Sunday, August 16, 2020

Sharing the Concubine's Story; Speaking Her Truth; Sermon on Judges 19:27-28

 

Rev. George Miller

August 16, 2020

Judges 19:27-28

 

Today’s message starts with audience participation.  What famous character said “Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.” Dorothy

 

Next- who said “As God is my witness, I’ll never he hungry again?” Scarlett

 

3rd- what actress said “Mollie, you in danger girl!”  Whoopi Goldberg.

 

Finally, what infamous female proclaimed “He has brought down the powerful from their throne, and lifted up the lowly.”

 

These are not the words of Joan of Arc, Mulan, or Xena: Warrior Princess. 

 

They are the words of Mary, soon to be the mother of Jesus.

 

The above statements are from a girl on a journey, a southern belle taking control, a trickster caught up in a conspiracy, and a maiden who’s about to be the biggest motha of them all.

 

Each of these women a force to be reckoned with.

 

The Bible is full of brave, bold women who embark on journeys, fight for their life, and STICK IT to the patriarchy.

 

The Book of Judges starts with 3 such women.

 

In chapter 1, we meet Achash who rides in on a donkey.  As she steps down, Achash demands that her husband and dad give her the southern part of Judah as a present.

 

In ch. 4 there’s Deborah, the head judge of Israel.  Leaders from all over the country come to her for council. 

 

Deborah sends and receives visits from military heads, gives instruction to a general, and walks beside him as 10,000 soldiers march behind.

 

Then there is Jael, a stunning Trickster who single handily wins a war by inviting the enemy into her tent and driving a stake through tyrant’s head.

 

Judges stars strong women who are the equals of, and sometimes superior to, the men…but then something happens.

 

Judges, often called “The Book of Weeping”, details the coming apart of Israel, and how quickly the people of God forget that they have chosen God and that they have chosen Life.

 

Judges shows what happens when a group of beloved children fail to do justice, love kindness, or to walk humbly with the Lord-

 

They become a dysfunctional family in which no one is safe from abuse and women and children are victimized.

 

In Judges, we meet the enemy and “the enemy is us.” (Pogo)

 

Let’s take a look at perhaps the most traumatizing story in the Bible.

 

It starts with a concubine who runs away from her husband, back to where her father lives, in Bethlehem.

 

The man goes after her, using the sweetest of words to woe her back. 

 

Days later, they leave, but’s it’s getting dark. The man refuses to spend the night in Jerusalem because it’s full of foreigners, so he assumes he isn’t safe.

 

So they go onto to Gibeah, where the tribe of Benjamin live.  They sit in the town square hoping someone will take them in.  But no one does, until an old man, after working a long day in the field, comes by and offers them shelter.

 

That night, men from the town come to the old man’s door.  They demand he hand over the stranger so they can rape him. The old man refuses, offering his daughter and the concubine instead.

 

The husband grabs the concubine, shoves her outside and goes to sleep while she is brutally attacked all night long.

 

In the morning, barely alive, she crawls to the front door, falls upon the stoop.

 

Her husband steps outside, says “Get up, we’re going”, puts her on the donkey like an object, a thing.

 

He takes her body, carves her into 12 pieces, sends a part to each tribe.  With that, he starts a Civil War in which the nation fights against the Benjaminites, killing and raping their women also.

 

How did we get to here?

 

How do we get from Achsah boldly stepping off a donkey, demanding land, to a violated wife being barked at and placed on a donkey’s back like a sack of barley?

 

How did we go from Jael who takes down one of the most powerful men in the world, to a woman who runs away for her own goodwill, yet ends up being victimized by both her husband and father?

 

How did we get from Deborah leading an army of 10,000 men to the concubine being raped by an entire town?

 

It makes no sense.

We are not in Kansas.

God does not seem to be a witness.

Molly, and all women, are in danger.

 

This story is not meant to soothe, it is meant to shock.

 

Its actions are not to be emulated, but to be avoided at all costs.

 

This story is not a testimony to what God wants, but what happens when the call to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly is violated by the very folk who are supposed to know better.

 

A woman flees to Bethlehem and her body ends up being destroyed and an entire nation torn apart…

 

…So where is the Good News?

 

The Good News begins by us sharing her story, because as difficult as it is to hear, it needs to be told; it needs to be known.

 

One way to offer healing and recovery to this unnamed woman is to name the harm that’s been done.

 

She needs to be remembered and honored, as do all the other women who have experienced sexual violence.


The other part of the Good News comes from this-

 

Though today’s story features the breaking apart of a female body through shameful acts, in which her reproductive system is violated for sinful human purposes,

 

there is another biblical story that tells a different narrative, with a different outcome.

 

For in the Gospel of Luke, we hear “He has brought down the powerful from their throne, and lifted up the lowly.”

 

These words sound like the words of a mighty warrior, one who understands what God is really about.

 

These are the words of Mary that she boldly speaks when visiting her cousin with a belly blossoming with birth.

 

Like the concubine, Mary had an experience via her body, but unlike the concubine, her body is not broken, but treated as sacred and holy. 

 

Her womb is honored to become the means through which the shame of sin is defeated. 

 

The concubine’s body is dishonored to tear apart the nation of Israel.

 

But Mary’s body is used to bring the nation of Israel back together; and not just Israel, but the entire world.

 

Once again we witness how radical our faith is and what a life lived in Christ is about.

 

God so loved us that God would enter into our humanity the exact same way we do, and that God would do so through the sacredness and the life-giving force of the female body.

 

Jesus could have come to us fully grown; he could have arisen from the sea, or appeared from a pod.

 

But that’s not what happened.

 

Emmanuel, God With Us, came to us via the vessel of the Sacred Feminine, forever honoring the role of the MOTHER and all women in our lives.

 

The fact that Christianity has strayed from this reality is one of our greatest sins. 

 

The fact that we have not always honored and respected the lives of women is cause for great weeping.

 

Today, let us leave this sacred time and space aware that although one woman ran away to Bethlehem and had her life destroyed, another woman made her way to Bethlehem and made ALL of our lives enriched.

 

As followers of Jesus, the child born from her body, may we each do our part to soothe the weeping of the world.

 

To show compassion and passion.  To stop sleeping through the pain and suffering of the innocents.

 

In Christ, no one should feel far from home, go hungry, and live in danger.

 

Our daughters, our wives, our sisters, and our friends all deserve to be safe.

 

Amen and amen.

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