Rising from the Ashes

Today we continue our series on the ‘Bad Girls of the Bible.’ We are exploring some of the stories of women in the scriptures that might have a bad rap. There are clearly important lessons for us to learn from them, and we saw that last week as we looked at the story of Eve. Her name means life, but we saw how her pursuit of the knowledge of good and evil led to the fall of humans. We don’t just need to know things; we need wisdom, and it comes to us when we pursue it, and work to make the right decision for this moment in time.

Other Bad Girls have important lessons for us, too, so now we move from Eve to the story of Rahab. You may not know that name, but she appears in the Book of Joshua, in a story where Israel has left enslavement in Egypt and is marching into the Promised Land. Gay/Sal is going to read our scripture for today. The Israelites have gone the long way, entering from the East after 40 years wandering the desert and the first challenge they face in this new land is this massive fortress of a city, Jericho. How could they ever overcome it? A well fortified city could withstand a siege for months, if not years. If they can’t win here, how could they ever be safe in this new place? What they need is someone on the inside. Let’s hear some of the story of how Israel faced these impossible odds. This is from Joshua 2:1-14. Hear now the word of the Lord.

Joshua 2:1–14 NRSV

Then Joshua son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, “Go, view the land, especially Jericho.” So they went, and entered the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab, and spent the night there. The king of Jericho was told, “Some Israelites have come here tonight to search out the land.” Then the king of Jericho sent orders to Rahab, “Bring out the men who have come to you, who entered your house, for they have come only to search out the whole land.” But the woman took the two men and hid them. Then she said, “True, the men came to me, but I did not know where they came from. And when it was time to close the gate at dark, the men went out. Where the men went I do not know. Pursue them quickly, for you can overtake them.” She had, however, brought them up to the roof and hidden them with the stalks of flax that she had laid out on the roof. So the men pursued them on the way to the Jordan as far as the fords. As soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut. Before they went to sleep, she came up to them on the roof and said to the men: “I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that dread of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt in fear before you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites that were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. As soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no courage left in any of us because of you. The Lord your God is indeed God in heaven above and on earth below. Now then, since I have dealt kindly with you, swear to me by the Lord that you in turn will deal kindly with my family. Give me a sign of good faith that you will spare my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death.” The men said to her, “Our life for yours! If you do not tell this business of ours, then we will deal kindly and faithfully with you when the Lord gives us the land.”

[And from John 6:40]

John 6:40 NRSV

This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.”

This is the word of the Lord for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Let’s pray as we listen for God’s word: Lord, may we be an inclusive community passionately following Jesus Christ. Help us to discern your will, to rise from the ashes, and be God’s people whatever odds we may face. In Christ we pray, Amen.

When my oldest son, Davy, was just about 5 years old he convinced his mother to read a book to him. The book was called ‘Goosebumps’ written by R.L. Stine. Its a series of books that is appropriately scary for eight year olds, but Davy was a voracious reader and would read just about anything he could find. So when he finally wore his mother down with requests for Goosebump stories, she agreed to one and only one short story. It was a classic trope about a ventriloquist dummy that comes to life. After the story was over Davy had to go to bed, but that didn’t last very long. His imagination brought him visions of a dummy leaning out of his closet door peering at him. To this day Davy requires closet doors to be closed when he goes to sleep at night.

Goosebumps stories have never again appeared in our home, but the fear that he felt has somehow managed to linger. Me, on the other hand, I avoid scary things as much as I can. I just don’t have any interest in movies or any other kind of media designed to make you feel fear. I get enough of that in everyday life. I remember when I first found out that my wife, Emily, was pregnant. We had to go to the doctor to have ultrasounds. That was so nerve wracking to wait to hear first hand whether my child was healthy and able-bodied. What if he had been sick, or not viable?

Then we had to start making plans for this new baby. I had never had a budget for my finances in my entire life, but when we knew we had a baby coming, I started writing down the numbers. Emily was going to stop working, so I had to support the family on just my income. When I finished the calculations I was on the phone with my dad, “Hey dad, it looks like I’m not going to have enough to support my family. Can you help?” He told me to pray about! Can you believe his nerve?

I was scared I wouldn’t be able to support my family, so I did pray. A couple of weeks later I got a phone call from my boss telling me that I would be heading to a new church and the salary was exactly the amount we needed to survive on one income. I don’t think I’ve ever felt more relief in my whole life. Essentially the day Davy was born I started a new job to support the whole family. Those first few months were filled with fear, too. When Davy would finally go to sleep I couldn’t get any rest. I had to compulsively check on him to make sure everything was alright and he was still breathing. There are plenty of things to be afraid of just as the world is; I don’t feel compelled to imagine new ones to add to it.

Now I know that’s not true for everyone. Some people thrive on those feelings of fear. Some use it as a powerful tool to change the world around them. In Russia there is this drug that people take to help them stop drinking nicknamed ‘the torpedo pill.’ The drug blocks the bodies ability to properly metabolize alcohol, which can cause all kinds of problems. The more permanent form of it involves a doctor putting an implant into their body that is supposed to make them violently ill if they even have a single drop of alcohol. To test it the patient takes one pill by mouth, and then a single drop of alcohol. They feel headaches, nauseous…they might feel like they will faint or even are about to die. A doctor interviewed about it was asked if someone could indeed actually die from this and he said, “well, probably not.” It is a serious risk to use this, but the effects are unbelievable. Something like up to 80% of patients report breaking their addiction to alcohol after using the torpedo pill, a very real drug called disulfiram with very real and scary side effects.

Could you imagine doing that to yourself? Making yourself so sick so that you never want to touch something again, never do something again. That’s the power of fear, but I’m not convinced that’s the best way forward. In fact, there are multiple places throughout scripture where the command from God or an angel is “Fear not.” It happens to Abraham, it happens to Joseph’s family, Moses, Israel; on and on it goes, “Fear not.” God is here, God is with you, God is on your side.

When Joshua is preparing to go to battle with this city, Jericho, he might ordinarily have reason to fear. Jericho is known as the oldest city in the world, settled since 9000 BC. And there’s a reason its been inhabited for so long. The city sits in a strategic position between the Jordan River and Jerusalem. It also defends the path to Bethel, another significant city to the west. There is a spring of water that runs all the way to the Jordan River so they have food and water. Its also the only place to cross the Jordan easily for about 20 miles, so they have built up the walls over centuries to defend this important passageway. If you look on a map even today, you can see how the area around Jericho is very green, while its essentially surrounded by desert. Jericho had everything they needed to defend against the invading Israelite army.

Yet God says “fear not.” How in the world could they possibly win? This army, as big as it is, needs a ton of food and water. They can’t sustain themselves for long. They have to have quick victories in this new land or they are done for. And here stands Jericho, an impenetrable fortress, blocking them from truly entering the Promised Land. If I were Joshua, leading these people in, I think I would be scared. A false move here could ruin the people and bring a swift end to this invasion.

Joshua is skilled, though, and not afraid. He sends in some spies, which is typical in this time. The men would have posed as either deserters or refugees. So getting into the city is not as big of a problem as getting out. They need to surreptitiously find out how many soldiers there are and inspect the food and water supplies. If they get caught, its over. If they can find a weakness, though, it could bring the battle to a quick end. Unfortunately, there is no weakness. This is bad news, and on top of it, it seems someone figures out they are spies, tells the king and so soldiers are at Rahab’s home trying to catch them.

Now Rahab is a harlot, her occupation sticks out like a sore thumb. Over and over the scriptures refer to her as Rahab the harlot. Joshua, multiple times, Hebrews and even the Book of James attaches that. They won’t let go of her name in connection with her occupation. In case you are wondering, no there are no other Rahab’s in the Bible. She’s the only one, yet her occupation is right there, connected with her. She receives these spies into her home and she hides them among the flax. This is a big deal because she is ultimately siding with the invading army; she is a traitor jeopardizing herself and her family while helping these complete strangers. Its also a big deal because she hid them in flax, which is gross. Its a plant used for making clothing or rope. You had to soak it in stagnant water while it rotted and smelled awful. So hiding among these rotten, soggy plants would have been the equivalent of burying yourself in a pile of pig slop. So she rescues them with this desperate move and tells them how to escape the soldiers. She even says, ‘the whole land has “melted in fear” of these people who have such a powerful God who acts on their behalf.’

She, along with the city of Jericho, has come to a moment that Ignatius of Loyola would call desolation. I’m sure you’ve experienced this yourself at some point. Desolation simply means we are moving away from God’s presence in the world. Fear does that. It also happens when we are selfish or ungrateful. When we resist God, and God’s activity in the world we enter desolation, and usually what follows isn’t good either. We feel bad so we stay at the office and work harder, longer hours; we drink to stave off those feelings; or maybe we criticize someone so we can put the blame on them instead. That’s all moving away from God. Jericho, in their fear, does not embrace God, but chooses a path that leads to death.

Rahab, though, she chooses a different way. She chooses what Ignatius would call consolation; she wants to move toward God. Now this is interesting; Rahab doesn’t know exactly how to choose God. She acknowledges God; she knows God is powerful and is clearly impressed by that, but she doesn’t make a commitment to God alone. She doesn’t reject the multitude of gods on offer there in the city of Jericho. I’ve heard one person refer to this stage as being a “barbarian.” You just don’t know the rules. You don’t know what people expect you to think and do and say. And what I see happening here are these spies from Israel, they are accepting this outsider. They are saying yes to someone who might otherwise scare them, someone too different to live among them. But here they say “yes.” They let the barbarian in, because they see Rahab moving toward consolation.

Consolation is growing in faith. Maybe Rahab didn’t have it all together, but she was definitely stepping in the right direction. She was open to and learning to trust God in the middle of a terrifying situation. Can you do that? Can you trust God when things are really difficult. And maybe even harder than that, can you learn to get past your fear when it looks like someone else may be a barbarian.

I have seen this dynamic play out more than once among young people. I did youth ministry in a few different churches and I remember one young person that came to the church and he didn’t really fit in with the group we had. He was very shy and not terribly bright. He just didn’t know how to handle himself or know how to talk to other people. But I remember telling the group, look I know he doesn’t fit in here, but we’ve got to welcome him anyways. In him are some incredible gifts and if we can just hold off on judging him as an outsider, we might get a chance to some of those incredible gifts. And I was amazed to see them take it seriously. They welcomed him in, and made him part of the group. Some of the most hilarious and beautiful moments working with that youth group had him at its center. It could have been mean and cruel, a desolation as we laughed AT him, driving him away from God. But instead, they were these joyous moments laughing WITH him, moving together toward God. We had welcomed in the barbarian and we were changed for the better for it.

This is exactly what we see in the story of Rahab. She is commended for her faith because in the midst of the fear and trembling of all the people around her, she opened herself up to God. She may not have understood it fully, but she said yes to God, and helped these strangers. What incredible faith that is, risking herself, but knowing that out there God is at work and she wants to be a part of it.

If you don’t know how this story ends, the spies do eventually manage to escape. They get back to Joshua and after crossing the Jordan and setting up what’s called an Ebenezer, a marker of stones to commemorate God’s faithfulness to them, they are finally at the gates of Jericho. They don’t use swords and shields, though. Instead they march around the city one time each day. On the seventh day they march around the city six times and then on the seventh pass they played their trumpets. Now “trumpets” is what shows up in our Bibles, but it was actually a shofar, a kind of bent ram’s horn.

This week I had a chance talk with the new Rabbi down the street from us, Rabbi Joshua Waxman. He just started in his synagogue recently, which means I am now no longer the newest clergy-person in Wyckoff (yeah). After our conversation I asked him about this passage and if they have someone who plays the shofar. He said yes and got me in touch with Len Stern, who plays for their congregation. He told me the technical term is the Baal Tekiah. Len said he would have been happy to join us in person and play it, but that he is traveling this week. He was kind enough to send us a short video so we could see and hear what it would have sounded like, so think of the people marching around the city and blowing the shofar. This is Len Stern, the Baal Tekiah from Temple Beth Risho(w)n.

[shofar video]

Now imagine not just one, but hundreds or even thousands of shofars playing. It would have been an incredible sound, and with it were the shouts of all the Israelites, and as they played and shouted, the walls of Jericho came tumbling down. They didn’t need a single weapon; they had nothing to fear. They only needed to trust God. And as they approached the leveled city, Joshua sent the two spies to find Rahab’s home and bring her whole family safely out. Rahab was rescued and would one day be known as the Great-Great Grandmother of King David, who in turn was part of the lineage of Jesus the Christ. Her faith shaped the whole world as she came to be part of the story of how God would redeem all people to himself.

Let me leave you with one last thought. Each week we are interviewing a bad girl of Grace United Methodist Church, and I want you to be inspired to go and do incredible, fearless things on behalf of God, and I think this last story will do just that. I want to invite Mary Ann Vandyk to join me up here. Can you welcome her here with us today?

introduction

tell us about a car accident

We remember that in Rahab, we see a powerful example of someone who was on the outside, who was surrounded by desolation, but found a path to consolation. She drew near to God, putting her trust in the Lord and because of that, the world was forever changed. I invite you to do the same, to trust God, trust the Spirit at work in you, offering hope and courage and love to all. Amen? Amen.