. For the Israelites, one of the ways they memorialized the work of God was through Oral Tradition: At night, around the campfire, or over a meal, or on many holidays and festivals, they would gather together and tell the stories of God’s faithfulness and action in their lives. Maybe this is something we should start doing more of in the context of our own homes. Parents, are you ever frustrated by the fact that your kids don’t seem to trust God? Or even think to rely on Him and His power? How often do you tell them the ways God has acted in your family; how often do you discuss with them the people he has healed, or the crisis he has helped you overcome, or the financial issues he has delivered you from? How often do we as Christians talk amongst ourselves, outside of Sunday School and Sunday morning service, about the things God is doing in our lives? We have to start naming God in the world around us and finding tangible signs of His presence–and making this kind of conversation a part of our everyday lives!

Another way we can memorialize God’s work in our lives comes from Psalm 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God. I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted in the earth!” We should find times throughout our day, whether its in the morning, afternoon, or evening, where we can sit quietly before the Lord and ponder His majesty and His presence and capacity to be all that we need! In these times, we purposefully create space and time where the TRUTH OF GOD’S POWER can become a part of us; can seep into our very souls and into the depths of who we are—and change the way we think about our lives; it’s in these moments that the peace of our Lord can become the filter through which we interpret our circumstances.

Last year at middle school camp, and you can ask the students about this after church because they will remember, the speaker had the whole camp, all 350 of us, participate in building an altar on the Camp Bond grounds. Each student was to find a stone somewhere on the campgrounds and bring it to morning service, and the camp directors brought out concrete, and one by one we all came forward, and constructed an altar to memorialize the decisions and healing and restoration and work that God did in each and every life that week. This year when we went back, many of us went over and were able to look at that altar again. Not only did it remind us of the amazing things God did LAST YEAR at camp, but it gave us hope for what He would do throughout camp that week, and at all the camps hosted in Tishimingo, OK this summer.

Maybe for you, it’s carrying small token in your pocket, that you can actually look at and see and touch that reminds you of all God has done for you. Maybe its spending time in prayer alone, or with your spouse or kids. Maybe it’s buying a journal and keeping track of answered prayers. There are SO many ways that we can do this. But the main thing is that we actually do start doing it. Because it’s so important in shaping who we are as a people that put our faith in God our Father–the God who has been faithful to His people throughout all of history, and continues to triumphantly go before us, conquering sin and death and shame from moment to moment.