What are the odds that if Joshua leads all of the people of Israel, with all their possessions and all their livestock into the middle of the Jordan River during Spring flood season, it is going to be a catastrophe?  What kind of a leader takes on this risk, when, in a few months, after the dry season, you could wade across the Jordan?

How did the people of Israel, 40 years after escaping from Egypt, finally make their way into the Promised Land?

Those are at least some of the kinds of questions that the biblical storytellers are seeking to answer with today’s story.

The story basically answers the questions this way.  The bigger the risk, the more there is evidence that the hand of God was involved in their survival.  And, second, the critical factor in Joshua’s decision to lead the people into the river was not risk assessment.  It was assurance of the presence and power of God.

In fact, risk is not a term that would have been known to Joshua and the Israelites.  Risk is really a modern idea, developed probably in the middle ages, and applied at first in the area of trade and shipping of goods.  Joshua was a risk taker, to be sure.  But his assessment had nothing to do with probability and degree of consequence.  The story teller wants us to know two things: 1) The God who is bringing the people into the promised land is the same God who brought them out of Egypt.  That is why so many of the details about the parting of the waters in this story are reminiscent of the parting of the Red Sea that permitted the escape from Egypt.  And, 2) Joshua is the legitimate successor to Moses.  The successful crossing under his leadership establishes him as a leader chosen and empowered by the God of Israel.

This story is set forty years – two generations – out from the crossing of the Red Sea that delivered them out of slavery in Egypt.  Moses has died, having seen, but never inhabiting, the Promised Land.

This story provides a metaphor for communities who are assessing the possibility of entering into new territory in order to inhabit a promised land.  At such a time, it is good to remember those who have encountered similar situations in the past.  Surely this story evokes memories of Moses.  And now, here is Joshua, carrying on the leadership – leading as God’s chosen leader, and moving the people ever more toward the fulfillment of the promises God has made of them, and of the commitments God has asked of them.

Martin Luther King, Jr.  invoked this metaphor in his famous “I Have a Dream Speech.” He really saw himself like Moses – he didn’t think he’d see the Promised Land of equal opportunity for all God’s children, but he had led the people to the place where they were within sight of it.  He saw God’s promise, and asked for the commitment of compassionate people to work toward fulfilling that promise.  And for forty years, people have been working to fulfill the promise that Dr.  King articulated.

Israel’s journey was not an easy journey.  Before taking the risk of stepping into the Promised Land, they had forty years of faith formation.  They established a pattern of worship.  They created a communal life.  It wasn’t Moses’ staff; the sign of a single leader’s authority that parted the Jordan River for them …it was the Ark of the Covenant, the sign of their communal covenant with God and one another, which gave them safe passage this time.

We can learn from the story of Israel’s journey.  We can learn something about taking risks for the sake of taking risks, and taking risk for the sake of being faithful to God.

We are terrible at assessing risk.  We are afraid of all the wrong things.  The fact is, if we want to be safe, most of what makes us safe is in our own control.  It’s things like wearing a seat belt, and driving more slowly, and not smoking, and eating more vegetables.

This year, there are two initiatives on the Ohio ballot where the risk is easy to assess.  One is the casino initiative, Issue 6.  There is a 100 percent probability that wealth will be redistributed from the people who gamble to the people who run the gambling operations.  Just enough people will win to keep us believing that we might, too.  But there is no chance that people win more than they lose over time.  Zero chance.  This is not about jobs.  There are much better ways to create much better jobs.  This is about a for profit enterprise luring people into behavior that has a very high probability of creating economic hardship for their families.

Issue 5, if passed, will allow a law already passed by the Ohio General Assembly to go into effect.  This law caps the interest rate that can be charged for so called “pay day” loans.  This is a law crafted to prevent people from getting into a cycle where they cannot possibly get out of debt.  Again, this is not about choice.  This is about public policy that is good for people already living at risk because of economic hardship.

United Methodists are encouraged to vote no on issue 4 and yes on issue 5.

Now, there are consequences.  There is risk.  If there is no casino, and there are not 300 plus percent loans available, we will have to think about how sustainable jobs are created in our state, and engage in advocacy.  If there are no pay day loans, we may have to advocate for legitimate financial institutions, such as banks, to create products that can serve the needs of the community in need of small, short term loans.

Why do we advocate for economic justice?  If you read the prophetic texts in the Bible, and listen to the words of Jesus, you cannot escape the fact that economic justice is very important to the God for whom the biblical writers and Jesus speak.  God’s promised land is a land where, in fact, resources are redistributed so that none are in need.  It’s in the Bible – quite clearly.

Today’s topic is risk taking mission.  Churches are pretty well known, in fact, for playing it safe.  We are fairly risk averse people, particularly with our church resources – our funds, our building and to some extent, our time.  And risk means that there is a potential for loss.  Something is always potentially at risk when we do a new thing.

I wrote on my blog this week about how I realized, when I went to Russia on a mission trip, that I had formed negative opinions of the Russian people while growing up during the cold war.  My assumptions about who my enemy was were at risk – and were indeed, given up when I gained new empathy for the lives of the Russian people.

I suspect that those members of our congregation who travel every week to Marion Correctional to serve as “outside brothers” to incarcerated inmates have put their assumptions about incarcerated criminals at risk – and found that they had to give up their assumptions when confronted with real experience with real people.

This week, I learned something I had not known.  I found this information on a blog called “anotherthink.” Here is how it is written there:

“The Sistine Chapel ceiling wasn't empty when Michelangelo started his work.  It had been frescoed earlier by Piermatteo d'Amelia as dark blue heavenly scene with gold stars twinkling.  Michelangelo's first act was to chisel d'Amelia's safe and boring scene onto the floor, after which there was no turning back.  It was an monumental risk, but look what that risk has given us.” Charles Lehardy – from blog “anotherthink.”

Michelangelo could have left the stars in the sky on the ceiling of the chapel. Martin Luther King, Jr.  had a PhD from Boston University, and could have been a tenured faculty member at any number of colleges or universities.  He didn’t have to walk out into the streets of America and challenge the status quo.

Joshua could have waited till Spring to cross the Jordan.

And if any one of them had not taken the risks they did our understanding of the creative, redemptive, sustaining power of God would be diminished.

If there is anything that today reminds us of – it is that one day, each of our lives will be remembered with a votive candle on the worship table.

I hope people will tell stories 40 years from now about us.  About the risk we took with our lives and the resources of the church, so that God’s creative, redemptive, sustaining power could be seen in and through us.

Shall we knock down the old boring church ceiling with soaring new ministry ideas?  Shall we step into the waters of new life?  Will we inhabit the promised land of faithful, fruitful, growth and vitality as a risk taking community of faith?

God has a mission.  It is to bring justice and shalom and redemption to all people and all creation.

And God is taking a risk.  God is counting on us.  Blessed are we…