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"Tearing Down Walls that Divide"
Joshua 1-7
Jeremiah 1:10
A Sermon preached by the Rev. Douglas M. Donley
October 28, 2001
University Baptist Church
Minneapolis, MN
We love to hear that old hymn, "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho". It’s a rousing, joyful tune about a great military victory. We enjoy listening to the funny story and the humorous rendition of the bell choir. It’s one of those stories that we learned as children. It’s great to be on the side of the winning God.
As I have been watching this war on terrorism develop during these past weeks, I have been interested to see how we have heard amidst "God bless America", that God is on our side. And if God is on our side, then the other side must be following anti-God or Satan. ":Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho" sounds a little like the "Star Spangled Banner", "God Bless the USA".
It is exciting to see smart bombs hitting their marks with precision on the other side of the world, and it is sad when they miss their mark. It is exciting to rally around the flag, to say the pledge of allegiance. But is that the whole story?
What is the experience of the people on the inside of the walls? What are the stories from the inside of Jericho. We just had our own Jericho experience this past month. A part of all of us were in those towers, in the pentagon, inasmuch as we benefited from the decisions made in those buildings, inasmuch as we know people in those buildings, we are the people of Jericho whose walls just came a tumbling down. A joyful, solemn group of people who knew they had God on their side, made the walls come a tumbling down.
I find myself wondering what the people might have said from inside the walls of Jericho. Our Bible does not speak of the perspectives of those in that West Bank city. Might it be, why do the Hebrew people hate us so much? What did we ever do that was so wrong? We have never had to fear because of our great walls. What kind of power can tear them down?
God said to the prophet Jeremiah in his call to ministry: "See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant." (1:10). There are four negative things there and two positives. What is it about God that we have destruction as our heritage and legacy?
What is it about our religion that causes people to want to conquer other cultures?
Judaism, Islam and Christianity all hold the text of Joshua and the Battle for Jericho as Holy Scripture. It represents a time in our past when we sought out conquest as a way to be faithful. Is it any wonder that we have confused and mixed messages about God sanctioning warfare?
Karen Armstrong in her book "A History of God" writes of a god of conquest, "Instead of making God a symbol to challenge our prejudice and force us to contemplate our own shortcomings, it can be used to endorse our egotistic hatred and make it absolute. It makes God behave exactly like us, as though he were simply another human being. Such a God is likely to be more attractive and popular than the God of Amos and Isaiah, who demands ruthless self-criticism."(p.55)
Let’s look for a moment at Joshua, the architect of this act of brutality.
Joshua lived in Moses’ shadow. Moses is called the servant of God but Joshua is called the servant of Moses. Moses’ name is mentioned 57 times in Joshua and he’s dead. Is Joshua trying to make a big splash to earn the respect of a homeless people? Joshua begins his campaign by crossing over the river Jordan, something Moses never did. Forty-years-in-the-wilderness-Moses was not who Joshua wanted to be.
Then he circumcised all the men who were born in the wilderness. Making them real Jews on the other side of the Jordan. This was like an oath, a pledge in blood the people were making to the ruler and the nation. Moses never bothered to circumcise people in the wilderness for some reason.
Then comes the military campaign. Conquer a city and kill all of its inhabitants: men, women, old and young and even livestock. Only save the gold and silver and bronze for the treasury. Something Moses never did. A God-devotion based on killing and conquering was new to the Hebrew people. At West Point’s Hall of Fame, Joshua is listed as the first, foremost strategist and field commander.
What was Joshua trying to prove? That he wasn’t Moses. Everyone knew that, so why even try to act like him, why not start something totally different? Joshua had it easy. Joshua didn’t have internal opposition. No golden calves. He wasn’t Moses. Didn’t have to be. Holocaust Survivor Elie Weisel reflected on this: "While Moses had to go through innumerable crises and torments, some caused by God and others caused by Israel, and often by both, for Joshua everything was simple. In war everything is simple: what is war if not a vast process of simplification?" (Five Biblical Portraits, p.14)
Wiesel further writes of Joshua: "His biography is one long, exulting yet blood-chilling adventure, which raises vital questions about Judaism’s attitude towards conquest and war. When is violence permitted, when even commanded? When is war justified? When is it a curse? Is it ever a blessing—if so, when? What is the link—is there a link—between Jewish geography and Jewish morality?" (Five Biblical Portraits, p. 5)
While we still tend to forget the voices of the people inside the walls of Jericho as we celebrate these God ordained victories, that could be the form-critical end of the story. We could say, we are not like those people, we don’t believe in that kind of God. We are different, better than the rest of the culture. But is that really so?
Isn’t there a part of us that likes the neatness?
Don’t we like being done with that part of our history?
Don’t we like the decisive victory?
Don’t we crave to live in a country, in a world where we don’t have to ask so many questions and we can trust our leadership?
I want to do that, I don’t know about you. Joshua knew that, too. That’s why he used the military tactics to accomplish his goals. The problems is, the ends do not justify the means.
Again, Wiesel speaks, "War is evil by definition. It moves man to revert to primary darkness. War has always been a convenient pretext to abolish all laws, all prohibitions, and give man license to lie, shame, mutilate, humiliate, and kill—with good conscience. In the name of war, man feels free, and proud, to violate social contracts and divine commandments. War tuns into a primitive show: on the one side the good, who must live; on the other the wicked, who must vanish."(Wiesel, p.25)
Okay, so this is a troubling story to say the least. But is this the only interpretation? Might there be some walls that we might want to conquer with equally successful and creative tactics like Joshua? You gotta hand it to him, who would have thought about that walking around in silence for seven days and then yelling. Talk about your mind games.
There are plenty of walls we would like to conquer. And we are a pretty creative bunch.
Tearing down the walls that divide for the sake of conquering is bad. I think we can all agree on that one. But tearing down the walls for the sake of liberation is good.
Let’s look at who is intrigued by this story: Joshua fit the Battle of Jericho is an old spiritual sung by folks who felt the impenetrable walls of slavery and oppression all around them. To sing that God is more powerful than walls that get built up in this world is good news.
To folks like this, it makes sense to quote Jeremiah 1:10: "See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant."
What if we looked at Jericho not so much as a city, but as a formidable and seemingly insurmountable enemy?
Think of the walls out there which beg to come down.
The Military industrial complex is a huge towering wall.
Compulsory heterosexuality and homophobia are huge walls.
Mysogyny and sexism are huge walls.
Racism is a huge wall.
Environmental arrogance and exploitation is a huge wall.
Terrorism is a gigundous wall.
And all we have are a few handfuls of people and our puny little voices.
And God.
We should never underestimate the power of a people united not under a flag or a wall, but under God. That is a force to be reckoned with. It is a force that makes all things new. It is the only force that ultimately wins. It is the only place to put our allegiance.
Israel was successful whenever it stuck to God’s laws. When it did not, the land vomited them out.
Folks used to think the Temple saved them. But the temple alone was not enough and the Hebrew people were sent in to exile.
Then they thought this fortress or that fortress would save them but they were only false Gods.
Then people started following one who said that this was all wrong. God does not want us to abuse each other or restrict one another in God’s name. And the powers that be sought to silence the dissident. But on the third day they realized that God was not through with them yet.
Slavery was once seen as God’s law with Bible chapter and verse to prove it, but the long-reaching arc of justice came down and said, the Bible needs to be read with contemporary eyes and the people were set free.
Still people are longing to be free and God is there ready to join in the singing as the walls of persecution come a tumbling down.
I think we should be about tearing down walls, but we should tear down walls that divide us as people. We should go in as a liberating force, not as a conquering force. A force trying to build bridges between people not more walls and chasms.
I remember being in New Orleans at the Superdome with about a hundred Soulforce volunteers standing vigil and praying for the 9000 Southern Baptist Messengers inside the huge stone structure. We even took to singing songs. And you know, that wall didn’t seem so high after that weekend.
Let’s think creatively about how we might be able to tear down walls that divide us.
We can do that by reconnecting with the fundamentals of our faith. I know many of us are reading through the Gospel of Mark and the Sermon on the Mount. Keep it up.
We can do that by visiting a mosque.
We can do that by reading the Koran.
We can do that by listening with compassion to someone with whom we violently disagree.
We can do that by maybe by examining what in ourselves wants blood lust against our enemies.
What part of us is only interested in the quick fix?
What part of us is not interested in the humanity of our enemies, all created by God?
Then maybe the wall we need to scale is the wall around our very hearts. The one which holds us back from in the words of Jesus loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us.
I’m not saying this is going to be easy. Far from it. It won’t even be popular. But this self-examination will be faithful.
Sisters and brothers, if we are going to tear down any walls, we had better be darn sure that we are tearing down the right ones.
Think about the ones inside the walls.
Think about the need out there.
And then commit to living and moving in a new way. For when you do that, them bones start to come together. Like Ezekiel in the valley of the dry bones, one bone is connected to another and we start seeing new life in the midst of despair.
New hope in the midst of carnage.
New community where we had before only sought to deny, betray and destroy.
And when those walls finally do fall down, the ones that divide us, I hope and pray that the people occupying that new land will be focused on God and on a common goal of justice, love, mercy, compassion and creating the beloved community. Amen.