Lick...and a Promise Theology

Wednesday, July 12, 2023

“So fear the Lord and serve him wholeheartedly.  Put away forever the idols your ancestors worshiped when they lived beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord alone.  But if you refuse to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve.  Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates?  Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live?  But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.”  

Joshua 24:14-15

When you move from one part of the country to another you find colloquial sayings you’ve never before encountered.  My family experienced that nearly 50 years ago when we moved from suburban New York to rural Florida.  We had barely moved-into the parsonage, when Jean, a church member, brought us a paper bag full of her garden’s greens.  She said to Elizabeth:  It’s not much, but you can probably make a mess out of it.  My bride smiled and thanked Jean.  Her expression told me she didn’t have a clue why she was expected to make a mess with food.  To tell the truth, I wasn’t quite sure either.  A new pastoral family walks on thin ice with local customs, sayings, and other sacred cows. 

A lick-and-a-promise is one of those wonderment sayings.  Loosely defined, the “lick” is something of a half-hearted attempt to tidy-up some mess, and the promise is…well…something of an intention to do a better job later.

So, preacher, how does that have anything to do with what Joshua told the Israelites when they were about to cross the Jordan River?  Well, I’m glad you asked.  To explain choose today whom you will serve in the vernacular of Jean’s bag of greens, Joshua was telling the people of God that the moment they step in the Jordan’s waters it was time to leave lick-and-a-promise theology behind.  If you’re entering the Promised Land, you do so wholeheartedly!

When it comes to the New Life Christ offers, there’s no room for lick-and-a-promise thinking.  Here is a short-list of examples: 

·       Hope-so salvation.  Hoping is no substitute for faith

·       Now-I-lay-me-down-to-sleep prayers don’t cut it in the emergency room

·       Church on Easter and Christmas falls short of God’s holiness

·       Good News, unspoken to family, friends, or neighbors is spritual gluttony

Short-lists are somewhat like a lick-and-a-promise, but you get the idea.  God wants all of us, not the little bit we can fit-in before running off to do what really interests us. 

For You Today 

As Joshua told the assembled new nation of Israel, choosing to serve God means it would be better to do this one thing to the utmost of your strength, and be worn-out doing it, than a thousand other things that please you.  You don’t worship with a lick-and-a-promise, and then run out to the playground.

That’s what Jesus meant when he answered the Pharisee’s question about what God expects:

Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’  This is the first and greatest commandment.  Matthew 22:37-38

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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Title Image:  via Pixabay.com   Images without citation are in public domain.   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©