"Women Who Shook The World: Part One"
God's transforming power
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Dr. Andrew Stirling
Sunday, December 5th, 2004
Text: Acts 2:1-12
One of the words, if not the word that is going to characterize the culture of the first part of this new millennium, I believe, is the word “transformation.” In fact, I recently did what a lot of people do these days when they look up the meaning of a word, I “Googled” it on my computer, and found out that the word transformation comes up 5.7 million times. That might not mean much to you, but I decided to put in some other words to see whether this was expansive as I thought.
I took two other very Christian words, the first being “reconciliation.” It came up 2.5 million times. The word that often symbolizes our Christian faith and what our belief is all about, “forgiveness,” came up 3.9 million times. So, I was right, the word “transformation” is very much the word du jour and you see it being used in so many different places. It's almost as if politicians, for example, have to place the word transformation in their speeches to gain the attention of their audience.
I looked at recent statements by President Bush, particularly in light of his visit here to Canada, and I noticed that the word “transformation” came up in many of his speeches. In a speech that he gave in December 2001 at the Citadel in South Carolina, he talked about the transformation of the military. In a foreign policy speech earlier this year he talked about the transformation of foreign policy as a necessary movement in the world.
In other words, Bush knows that the word “transformation” carries with it a great deal of cultural meaning. But it also applies to individuals. There are now websites dedicated to self-discovery. The idea is that you can transform yourself if you can discover yourself - your authentic being. Of course, to do this, you have to pay $29.95 and you will get all the secret insights. These websites know the power of the word “transformation.” You can't turn on a television without seeing homes transformed before your very eyes. Pimp My Ride will transform your car from a broken-down wreck into something that, frankly, you wouldn't want to be seen dead in either! But nevertheless there are programs that deal with the transformation of automobiles, and Lord knows how many different items are on the agenda to transform your physical being.
I read an article this week in a Bay Street magazine that says Botox appointments have replaced the power lunch for executives in our city. Everyone wants to transform themselves, never satisfied with what they are. Transformation is the word du jour.
As I do every year before the Advent season begins, I read the Christmas story, because there is a danger of it becoming bland, you hear it but you no longer take it in - it's just words. And so I went back and read it in both Matthew and Luke. And this time, I was struck by something at the beginning of Luke's Gospel and in today's passage from the Gospel of Matthew. In the beginning words about the genealogy of Jesus there is a profound insight into transformation. Matthew calls his gospel at the beginning the genealogy of Jesus of Nazareth. The same phrase is used in the fifth chapter of the Book of Genesis: the genealogy of Adam.
In other words, these genealogies are powerful statements about beginnings. In one: the beginning of humanity. The other: the beginning of the life of Jesus. What was included in these genealogies, though edited and interpreted, is very powerful. One of the things that struck me about the genealogy of Jesus was that women are mentioned. Not that women shouldn't be mentioned, but they are given specific and important places, and referred to with an explanation.
These are four women in Jesus' genealogy who experience a profound transformation. These four women, by virtue of their transformations, shook the world. I want to look at these women over the next three weeks, because they illustrate the deep and profound meaning of the importance of transformation, not at a superficial level, not just as a matter of words or self-discovery, but in terms of what God does in people's lives and how He transforms history through these transformed people. That's how important they are.
The first of these women is Rahab, who is not well known to most of us. Rahab is not a name that readily rolls off our lips when we think of biblical women. But Rahab is, without doubt, one of the most important and central figures in the Old Testament, because she was responsible for the people of Israel making it into Canaan and the Promised Land.
The story goes that Joshua was setting out to conquer the new land. He realized that one city he needed to conquer was Jericho, and sent two spies out ahead of his army to see what it was like. Now, you have to understand how the cities were constructed in those days. The walls of the city were often made up of houses (row houses) and the outer walls of those houses constituted the four walls of the city. On one side was a gate, which was the main entrance into the city.
So, the spies slipped in and had a look at how Jericho was fortified, But word spread that they were there and being spies and Israelites they could have easily been put to death, so they needed to get to safety. So, they go to Rahab's house. We are told in the Book of Joshua, and this is very important, that Rahab was a prostitute. The spies went into her house first because they knew that they would be safe there, second, because they would gain a lot of knowledge about what was taking place in the city and thirdly, that they probably wouldn't be disturbed.
When they entered, Rahab had to make a decision. What would she do with these two men? She made a courageous decision to save them, Taking them onto the roof and covering them in flax. When the military came around and asked whether the spies were in her house, she risked her life and said, “No.” By a red cord hung out the window, the spies climbed over the wall and escaped back to freedom and reported what they had seen to Joshua.
Before they left Rahab said, “Now look, if your army is coming into my city, I want you to make sure that my family is safe.”
They said, “Well, keep the same red cord and hang it from your front door and we will make sure that when we take Jericho our troops will leave your house alone. You have been fair to us, we will be fair to you and you will be safe.”
The story goes that Joshua and his troops marched and Jericho's walls fell, but Rahab's family remained safe. The point is, my friends, that the people of Israel would not have conquered the Promised Land and Jericho would not have fallen had it not been for Rahab and her courage. Here was a woman who shook the world by virtue of her belief, courage and sincerity.
In the New Testament, the Book of James points to her as a woman who not only had faith, but also did good works. The Book of Hebrews lists her among the great saints of Israel. Rahab was one of the greats and it is no coincidence that in the genealogy of Jesus of Nazareth, Rahab the harlot is mentioned.
My friends, you will not find in any fiction by Robert Ludlum, or even a historical story like The Diary of Anne Frank, any greater courage, any greater sense of the power of transformation than that of the harlot who became the means whereby the Son of the living God would eventually be born.
What does this teach us? What is it about Rahab that grabs our hearts? What is it about this woman that makes her so important 2,000 years later?
Not long ago I was reading the poems of Emily Brontë and I came upon her last one, the very last words that she wrote. These have been going through my mind and I have thought of them and repeated them many times. As I read the story of Rahab, Emily Brontë's words came out of the blue like a fire. She wrote the following:
No coward soul is mine
No trembler in the world's storm-troubled sphere
I see Heaven's glories shine
And Faith shines equal, arming me from fear.O God within my breast,
Almighty, ever-present Deity!
Life, that in me hast rest
As I , undying Life, have power in Thee!
“No coward soul is mine.” Rahab was a shining example of that. We can never underestimate the power that Rahab had to make the courageous decision. She made the courageous decision to help these spies, not knowing what would happen to her, having no guarantees beforehand that she would be safe; that was later. Rahab took the courageous step first. She made the decision ahead of time that she was going to save someone else's life.
My friends, in our daily lives we need to have the courage of Rahab. We need to have the courage to do the right thing - in business or in our home life, in our workplace, in our schools, in the church, as a nation - we need to have the courage to do the right thing regardless, in faith and in courage, and Rahab is our example of what happens if you do.
There's a story told by Leonard Sweet, who is a bishop. After one of his minister had been assigned to a new pastoral charge, a new parish, he came back and said, “I can't do this. I don't do these places very well.”
The bishop was so convinced that this was the right place for this minister to be he said, “You've got to do it.”
The minister refused. He said, “I don't do this. I don't go to parishes that are declining and in need.”
Bishop Sweet's response to him was, “Can you imagine if Michaelangelo said, ”˜I don't do ceilings?' Can you imagine if Abraham said, ”˜I don't do Ur?' Can you imagine if Sarah said, ”˜I don't do babies in my old age?' Can you imagine if Moses said, ”˜I don't do pharaohs?' Can you imagine if David said, ”˜I don't do giants?' Can you imagine if Peter said, ”˜I don't do Gentiles?' Can you imagine if Paul said, ”˜I don't do letters?' Can you imagine if Mary said, ”˜I don't do babies right now?' Can you imagine if Jesus said, ”˜I don't do crosses?' Can you imagine if we don't have courage and we say first, ”˜I don't do,' rather than ”˜I do?'”
Courage is stepping out into that world that we don't know. It is going out there in a faithful way and making the right decision and doing the right thing, even when we don't know what it really is. That's what faith is all about.
Not long ago I was reading again that wonderful Christmas story, Miracle on 34th Street. There is a wonderful line in it where Santa says, “Faith is believing when common sense tells you not to.” Now, far be it from me to disagree with Santa Claus, but I believe that faith is believing not when common sense tells you not to, but believing in what you have heard God has already done.
Which brings me to the second part of what Rahab had. She saw the heavenly glory shine in the witness of the two spies in her house. In one of the greatest statements of faith in the whole of the Bible, what Walter Brueggermann, the Old Testament scholar, says is one of the “testimonies of deliverance.” she said to them: “When we heard of [your coming] our hearts sank and everyone's courage failed because of you. For the Lord, your God is God in heaven above and on earth below.”
Rahab, you see, realized that in the witness of these spies she was seeing God at work. She then told them precisely how that happened: “God has brought Israel across the Red Sea.” Israel had been saved because of this God. And in one of the greatest testimonies in the Bible, she said, “I will save you because now I believe in your God.” What an act of faith! What an act of courage! When it seemed like everything else was falling about her and she had spies on her roof and the king and the army in her front yard, Rahab still maintained her faith and courage.
My friends, when we face challenges in our lives, when we are unsure about where the future will lead us, when we're uncertain about what we are supposed to be, Rahab's witness and testimony is a light to remind us that it is when we face the most difficult challenges of life that our faith is all the greater.
There is a lovely story told by a rabbi who on the celebration of Rosh Hashanah, a very sacred day in the life of Israel, visits one of the members of his temple. As he walks in on this holy day to give a blessing to this man, he sees him playing poker with his friends in the living room. The rabbi says, “This is outrageous! On Rosh Hashanah, on one of the holiest days, you are doing this godless thing and playing poker. That's exactly what the atheists do.”
The man looks up from the table and says, “Rabbi, I beg to differ. If you knew the stakes that we were playing for, you would realize there is not an atheist in this room!”
When things are tough, as Emily Brontë said:
No trembler in the world's storm-troubled sphere
I see Heaven's glories shine
And Faith shines equal, arming me from fear.
Rahab's faith was in God. Her courage was to act. But she was given one last thing and that was the power to live her life righteously thereafter.
The story goes on that this harlot Rahab eventually married a man named Salmon. They had a child named Boaz, who was one of the ancestors of King David and Jesus himself. My friends, here was a woman who by the grace and the power of God was transformed from being a harlot in a city that was about to fall to, by the power of God, the ancestress of the Son of the living God. My friends, when we think that there is no real profound transformation in life, we need to think of Rahab.
This past week, someone came in here off the street to see a minister. I took him into the library (and I hope this gentleman is listening on the radio this morning for I suggested he do so) and we talked. He only wanted to know one thing. He said, “Sir, can you tell me, am I going to go to hell?”
I could tell from the look in his eyes that this was not a trivial question. This was from his very soul. We talked some more at great length, and I listened to his story. Here was a gentleman who had been tormented by drugs, someone whose life had gone to the very, very depths of depravity I must admit, I was frightened for him. His question was real.
I said, “Look, I'm sorry, I can't tell you one way or the other. I cannot in any way, shape or form make any declaration about anyone's future for I'm not God and God alone knows what's in your heart. But this I am going to tell you and I'd like you to listen to a story.” And I began to tell him today's story from the Book of Joshua.
I said, “You see, there was this woman named Rahab who was a harlot. She had the courage to do the right thing and after doing so, she developed her faith. And in her faith God rewarded her with security and with a blessing. I don't know what your future has in store for you, but this I do know: If God can change a Rahab God can change anyone.”
This Christmas we celebrate the one who comes and changes the world. As we look at his background and at the woman who was part of it, we are reminded that Rahab shook the world and God received the glory. What hope this is! What love this is! What joy this is, from the woman who shook the world! Amen.
This is a verbatim transcription of the original sermon.