Written on the faces of the Youth at #Easter Camp in spite of the washout!
The B Side
Last week I got it wrong. Palm Sunday is today, April 13th
2014. Today’s message is raw and unfinished. I’m not sure it should ever leave the
Studio, so if it is a bit disjointed then it may have to be polished off with a
live performance soon : )
1989 was a momentous year around the world which began
darkly. This weekend in fact we remember the Hillsborough Disaster
from April 15th that year when 96 fans were killed watching a football match. I
was in Cardiff that day a quarter of a century ago and remember the shock of
hearing what had happened.
It was later that year that Communism fell in
Eastern Europe - Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Czechoslovakia and most
famously Eastern Germany when on November 9th 1989 the Berlin Wall
came down. The Berlin Wall which had
stood for 28 years was suddenly swept away by a tsunami wave of freedom. |
| Berlin Wall Falls November 9th 1989 |
“Are you going to try and make this work or spend your days down in the dirt? You see things can change, Walls Come Tumbling Down! Governments crack and systems fall ‘cos unity is powerful, lights go out, Walls Come Tumbling Down!”
In April 1985 it did not seem possible, four and a half years later it came true!
Paul Weller was of course recalling a story from Joshua
about the battle of Jericho. The walls that came tumbling down that day in
history were Jericho’s.
But as with any great city to fall so easily, there has to
be an insider, a collaborator. Do you know who I am speaking of?
Joshua 2
Rahab and the Spies
1 Then
Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. “Go, look over the
land,” he said, “especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a
prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.
2 The king of Jericho was
told, “Look, some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the
land.” 3 So the king of Jericho sent
this message to Rahab: “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your
house, because they have come to spy out the whole land.”
4 But the woman had taken
the two men and hidden them. She said, “Yes, the men came to me, but I did not
know where they had come from. 5 At
dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, they left. I don’t know which
way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them.” 6 (But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden
them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.) 7 So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the
road that leads to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as the pursuers had
gone out, the gate was shut.
8 Before the spies lay down
for the night, she went up on the roof 9 and
said to them, “I know that the Lord has given
you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who
live in this country are melting in fear because of you. 10 We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of
Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of
the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. 11 When
we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone’s courage failed because
of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.
12 “Now then, please swear
to me by the Lord that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown
kindness to you. Give me a sure sign 13 that
you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and
all who belong to them—and that you will save us from death.”
14 “Our lives for your
lives!” the men assured her. “If you don’t tell what we are doing, we will
treat you kindly and faithfully when the Lord gives us
the land.”
15 So she let them down by
a rope through the window, for the house she lived in was part of the city
wall. 16 She said to them, “Go to the
hills so the pursuers will not find you. Hide yourselves there three days until
they return, and then go on your way.”
17 Now the men had said to
her, “This oath you made us swear will not be binding on us 18 unless, when we enter the land, you have tied
this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and unless you
have brought your father and mother, your brothers and all your family into
your house. 19 If any of them go
outside your house into the street, their blood will be on their own heads; we
will not be responsible. As for those who are in the house with you, their
blood will be on our head if a hand is laid on them. 20 But
if you tell what we are doing, we will be released from the oath you made us
swear.”
21 “Agreed,” she replied.
“Let it be as you say.”
So she sent them away, and they departed.
And she tied the scarlet cord in the window.
22 When they left, they
went into the hills and stayed there three days, until the pursuers had
searched all along the road and returned without finding them. 23 Then the two men started back. They went down out
of the hills, forded the river and came to Joshua son of Nun and told him
everything that had happened to them. 24 They
said to Joshua, “The Lord has surely given the whole land
into our hands; all the people are melting in fear because of us.”
There are some very remarkable things about this story as
I’m sure you will have noticed.
Firstly what is a prostitute doing as the heroine in any
Bible story? A prostitute lives a life of betrayal. Faithfulness means nothing
to them. They have often been betrayed themselves by someone very close to
them. 80-90% of prostitutes have been sexually abused or suffered incest as
children. The average age of entry into prostitution is only 13, too young for
a girl to make the choice herself. It is not difficult to believe someone such
as Rahab would betray her city.
However there are some people that Rahab wants to save and
they are her family - father and mother, brothers and sisters,
brothers and sisters in law, nephews and nieces. Given the statistics we
know about a prostitute, that’s remarkable. The chances are very high that it
was someone in Rahab’s family who first betrayed her. But her love for them
runs very deep.
The second remarkable thing is why Rahab did not expose the
spies but showed them kindness instead. It would have been worth a great reward
from the king. Maybe enough to leave the life she was living. These spies had
come to her brothel to stay the night. They were just like all the other men
she had encountered, unworthy of any kindness. How else could she have known
they were Israelites, that they were different?
Clearly something made these men stand out to Rahab. Which
meant they weren’t particularly good spies were they? The obvious conclusion is
that these two clowns were not candidates for MI5. Or were they? Their
espionage is so bad it turns out to be brilliant.
Perhaps I am being unfair to the spies. If they had been
living in our day they could have googled it. There are some very useful tips
on how to be a spy.
Better still ask someone who knows ; )
A spy has to be able to blend in, to look ordinary. Where
else to be than an inn and brothel where all the people are only there for one
thing, inattentive to details around them? It's also very loud so you can have
a good conversation in secret without raising any suspicions. Perhaps it was
because of what they didn’t do that she knew they were different.
But the most remarkable thing of all is that Rahab is
counted as a person saved by her faith joining all the other Bible heroes. From
the New Testament in Hebrews 11:31 we can read “By faith the prostitute Rahab,
because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient”
What did you say? This faithless betrayer who could trust in
no one but herself was saved by faith? Yes,
because she believed. You might say that is ridiculous and the Gospel itself is
ridiculous for making such a claim.
But belief matters. If Rahab didn’t believe she wouldn’t
have hid the spies and covered their tracks. Her brave act of risking her life
to save the Lord’s spies was because she believed.
What has this got to do with Palm Sunday? EVERYTHING!!! I
told you last week Jesus is the One True King. He is not an imposter or out to deceive
you like some spy.
Have a look at the Royal Line of David leading to Jesus in Matthew
1. If you look closely you will get a big surprise to see a name you did
not expect. Can your name be added to that list?
Who's the Boss?
I have to confess that today’s message is meant to be for
Palm Sunday but somehow I got the dates wrong and I ended up thinking that
today April 6th, 2014 is the day.First of all I want to paint you a picture.
 | |
| London, Highbury Stadium, May 1st 1989 - Photo Bomber |
In 1989 I stood in a crowd on the terraces at Arsenal. On May 1st we were only three and a half weeks away from winning the title for the first time in eighteen years. When we scored, you could not stay in the same place…you are picked up and physically moved by the crowd uncontrollably in a big random circle dance. It can be very frightening the first time. But when the other team scores the atmosphere completely changes. There is no big circle dance. First there is silence. Then there is a lot of abuse. Of the referee of course, the other team naturally, but surprisingly even your own team. You wouldn’t even recognise it was the same crowd. A crowd can turn very quickly.
The next thing I’d like to do is look at these photos from June
14th 1940, the day the Nazis marched into Paris. Famously Germany
took France with barely a fight. In order for that to happen you need a betrayal
from a collaborator at the highest level. What did you notice from the photos?
The most striking thing is that the streets are virtually empty of people. The faces you see are of people arms folded, tears, anger. On such an unhappy day as that when an invader takes over your country there is no cheering. Just silence except for the sounds of the horses clip clopping down the Champs Elysees and the sound of marching feet. That’s it.
 |
| Nazis March into Paris June 14th 1940 |
The most striking thing is that the streets are virtually empty of people. The faces you see are of people arms folded, tears, anger. On such an unhappy day as that when an invader takes over your country there is no cheering. Just silence except for the sounds of the horses clip clopping down the Champs Elysees and the sound of marching feet. That’s it.
A military parade like that is all about showing who’s the boss.
There is a display of power to send a message to the people – that there is a
powerful authority in charge, one to fear. The bigger the display, the more
authoritarian and dictatorial the government tends to be. Certainly Nazi
Germany was like that. But even today you see them in countries like North
Korea, China and Russia especially. As a citizen in those countries you know
that it is impossible to step out of line. If you do you will be shot or run
over by a tank. As at Tiananmen Square June 5th 1989 just one month after I was
at the Arsenal match.
 |
| Tiananmen Square June 5th 1989 |
 |
| Paris August 26th 1944 |
It’s April 6th, 33 AD and it’s about a week before the Passover on April 14th. There are large crowds coming to Jerusalem for the religious festival which lasts for the next week. 125,000 is estimated to be the number. Jerusalem normally has 25,000 so it’s going to be packed to the rafters. You know that large highly charged crowds tend to make authorities very nervous. Especially authoritarian dictatorial governments. High chance of terrorist activity. High chance of an assassination attempt. High chance of a coup if the people join in en masse.
You are Pontius Pilate and you were appointed Governor of
Judea by Caesar in 27 AD and you know this place is a tinderbox. You cannot
afford to lose control as you did once before. Your neck is on the line. So
just before Passover every year you order a military parade to send a message
to the large crowds just who is boss. The people don’t like it, there’s no
cheering but it’s very effective at keeping them under control. There are also
the occupied crucifixes just outside the city walls for the incoming crowds to
walk by in case they missed the parade.
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