CONTEXT - Scripture narratives are like panels of wallpaper: the entire narrative cycle is the panel and the individual stories form the smaller patterns. This narrative panel begins at 4:19 and ends at 5:12. Gilgal is the setting where Joshua sets up a base camp. The lesson begins with the priests arranging twelve stones on the east side of Jericho-just across the Jordan River in Gilgal to create a memorial; the memorial marks a rite of passage for the tribal nation-their crossing of the Jordan moves them from nomadic to sedentary, from homeward bound to home at last.

RITE OF PASSAGE? - This passage seems to be a rite of passage from nomadic to sedentary life: manna will no more be their daily bread from heaven. Manna is the bread of the sojourner, people on the move who are landless and thus cannot raise their own crops. But when they cross the Jordan into Canaanite territory, they have entered a new chapter-the land promised them. Now they will eat the fruit of their own labor.

A NEW GENERATION RECEIVES THE TRADITION - Anytime a narrative reflects covenant talk / events, the Priestly tradition emerges to include covenantal acts, such as circumcision. This male-cutting tradition shows up here. Circumcision is a prerequisite for participating in Passover. So everyone needs to be circumcised before they can participate in the Passover event. [1]

What rite of passage marked your coming of age into adulthood? ___first cigarette? ___voting? ___driver’s license? ___bagged your first deer? ___

God freely forgives. How has that message been driven home to you recently?

Begin with family traditions-what are some of yours? Next, recall some familiar traditions of your faith community, the more odd the better!

Counterpoint: not all traditions are worth keeping around-name some "traditions" that actually are harmful to status, self-esteem, equality, etc.

Sociologists: over time, values-our deeply embedded paradigm for framing our world-undergoes slippage; values simply atrophy if not reinforced. In the biblical narrative Joshua seems to sense slippage and the need to renew the community through a tradition. [Explain further the story, esp. the significance of Passover and circumcision.]

Shift to the Christian tradition of baptism as a tradition that we can renew throughout our life and one that connects our past with our future, etc. That would be a great place to lead the listeners-from traditions to the tradition of baptism and on to a ceremony of renewal as a possible response to the word.

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[1] Of course, Israel was not alone in their peculiar practice of circumcision—NIB reports that “nearly all the people in the ancient Near East, practiced circumcision during the entire biblical period as a surveillance ritual designed to test the loyalty that men with sons owed to their fraternal interest group.”  New Interpreter’s Bible, II (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1998), page 608.

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