The Presbyterian Women have been studying the book of Joshua this year and through that study we have been challenged and amazed by many of the stories included in this book. Joshua was appointed as leader over the Israelites after Moses died. God promised to be with Joshua as God was with Moses. In other words, God would give instructions to Joshua and the people were to obey what Joshua told them.

In the passage we read today, Joshua and the people are preparing to take control of the land God promised to Abraham’s descendants. The people had crossed over the Jordan River in a magnificent display of power. God stopped the river from flowing so the people could walk across on dry land. Does that sound familiar to anyone? [connect with crossing the Red Sea]

So the people cross over the Jordan River and into the land. They set up camp and celebrate the Passover. The Passover is a holy celebration for the Israelites that was first celebrated back in Egypt. God was having a stand-off with Pharaoh about releasing the Israelites from slavery. In order to show God’s power, plagues of different kinds were set upon the Egyptians. As a last plague on Pharaoh and his people, God killed the first-born of every family.

However, the Israelites were able to escape this plague by celebrating Passover in which they took lamb’s blood and put it on the doorways of their houses. That was a sign that the people in that house believed in God and were therefore spared or "passed over". There were specific foods that were also eaten as part of Passover.

Passover was a time for the people to remember how they depend upon God and to remind themselves of the trust they should place with God. When the Israelites received the law at Sinai, they celebrated Passover. This was a time for them to renew the covenant God had made with them. In celebrating Passover, the Israelites remembered how God had lead them out of Egypt and taken care of them in the wilderness. The time at Sinai was a challenging time in which the Israelites had to learn to depend upon God.

So in the passage from Joshua, the Israelites celebrate Passover as they face yet another time of transition. These Israelites had been wandering around in the wilderness for 40 years! This generation of people had grown up eating the manna and quail God provided in the wilderness. That’s it. For breakfast, lunch, and dinner the menu was the same: manna and quail. God always provided food for the Israelites as they wandered around in the wilderness.

After celebrating this Passover on the other side of the Jordan, the manna and the quail stop and the people begin to eat new food. Can you imagine what that must have been like? These people hadn’t known anything else to eat other than manna and quail their whole lives and here they finally get to eat food from the land. Instead of manna and quail they get to try unleavened cakes and parched grain.

They were truly starting a new chapter in their lives. We mark different times with different foods. We tend to eat turkey and pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving, black-eyed peas and rice for New Year’s, Cadbury crème eggs and peeps for Easter. These foods mark special times in our lives or seasons of the year. Times of transition are also marked with special food. There is usually cake at a wedding celebration marking a transition in the life of the couple. Same idea with the foods the Israelites ate for Passover. The foods they ate marked that time as a transition. It was a way of reminding them of the protection that God had given them back in Egypt and reminded them that God would be with them as they moved forward to the next challenge. When they celebrated Passover on the bank of the Jordan River, they were moving from wandering around in the wilderness to putting down roots and living in permanent houses.

Even in the Gospel lesson, we have a special meal that is celebrated. When the younger son comes home from squandering all his inheritance, his father kills the fatted calf for him and they have a feast to mark the change. The son who had left has returned. I wonder what that meal must have tasted like to the younger son who returned home.

The younger son was ready to be a servant and eat the leftovers from the table and here he was sitting at the head table and eating the choicest parts of the meal. It must have tasted like forgiveness. The younger son was ready to transition into the life of a servant and instead he transitions into the son of the householder again.

In some ways, the Israelites needed to come home again, too. They had neglected some of the signs of the covenant while they were wandering around in the wilderness. And as they get ready to fulfill one of the promises God made to their ancestors, they need to come back to God. They need to be reminded of how God cared for them in Egypt so they could have confidence that God would be with them in the future.

Experiencing forgiveness and coming home is a powerful thing. The Israelites as they camped on the other side of the Jordan River were faced with a difficult challenge. All they had known was life in the wilderness but here they are facing a new challenge. They are about to enter a place with cities and cultivated fields. It must have been intimidating and exciting at the same time.

And yet what they do as they find themselves on the cusp of this new adventure is an example for us. Instead of just rushing into this new experience and doing whatever they want to do, they pause. And they pause with a purpose.

Craig Ferguson, host of the Late Late Show, has started a trend with some of his guests of ending their interview with an awkward pause. So he asks the guest if they would like to do that and then they just sit there and wait for the time for the commercial. Some react to the awkwardness better than others. Some get more laughter than others. But this pause is just a running gag with truly no purpose other than humor. The pause the Israelites take on the banks of the Jordan is a pause with a purpose.

In our cultures pauses are not usually thought highly of. A pause is seen as wasted time or lost production. When, "time is money," any pause equals lost profits. So we keep going along at breakneck speeds without stopping for fear of losing profits, or our place in life, or what have you. We only pause when we are forced to. Many times injury or illness is the only cause for pause.

Meditation has been proven to be helpful for relaxation as well as a number of health benefits. However, with people running at breakneck speeds, sitting and meditating, which to an outsider looks like just sitting around, is neither popular nor widely accepted. So mini-mediations have become popular. Rather than sitting in quiet for 15-20 minutes, mini-meditations take only 3-5 minutes. But even with that brief pause, people who practice these mini-meditations, report significant benefit.

Things can get to a point where we even feel guilty if we stop doing something for even an instant. The messages that the media gives us support this concept that pausing is a waste. If we are not doing or consuming or preparing, our time is wasted.

But that isn’t the message we receive from scripture. Joshua and the Israelites pause after crossing the Jordan River. They stop all the preparations for taking control of the land. They stop. They pause. But it is a pause with a purpose. The purpose of this pause for Passover is to remember how they got to where they are and express confidence in the One who will continue to guide them. Only when they pause and remember how God has supported and rescued them in the past can they begin the next transition in their life.

The younger son in Jesus’ parable finds himself feeding slop to the pigs in a foreign land far from all he had known. While doing this disgraceful job, the younger son pauses and remembers how in his Father’s house even the servants are taken care of and have enough to eat. And through that pause the younger son realizes the direction he must go in next. He must go home to where his Father will care for him – even if he has to live like a servant. The pause gives clarity and direction.

Over the past few weeks we have been looking at various scripture passages and learning from them ways that we can use this season of Lent as a time to re-connect with God. From Deuteronomy we learned about the importance of community as we walk the journey of faith. From Genesis we heard about how God followed through on the promise to make Abram a great nation and how God can act as our anchor when all around us seems to spin out of control. From Isaiah we heard of a vision of a banquet in which all of the food has already been paid for and heard how God cares for the creation.

In Joshua, we get the lesson of pausing to remember God’s enduring presence and guidance. Not only do they pause, but they pause with the purpose of renewing their dependence upon God. So to these Lenten lessons of (1) community, (2) confidence in God’s promises, (3) God’s free gift of abundant life, we add (4) God’s call to pause and remember who’s running this thing.

So I invite you now and throughout this week to pause with a purpose. You may be surprised and hear God calling you in a direction you least expect it. Let us now pause with a purpose. [observe 2 minutes of silence.]