Spokane Friends Meeting

The First Candle of Advent calls our attention to Hope.

It’s not right to call “Hope” illusory.  But, as a matter of fact, Hope is a hard thing to nail down.  It’s a motivating expectation.  Farmers with their crops recently planted in the field hope that it will rain.  Farmers wanting to harvest hope that it won’t. But, that kind of definition simply reduces hope to wishful thinking.  Something as important as hope certainly is more than wishful thinking.

Without hope things get pretty dire.  Dante, following Virgil, comes to the gate of Hell; over which are the dreadful words “All hope abandon, ye who enter here” and that wasn’t all of it.  “Through me you pass into the city of woe: Through me you pass into eternal pain.”  Dante wants us to understand that this place is reserved for those who had passed their time in a state of apathy and indifference. “All hope abandon, ye who enter here”

Having hope is the opposite of living with apathy and indifference.  That well could be the best way to measure hope but I hope not. That would include sixty percent of the registered voters in Spokane County who didn’t vote in the recent general election.  A greater number were without power after the windstorm than voted.

Monday I received an email that started “I hope you are feeling better.  I heard you were sick with a virus”.  Next she adds “I hope you and Susan have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!”  And then comes a phenomenal statement of hope: (I’ve changed the names because it would be wrong not too. ) She writes: “Harold and I are spending Thanksgiving with his ex-wife Hannah and his ex-father in law who is suffering from dementia.  Hannah struggles with depression and physical issues and didn’t have anyone else, and since she and Harold get along very well, why not?” There is no indifference or apathy to good and evil in her heart.  Let’s go spend Thanksgiving with your depressed and impaired ex wife and her demented father. And, against all reason, she hopes that everything will be a perfectly Happy Thanksgiving.   Bless her heart.

In a time when people are living with indifference and apathy and finding reasons to hope is difficult we read in 1st Peter that those who choose to follow Christ are urged to ‘give to anyone who asks an account of the hope that is in them.”  Maybe it’s context or syntax because the word ‘hope’ sounds like it resides in the future.  But that’s not what we read in 1st Peter. The hope we find in our faith is rooted in the present.  I like what Brother Roger of the Taize’ community had said about hope.  He said the source of our hope is God, a God who simply loves us and can do nothing else, a God who never stops seeking us.

n the Hebrew Bible, that mysterious Source of life we call God makes God’s self known by calling us into relationship.  Together we enter into a covenant.  Our Scriptures define the characteristics of this covenant by translating the Hebrew words: hesed and emeth as “steadfast love” and “faithfulness.” They tell us, first of all, that God is overflowing goodness and kindness who wants to take care of his people and, second, that God will never abandon those he has called to enter into fellowship with him. That is the source of biblical hope. If God is good and his attitude never changes toward us nor forsakes us, then whatever difficulties may arise, if the world we know is far from justice, peace and compassion—for us this is not the definitive situation. From our faith in God’s steadfast love and faithfulness we live with the expectation of a world according to God’s will or, to put it a better way, according to God’s love.

In the Bible, this hope is often expressed by the notion of promise. We   see this in the story of Abraham: “I will bless you,” God says to Abraham, “and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed” (Genesis 12:2-3).  A promise is a dynamic reality that opens new possibilities for human life. It looks toward the future, but it is rooted in a current relationship with the God who speaks to me here and now, who guides me in making specific choices in my life. The seeds of the future are found in a present relationship with God. This rootedness in the present is made even stronger with the coming of Christ’s Spirit. In him, says the Apostle Paul, all God’s promises are already a reality (2 Corinthians 1:20). Quakers have testified that “Christ has come to teach his people himself.”  “I am with you always, until the end of the age” Jesus said in (Matthew 28:20).  In Romans 5 Paul also wrote that “Hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us”. Far from being a simple wish for the future with no guarantee that it will come about, our hope, what could be called Christian hope, is the presence of divine love in person, the Holy Spirit, a current of life that carries us to the ocean of the fullness of communion.

How can we root our lives in Christian hope?  Biblical and Christian hope does not mean living in the clouds, dreaming of a better life. It is not merely a projection of what we would like to be or do someday. It leads us to discover seeds of a new world already present today, because of the identity of our God, because of the living presence of Christ. This hope is, in addition, a source of energy to live differently, not according to the values of a society based on the thirst for power, possession and competition.

In the Bible, the divine promise does not ask us to sit down and wait passively for it to come about, as if by magic. Before speaking to Abraham about the fullness of life offered to him, God says, “Leave your country and your home for the land I will show you” (Genesis 12:1). To enter into God’s promise, Abraham is called to make of his life a pilgrimage, to undergo a new beginning. Similarly, the good news of Pentecost is not a way of taking our minds off the tasks of life here and now, but a call to set out on the road. “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? … Go into the entire world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation… You will be my witnesses…to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:11; Mark 16:15; Acts 1:8).  Writing to the Christians of Rome, Paul speaks of the longing of creation and compares this suffering to the pangs of childbirth. Then he continues, “We ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly” (Romans 8:18-23). Inspired by Christ’s Spirit we are called to live in deep unity with all humanity. Our faith is not a privilege that takes us out of the world; we “groan” with the world, sharing its pain, but we live this situation in hope, knowing that, in Christ, “the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining” (1 John 2:8).

Hoping, then, means first of all discovering in the depths of the present a Life that leads forward and that nothing is able to stop. We are led to create signs of a different future here and now, in the midst of the darkness of the world, seeds of renewal that will bear fruit when the time comes. For the first Christians, the clearest sign of this new world to come was the existence of communities made up of people of different backgrounds and languages. Going beyond the divisions that kept people apart from one another.  These men and women lived as brothers and sisters, as God’s family, praying together and sharing their possessions according to the needs of each person (cf. Acts 2:42-47). They strived to have “one and the same love, [being] united in spirit and focused on the same thing” (Philippians 2:2). In that way they shone out like points of light in the world (cf. Philippians 2:15). From the very beginning, Christian hope kindled a fire on the earth.  Its call is to continue to stoke that fire.

As disciples of Jesus we start to include the disenfranchised, to raise up those who have been beaten down and seek justice for all who have been treated inhumanly or unfairly. At the same time, we strive for equity where the poor and needy have enough and the rich and powerful do not have too much. Disciples of Jesus who live in this manner are seen as . . .  authentic individuals.

The Perfect Vineyard and the Sucker

Isaiah 5 Let me sing for my beloved my love-song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. 2He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; he expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.

3And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. 4What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? When I expected it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?

5And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. 6I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. 7For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting; he expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry!

The narrator of the text is presented as a troubadour who sings a love song about a vineyard for his beloved. It’s supposed to be a love song. And it is but a love song without a happy ending.

Like the proverbial suitor who intends to request the hand of his beloved in marriage, the beloved wants everything to be exactly right. A great wine coming from a carefully planned and cultivated vineyard is the vision. The right land is purchased and prepared for planting including removing stones, which I imagine being piled around the edges of the field; then the nursery stock is selected, purchased and planted. A watch tower and a wine vat are constructed vineyard. By reading further in the story we learn that a protective hedge is planted and a wall is built around it.

Planning and a tremendous investment is made to bring the vision to reality and fruition. There is a vision, a long term vision at work in this story. I find the image at work a way to talk about the salvation history of the children of Israel, God’s chosen people. The vineyard is the Promised Land, a land of high hopes and expectations. The obstacles for the children of Israel to be planted there are removed, a religious culture is constructed that provides protection and a way to process the produce. Everything has been envision, planted to perfection and provided – everything.

And somehow, despite all this investment the vines themselves, go wild. They can’t resist the attraction of what’s is available on the other side of the hedge. That appears to be a euphemism for cross fertilization with vines not under the protection of the hedge and watchtower. Isaiah gives us his version of Israel’s taste for promiscuous relationships like what we read between the faithful husband Hosea and his promiscuous wife, Gomer.

The idea of loving the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength is foreign to them. Others continue to worship the Lord at the temple and go through religious rituals, but they don’t allow their religion to affect their daily lives. These people are wrapped up in themselves. They live unjust and uncaring lives as they ignore the poor and needy.

And it breaks God’s heart. The hope for the future, the beloved’s hope for producing a great wine are dashed. And despite all the investment of time, resources and care he destroys what he created. He lets it go wild, – un-tilled, overgrown with briers and thorns and with out rain becomes a desert. Isaiah ends this picture with this description “For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting; he expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry! Kenny Rogers recorded the post Vietnam song Ruby – “Ruby” he sang “don’t take your love to town”. That’s the song for this unrequited love.

Isaiah’s Chapter 11 is a complete contrast to Chapter 5

Instead of an immaculately planned and executed vineyard we are given quite a different image. Salvation comes quite unexpectedly from a shoot growing from the stump of a long thought dead tree, a sucker that if allowed to grow offers salvation. An adventitious shoot is a form of horticultural propagation and it produces a clone of the original tree. God circumvents the years of the United Kingdom and the Divided Kingdom during which justice, equality and righteousness disappeared from the land. The years of whoring after other Gods – it’s retro – as if God repented of allowing politics to run the nation. Listen:

11A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. 2The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. 3His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; 4but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. 5Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins.

6The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. 7The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den. 9They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

10On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious

The root of Jesse? Compared to the perfect vineyard it’s helpful to be reminded that Jesse’s great-grandmother was Rahab, a Canaanite harlot. He was the son of Obed, the son of Boaz and the Moabitess Ruth. Jesse was the father of eight sons, one of which was David. And it’s from that genealogy that a sucker grows from the root. We already know what became of David’s kingdom on his death – it was forever broken in two.

Abandoning the vision of the perfect wine from the perfect vineyard God announces hope arising from in a much simpler place. The stump might appear dead but from the long buried roots of God’s promise to his chosen, his beloved, salvation comes. What enables the sprout to become messianic is this

“The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

There is a wonderful word of hope in this. It doesn’t grow from perfect planning and perfect execution – it occurs in the work of the Spirit. This worthless sprout from a long dead tree, with the Spirit of the Lord resting on it becomes the spirit of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and might. Justice and equality will be the marks of a world transformed. It fulfillment is the vision of the peaceable kingdom.

This is a powerful description of the work of Christ’s Spirit in our lives.

Certainly we have gone our own ways and declared our independence. We are constantly tempted to follow the false gods and idols of this world. Even though we hear Jesus’ words, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me,” we get wrapped up in ourselves and ignore the needs of others. The Lord doesn’t allow us to stay in this condition. As the Christian cliché goes, “God accepts us where we are at, but God doesn’t allow us to stay there.”

The transformation process from wild grapes to Spirit directed life is long and sometimes painful.
The first thing the Spirit does is illuminate the accumulated filth in our personal lives, and according to Isaiah our corporate and national life as well. The Spirit shows us what needs to be changed and that promises to move us from our comfort zone—to walk new paths and learn new things. The creative Spirit of Christ will change our attitudes toward individuals and groups, the “others” our our experience, undocumented aliens, immigrants, refugees, those who identify with the LBGT community, even those of other religious traditions such as Muslims. The Spirit might convict us of the harmful effects that our words and attitudes have upon others and might convince us that change is needed. The changes that occur in the king and in the followers of the king, allow transformation to take place in the world. No longer are words and actions based on outward appearances. Our first impressions of others, especially those who are different from ourselves, usually stress the differences. Seeing beyond outward appearances allows us to recognize similarities. Similarities facilitate the building of relationships.

The transformation process begins. As disciples of Jesus we start to include the disenfranchised, to raise up those who have been beaten down and seek justice for all who have been treated inhumanly or unfairly. At the same time, we strive for equity where the poor and needy have enough and the rich and powerful do not have too much. Disciples of Jesus who live in this manner are seen as righteous (not self-righteous) people of integrity and authentic individuals. There is also a faithfulness in these disciples. They are consistent in their service and strong in their convictions.

We live in a broken world. The Spirit of God is upon us so that we might be changed and in turn share God’s love and grace and change the world. 6The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. 7The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den. 9They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

10On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.

. . . these recent events present us with what someone called “a molten moment”, an opportunity to make faith relevant when the world feels off its chain.

Hosea 11  is a remarkable passage in the Hebrew Bible, actually it is remarkable in the whole body of scriptures. That it comes from the burdened pen of a person married to a prostitute and who worries himself sick about this woman who refuses to abandon her profession; and though she bears three children (whether or not any of them is in fact Hosea’s is anyone’s guess) she apparently takes little or no responsibility for their care. From this agonizing family situation Hosea tells us that God feels about Israel just as Hosea feels about Gomer, namely, rejected, abandoned, and humiliated. Hosea gives us a feel for God’s tender and very real love and pain. Despite pain, God will redeem. God will heal. And God will bring to new life.”

We’ve been inundated by reports on the violent atrocities inflicted on the people of Paris.  We’ve heard a lot less about the similar terrorist attacks which left 43 dead in Beirut, 26 dead in Baghdad and three homes destroyed in Ramallah. We would be remiss to fail to mention the 459 non combatants, including 100 children killed by U.S. air strikes.  The awakening of Russia by the bombing of it’s commercial airline spreads the pain and abhorrence of these inhumane acts. Amateur theologians will rail at God saying “How could God let such things happen?” It is one of many miscarriages of theology that leads to people leaving the church. It’s not God’s job to stop such things. Defying evil is humanity’s job.

We are some how wired to blame god, the man upstairs, for what God hasn’t done and we also credit some generic god  for what God has actually done. We have grown up monotheists – the idea of a twenty first century equivalent of Baal is, well, outside our network. It’s not new. The other side of our temptation is that there are times when we credit God for stepping in and saving one individual or group over another – one child dies of a disease while another survives.  Given these recent events present us with what someone called “a molten moment”, an opportunity to make faith relevant when the world feels off its chain. The thing is, this false poignancy is what our Hosea passage addresses.

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Hoses 11:1-11When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. ²The more I called them, the more they went from me; they kept sacrificing to the Baals, and offering incense to idols. ³Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them up in my arms; but they did not know that I healed them. ⁴I led them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love. I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks. I bent down to them and fed them. ⁵They shall return to the land of Egypt, and Assyria shall be their king, because they have refused to return to me. ⁶The sword rages in their cities, it consumes their oracle-priests, and devours because of their schemes. ⁷My people are bent on turning away from me. To the Most High they call, but he does not raise them up at all.

The Most High, the god on whom he people call isn’t Yahweh as we are tempted to think but in a better translation we learn that it is in fact Baal.

Then Hosea continues with some very tender words: ⁸How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim?

“How can I give  you up, Ephraim?” God asks.  Calling Israel Ephraim was like calling a person the way a grandparent might with deep affection, recalling from what the grandchild had been called in its youth.  Ephraim was, according to Jewish tradition, a selfless and humble second child of Jacob who because of his gentleness was elevated over his brother.  God doesn’t use the adult name Israel but Ephraim.  Admah and Zeboiim were cities destroyed at the time of Sodom and Gomorrah – an end for which God did not wish for Israel, excuse me, Ephraim.

My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. ⁹I will not execute my fierce anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and no mortal, (the Hebrew text says “I am no male” )the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath. ¹⁰They shall go after the Lord, who roars like a lion; when he roars, his children shall come trembling from the west. ¹¹They shall come trembling like birds from Egypt, and like doves from the land of Assyria; and I will return them to their homes, says the Lord.

Hosea is convinced that those things that Baal is believed by many to have done and to be doing for Israel have in fact been done by God. “It was I who taught Ephraim (a euphemism for Israel, the northern kingdom) to walk; I lifted him into my arms, but they did not know that I healed them” (11:3).  It was God who trained the young Israel to walk in the right way. And when they fell and hurt themselves, it was God who offered healing, not the non-existent Baal. It was God who put a bandaid on their skinned knee and kissed their owee.  Indeed, claims Hosea, whatever Baal is supposed to have done, Yahweh was the real actor.

“I guided them with human cords, with belts of love. I was for them like those who loosen the yokes on their jaws; I then knelt down to them and fed them” (11:4). The extreme intimacy of these metaphors is not to be missed. YHWH is a parent, teaching Israel to take its first steps, picking them up in great divine arms, healing them when they fall. YHWH encircles them as they grow with cords and belts of protection, yet loosely applied so that Israel may easily eat the food YHWH offers. There are touch and taste and smell here as the divine parent plays the appropriate role and Israel grows up safely and protected. Yet, as 11:2 says, Israel rejected YHWH’s teaching and loving, choosing instead the supposed succor of the Baals.

Rejected, abandoned, humiliated yet God, Oh Hosea says it better: My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. ⁹I will not execute my fierce anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and no mortal, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath. Do you hear the good news in that?

When Christians think about God’s willingness to suffer on behalf of sinful humans, we often think about Jesus’ crucifixion, as we should. But Hosea 11:1-9 helps us realize that the cross is not a new development in the life of God, it represents who God fundamentally is. The cross is a climactic moment, but one that is situated along an already existent trajectory. In Christ God does not become a suffering God, rather, God exercises God’s deep longing to be among God’s people, a longing that motivated the construction of the Tabernacle (Exodus 25:8-9). God’s willingness to suffer on behalf of creation, however, is supremely seen in Christ, who takes into himself not only sinful human rage but also divine wrath. But instead his compassion grows warm and tender.

I want to share with you a prayer written by another minister for this time

Creator of the Universe, Holy Dreamer, God of Love and Life, You have given us life, you have given us a rule of life, you have shared with us your hope an plan for life. But we have so often chosen another path. You call us to be people of peace. We choose violence. You call us to be people of justice, where all have what is needed forlife. We choose a way where some have abundance, others lack basics. You call us to treat each other with love. We choose to blow each other up and shoot and kill and maim. This weekend, as happens far far too often, the world  weeps. Acts of terror and horror rocked our newsfeeds. Followed by blame and finger-pointing, political posturing and rhetoric born of fear and assumptions. And once again we are forced to admit that this world you have created is not only broken, but that it continues to break into smaller pieces. What do we do? What do we say when there are no words? If we are honest it is at times like this when we wonder “when will you unleash your anger?” or more honestly “why don’t you unleash your anger and strike down those  who do such things?” (assuming of course that we could direct you as to who should be struck down). Surely you would be guiltless if you allowed these faithless, errant children to face the consequences of their choices. But you don’t.  Which is probably a good thing. You choose mercy, you choose grace, you choose hope. You say that out of love you can not destroy your children who wander astray. Instead of destruction you offer an invitation. Asking us to return to the rule of life you lay before us. And wondering when we will come home and share in the depth of life. As we weep and gnash our teeth. As we try to understand. As we point fingers and ask how to prevent this happening again. Help us. Help us look at the whole picture, seeing all the horror, not just the horror that strikes closest to home. Help us see how the choices made by “us” and “them” might interact. Help us follow the trails of our past actions, and help us think seriously where our present and future actions might lead. Help us see beyond the fear and horror. Help us avoid the demonization of our neighbours. And help us find the path that leads to the Promised Land, the Kingdom of God, where the wolf will lie down with the lamb and they will not hurt or destroy on the holy mountain. This we pray in the name of Jesus, the Christ, the Prince of Peace, who taught us to love our neighbours and our enemies. Amen.

Ahab holds the reputation of being the worst king of Israel, ever, primarily because of his choice in women. He married that Jezebel, Jezebel. Jezebel’s marriage to Ahab was a political alliance. Her father is king of the Phoenicians. The alliance, cemented by the marriage provided both nations military protection from powerful enemies as well as valuable trade routes. The princess Jezebel is brought to the northern kingdom of Israel to wed the newly crowned King Ahab. The Phoenicians worshiped a swarm of gods and goddesses but chief among them was Baal the chief fertility and agricultural god of the Canaanites. Jezebel was a good girl. She was raised to honor the deities of her native land.

Our local weather prognosticators have been telling us that this year we might have as little rain as last year but, hopefully, more snow on the mountains. It’s always been the case that those whose lives depend on the weather are more interested in weather predictions but now, urban dwellers from San Diego to Neah Bay share the concern as we are reminded just how essential adequate supplies of water are to our lives. To understand that is the first step in getting a handle on the Old Testament story of Elijah’s confrontation with the Prophets of Baal.

Read Ist Kings 18:18ff

It’s a great story. The hero is greatly outnumbered, the odds are against him, and yet he is, almost overbearingly, cocky. The stakes are high but he is willing to put it all on the line, and of course like all great stories the hero wins, with nothing less than a great stream of fire falling from the heavens. Elijah (although it is actually God) defeats the prophets of Baal and the people repent. It is too easy to mistakenly read this as a story about a miracle, wizardry or a title bout. It is really about the sacramental nearness of God in a complex society, sorting out a life of faith in the midst of the daily realities of a complex, competitive and confusing world. It’s a great story and at the heart of this story is a single question “How long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.”

The worship of Baal in Syria-Palestine, the Promised Land, was inextricably bound to the economy of the land which depended on the regularity and adequacy of the rains from heaven. In a good year, when the rains come in due season the land yields its increase, the trees produce their fruit there is food prosperity, and peace. But not all years are good, and in a bad year, when the rains fail, a man’s toil is futile for the earth will not yield its increase. A series of bad years was catastrophic. The Book of Ruth starts with a famine caused by drought in Judah. Thus in any year anxiety about the rainfall would be a continuing concern of the inhabitants which would suffice to give rise to rites to ensure the coming of the rains. Remember four years ago when Gov. Perry of Texas signed a proclamation asking for Texans to prayer for rain. It’s a sore subject now. Long before the Hebrew tribes began to settle there the people believed that rain was Baal’s bailiwick. Drought in that land so dependent on rainfall enhanced the appeal of the Baal cult. When the rains failed, it was inevitable that some of the people would resort to Baal, revert to the good old religion, ways of reviving or reactivating the rain-god. And the rains failed. Phoenician sources document a three year drought preceding Elijah’s confrontation with the prophets of Baal.

But this isn’t just a story about who is really the rain god. There was a much larger issue at stake. Ahab holds the reputation of being the worst king of Israel, ever, primarily because of his choice in women. He married that Jezebel, Jezebel. Jezebel’s marriage to Ahab was a political alliance. Her father is king of the Phoenicians. The alliance, cemented by the marriage provided both nations military protection from powerful enemies as well as valuable trade routes. The princess Jezebel is brought to the northern kingdom of Israel to wed the newly crowned King Ahab. The Phoenicians worshiped a swarm of gods and goddesses but chief among them was Baal the chief fertility and agricultural god of the Canaanites. Jezebel was a good girl. She was raised to honor the deities of her native land.

This foreign policy of security by alliance was intolerable to the writers of this piece of Israel’s history, not just because when Jezebel comes to Israel, she brings with her her foreign gods and goddesses. Settling into the Promised Land, establishing a monarchy and separating into a northern and a southern kingdom God’s chosen people continually went astray. They sinned against Yahweh in many ways, but the worst way was the way in which they slipped into putting their trust in other than God.

The foundational issue was Israel’s forming alliances with other nations rather than relying on God alone for it’s protection and prosperity. The Prophets warned Israel and its smaller sibling Judah against becoming the ally of other nations and the reason is interesting, it reveals a failure to trust God. Jeremiah is the most reknown for his Oracle Against the Nations. But the other major Prophets carry the same theme and Hosea’s story of marriage to a prostitute makes the argument clear. And the repeated forming of alliances wasn’t simply that the religious practices and perspectives of Israel get watered down it was that such alliances allowed the population and its leadership to be less dependent upon God for the future.

The children of Israel have trouble with the foundation stone of their faith, the Shema. “Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone” That’s where today’s reading begins with a wicked king and a people caught in the midst of great drought and famine. Desperate to find salvation from their circumstances the people turned from trusting the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob, the God who brought them from Egyptian bondage to the land of promise, to other gods, namely the local Canaanite god Baal.

The conflict of Yahwism and Baalism reached a crisis with Elijah’s challenge to Baal’s prophets to settle the question once and for all whether it was Baal or Yahweh who really supplied the rain. The contest on Mount Carmel was reported as demonstrating that Baal was an impotent non-entity and that the rain came only from Yahweh. The right remedy, according to Israel’s prophets, was to repudiate Baal completely and to seek and return to Israel’s true God. None of the foolish practices of the heathen could bring the rains; only Yahweh could and did according to Jeremiah. If the rains failed and drought and death came upon the land and people, it was YHWH’s way of meting out merited punishment to a faithless and sinful people.

But, of course it couldn’t be quite that simple. It hadn’t been a total conversion. The Israelites hadn’t totally rejected Yahweh they still worshiped the LORD but they were also worshiping Baal. The fact that the people were hedging their bets hadn’t gone unnoticed by God, so God gathered the people of Israel as well as the 450 prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel he asks them this question ; “How long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.”

Sadly the spectacular the victory for Yahwehism it didn’t have a lasting effect. Jehu’s massacre of the Baal worshipers reported in II Kings 10 did not eradicate bull worship. In Judah the murder of the queen mother and the priest of Baal, and the smashing of the altars and cult images in the Baal temple did not wipe out the cult. Ahaz fostered Baal worship; Hezekiah attempted to eliminate it; Manasseh his son again gave it royal support; and Josiah in his turn purged the Temple of YHWH of the utensils made for Baal and Asherah.

So when Elijah says the people of Israel “how long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him, but if Baal, then follow him.” I think we’d do well to hear that as a question for us today. Famine was wide spread and the people were desperate some would say because Ahab had turned Israel to Baal – trouble was that the commonly held belief of the people was that Baal was the god that controlled the rains.

The first commandments from Sinai demanded fidelity to Yahweh (no other God), but the people were attracted to other gods and goddesses. Through out the ages some folks continue to give entity and power to other gods. We keep running into this ambivalence in scripture. Is there no other God than Yahweh or is Yahweh one of innumerable deities spread unevenly over the whole of creation?

Baal’s influence has persisted through the centuries, as the unrelenting protests of the prophets and the sporadic efforts at reform attest. Just like ancient Israel we too struggle with the first commandment. The pantheon of gods today is just as broad as back in the time of Elijah. We don’t tend to think that because today’s gods don’t have names like Anat, Molech, Lotan, or Baal, for us it’s a little more subtle, our god’s names are wealth, beauty, comfort, security, relationships, material possessions. It’s whether we are willing to trust ourselves and our future to God and live obediently into that relationship. On its face the Old Testament story easily comes off as “Our God is stronger than your god.” But a better lens is: the LORD is the source of all life whereas the false gods have no life to give. Choosing God in our era means rejecting the culture’s values and striving to live in line with the teachings of Jesus. For example, capital punishment is off the table, so is torture, so is turning our backs on the poor and oppressed. Of course we do these things and more all the time as we are imperfect but the choosing is in the striving not in the achieving. It’s about keeping the choice of God alive in daily life. It’s not about challenging the gods that face other people; but the gods that we are tempted to trust. It’s about seeing and choosing the way of Christ for ourselves, and living that in such a way that others might say “How great is your God.”

There’s nothing evil about wealth, or relationships, or taking pride in your appearance, or material possessions, On their own they’re not evil. But as soon as we fail to keep those things in their proper place, as soon as we elevate them to a level where they become the thing we believe we have to have in order to be ok, then they have become our god.

Today’s reading ends with God’s overwhelming victory over Baal. The fire of the LORD fell from the sky totally consuming the drenched alter so that there was nothing left. When the people saw this they fell on their faces and said “The LORD indeed is God, The LORD indeed is God.” In other words, the people repented their following after Baal and turned fully to God. In an almighty act God broke the bondage of the Canaanite gods and the people were free once more from their life diminishing claims. In a challenging story about God’s demand of sole loyalty, God’s willingness to act yet again in such a way as to draw the people back to God is nothing less than an act of grace. It’s a reminder that long before God ever asks us to choose God, God has already chosen us. John 15:16 “You did not choose me but I chose you. In the John’s gospel Jesus says “You did not chose me but I chose you.” God is always the initiator, the gods of this world may pursue us and we might find that pursuit exciting but it’s nothing to the lengths God will go to draw us back into the kingdom. Not even death was not too far to go. And why? Because God loves us.

What do you think?  Are Thoreau, John Stuart Mill and Immanuel Kant right. Do persons need to be left free to make their own choices, even if these choices are considered reckless, stupid or otherwise ‘bad’ choices by others?  Do we get better at making the right decision over time and with experience?

From the time of Moses up until the anointing of Saul as King in 1051 BC the Children of Israel who had escaped Egyptian bondage and settled in the land of Canaan relied on the unofficial leadership of a series of Judges.  The twelve tribes functioned as a loose confederation with no central government, no standing army and most of all, no king.  Every so often one of these leaders would gain followers from other tribes. They were thought to be ‘raised up’ by God to lead the people out of difficult situations.  The time of the judges was a period described as one of “conquest and settlement” of the Promised Land.  Those who were already living on the land took exception to the children of Israel displacing them.  Periodically armies would be raised to advance the process of conquest and protect the process of settlement.  That was accomplished by each tribe sending conscripted people to join the fray.  Four times in the Book of Judges we are told “there was no king in Israel…”  But, of course there was a king in Israel but the people refused the king’s leadership.

Remember the name of Naomi’s husband, Elimelech, the guy who had all the resources necessary to help the people survive a famine, but who the story says abandoned the people?  Re-reading that causes me to challenge the tradition about Elimelech and suggest that, just maybe, he left Judea with his family because the people there rejected his leadership.  Recall what his name meant?  It meant “God is my King” which was the understanding the people had during the time of the judges.

When the tribes asked for a king to rule over them Samuel rebuked them.  In 1st Samuel 8 we hear Samuel’s warning against Israel having a human king. So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking for a king from him. 11 He said, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. 12 And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. 15 He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. 16 He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men[a] and your donkeys, and put them to his work. 17 He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. 18 And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”

And here’s the response from the people:19 But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, “No! But there shall be a king over us, 20 that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.” 21 And when Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the ears of the Lord. 22 And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey their voice and make them a king.”

Samuel did it and Israel lived to regret it.  It started with Saul. When it was announced that he was king, he hid. His reign lasted only two years in which he got a reputation for being weak and inadequate though his raising an army unified Israel for the first time.  According to tradition, his big failure was his not eradicating the Amalekites. David was next. He consolidated the civil and religious aspects of the nation and people felt proud though his building campaign leveled heavy taxes of the people.  His immorality and abuse of power added to his failure. Third came Solomon. He was no where near as popular as we’ve come to think.  His tax and economic policies crushed the working people and his allowing heretical worship made matters worse.  And then when his son, Rehoboam, came to the throne the people asked him to be more lenient in his demands he said “my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.  That resulted in the once unified nation being forever divided.

The northern ten tribes which split off, led by one of Judaism’s greatest villains, Jeroboam, controlled 75% of what was once a single kingdom. It became known as Israel with it’s capital in Samaria.  The two remaining tribes, Judah and Benjamin, with Solomon’s son Rehoboam on the throne, became known as the kingdom of Judea.  Judea, which according to most estimates never had more than 600,000 people, controlled not more than a few square miles of hilly, infertile land. They did possess one great asset: Jerusalem.  The Bible commands all Jews to make at least three pilgrimages every year to the Temple.  And from then into the future the children of Israel regretted having a king. So what if they hadn’t wanted to be like everybody else?  What if they had kept things the way it was before replacing God as King with human kings?

            I’ve gained a new appreciation for Judges 17:6 “In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.”  I understand that the best scholarship thinks this is a mis interpretation of the text but  I’ve heard that quoted as the very definition of evil. The more I’ve thought about it the more I’ve come to question whether it is an accusatory statement as is generally thought to be or whether it is a statement that actually reinforces Samuel’s contention.  As I said before, four times in the Book of Judges we are told “there was no king in Israel…”  But, of course there was a king in Israel but not a human king and the people refused the true king’s leadership. Naomi’s husband’s name – Elimelech.  God is King. When God is king human behavior has an internal regulator.  People make choices, ethical decisions, based on an understanding of what is right and what is wrong.  This system functioned well for four hundred years, much longer than the 120 years of Israel as a united kingdom.  It refused to establish some outward entity to define what one’s heart said was consistent with God’s kingship. 

            We’ve experienced prohibition in this country.  It provided that rule makers could determine for the individual what was wrong for them.  Without tossing out Oliver Wendle Holmes warning that my right to swing my fist ends where the other person’s nose begins”, we have to admit that prohibition has been an abject failure – it didn’t work. We are in the middle of another social experiment where once prohibited marijuana use has recently been legalized.  There are forces today who would prohibit abortion, believing that making a medical procedure illegal will prevent a person from committing an act that they believe should be criminal. Someone posted the other day that Roe vs. Wade didn’t start women getting abortions.  It ended women dying from them.  Such paternalism requires that an individual give up the right to do what is right in their own eyes.

Paternalism is objectionable because it violates what the philosopher Immanuel Kant called the equal “dignity” of all human beings. Respect for human dignity implies respect for people’s ability to think and choose for themselves. Paternalism imposes choices on what one person thinks is good for another person. People who are interfered with are not treated as equals capable of making their own choices, Kant claims, but are treated as means to someone else’s view of what their choices should be, “like immature children unable to distinguish between what is truly useful or harmful to them.”

John Stuart Mill wrote: “With respect to his own feelings and circumstances, the most ordinary man or woman has means of knowledge immeasurably surpassing those that can be possessed by any one else…. He is the man most interested in his own well-being.”  Individuals are the best judges of their own interests and so should be left free to pursue them.

Henry David Thoreau remarked: “If … a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life.”  There is a fine line between care and concern for the well-being of others and respect for persons as people of their own choosing and creators of their own destinies. For John Stuart Mill and his followers freedom is essential for the development of each person’s individuality, the attainment of truth, and the development of new and more enriching lifestyles. Persons must be left free to make their own choices about how they will lead their lives, even if these choices are considered reckless, stupid, or otherwise “bad” choices by others. Moreover, the ability to make choices that promote our well-being is a capacity one acquires and improves only through practice.

            What do you think?  Are Thoreau, John Stuart Mill and Immanuel Kant right. Do persons need to be left free to make their own choices, even if these choices are considered reckless, stupid or otherwise ‘bad’ choices by others?  Do we get better at making the right decision over time and with experience?

            Quaker’s have an interesting tradition.  It’s based in the story of the military man, William Penn, asking the pacifist George Fox if he could be a Quaker and wear his sword.  Fox’s answer was ‘Wear it so long as thou canst’.  We recently passed the anniversary of the martyrdom of four Quakers on Boston Common.  I can’t imagine a greater example of doing what they felt was right in their own eyes – choosing obedience to what they felt God had called them too rather than taking the offer to just leave town.  Great story just came out about a retired Wilmington College history professor who received an apology from another college which accused him of being a communist and fired him in the 60’s. He had also been jailed for not registering for the draft and for counseling others to do the same. Every progressive step forward, from manumission to universal suffrage, has required that a person stood up and challenged that which they perceived to be wrong and did what was right in their own eyes. 

            That can only happen when we acknowledge that God is King and that it is incumbent on us to learn to listen to what God is calling us to do and be.

God needs people like Boaz who can see beyond the requirements of the law and grasps the importance of grace.  Some people need human redeemers, who see their worth and importance in God’s great scheme of things.  And we too can go to the threshing floor as a forbidden outsider, regardless of our heritage or baggage.  We too can, with Ruth say “Spread your covering over me for you are my redeemer.”  The enmity we must push beyond isn’t from God, it’s what we bring to the threshing floor with us, our own sense of unworthiness, our failures, our brokenness, maybe just our humanity. 

The Conclusion of Ruth

There is a great deal about the Book of Ruth that is more about Naomi.  And maybe it’s a helpful reminder to us that Naomi is only human and not all that unlike us when things don’t go well.  She has gone from being the wife of a man of extreme wealth to a powerless childless widow living in a foreign land in abject poverty. We said last week that she was a female Job. Job says “I tell you, God himself has put me in the wrong, he has drawn the net around me.” He says “Pity me, pity me, you that are my friends; for the hand of God has touched me.”  Naomi’s words are “Call me no longer Naomi, call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt bitterly with me. ²¹I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty; why call me Naomi when the Lord has dealt harshly with me, and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?”  Who else can she blame for her misfortune?

She has good reason to blame her husband Elimelech, but he’s dead.  Some say he died because he abandoned Israel in a time of great need.  Tradition has it that he fled Judea to avoid having to share his substantial wealth with the working poor during a disastrous famine.  They would also argue that the sons died because they married foreign wives.  Regardless of blame, sojourning in Moab was to live as a resident alien and forfeit all legal rights.  And thus, when he and then his sons died his wife was left destitute.  Her only recourse was to return to a place where she could claim some rights related to the land which evidently her husband had relinquished.

Wrapping our minds around that is difficult because we aren’t well acquainted with the Jewish laws of redemption, Jubilee, family inheritance and Levirate marriage.  We aren’t really up on the issues of Jewish relations with the Canaanite nations and the descendents of Lot.  To add to that we have to get some understanding of the agricultural prohibitions and requirements that provided food for indigent families. All of those things come together in this rather short book.  It is all about the law.

Gleaning after the reapers was a right permitted to all indigent persons. Ruth asks Naomi’s permission to glean after the harvest workers and she finds herself on the land of Boaz, a relative of Elimelech. Boaz comes out to the fields to check on the harvest and seeing her asks “Who is the Moabite girl?”  She is identified as a hard worker who asked permission to glean and that she is the woman who returned with Naomi, a person Boaz evidently knows a great deal about.  She gets special treatment.  She is given protection and access to water.  So she asks “Why have I found favor in your sight, that you should take notice of me, when I am a foreigner?” ¹¹But Boaz answered her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. ¹²May the Lord reward you for your deeds, and may you have a full reward from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge!”

This is a beautiful blessing Boaz gives to Ruth.  But Boaz doesn’t just bless her with words, he actually does something. He implements God’s blessing.  The scriptures are filled with stories of the redeeming activities of God in responding with mercy to the needs of people but God needs the hearts, hands and feet of men and women to carry out God’s purposes.

Ruth came home with more grain than one would expect from gleaning and Naomi asked her on whose fields she had been working.  When she reported that the owner was Boaz Naomi she was elated. ²⁰Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “Blessed be he by the Lord, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!” Naomi also said to her, “The man is a relative of ours, one of our nearest kin.” Ruth continued gleaning the fields until the end of the time of bringing in the grain.

The time came for the separating the grain from the chafe.  Naomi knew that the winnowing took place when the wind blew in the evening and into the night and she knew that Boaz would be working to the point of exhaustion to get as much done as possible.  He would then eat his meal and spend the night on the threshing floor. Naomi had a plan. She justified it on the basis of the next of kin’s obligation to preserve the name of the dead and Boaz, as near of kin, could perform that duty.

Naomi has Ruth take a bath, put on perfume, dress in the best she had and go to the threshing.  It says she came softly, and uncovered his feet and laid down next to him.  He slept ‘til midnight awaking to find her laying at his feet.  He asks who she was – it was dark  – and she tells him that she is Ruth and she asks for his protection as next of kin – actually a proposal of marriage. In reading an older commentary I found this warning: “The actual method employed in carrying out Naomi’s plan is so foreign to our sex mores that it will be wisely rejected for homiletic purposes.”  As I read the story Boaz demonstrated great restraint and instead of acting on his right of redemption he decides it better to wait and make sure everything is done properly and in good order.

It’s evident from the next exchange that this relationship hadn’t been far from Boaz’s mind either.  He tells Ruth that there was another ‘next of kin’ who has first right. “If he won’t, then I will” he tells her. She stayed at his feet until just before sunrise.  She held out her long scarf and he filled it with six measures of barley to carry home.  You’ve got to imagine that picture. When she did get home Naomi didn’t recognize her. Naomi tells her that it is out of her hands, there is nothing more that can be done but wait. Imagine that.  One’s whole future is in the balance and all that you can do is wait – and trust that the Lord is at work.

Boaz doesn’t let the matter lie.  He goes to the gate, where business is conducted and where witnesses are present, and he raises the matter of the property that, he says Naomi is wanting to sell that belonged to her husband Elimilech.  Will you buy it? he asked the next of kin.  The answer was ‘yes’.  But Boaz  raised a complicating matter.  Buying the land from Naomi will also require his buying it from Ruth, the widow of Elimilech’s son.  Twice the price.  The price was too high.  Rejecting the deal, following tradition he took off his shoe to witness to his refusal.  Boaz says I have bought all that was Elimelech’s and all that was Chilion’s and Mahlon’s of the land of Naomi.  Moreover, Ruth, the Moabites, the wife of Mahlon, have I purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance.

The story ends in an unexpected way.  Ruth bears a son but it is seen as Naomi’s child.  The neighbors named him Obed, the father of Jesse, the father of David and you can follow the geneology right down to Jesus.

With all the focus on doing things ‘by the book’ it’s easy to overlook the huge matter of Ruth being a Moabite.  Deuteronomy 23: 3-6  is unambiguous. ³No Ammonite or Moabite shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of their descendants shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord, ⁴because they did not meet you with food and water on your journey out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam son of Beor, from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you. ⁵(Yet the Lord your God refused to heed Balaam; the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loved you.) ⁶You shall never promote their welfare or their prosperity as long as you live.

What is this?  Ruth over comes the law.  There is no way she qualifies for any consideration at all much less special treatment. The law is absolute – “No…Moabite”.

It’s a fascinating realization for us that the law isn’t absolute.  Even the law is open to exceptions.  Even the law has to make way for love and compassion, for sacrifice and service.  Ruth came with a fatal flaw, her family heritage. But Boaz saw through it and said All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. ¹²May the Lord reward you for your deeds, and may you have a full reward from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge!”

This is the message of Ruth.  It is a story of redemptive love that overcomes the limitations of the law. And that’s good news to each and everyone of us.

As we said a few moments ago – God needs people like Boaz who can see beyond the requirements of the law and grasps the importance of grace.  Some people need human redeemers, who see their worth and importance in God’s great scheme of things.  And we too can go to the threshing floor as a forbidden outsider, regardless of our heritage or baggage.  We too can, with Ruth say “Spread your covering over me for you are my redeemer.”  The enmity we must push beyond isn’t from God, it’s what we bring to the threshing floor with us, our own sense of unworthiness, our failures, our brokenness, maybe just our humanity.  Boaz, Ruth’s redeemer says to her and to us “may you have a full reward from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge!”

…every so often, when the Judge God raises up actually does their job justice can be found for those in the worst situation imaginable, even the wife of a skin flint like Elimelech who had no charity in his heart.

The Beginning of the Book of Ruth

I particularly like the first phrase of the Book of Ruth.  “In the days when Judges governed”.  The author of this wonderful piece of historic fiction will, ultimately, pull hope from disaster and the reason that can happen, the author argues, is found in this foundational phrase. “In the days when Judges governed.”   You see, in the four hundred year period which is marked out on Israel’s calendar as the time of the Judges was anything but a good time. The Bible paraphrase The Message begins the Book of Ruth with the line “Once upon a time”.  It’s fitting.

The Jewish canon puts Ruth with writings like the Psalms, Job, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon. The Christian ordering of the books of the Old Testament treats the story of Ruth like history and places it right after Judges. It changes how we view the book.  You may have heard the phrase ‘the whole meggilla’, most likely from Jewish comedians. A meggilla is a scroll of Jewish writings – Ruth is one part of that scroll. When the bible paraphrase the Message begins the book of Ruth it starts by saying ‘Once upon a time…” That’s fitting and it allows us to ask, who is this woman Ruth who is special enough to have an entire book in the Bible named for her? We know that she is a direct ancestor of King David,  the matriarch of the Messianic line. And she’s a Moabite, not even a Jew.

And that’s a clue to when the book was written.  On one level Ruth is a protest book.  When the Jews were sent back to their little piece of the eastern Mediterranean following their exile it opened the period of restoration reported by the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.  In that time marrying outside of the Jewish faith was forbidden.  This book challenges the authorities by pointing out that such a prohibition was alien to Judaism noting the matriarch of the Messianic line was not Jewish but a Moabite.

As soon as the promised land was conquered the settlers focused on proving up their homestead, working the land, planting olive groves, vineyards and fields, establishing gardens and farms to improve their standard of living. The leaders at that time, the Sanhedrin, were supposed to travel the land, teaching the people what their scriptures taught about how to live together and be responsible, that is the Ten Commandments.  It didn’t happen and as a result the nation became self-centered and materialistic. They quickly forgot the Torah and the will of God for them and as a result the nation deteriorated into moral corruption.

God’s solution was to raise up Judges to spur their consciences, to help restore order for a number of years and to some extent that was successful. But when that Judge was no longer functioning the nation would slip back into its old idolatrous habits and follow the culture and behaviors of the non-jews who still lived on the land.  Moses was the first Judge. The Book of Judges identifies a dozen and there were a few more.

This is the time of Naomi and Ruth, a moment when God’s established government did what government was supposed to do.  That is the essential premise that, “when Judges do what judges are supposed to do”, justice can be found and people thought to be victims can be freed from their tragedies.  Jewish tradition reports that at that time God said: “My children are stubborn. To destroy them is impossible. To return them to Egypt is impossible. I cannot exchange them for another nation. What, then can I do? I must make them suffer and cleanse them with famine.”

As the story opens Bethlehem is suffering a famine. You see “Bethlehem” means “the city of bread.” It was unimaginable to the hearers of this story for the city of bread to suffer a famine. According to Jewish tradition a great and wealthy man with enough resources to feed the entire nation of Israel through the famine lived in Bethlehem. His name was Elimelech. When the years of famine came, he said: “Now all of Israel will come to my door, each with his box (to collect money).” He stood up and ran away from them.  He took his family and defected to Moab.

If you recall Israel’s history, after escaping Egypt the Israelites passed through the land of Moab. The Moabites didn’t attack them as did the Amalekites but they denied the refugees the most common of courties. Moab was considered the epitome of self-centeredness and lack of generosity and kindness. So it’s significant to our story that Moab is the place where Elimelech and his family felt most comfortable settling. Moab avoided feeding the suffering Israelites, who were distant cousins, and Elimelech escaped from feeding his fellow Jews in their time of need. Their escape from responsibility came from a desire to save themselves and their possessions.

In illustrating this story an 18th century Polish Jew describes the rich of his day: The way of the rich is to pleasure themselves with the pleasures of the world in clothing and edible delicacies…They purchase new showy clothes and they might use them one or two days and then they will not put them on again… In the meantime the poor go barefoot and naked without clothing or coats.  The rich would rather trample these clothes underfoot and let them become moldy, than let the miserable poor use them. In their meals the rich eat delicacies all the time… making everyday like a holiday drinking wine and leaving leftovers that would have been adequate to feed 20 or 30 of the oppressed Jewish poor…But the rich are stingy and jealous…”  We are to understand that those words describe Elimelech.

So,  … a man from Beit Lechem… went to sojourn in the fields of Moav, he and his wife and his two sons. (Ruth 1:1)

And it all started out as a “sojourn.” But Elimelech, his wife Naomi and their two sons stayed there for 10 years. Naomi’s name means sweetness.   The sons,  Mahlon and Chilyon (one of the son’s name means “disease” and the other means “destruction”); married two Moabite women, Orpah and Ruth.  Orpah means “the back of her neck” referring to her returning to her home. Ruth, on the other hand, is a more elusive term that could mean “overflowing abundance, wet and fresh, satisfied and full or simply friendship.

Elimelech dies, as do both of the sons.  Under normal circumstances this would mean the end of the family. And Naomi is left a childless widow caring for her two non-Jewish daughters-in-law. In the middle of her distress she changes her name to Mara, or bitterness.

The story of Ruth is uniquely a woman’s tale where inheritance, decisions about migration, economics and law are in the jurisdictions of men. Yet once bereft of men, the initial tragedy of the story, these three women are on their own to make their own lives by their own wits, decisions and relationships. How will they transform themselves from objects to subjects, from victims to mistresses of their own destiny? How will a mother-in-law, a role that is typically at odds with a daughter-in-law, create a loving, self-sacrificing relationship with a daughter-in-law?  Naomi goes from living in the House of Bread to famine, from homeland to exile and loss of her inheritance. Orpah and Ruth go from childlessness to widowhood. Naomi even tries to push Ruth away and to ignore her presence as she wallowed in self-pity. Naomi is a female Job.

As the story of Ruth begins we see the current condition of Israel, and are shown that even in this time, every so often, when the Judges God raises up actually do their job justice can be found for those in the worst situation imaginable, even the wife of a skin flint like Elimelech who had no charity in his heart.

The Family Research Council reported that only 14% of Americans ‘can accurately name all ten yet 78% of Americans are in favor of public displays of the Commandments but cannot name them.   Consequently, the greatest tragedy is not that the Ten Commandments are vanishing from public schools, courtrooms and government buildings, but that they are disappearing from the minds, hearts and lives of most Americans.

On one day, ten years ago, our Supreme Court declared that a monument on the grounds of the Texas State capitol that displayed the Ten Commandments was constitutional and three similar monuments in the State of Kentucky were not.  It seemed at the time quite confusing.  The swing vote on the court that issued what appeared to be contradictory rulings wrote that the Texas monument was donated by a secular organization and intentionally employed a text of the commandments that was of a secular nature and included symbolism that wasn’t of a religious nature and were found to be of an ethical nature.  It had also stood on the ground among many other monuments for forty years without complaint. The monuments in Kentucky were newly erected with government funds, specifically carried a text from the King James Bible and were found to be erected to serve an essentially religious function. More recently the Oklahoma Supreme Court removed a similar ten commandments monument from it’s capitol grounds.  They tell me most Americans are aware of the ten commandments but can recite only three.  A U.S.A Today poll demonstrated that fewer than forty percent of us can name five of them while we have no problem naming the ingredients of a classic McDonald’s hamburger.

A couple of years ago, on a national television show, the member of the U.S.Congress who was sponsoring a bill calling for the Ten Commandments to be displayed in the House and Senate Chambers, when asked, was only able to name three of the ten.  The Family Research Council reported that only 14% of Americans ‘can accurately name all ten yet 78% of Americans are in favor of public displays of the Commandments but cannot name them.   Consequently, the greatest tragedy is not that the Ten Commandments are vanishing from public schools, courtrooms and government buildings, but that they are disappearing from the minds, hearts and lives of most Americans.  This morning we are going to visit the version of the Ten Commandments found in Deuteronomy 5:5-21

5Moses convened all Israel, and said to them: Hear, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances that I am addressing to you today; you shall learn them and observe them diligently. 2The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. 3Not with our ancestors did the Lord make this covenant, but with us, who are all of us here alive today. 4The Lord spoke with you face to face at the mountain, out of the fire. 5(At that time I was standing between the Lord and you to declare to you the words of the Lord; for you were afraid because of the fire and did not go up the mountain.) And he said:

6I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;

 7you shall have no other gods before me.

8You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 9You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and fourth generation of those who reject me, 10but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.

11You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.

12Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. 13Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 14But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. 15Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.

16Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, so that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

17You shall not murder.

18Neither shall you commit adultery.

19Neither shall you steal.

20Neither shall you bear false witness against your neighbor.

21Neither shall you covet your neighbor’s wife. Neither shall you desire your neighbor’s house, or field, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

To start with the Bible gives us two versions.  Adding to the confusion is the fact that Protestants and Mormons have traditionally separated the seventh and eighth  verses to get to ten.   The Catholics delete the eighth verse and divide verse twenty one into two. The Jews, traditionally include verse six as a commandment, combined verses seven and eight as one. Islam acknowledges the Torah and the Gospels but prefers a series of verses similar to the Ten Commandments drawn from various places in the Qumran though they make accommodations to perceived necessities. This moral map or Ten Principles for human civilization are preserved with slight modifications in all cultures and societies and in all generations of the world as the way we protect language, family, sexuality, property, reputation and more.

Last week we took a look at Moses, his common heritage, his privileged life and his escape to the wilderness. Then we looked as how God called him to challenge injustice and to emancipate his people. There is a wealth of stories we didn’t explore that led to what had to be the high point of his service to God, his presenting the Ten Words, the Ten Commandments to all people.

They’ve been around for thirty four hundred years.  In that time the world has changed in more ways than we can imagine. What we know has changed about the universe God created and we inhabit and we keep learning more. Technology and science has changed. Civilization itself has changed. How we treat illness has changed. Politics and geography has changed.  Some how, with all these changes taking place, for these thirty four hundred years, human nature hasn’t changed.  People still worship other gods and don’t find time to worship. Care for our parents continues to be a problem and people still kill, commit adultery, steal, lie and covet.

There’s the story of a seminary graduate called to minister to a congregation.  The For his first sunday the seminarian choose to preach on the Ten Commandments.  The people found his sermon captivating, exciting, illuminating.  They couldn’t help talking about it.  The second sunday, he preached the same sermon and the third as well and it continued until the Elders of the congregation called him on the carpet.  They admitted that it was a great sermon but they expected others.  He explained that he would keep preaching that one until the people got it right.  People still need to hear the Ten Commandments as much of did the people 3,400 years ago.

Every generation has to revisit these same standards and compare their lives to it.  You are right, with a constantly changing world we will need to reinterpret these Commandments anew.

What does “you shall have no other gods before me” mean today?  Is it talking about a whole pantheon of gods or the divination of elements of nature or it is about carved pieces of wood or molded items of precious metal?  Probably not. More fitting for us is our worshiping power that comes from legal tender and the goods that we can purchase with it.  And the extent that it’s accumulation takes all our time and energy.  Our dwelling place, our modes of transportation.  Martin Luther said that our god was anything we fear, love and trust above all things.

Have you listened to us lately. Despite 3,400 years of being told otherwise we still have foul mouths and, maybe its just a natural function of aging, I think things have gotten worse over the last few decades.  Listen for where God or Jesus is referenced in our conversation.  And what about the Sabbath, with all due respect for the Jews and the Seventh Day Adventists, there is to be no work on the Sabbath and the Old Testament text gets quite detailed: “Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. 13Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 14But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. 15Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.

O.K. the details in Deuteronomy 5 refer to another day and time. So, what does it mean for us? Does it teach us the importance of rest and community worship? Does it suggest setting aside quality time to reflect on our relationship with God, with one another and with the world? To spend time in a community of friends and pray together, sing together, and be together in the Spirit of Christ.

The fourth commandment is an increasingly challenging one.  We are growing older.  By being blended families  or fractured families our pattern of serial monogamy further confuses the matter.

Compared with the commandment about keeping the Sabbath, the fifth commandment is very straight to the point: the English does it in four words.  You shall not kill. Does that speak to issues of death with dignity, capital punishment, abortion? What about drones armed with deadly weapons that can be deployed remotely?  What about nuclear weapons or chemical weapons?  Does it refer to driving while intoxicated or texting?

Today ninety percent of our young live together before marriage. Birth control and antibiotics have made that practical.  Between a survey taken in 2005 and one taken in 2010 the number of unmarried sixty year old and older living with a partner increased by fourteen percent. What does that say about how we interpret the sixth commandment.  We’ve strictly defined the word  adultery to mean “sexual intercourse by a married person with a person not their spouse.” We’ve also been busy redefining the meaning of marriage and spouse.

Does stealing have anything to do with the growing divide between the rich and the poor  – that question has implications for the international and well as individual agenda. Do developed nations steal from the underdeveloped?  Do the wealthy, as nations or individuals, take more than what is rightfully theirs and thus violate the seventh commandment?

With the political scene heating up it’s got to be uncomfortable for some to raise the implications of the eighth commandment.  But on a person level have we solved the problems of simple spreading of rumor and innuendo?

And covetousness? Some would call this the American commandment. With men and women both having to work outside the home to make ends meet and having to work in close proximity with other than their own spouses can find themselves drawn into illicit relationships. That’s the neighbor’s spouse piece of it.  But covetousness goes beyond the sexual and causes us to want the things that others have acquired by their effort or by inheritance or by having to have been at the right place and the right time.  Our whole culture teaches coveting.  It’s called getting ahead.

Jesus highlighted the two commandments upon which the rest rest. From Deuteronomy 5 he said the first and greatest commandment is ” You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind “  He followed that by quoting from Leviticus 19 “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  Both are serious challenges to a narcissistic society.  He invites us to love God in such a complete way that it takes precedent over every other relationship – and thus puts all those other relationships in perspective.  He invites us to care as much about the needs of others as we do for our own. Do these, and you shall live.  Do these, and you will understand what it means to find life.

Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. 5You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. 6Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. 7Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. 8Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, 9and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

“Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.”  Anxiety from the top levels of government about immigrant labor foments fear and results in oppression…

We recall how the sons of Jacob and Rachel migrated to Egypt.  Their eleventh son, Joseph, was sold to some Arab traders and wound up in an important administrative post in Egypt. When climate change caused famine in the land of promise Jacob and his sons migrated to  Egypt.  After an initial challenge they were received with honor but then, when the administration changed the text says the King: said to his people “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. 10Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” 11Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. 12But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. 13The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites, 14and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them.  As it began, the policy was apartheid, plain and simple.

I don’t know about you but that sounds pretty contemporary. Fear, from the very top. Identifying an oppressed people as the enemy – well, how can you be sure they won’t side with our enemies and their homes are scattered through out all our neighborhoods and they have a different language and a different religion.

But it got even more difficult.  The Pharoah announced a practice of eliminating male children. Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every boy that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every girl live.”

We don’t know anything about Moses’ parents other than the text says a man from the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman and their male child was born at this time when Pharaoh required that all Hebrew male newborn were to drowned in the Nile. That Moses’ mother hide her son for as long as possible testifies to the first act of civil disobedience recorded in scripture. The midwives refused to carry out the kings orders and Hebrew sons continued to be added to the number of the feared immigrants.

The infant was put in a water proofed basket and floated in the Nile. When the king’s daughter came to bathe in the river she found the basket.  She surmised that the child was of the race of slaves but saved him from the water anyway and despite the policy of the king chose to raise him as her child.  When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses, “because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.” 

Being adopted by Pharoah’s daughter changed the life of one insignificant immigrant boy.  In the first part of his life he was raised by his own family, protected by wages from the king’s daughter.  But then, coming of age in the family of Egyptian aristocracy endowed him with a real sense of ambiguity and mixed loyalty. At what point did he really understand his unique position and the opportunities that it presented?  Yet the text seems clear that he wasn’t at all confused about who were ‘his’ people. Time and again what gets Moses in hot water is his low tolerance for injustice.

11One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and saw their forced labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his kinsfolk. 12He looked this way and that, and seeing no one he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13When he went out the next day, he saw two Hebrews fighting; and he said to the one who was in the wrong, “Why do you strike your fellow Hebrew?” 14He answered, “Who made you a ruler and judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?”

In these couple of  verses we have a story of abuse by someone in authority – I mean the Egyptian who beat one of Moses’ kin.  Moses reacts to violence with violence and stealth, kills the Egyptian and buries his body.  And then there is an example of how being oppressed and struggling to survive divides rather than unites people.  I guess we could call it Hebrew on Hebrew violence. In interceding in the fight Moses learns how vulnerable he is. So –

Then Moses was afraid and thought, “Surely the thing is known.” 15When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh. He settled in the land of Midian, and sat down by a well. That would be some where in the wilderness of the northwestern Arabian peninsula and out of Pharoah’s jurisdiction.

16The priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came to draw water, and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. 17But some shepherds came and drove them away. Moses got up and came to their defense and watered their flock. Another example of Moses standing up against injustice.

The daughters returned with the story of how this Egyptian had come to their aid against the ruffians and how he had watered their livestock. . So Jethro invited him to come to supper and he ended up marrying one of the man’s daughters.  Moses says of himself:  “I have been an alien residing in a foreign land.”

After what is called ‘a long time’ the Pharoah from whom Moses’ fled died.  With the change of administration the burden of slavery increased and God heard the people’s groanings.

3Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. 3Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.” 4When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

7Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, 8and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. 10So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”

11But Moses said to God,  “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?12He said, “I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.” 13But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’“ 15God also said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you’: This is my name forever, and this my title for all generations.

Did you notice, the Lord, in the text, doesn’t answer Moses’ question “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”  Who am I? He was the child of immigrant stock who suffered under policies of apartheid and we enslaved and oppressed.  He was an adopted son of the Egyptian royal family. And now he was the son-in-law of a nomadic Arabian herdsman, taking care of his flock and raising a family.  Who am I?  Moses asks.  And what God tells  him is important.  God simply says “I will be with you…”  And the sign of God’s presence with him wouldn’t be known until “when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.” 

Why does God tell Moses “I am who I am”? It seems like a riddle.  They tell me that in Hebrew it’s a play on words. To speak “I am” is very close to pronouncing the name God has been given “Yahweh”.  I’m not a Hebrew scholar but those who are say that God is saying to Moses “I know you are anxious, but do not fear, I am with you.” Living into the reality of God’s real presence brought Moses peace, a solid confidence which enabled him to move forward and brought liberation and an end to oppression and injustice to his people.  And as God called Moses to service, to what is God calling you?  If you think about it, it might upset  your whole life.  For Moses it called him from a beggarly existence, then from living the life of a one percenter and then from the life of a shepherd.  That’s what happened when he took the time to turn aside and explore that strangely burning bush.  So, what is God calling you to be about.  It might cause a panic attack, not only for you but also for those who depend on you but the good news in our story today is that God still is and says “I know you’re anxious, but do not fear, I am with you.”

No longer the supplanter, the heel grabber, reborn with a new sense of being and a new name to go with it, Israel…  He is the one who struggles with God and prevails, the father a great nation.  Imagine, struggling with God and not letting go.  That is faithfulness.

Wrestling with “The Man”

Caleb, a sixteen year old, recently, for the first time, beat his father in tennis.  I think it was something of a rite of passage. It was a crossing.

Our text today is Genesis’ story of Jacob leaving his father-in-law with his two wives, 11 children, concubines, slaves, flocks and herds and now approaching the ford on the river Jabbok.  Twenty years before he had fled his home and crossed the Jabbok to find sanctuary with the family of his mother. We all remember that story.  Having more than enough his brother, Esau, from whom he had stolen his birthright and parental blessing, threatened to kill him. Over those two decades he served his father in law Laben he finally gained the love of his life and during the time with his family he amassed enormous holdings despite being badly treated. Now under threat from the family of his wives, in a dream God told Jacob to leave his adopted country and return to the land of his birth and with the support of Laben’s two daughters he began the migration.

But he hadn’t forgotten his brother’s threat.  He sent a message to  Esau that he was coming home and said that he hoped to find favor in his brother’s sight.  The messengers returned to tell Jacob that his brother was coming to meet him with a force of four hundred men.  Being afraid, he divided his party so that were Esau and company to destroy or capture one the other could be saved.    Intent on softening up his brother he then sent major gifts across the ford on the river Jabbok: goats, sheep, cattle, camels and donkeys. Later that night, under the shield of darkness, he took the members of his household and everything he owned across the river.  The text doesn’t tell us but it has to be presumed that Jacob returned across the Jabbok because he spent the night alone on the banks of the river  It was a place of darkness.  He will have to face his brother and deal with his guilt over stolen blessings. This is our text: Genesis 32:24-30

24Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 25When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. 26Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” 27So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.” 29Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. 30So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.” 31The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.

He limped across the river ford.

But what a night. Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. Peaks our interest doesn’t it?  A man, the text says.  And the man doesn’t prevail against Jacob.

Who was this masked man – well, this anonymous man with whom Jacob wrestled? In his imagination was it Esau, knowing he would soon be facing him.  Was it his father-in-law Laben who felt that Jacob had defrauded him and was leaving with with daughters and grand children? Was it Jacob himself? His past? His future? His identity? His faith? Yes.  And what did Jacob conclude.  He was wrestling with God. He puts Jacob’s hip out of place but Jacob held on until the man begged him to let go because day was dawning. Not with out a blessing Jacob demanded. And this would be a real blessing, not a stolen one.  In the moment Jacob stopped being Jacob and became Israel. In this ‘dark night of the soul” night time wrestling match Jacob was wounded and blessed.  What is it that makes that so normal, being wounded and being blessed going hand in hand?

The final line of our text is truly a life restoring one.  It reads: The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. No longer the supplanter, the heel grabber, reborn with a new sense of being and a new name to go with it, Israel.  He is the one who struggles with God and prevails, the father a great nation.  Imagine, struggling with God and not letting go.  That is faithfulness.

In the locker room of my high school Coach Burns put up a sign that read “Quiters never win and Winners never quit.” I’d question the use of this in a competitive sense but Jacob didn’t let go until sunrise threatened the man or, as Jacob declared, God.  I’ve wrestled with the idea of prevailing with God.  The wrestling match ended in a draw and the gift of a blessing and a crippling.  Do you imagine that with ever step Israel took for the rest of his life he was reminded of the blessing and with every celebration of enjoying the outcome of the blessing his limp reminded him of how God had blessed him.

The big issue that the story brought up for me is how we understand prevailing with God.  When Maggie, our eleven year old Boston Terrier was a pup a veterinarian told me that when we played tug if I didn’t let her win sometimes it would break her spirit.  I wonder about Jacob’s prevailing with God. To think that a human being could be in a contest with God and actually win, or prevail, challenges our notion of God being all powerful. To think that God let Jacob prevail suggests that God just plays with us. But can you imagine God being wrestled to a draw by faithfulness?  Can you imagine that going on in your life or mine.  It suggests that God isn’t static but spontaneous and is open to doing things in ways that encourage our faithfulness.

How do we connect with that?  Is it struggling with addiction or getting up each morning to face grief or loss that seems unbearable?  You know what it’s like to toss and turn all night not knowing what to do next.  That is the experience of crossing the Jabbok and it’s our experience in many different ways.   It’s a nightmare scenario.  It occurs in a place of wounding.  But it is also a place of rebirth and renaming and the place becomes a holy place. Jacob renames it Peniel, the place where he saw the face of God.

And what is your Jabbok experience?  We all have at least one. Most of us can identify where and how we’ve been wounded. And that wounding can cause us to limp through life, each step reminding us of our struggle. That makes it hard to see or trust the presence of the blessing. In the moment things are still too dark, we will need to wait for day break. But faithfulness, in the middle of the dark night struggle, is not letting go.  What’s in the future isn’t necessarily a rose garden situation.  It doesn’t mean that we can return to life the way it once was or as we’d prefer it to be.  It doesn’t mean that good relationships will magically be restored.  It means that God is faithful and we can move forward.  Blessed and renamed we can, like Jacob, cross the Jabbok and look  ahead.