Advent 3 - The Crimson Cord.

In the book of Joshua, the invading Israelites send spies to scope out the city of Jericho.  They stay at the establishment of a woman named Rahab, a prostitute.  Rahab, significantly, is in favor of the coming invasion.  She represents the people languishing under the oppressive regimes of the petty rulers of Canaanite city-states.  They see this wave of former slaves from Egypt as a liberation movement, an uprising and insurgency of poor, marginalized, and exploited people.  In the economy of Jericho, Rahab herself has to resort to sex work, servicing the wealthy and privileged men of the city.  She is ready for the overthrow of the corrupt system ruling her life, and she eagerly awaits this vast throng of people coming out of the wilderness, who understand what it means to be at the bottom of society.

So when Israelite spies need a headquarters from which to do their work, she eagerly offers her home and place of business, asking only that the invaders save her and her family when the assault on the city comes.  To this the spies agree.  They tell her to tie a crimson cord in the window of her house to identify it for preservation by the Israelite army.    

When Joshua arrives with the Israelites, after crossing the Jordan, they surround Jericho.  And when they blow the ram's horn trumpets, the walls of the city famously "came tumblin' down."  (It is a story that had particular resonance for the African-American slaves who sang about it.)  Except for Rahab's house, which remains standing.  She and her household receive safe passage, while the Israelite army storms in and kills everyone in the city.  

This story emphatically is not and was never intended to be a literal historical account somehow excusing or authorizing genocide.  Rather, we are to understand here the consequences of our participation in injustice, and realize the choice we all have to make concerning whether to stay cowering behind the walls of our status quo or to welcome the arrival of God into our lives.  God's coming -- "advent" -- is always cataclysmic because it is a collision between God's truth and the flimsy, illusory world of ego and Empire, formed by violence based on fear, desire, fantasy, and memory that we have dreamed up and try to live by.  The little world of Jericho, built on idols and lies, and expressed in its high, thick walls of oppression, inequality, social stratification, and exclusion, is doomed when faced with the reality of God's coming reign.

The message is identical to that of the Book of Revelation: God is coming; the Empire is falling.  You can fall with it into oblivion, or you can gather with the people of the Lamb and be saved to participate in God's new future.

In other words, the walls are coming down.  The walls that would divide us into separate interest and identity groups, easily set against each other, making us more malleable and controllable, the walls between races, nations, genders, classes, generations, and religions, which are illusory and invented categories, are all crumbling into dust.  It is time to go to Rahab's house.  It is time to tie that crimson cord in the window, and await the uprising of God's people, coming like a tsunami from the east.

It is common and easy for us to reduce Advent to a time of waiting for the cute little baby, nestled snug in the manger, surrounded by angels.  And so on.  Less common because more challenging is the deeper meaning of the season, in which one world violently ends so another can begin.  This is the apocalyptic heart of Advent, as the revelation of the Presence of the Creator deflates and disintegrates the very systems and relationships we have come reflexively to follow.  "He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.  He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty," in the words of the mother of the coming Messiah.  

That's what happened to Jericho.  Except for Rahab and her household.  We might want to think about putting our qualms about what folks will say aside, and get ourselves to the house with the scarlet cord in the window.  Soon.

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