Sermon - The Rev. Leah D. Schade
Reformation Lutheran Church, Media, PA
March 18, 2007
Year C: Joshua 5:9-12; Psalm 32; Luke 15:1-3, 11b-24
“Gilgal - Rolling It Away”

My aunt is on a journey.  It’s not a journey you can take in a car or on a plane.  In fact, it’s not even a journey where she can take any luggage.  Aunt Joan is suffering from kidney failure.  She is on a long, slow journey to her face-to-face meeting with the Lord.  And while she looks forward to the destination with anxious anticipation, she is not enjoying the journey. 

Because it’s a wilderness journey.  Week by week, her body is losing strength.  Her appetite is diminishing, and food tastes weird to her.  Her body is losing weight at an alarming rate.  She tries to stay cheerful and focused on the blessings in her life.  But she says that some mornings she wakes up and feels overwhelmed to the point of tears with the knowledge that her death is imminent.  I asked her what helps her get through the day.  She says only her prayers and the prayers of others.  And my Aunt Joan is a prayer warrior, let me tell you.  She has a faith that can move mountains.  But it is still a painful journey she is on.

I thought about her journey as I looked at the lessons for today.  We start with the lesson from Joshua, where, after 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, the Israelites have finally arrived at the border of Canaan, the Promised Land.  If you’ll remember, they suffered as slaves in Egypt for many generations until Moses led them through the Red Sea and into freedom.  That was the easy part.  They then wandered 40 years through the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land.  During that time they had nothing but quails and manna to eat.  It was a gift from God, this dry, bread-like substance they collected to eat each morning.  And while it gave them the nutrition they needed, it was a tediously boring meal. 

Now Moses did not live to see their arrival at Canaan.  But he appointed Joshua, his second-in-command, to become the new leader of the people.  And as they stand at the entrance of the Promised Land, Joshua is the one who hears these words from God:

"Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you." So the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day.

I thought, what a wonderful image - God rolling away generations of slavery in Egypt, pushing it back, the way the waters were pushed back at the Red Sea.  And in the previous chapter of Joshua, God rolls back the waters of the Jordan River so that the Israelites can cross over into the Promised Land. 

The Hebrew word here is “galal”, which means “to remove” or “to roll away”.  Which is why God tells them to name this location “Gilgal” - the place where God rolled away their oppressive past in Egypt and allowed the Israelites to step into Canaan, leaving everything else behind - the forty years of wandering in the wilderness, the slavery they endured in Egypt.  It means that now they have a chance to start anew in a new place with a new generation of faithful people.  God rolls away their sins, rolls away the oppression, rolls away everything that had kept them from being free people. 

And from this point on, they will be fed not on manna, but on real food.  It’s no longer a meager meal of survival with just enough sustenance to get them through the day.  No, now they will eat from the crops of the land.  They can settle into a new life where they can rest and stay in one place long enough to plant seeds, watch them grow, harvest them and bake them into hot, fresh loaves.  No more bland, flaky crumbs gathered each morning with just enough nutrition to stave off hunger.  Now they can really feast!

And this theme of God rolling away the heavy burdens is repeated in the other two texts this morning.  Psalm 32 speaks about transgressions being forgiven and sin being put away.  And our gospel lesson is also about this “rolling away” of sin - the father rolling away the disappointment and the hurt, the humiliation and the shame that the younger son has brought upon himself and his family.  That young man was also on a wilderness journey.  He subsisted on the garbage he was feeding the pigs.  It wasn’t much, but it got him through until he finally realized he needed to go home and ask for forgiveness.  And at that very spot where his father embraces him - that is the prodigal son’s Gilgal.  His sin was rolled away and he was given new life!

Aunt Joan is on her way to Gilgal.  She is on her wilderness journey now where her prayers are like manna - just enough to get her through each day.  But she has her eyes on the horizon, looking for Gilgal, where she will hear her Lord say, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of kidney failure from you.”  And she will step into that Promised Land where a banquet awaits her!  And the food will not taste weird!

So where will your Gilgal be?  Maybe you are in a place right now where you feel like you’re still wandering.  You’re just taking in enough sustenance to get you through the day.  You are longing to settle your soul into a new land of faith where you can rest and plant some seeds, watch them grow, harvest them and bake them into hot, fresh loaves.  You are tired of living off the bland, flaky crumbs that just barely give you just enough emotional and spiritual strength to make it through one more day. 

We’re longing for God to roll away the sins of this generation.  We would just love to hear God say that our reproach has been rolled way:

How many of you are worried about the ozone layer?  Wouldn’t you just love to hear God say:
"Today I have rolled away the reproach of global warming from you."

Who here is weary of the war in Iraq?
"Today I have rolled away the reproach of the Iraq War from you."

Those of you have been hurt by a broken family?
"Today I have rolled away the reproach of divorce from you."

All those who have felt the grey fingers of cancer touch their lives? 
"Today I have rolled away the reproach of cancer from you."

And who here has lost someone they love to the grave?
"Today I have rolled away the reproach of death from you."

That’s what we really long for, isn’t it?  We want to see that stone rolled away from the tomb!  And by God, I can assure you that that day is coming!  What day am I talking about?  On what day will each Christian stand at the new Gilgal, where the stone is rolled away, where new life begins, where the resurrection gives us a new creation?  Yes - Easter!  On Easter Day we will stand at Gilgal and watch God roll the stone away! 

Yes, that day is surely coming, my friends!  But until that time, we are still on the Lenten journey.  We’re still waiting, still longing, still yearning for the fulfillment of that promise.  And this wandering in the wilderness can get even the most faithful Christian down.  The global warming, the broken families, the wars, the sickness, the kidney failure . .  . and death can make your faith so weak and your heart so weary, you sometimes wonder how you’re gonna make it through one more day.

All we’ve got is manna, my friends (hold up communion wafer).  Yes, it’s just a bland, flaky crumb of a meal.  It’s not much.  But it’s just enough to get us through the day. 

Amen.