Joshua’s farewell address begins with an account of salvation history. He talks about what God did for “the fathers” and how they responded. Then midway through the address he sifts to second person: Afterward I led you out of Egypt. God saved you from the Amorites. God led you to the promised land. God gave you the victory. The “you” was not actually the assembly before him. The generation that experienced those things were long gone. But Joshua challenges the people to assume the identity of the people whom God acts for. That is the story of our faith as well. It is all well and good to know the Bible stories, to recite the creeds, to learn the catechism. But faith only comes when we hear the personal invitation to love God and neighbor, to forgive seventy times seven times, to see in the face of the hungry, the homeless, the sick the image of Christ.
