A Change of Allegiance--September 24, 2021

A Change of Allegiance--September 24, 2021

"By faith the walls of Jericho fell after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had received the spies in peace." [Hebrews 11:30-31]

I've got to admit, it's rather fascinating seeing how the Bible is less fussy about some things than you might expect... and how its voices make a bigger deal about things we would overlook.

For folks who grew up being taught that the Bible was primarily a list of rules to follow in order to get into heaven (and morality-play stories about people who either followed the rules and were rewarded or broke the rules and got zapped), it can be downright scandalous actually to run across a biblical passage that isn't hung up over the things we expect it to be hung up over.  Just when we expect the lightning bolts to go flying for behavior we were told is sinful, just when we think we are supposed to see someone as a villain because they give no indication of properly pious repentance for their old and wicked ways, we find the Bible lifting up as examples the people we didn't think were worthy even to get into the club... only to be reminded that this was never a club to begin with.

Here's a case in point. The writer of Hebrews doesn't blush at all to list Rahab alongside of well-known patriarchs like old Father Abraham and the Great Law-Giver himself, Moses.  Here's a woman who gets only a few verses of introduction in the storytelling of Joshua, but her willingness to throw her lot in with the people of the God Yahweh reveals what makes her noteworthy.  Yes, Rahab is a prostitute. And yes, you can guess why the Israelite spies were stopping at her house and "spent the night" at her establishment (see Joshua 2:1, so you will know I'm not making this up).  But even though in other places there are Scriptural voices telling people not to treat sex as a casual commodity, and even though Rahab's profession could easily run afoul of a few commandments, none of that stands in the way of her being seen as an example of living, daring faith.  That's because, in the end, faith isn't really just a moral calculus of good deeds and bad deeds; it is a question of who gets our allegiance.  And when the chips were down, Rahab knew to give her allegiance to the God of the Israelite spies, rather than to trust in her own city-state's military-industrial complex. When the time came to choose between national allegiance to Jericho or to the God of the Israelites, Rahab knew where to direct her loyalties. She gave her allegiance to the Israelites and their God, and that was more important than how well she followed anybody else's rules about who spent the night at her house, or for what reasonable fee they could find a bed there.

I think this is the scandal many Respectable Religious folks simply can't get over--that in the end, the living God is less interested in our grades on some great Post-Mortem Theology Exam or how many demerits are on our Permanent Record, and more invested in our throwing ourselves into God's arms, even out of desperation.  Maybe, even more honestly, God is committed to being the One into whose arm we can do nothing other than fall.  Like the thief on the cross next to Jesus, pleading only, "Remember me when you come into your kingdom," and getting Paradise as a gift in response to that last-ditch plea, Rahab simply tells the Israelite spies, "Remember me and my family when your people come to take Jericho, and deliver our lives from death." She knew giving her allegiance to the God of the Israelites would spare her own life and the lives of her loved ones, and without any fine print about future good behavior, or promises to memorize the Torah, her desperate leap into God's embrace made her an example of daring faith.

The choice was stark for Rahab--if she pledged her allegiance to her nation-state and the people of Jericho, she would have found her whole life crumbling to dust when the walls of the city came a-tumblin' down, as the song goes.  But when she promised to hide the spies in exchange for her family's safety, she knew she was making a break with her old ties to her nation, her king, and her old allegiances.  If she threw her lot in with the spies and then the Israelites weren't victorious when they came, she surely would have been killed by her own people.  But in that moment, she dared to trust that the God of the Israelites was the One to turn to.  So she did... and in the process, saved the lives of her whole family, and indeed became an ancestor of Jesus himself (See Matthew 1 on that point, so you know I'm not making that up, either).

Now, the question for us is whether we can dare the same kind of change of allegiance in our lives when we are compelled to choose between a hope in the living God or the other voices competing for it.  Sure, you're not likely to run into any Israelite spies at your door (and I'm going to recommend against you running a brothel, too, for that matter), but in a very real sense, every day brings with it the choice of to whom we will pledge our allegiance, and on whom we will pin our hopes.  Today, there are lots of other voices at our door, on our screens, and appearing in our inboxes, all asking for us to align with them and their agenda.  From political parties and administrations to national identities, cultural associations, demographic labels, and more, we are constantly being lured and persuaded to give our allegiance to some other reality, some other power.  And day by day, then, we have to choose if we will stick where it seems safe--trusting our money, our social status, our careers, our political party's level of power, our skin color, some combination of all of those--or whether we will dare to give our allegiance to the God who exposes all those as idols unworthy of our commitment.

Day by day, the choice is put to us--where will we give our allegiance?  In whom will we place our trust? Making that choice, and knowing what we can say "Yes" to, and what we say "No" to, is quite often what faith looks like, more than counting our gold stars on some imaginary heavenly report card.

Who will get your allegiance today?

Lord God, today give us the courage to leap into your arms and find you catching us, even when it means a break from the powers of the day who want us to give them our allegiance.