Homily for the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time August 22, 2021 (Take your choice: Joshua and Jesus)

By Rev. Rudolf Ofori

Joshua is celebrated as the bravest field commander in Jewish history. At the North American military academy of West Point, Joshua’s name appears in the Hall of Fame. His story is one long military adventure or one long tale of violence - depending on your point of view and his story is unfinished. As the Jewish writer Eli Wiesel has observed: “Joshua’s concerns remain ours, his anguish is our anguish. May one go too far to assure one’s survival? His name evokes Shiloh, Hebron, Jericho - and so many other biblical names that have re-entered international diplomacy.” Joshua must have spent sleepless nights over the West Bank. His present is our past, and also our present.

  When Joshua is an old man, and the country is resting from war, he calls all the tribes of Israel to the ancient sanctuary at Shechem. The story is told in today’s first reading. All the elders, leaders, judges and scribes are called to listen to the last farewell of their distinguished leader. He does not recall his military victories, nor does he ask the people to cherish what he has done for them. Instead, he asks them to choose whom they wish to serve: the God of their ancestors or the false gods of the land they now inhabit.

  It’s as if Joshua wants to be remembered not as the great military commander who brought his people to the Promised Land but as the prophet who brought his people to choose God again. This inner battle of faith seems to preoccupy him more than his military campaigns ever did. He gives the people the opportunity to close the book on the past or recommit themselves to the God of Israel. Joshua is tired; he is old; death is looking him in the face. He has seen too much bloodshed to boast of the beauty of battle; he has seen too many ruined cities and disfigured corpses to sing of the glories of war. The old commander is concerned with the geography of the heart. Joshua knows that all choices have to be renewed, that people don’t stay dedicated to a cause just by continuing to exist. As Israel Zangwill observed about the Jewish tradition: ‘’We are not the chosen people, but the choosing people.’’ Joshua asks his people to choose, and he declares before them his own choice to serve the Lord. Thus, Joshua wins the last and most important battle of his life when he leads his people to a victory of fidelity. They declare: ‘’We too will serve the Lord, for he is our God.’’

  The choice that Joshua offered his people is echoed in today’s Gospel when Jesus offers his own followers the choice to stay with him or join the ranks of unbelievers. After hearing Jesus’ teaching on the bread of life, many of the followers express their complete confusion. They find Jesus’ language intolerable. Many of them do choose to leave him. Then, like Joshua to the twelve tribes, Jesus turns to the twelve apostles and gives them the choice to close the book on their shared past. But just as the twelve tribes told Joshua that they could not reject the Lord after all he had done for them, so Peter asks Jesus how could they turn to anyone else for the message of eternal life. So, the apostles exercise their freedom of choice by choosing to stay with Jesus. 

Both Joshua and Jesus respect people’s freedom of choice. They know that past choices can become old and exhausted, that they can die from being abandoned on the scrapheap of life. Past choices have to be kept alive by new commitment, because decisions in faith are never settled once and for all. The apostles do what we must all do: keep on choosing Jesus, stay with the one who has the message of eternal life. That is something that will always be outstanding on the agenda.