Outside of Merced on the road to Yosemite National Park is a large cement structure on the corner of Highway 140 and Arboleda Drive. It is a large square cement platform with steps leading up to it on all four sides. On the cement platform is a tall cement spire reaching about 100 feet in the air. When I was younger, I wondered why this magnificent memorial was built there. Then I discovered that it was a local rancher’s memorial to himself. In the early 1900’s when he died, he had this massive memorial built. He wanted everyone to know that he had lived and farmed those acres on which the memorial was erected.

Seeing that memorial every time we drove outside of the city limits on Highway 140 reminded me that we all leave some kind of memorial. None of us will probably ever have such a pretentious memorial built for ourselves, but we are all building something for future generations. Hopefully, our memorial will be the work of God’s kingdom that we have done while spending our years here on earth. Mary Anderson used to attend this church years ago, but only came back to Merced recently. When I performed her funeral about two years ago, I learned an interesting story. It seems her husband had been one of the Elders who was influential in helping to build our church in which we are worshipping today. He was busy helping put up the church sign when he died of a heart attack. Many of Mary’s friends and everyone of their sons told me this story. The building of this new church building four decades ago was an important part of their family’s legacy.

We are all building a memorial of our life. The scripture portion that we are looking at today talks about a memorial that Joshua had the nation of Israel build.

In order to build this memorial, Joshua had representatives from each tribe. As this church builds its memorial to God’s kingdom, we need representatives from every age group working together. We need the older members with family ties back to the history of this church. We need other older members who have been serving Christ throughout their lifetime. We need Grandparents and parents who are influencing their children and grandchildren with the teachings from the Bible. We need children and young adults who are learning how to make Jesus Lord of their lives. We need young families and older families that are helping with the work of the ministry.

We need those who have many talents, and those who have few talents. We need those who know how to dress well and those who just put on clothes. We need those who are financially well-off and those who barely make it from check to check. We need those who are popular and those who only a mother could love. We need the shy and the confident, the eloquent and the stammerers, the strong and the weak, the ambitious and the lackadaisical.

Everyone in this church is building a memorial to God. Through our time, our talents, our prayers, our efforts, and our gifts, we are making a difference here in Merced. Notice that in verse 4 Joshua appointed men from each tribe to build this memorial. God has appointed each one in the church to be part of building his kingdom.

They took stones from the bottom of the Jordan River when God helped them to miraculously cross the river on dry ground. As a memorial of this miracle they were to pick up the stones from the river bed. God has done many miracles in our lives and in the life of this church. We are also building a memorial as we pass through these times of miracles, times of seeing others healed, times of seeing others encouraged, times of seeing others comforted, times of seeing others saved, times of seeing others spiritually renewed.

Let us allow God to use us in this building project. We look at the walls and floor and ceiling of our church. We know that it is important to maintain the physical structure of this building. In fact just this past week, we patched some tiles on the roof that had been blown off so that the rains this week would not damage the inside of the church. But more importantly than the physical house of God, we are building up a spiritual house of God. What kind of spiritual house are we building? Are we doing all that we can? Are we willing to put in the necessary work and the hard work that others might be spiritually blessed?

Joshua had each representative pick up a stone as they passed through Jordan. What spiritual stone is God asking you to lift up? What part of God’s kingdom does he want you to help build?

Jamison-Fausset-Brown Commentary explains, "The erection of cairns, or huge piles of stones, as monuments of remarkable incidents, has been common among all people, especially in the early and rude periods of their history.... They are the established means of perpetuating the memory of important transactions especially among the nomadic people of the East; and although there be no inscription engraven on them, the history and object of such simple monuments are traditionally preserved from age to age."

Each year we are building a memorial to God. We are laying down stones of faith and commitment, stones of compassion and caring, stones of ministry and help. Our stones are not those from the Jordan River. Our stones are picked up as we read through God’s word, as we spend time in prayer, as we teach people about Christ, as we share our faith with others. These are the stones we are using to build up our memorial before God. Every time a person comes to new faith in Christ in this church, every time a Christian re-discovers their hope in God, every time someone who is hurting discovers healing and comfort, and every time someone learns new things about God from our sharing, we are witnessing a miracle as great as the nation of Israel experienced as they crossed the Jordan.

Next week, we are going to build a small stone memorial to God for all these miracles. We are going to have different members of the church pick up a stone and bring it forward to build that memorial. Each stone can represent a past miracle, a past minister or lay teacher, or past commitments to God’s kingdom. We will have adult members of all ages bring up these stones. Then we will have the children assemble the stones in a pattern and glue them on a board. We will hang this memorial in our sanctuary. And every time we look at this memorial, we will remember all the miracles God has done in this church, in our lives, and in the lives of others. And we will remember that God is using his church to build up his kingdom.

Whether a church actually builds a stone memorial or not, each church by its faith and its deeds is building a spiritual memorial. What kind of memorial are we building? What kind of memorial do we want to build this year?

Part of the purpose of this memorial that Joshua had built was to teach future generations about all that God had done for Israel. We need to be teaching our children, our grandchildren, and all new people to our church about all the miracles God has done in our lives and in the life of the church. A memorial without testimony is like the memorial on Highway 140 I was telling you about. For years I did not know why that memorial was there. In order for any Christian memorial to be effective, we must be willing to share our faith stories. We must not be ashamed to tell how God delivered us, helped us, healed us. We must repeat the stories of God’s compassion and care for us over and over again.

That stone memorial that the Hebrews built during Joshua’s time has long disappeared. Perhaps the stones lasted in that place a few centuries. After all these years, they can no longer be found. But we still know the story of that memorial because it has been passed down through the centuries from one generation to the next as the story was told and was copied down over and over again. What stories of God’s goodness and mercy and forgiveness are we passing down? Let us be willing to share our testimony of what God has done in our lives, what God has done in this church, and what God has done in this community? May we pass these stories of faith and commitment to the next generation for them to hear and pass on to their children.

It was the people that built the memorial, not Joshua. The people willingly took the stones and carried them a distance to the place where the monument was to be built. They placed these large stones as a memorial to God. As we do the ministry of the church, it is not just the minister or the elders or the board members who are to build the memorial. It is all of God’s people who are building the memorial. We are all building some kind of monument to God. Are we proud of what we have built in the past few years? Or do we need to renew our commitment to do the work to which God has called us?

If some of the people were unwilling to participate, it would not have been much of a memorial. It required each person assigned to pick up the large stones to do their part. Now, picking up stones may not seem like a very important job to you. But that’s what God asked them to do. Remember, it was God that performed the miracle. We don’t have to do God’s work for him. All we have to do is the small part he asks us to do.

Let us be willing to pick up that stone - to lift up someone’s burden, to lift up prayers to God for the needs of others, to lift up our voices in praise and worship. Let us be willing to help in building up the work of the ministry of God’s kingdom. If we are faithful, we will leave a memorial for future generations.

Joshua set up the twelve stones himself. There is no way he could know how long this memorial would last. Keil and Delitzsch comment, "As the priests did not stand in the middle or deepest part of the river, but just in the bed of the river, and close to its eastern bank, and it was upon this spot that the stones were set up, and as we neither know their size nor the firmness with which they stood, we cannot pronounce any positive opinion as to the possibility of their remaining. It is not likely that they remained there for centuries; but they were intended rather as a memorial for the existing generation and their children, than for a later age, which would be perpetually reminded of the miraculous help of God by the monument erected in Gilgal."

As we do the work of God’s kingdom, there is no way to know how long the work of the ministry of this church will last. We build on faith. We lay the foundation for future generations to either build upon or abandon. Since that foundation is Christ, we know that whatever work we do here will last for eternity even though the structure may fall and decay.

But notice what the author of Joshua wrote about the stones in verse 9, "they are there to this day." We assume this was a few short years later, but there is no way to know how long the stone memorial actually lasted. We do know that it lasted for a time physically, but it has lasted for thousands of years in the spiritual writings of God’s word. Whatever we build here at First Christian Church in Merced will last much longer spiritually than physically. Our memorial to God is built spiritually.

Next week, we will have representatives from the church bring forward some small stones. I will ask them to share a brief testimony of God’s miracle in their life, the life of their family, or a testimony concerning the faith of a former family member, church member, or minister. Then the children will take these stones and glue them onto a board. Lorna will place a title on the memorial and we will hang it here in our church sanctuary. Each Sunday this year may we look over at the stone memorial to God and ask ourselves, "What kind of memorial are we building to God this year?"

God is looking at your heart right now. Do you hear that whisper of God’s Spirit speaking quietly to your soul? God is asking each one of us, "What will you do for my kingdom?" Let us be willing to hear that still, small voice and do the work of ministry which God has called us to do for this day, this month, and this year.

This study on Joshua 4:4-9 © 2000 by David Humpal, all rights reserved.
All scriptures unless otherwise noted are from the Revised Standard Version © 1971, A. J. Holman Company

Jamison-Fausset-Brown Commentary, electronic version © 1997, Biblesoft