Message from the Moderator: March 2016

Our Story, Our Song: Conquest and Crown

Rhonda Pittman Gingrich, Moderator

Throughout the Biblical Story, God repeatedly reminds the people to remember the Story. As God’s people, it is important for us to remember and tell God’s Story and to sing the songs of our faith—in good times and in bad times—so we don’t forget who we are and whose we are. When we forget who we are and whose we are, when we fail to remember and tell God’s Story and to sing the songs of our faith, we run the risk of allowing our identity and lives to be shaped by the prevailing stories of society. God’s Story must not simply be remembered (recited and heard), it must be re-membered (pieced together and retold in ways that connect intimately with our lives), understood, and embodied.

So as we continue to move through this year, I invite you to join me in an ongoing exploration of the overarching Story of God and God’s people—a story that continues to unfold through us today. To provide structure for this journey of remembrance and reflection, I am drawing on God’s Story, Our Story: Getting Lost and Found in the Bible by Sean Gladding.

So grab your hymnal and your Bible and join me in exploring the Story that reminds us who we are, whose we are, and who we are called to be and become.

Sing: Lead on, O cloud of presence (Hymnal: A Worship Book, 419)

Read: Joshua 1-8; 22-23; Judges 1-8; 1 Samuel 8-11; 16; 28-31; 2 Samuel 3-5

This month we pick up our story as the Israelites finally enter the Promised Land after wandering in the wilderness for forty long years.  Just as they had fled from Egypt on a path created when God parted the waters of the Red Sea, so they entered the Promised Land on a path created when God parted the waters of the Jordan River. Leading the way? The priests carrying the ark of the covenant—the symbol of God’s presence among them. After crossing the Jordan, they camped at Gilgal, celebrated the Passover (an embodiment of God’s Story), and tasted the bounty of their new land for the first time. Still ahead was the task of conquering the land, but in the moments immediately after crossing the Jordan, the people paused to remember the Torah and to worship their God who faithfully provided for their needs.

The first city to be conquered was Jericho.  As Joshua stood on a hill overlooking the city prior to the battle, he was approached by a representative of God and in a scene reminiscent of Moses’ encounter with the burning bush, was commanded to remove his sandals because he was standing on holy ground (Joshua 5:14-15)—a reminder that Israel’s enemies would be defeated by God and God alone, not by the might of the Israelite people. And if this wasn’t enough of a reminder that God was in control, the walls of Jericho fell without struggle when the Israelites followed God’s command to march around the city with the ark once each day for six days and seven times on the seventh day with the priests blowing the shofar.

Then we encounter a part of the story that is difficult to comprehend—particularly for those who claim a Christian identity deeply rooted in the teachings of the Prince of Peace. As God had commanded, the Israelites killed every man, woman, and child, and every animal—with the exception of Rahab (who had earlier sheltered the spies) and her family. It is hard to reconcile the God of unfailing love, the God who responded with compassion to the cries of the enslaved Israelite people, the God who repeatedly forgave their transgressions, with the God who commanded the complete destruction of all the original inhabitants of the land. Perhaps God knew that the Israelites were susceptible to the temptations of the surrounding culture and that the only way they could possibly uphold their covenant with God and fulfil their mission to partner with God in bringing healing to the world was if they weren’t faced with temptation.  But does that really make it any easier to understand and accept?

Yet, in spite of God’s presence and the easy conquest, the people who had pledged their faithfulness to God almost immediately fail to follow God’s commands. While they kill every living thing and burn the city to the ground, they don’t destroy the gold and silver, bronze and iron. They fall prey to the temptation presented by such wealth. And in subsequent battles, they fall prey to the temptation of pridefully relying on their own power instead of seeking God’s guidance. As a result, it is many years before they gain full possession of the Promised Land, many years before they experience peace from battle. Even then, when Joshua addresses the people on God’s behalf just before his death, he finds it necessary to remind them of all that God has done for them, issuing a renewed call to be faithful to their God as God has been faithful to them and to resist the temptation to adopt the practices and worship the gods of the people they have conquered.

While the people give voice to their commitment to faithfully serve God alone (Joshua 24:16-18) their actions don’t reflect this commitment. Further, they stopped telling the story of God’s faithfulness. As a result, their children, who had not witnessed God’s great acts firsthand, did not know God. So peace was short lived.

The cycle of covenant faithfulness, betrayal, battle, repentance, deliverance, and restored peace was cemented.  “The Lord would send a nation to oppress them. Then the people would cry out to the Lord for deliverance. The Lord would raise up a judge to deliver them. Their oppressor would be defeated. And the people would have rest. But then they would forsake the Lord…once more” (Gladding, 111).  Orthniel, Ehud and Shamgar were first among a long line of judges God appointed to guide the peope. The stories of others such as Gideon, Samson, Deborah, and Samuel, son of Hannah and the last of the judges, are probably more familiar.

While the judges provided leadership at crucial times, the Israelites were not fully united, the twelve tribes of Israel at best maintained a loose-knit alliance. (see Judges 21:25).  As Samuel’s life was drawing to a close, he named his own sons as judges over Israel, but like so many of God’s people before them, they fell prey to temptation, perverting justice for their own personal gain. God’s people rebelled against their corrupt leadership, but in so doing, fell prey to the temptations of the surrounding culture. They came to Samuel and asked him to appoint a king to govern them “like other nations” (1 Samuel 8:5).

The request upset Samuel, but God told Samuel to listen to the people for “they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. Just as they have done to me, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you” (1 Samuel 8:7b-8). Samuel tried to warn the people about the power a human king would ultimately wield over them, but they would not listen, so with God’s blessing and guidance, Samuel anointed Saul to be the first king of Israel and a monarchy was born, although a monarchy divided along geographic lines with ten tribes occupying the northern regions of the Promised Land and two tribes occupying the southern regions of the Promised Land. The road to the creation of truly united kingdom was long and the preservation of that kingdom not without struggle—in large part because the kings continually fell prey to the temptations of power, wealth, pride, and the practices of the surrounding cultures.

“God had laid down conditions for the kings who would reign over Israel. They were not to build up a standing army, nor enter into covenant treaties with other nations through marriage, and they were not to amass wealth.  Thus they would continue to rely on God to provide for their needs, and to protect them, which would be a witness to the other nations that God was indeed present in their midst. God’s reign would continue through the king” (Gladding, 122). Saul had his victorious moments as the first king of Israel, but even before his own death, Samuel had become disenchanted with Saul’s leadership because he repeatedly defied God’s conditions.

So in response to God’s call, Samuel, the last judge of the people, also anointed the second king of Israel—David—even before Saul’s reign had come to an end. In fact, David served Saul. But as David’s popularity among the people grew, so did Saul’s jealousy and resentment. Ultimately Saul turned his attention from the fight against the Philistines—a very real threat to God’s people—to various attempts to kill David—his perceived rival.  Ultimately, when his army suffered a great defeat at the hands of the Philistines, Saul took his own life and David rose to power.

David succeeded in doing what Saul had not; he defeated the Philistines and united the northern and southern tribes, carefully choosing Jerusalem, a city located between the northern and southern regions as the capital. David’s exploits as king—both positive and negative—are well known. Under David’s leadership the unending cycle of covenant faithfulness, betrayal, battle, repentance, deliverance, and peace continued.  

God was faithful to the covenant made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: God formed a people, gave them a place to call home, and remained present with them. In spite of the people’s recurring faithlessness, God was faithful. It is important to tell the stories from this period because both the faithfulness and failures of God’s people and the faithfulness of God can inspire us to greater faithfulness. But it isn’t always easy to remember and tell these stories because they are so violent; it is hard to reconcile our picture of God who had so much love for the Israelites, extending grace and deliverance over and over again, with the God who violently destroyed their “enemies.”

So, just as it is important to tell the stories, it is important to question the stories. To question is to bring an open heart and mind to our engagement with the stories of God and God’s people throughout history. And when we approach the stories with an open mind and heart, we are often the recipients of new insights.

This month we continue to journey through the season of Lent, a season of reflection, repentance, and renewed commitment. When has God’s Spirit moved you to new insights in relation to particularly difficult stories in the arc of God’s Story? When have you—or your community of faith—fallen prey to the temptations of the surrounding culture? When have you experienced the cycle of covenant faithfulness, betrayal, struggle, repentance, deliverance, and peace in your own life? When have you experienced God’s faithfulness even in the midst of experiences of hopelessness and perceived abandonment or even periods of faithlessness? How are you being called to bear witness to God’s faithfulness and presence?

Sing: Shepherd me, O God (Hymnal: A Worship Book, 163)