The first President I remember is Ike. His grandson went to kindergarten with me and we had our own Secret Service Agent - Johnnie Powers! To my young mind, President Eisenhower was grandfatherly - what a President should be. Later, I remember my mother's friends talking about John Kennedy: too young, too handsome, too 'smiley'. And, now we have another young, handsome, 'smiley' President.
I go to the ENT doctor and he doesn't look old enough to have finished college, much less be a medical specialist. It happens all the time - those people in power seem so young. And, of course, it's not that they're so young, it's that I'm getting old!
Some of the Hebrews must have felt this way when Joshua started taking over! Moses was old, known, trustworthy and here comes this uppity, young military guy! Edgy, pushy, even. He was full of new ideas and plans. What some of them couldn't see was that Joshua was what they needed to fight the upcoming battles, to mobilize the young and make it possible for them to claim the Promised Land. They couldn't see that it wasn't that Joshua was too young, it's that Moses and his generation were too old to create a new future.
The good news is that Joshua wasn't a radical or a wild man. God had chosen well. He was truly edgy, pushy and had many new ideas, but he had lived in the desert long enough to know. He loved and understood the past leaders, he honored their traditions and all of the things they had built. BUT, he also had a new energy and new skills and a toughness that was needed.
It's the way it's always been and always will be. As we get older, the leaders get younger. God knows that we are always needing new life and new ideas and new ways of being. Our job is to pick good leaders and to trust them to lead us into the future. Tough job - for the Hebrews, for Moses and for us, but well worth it!
You might just want to read a bit of Joshua's story - it has an amazingly contemporary ring!
Hoping to see you all on Sunday - Blessings - Laura Lee
Texts for This Week:
+Matthew 16:13-20
*Deuteronomy 31
Note: The texts in bold type will be read in the worship service and the one with an asterisk will be used as the focus for the proclamation of the word.
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