In Sunday’s first reading, the aging leader of the Israelites challenges his people to decide what sort of a community they would be now that they had a homeland, and homesteads, a college acceptance letter, a car, an iPod, two dogs and a cat. He asks them to decide to whom their allegiance would be given. Joshua couched that challenge in a question about commitment: "decide today whom you will serve, the gods your fathers served beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose country you are now dwelling. As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
The people responded that they would do the same: “The Lord our God we will serve, and him we will obey."
Of course, the challenge Joshua issued to the Israelites also confronts us. We still must choose whom we will serve and what kind of people we will be. That choice affects all of our lives, including how we function on whatever rung of the corporate ladder we find ourselves.
