Our second reading takes up the account of these former slaves, now grown after decades of wilderness wanderings to the size of a mighty army. Moses, the mighty prophet/leader who has led them across the years and the seemingly endless wilderness, has brought them to the very edge of the Promised Land, to a plain just to the east of the river Jordan. From there they can see the southern Jordan Valley and the western hill country, the Promised Land flowing with milk and honey. But Moses’ leadership has taken them only this far, and now word comes that Moses has died….

I say “many of us” come mindful of the historical context, yet this is not universally so. There was an article in the newspaper last week which reported that for many who are of the younger generations, and specifically for those 30 years of age and under, the inauguration of a person of color as President is no big deal. It seems that since many of this generation get much of their information about the world through television and other forms of electronic media, and since they have seen African-Americans cast as the president in popular shows like “24”, there is nothing particularly new or noteworthy about having Barack Obama, child of a white woman from Kansas and a black man from Kenya, as President in real life.

For these folk, and for many others as well, the election of Barack Hussein Obama proves beyond all doubt that racism is a thing of the past in this country; it assures us that we no longer need to trouble ourselves with the legacy of slavery, what some have called America’s “original sin”; it confirms that we have finally made it to the promised land of post-race America, where color or national origin or religious affiliation are just non-factors in our common life together. We heard a lot of that on election night, as commentator after commentator solemnly intoned that the results proved that race was not a factor in American electoral politics any more, since those who admitted that they took race into account in the voting booth overwhelmingly voted for Senator Obama.

And if indeed racism is a thing of the past, if all the work of overcoming prejudice and bigotry has been done, all the battles fought, the dream realized, then all Martin Luther King Jr. Day need be is a quaint remembrance of a leader who did our work for us, and thanks to him.

And yet there are those troubling indications which surface from time to time that while we can all agree that great strides towards racial reconciliation have been made, there is still work to do, issues that need to be addressed, hearts and minds and practices that need to be changed, lingering impacts of centuries of state-sanctioned laws which continue to place certain segments of our population at a disadvantage vis-à-vis their white countrymen. As one commentator has noted, “’Equal rights’ to a piece of pie means little when the entire pie was divided up before one was even allowed to sit down at the table.” And on Tuesday, by way of one example of how racially tinged practices persist, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston released a report documenting how minorities in Massachusetts were disproportionately affected by the mortgage crisis, facing foreclosure rates over double that experienced by their white neighbors.” The loss of wealth in the African-American community is staggering”, said the President of the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations.”….It has to go back to where these lenders were marketing and who they were targeting.” (Boston Globe, 1/13/2009)

Friends, I believe that we find ourselves today, not just with respect to the issue of race relations, but also in many other areas of our common life together in this nation, in a situation much like the Joshua generation found themselves long ago. They were a people who had suffered much, who had known a brutal life in Pharaoh’s Egypt, and yet who had also known liberation and new life when a leader was raised up from among them, a leader blessed and empowered by a God who for no known reason had chosen them for salvation. Moses and their God had brought them safely through an epic journey, a journey so long and difficult that now the entire Moses generation had passed away. And now the new generation looks across the river, and wonders how they will ever make it across, and who will lead them, and if they are, in truth, on their own.

It is much the same for us, I believe, in many areas of our common life together. With respect to civil rights, for instance, we have come so far, perhaps almost unimaginably far for many Americans. In your lifetimes you have seen the end of lynchings in the South, the end of state-promoted segregation, the integration of public schools, the enactment of the Voting Rights Act which effectively at last gave the franchise to African-Americans, the rise of anti-discrimination laws, the advance of a black middle class, and the rise of a new generation of black political leaders, our own Governor and president-elect Obama being two of the most prominent examples. But we are not at the Promised Land yet, even if we are ever so much closer to it. People of color still fill our prisons in disproportionate numbers, earn less than their equally educated white counterparts, are less educated, poorer, have less opportunities. We are closer, but not yet at the Promised Land, not with respect to civil rights, but also not with respect to many aspects of our common life together – not with respect to affordable, effective health care for all, not with respect to housing availability for all members of our society, not with respect to attainting a healthy, vibrant economy where hard-working folk can be assured that they will be safe in their retirement, those who need employment can find it, our children coming out of high school and college can earn an honest living.

And so the question in the forefront of the minds of the people of Israel as they stand on the banks of the Jordan is the same question on our minds – we have come so far, and our leaders – Moses for them, for us Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks – our leaders have brought us so far, but now they are gone, and their challenge is our challenge, their mighty task, our mighty task. And who will lead us, or are we alone, and on our own?

In our first reading today, from Deuteronomy, God assures Moses, and through Moses the gathered people of God, that God will raise up new prophets who will speak with God’s authority just as Moses has. And God is as good as his word. No sooner is Moses dead than the Lord speaks to a man of the next generation, to Joshua, appointing him to lead the people the rest of the way, saying “As I was with Moses, so I will be with you.”

Let me pause a moment so that we might reflect a bit on what is going on here. Can we really imagine the audacity of what God is doing here, of what has just landed on Joshua’s shoulders? Moses was a living legend, a giant among the earth! Moses, a Jew raised in Pharaoh’s own household, who later took on Pharaoh in all his power and might and secured the release of the slaves from their bondage; Moses, who had led them through the parted Red Sea waters; Moses, who had gone up into the clouds on Mt. Sinai and after extended conversations with the Lord Almighty, came down bearing the Ten Commandments; Moses, who throughout the decades of the wilderness wanderings, had brought the twelve tribes safely to the doorstep of the longed-for haven. Who would volunteer to walk in those footsteps, to bear that burden, to risk that responsibility? Not Joshua! He doesn’t volunteer for this, he doesn’t step forward. He quails at the prospect, he shrinks back in fear. The text does not tell us that directly, but it is there if we read with our imaginations. You see, in just the short space of this first chapter of the Book of Joshua, God urges Joshua no less than four times, “Be strong and courageous”, adding in for good measure, “do not be frightened or dismayed.”

We, in our time, in our generation, might well wonder who will lead us, who, in the face of the magnitude of the challenges which face us, shall shepherd us along the stony road and across the river. I cannot tell you today who that might be, but I believe we have the assurance that we are not in this alone, and that just as God raised up new prophets who would speak with authority in the time after Moses, in this generation, in our own Joshua generation, God will raise up new prophets who in our day will speak with God’s authority, and who will lead us across that river and onwards towards that Promised Land.

For the lesson of the Bible, of Moses and Miriam, Joshua and Deborah, Jesus and Paul and Lydia, is that God is still speaking, that God’s living word of wisdom has the power to do what is needful to enact God’s reign of justice and compassion, abundance and freedom. The challenges we face may tempt us to be fearful and dismayed, to shrink back in alarm and to doubt our abilities, but the good news is that we are not in this alone, and we are not dependent on our own meager resources to accomplish that which has been set before us. When we open ourselves to the authority of God’s word, when we take care to turn neither from the right hand or the left but instead follow in the ways of God’s commandments, we are empowered by God to reach out in word and in deed to change the world, to restore community, to build up our cities and establish new communities where ancient prejudices no longer have the power to hurt and divide.

God is still speaking, but God’s call is not for Moses and Joshua alone, not only for clergy, not limited to exceptionally gifted and talented people, not just for those who’s hearts and brave and limbs are strong, not just for Barack Obama and Joe Biden, Patrick Deval and Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin and Ted Kennedy. God’s call is to us all, to this Joshua Generation, asking that we each enlist under his banner, gather together down by the shore, roll up our pants and start across the river. God calls us to do more than venerate the mighty deeds of those who have gone before us, more than laud their sweat and accomplishments from the comfort of our Laz-e-boys and the safety of our white-washed sanctuaries. We’ve come together a long way, but we are not at the Promised Land yet, and still God calls us, offering a promise of eternal presence, gifting us with a power beyond measure, and saying to all of us, it is your turn to cross the river. ---------