There used to be a kid birthday party game about going on a trip. It was a memory game, where the players said what they would bring on a trip, taking turns to each add in alphabetical order one more thing to list while reciting what the other kids had brought. Did you ever play that? If we were going on a trip, what would you bring that started with A? or B? or C? or D? You get the picture.

Had the Israelites played this game, their A word would have been "Ark of the covenant." L might have been "leader," but at this point in the story, M was no longer "Moses," now that he was dead, and no longer part of Israel's luggage. Joshua is ordained leader, and the priests-ordained recently in the wilderness-the priests have a new duty. Coincidentally, their new duty is a P word-protection. Only the priests can carry the Ark, and they stand with it in the river as the Israelite parade finally crosses the Jordan. At any other time of the year, even a two-year-old could have toddled across the river. But it was spring, the rains had begun, and the banks were overflowing. Between the current residents of their Promised Land and nature, Israel was facing stiff hostility. The priests are supposed to blithely walk into the raging flood with the most precious and sacred of all Israel's possessions. To treat the Ark with anything but awe means instant death. Sure, Joshua told them the waters would stand still when they walked in, but what if one of them has an impure thought or something and God (who knows everything) is offended and smites them all with death by drowning? Moses they trusted. But who does Joshua think he is, speaking as if he talks directly with God Almighty? They risk walking into the flood. Scripture tells us that, when the soles of their feet touch the water, the flooded Jordan piles up as if held by an invisible dam. That took collective guts.

Which is why this story is part of our stewardship conversation this fall. You may remember my saying that every Sunday is "stewardship Sunday," but this time of year, we speak about it directly, as a spiritual discipline. "What?" you may ask yourself. "Isn't stewardship about paying the church's bills?" Not quite. Stewardship is more than money. Although, to hear Jesus talk, our relationship to money is critical to our spiritual vitality. Jesus talks more about money than he talks about anything else. Sixteen of his 38 parables are about it, and one out of ten verses in the gospels is about it. In the whole Bible, 2,000 verses are about money and possessions, while only 500 are about prayer, with less than 500 about faith. But we're not going to talk about money today. We're going to talk about what's behind it-the stewardship of our spiritual life.

John Westerhoff writes that spiritual life is "Ordinary, every day life lived in an ever-deepening and loving relationship to God and therefore to one's true or healthy self, all people, and the whole of creation." Stewardship of our spiritual life is about the choices we make to maintain and grow in our relationship with God. Remember the game we played at the beginning of the sermon? What would you pack if your faith journey was intentional and conscious? Truth be told, Christians travel light. Essentially, our baggage is time (spent with God) and relationship (getting to know God personally, honest communication, shared activities).

Scripture gives us two understandings of time. One is chronos (measured time), the other is kairos (God's time, the eternal Now). All of time is a gift from God, meant to be spent wisely, balanced between work and rest. If someone gave you (no strings attached) a gift of time, how would you spend it? A weekend alone with your parent, spouse, child, or dearest friend? What would you do with a 26-hour day once a week? An extra vacation day this month? How is what you have now different from that gift?

Our world is different from the world Israel faced, but our need for leadership is as great as theirs. God knows the need for the orderly transition of leadership, especially when the previous leader is as charismatic as Moses. What God promises Joshua is quite simply all he needs to be Israel's leader: God's very presence. God promises to be present for Joshua, but God knows he can't do it alone, so God plans for the priests to stand in the way of the water, so Joshua can lead.

I can't imagine how scary that must have been for the priests. Not just the prospect of getting wet, or even the potential for drowning. On the verge of the Promised Land, after waiting all through the Egyptian slavery, not to mention 40 years in the wilderness, here they are. They are supposed to act and be different than they'd ever been before. They are expected to embrace a personal transformation.

A friend of mine told me her seminary transformation dream, and it seemed to be like today's story. My friend went to seminary as a second-career adult, after resisting a lifetime of hearing she ought to pray for boys in religious vocation and ignore her sense of call. In her dream, she found herself at her grade school playground, which had become a battlefield. The boys' and girls' playgrounds were separated from the school building by a concrete retaining wall, which in the dream had grown to be 10 feet tall. My friend had been entrusted with a case of important papers to take to the school building. Every time she started across the playground, the battle grew more ferocious. She woke up from the dream so troubled that she told her mentor about it. He told her to sleep again, asking for the rest of the dream. She returned home to nap, and sure enough, there she was again, entrusted with important papers, prevented from her mission by a dangerous battle. Finally, she's not sure how, she knew she was just supposed to start out. As she headed through the boys' and girls' playgrounds, the battle waned. But then she arrived at the wall. There were no toe holds, no way of scaling it, and the battle roared up again. She was discouraged and afraid, but again, she just knew she was supposed to try. As she raised her foot to step to the wall, the wall miraculously shrank down until it was no higher than a threshold. An angel appeared and carried her over the threshold as if she was a bride. Just like the priests-the Jordan didn't stop flowing until their feet touched the water.

We are in the same place as my friend. As individuals, we have been given an important errand. Our situation may appear impossible to negotiate, but as soon as we begin, we will be given what we need for the next step. And the next, and the next. And that goes for our congregation, too. All vital organizations need to plan for and experience leadership transition. Presbyterian polity has a built-in sunset clause for elders, and it is time for Springwater to begin the process of choosing new elders. Truth be told, session has gotten smaller. Why? Are people at Springwater reluctant to be leaders? Is church leadership yet one more thing we gotta do, yet another drain on our precious time and energy? There may be a thousand reasons why session is shrinking, why people don't volunteer to lead, why everyone waits to be asked. I don't know. All I know is that, for Springwater, an orderly transition of power means people who are willing to take the risk of taking on leadership roles and the resultant personal transformation and faith growth.

Leadership is about stewardship, and stewardship is always about generosity, and generosity is always based on trust. Trusting God means acting as if what we need, God will provide. Whether our "need" is financial, time, or leadership gifts. God "exalts" Joshua, but God's exalting isn't about "he's better than you are." God's exalting of Joshua is simply to give him the tools he needs to lead Israel. Israel's new leader would need to be in regular conversation with God, would need to intercede for the nation before God. Israel's new leader would need the nation's respect so the people following would be transformed.

Springwater needs leaders like Joshua and the priests who are willing to risk the first step. We're not in this alone. The good news is that we've got a cloud of witnesses who have gone before. Jesus, as well as ordinary mortals, blazing paths for us, inviting us to the orderly transition of power God's people need. Thanks be to our God who provides for all our needs. Amen.