It is difficult being a minister’s child – a “Pastor’s Kid.” Pastors kids are depicted on tv and in movies as either being goody-two-shoes or rebels. Pastor’s kids are often pressured to set a good-example to other children in their parent’s churches…the whole family may feel like people are paying attention to them as being different than everyone else – maybe put on a pedestal, but sometimes people are scrutinizing them for signs of imperfections.
So, the pastor's kids grow up like fish in a fishbowl. Sometimes, in response, the pastor’s kids figure out strategies to give their parents a hard-time, a comically hard time.
This morning, we focus on the scriptural passage Lucia selected as her favorite. She selected a passage from the book of Judges about a particular judge – Shamgar. Shamgar’s story consists of two lines in the Bible….listen to Judges 3: 31 and what it says about Shamgar –
31 After Ehud came Shamgar son of Anath, who struck down six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad. He too saved Israel.
I suspect Lucia first and foremost chose this scripture to tease me – to give me a hard time.
Perhaps, Lucia wanted me to spend my sermon trying to talk about an ox-goad….which is a tool used by farmers to guide and prod oxen. It is between 8 and 10 feet long – on one end there is a pointy, metal spike for poking oxen. The other end has a flatted chisel that is used to clear mud, roots and clods of earth off of a plaw so that it doesn’t get weighed down while it is being pulled by the oxen.
So, Shamgar became a judge in Israel after he killed 600 Philistines with an oxgoad. What a brutal and bloody way to vanquish an enemy army.
Lucia knew I wouldn’t have much to say about Shamgar and his oxgoad.
But, this little scripture passage allows us to dip a toe in the water of the book of Judges. What was going on in this little scripture passage, and what was going on during the time of the Judges in Israel?
Now, please turn to Judges, chapter 2. We will read verses 10 through 23. Listen now to the word of God.
The Scripture Lesson Judges 2:10-23 & Judges 3:31
After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel.
Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals.
They forsook the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They aroused the Lord’s anger
because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.
In his anger against Israel the Lord gave them into the hands of raiders who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist.
Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the Lord was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress.
Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders.
Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. They quickly turned from the ways of their ancestors, who had been obedient to the Lord’s commands.
Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the Lord relented because of their groaning under those who oppressed and afflicted them.
But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their ancestors, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.
Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and said, “Because this nation has violated the covenant I ordained for their ancestors and has not listened to me,
I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left when he died.
I will use them to test Israel and see whether they will keep the way of the Lord and walk in it as their ancestors did.”
The Lord had allowed those nations to remain; he did not drive them out at once by giving them into the hands of Joshua.
Here ends this reading of the Word of God for the People of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Let us pray…
The Message The Peril of “Doing What is Right in Our Own Eyes”
The book of Judges describes a difficult time in the lives of the people of Israel. A few generations earlier we find the people who followed Moses out of Egypt. They lived in the wilderness for 40 years – things were difficult, but they had the goal of soon entering and taking over the Promised land. They were first led by Moses – a capable and talented leader who was directly guided by God. God helped the people, fed them with manna from heaven, led their journey by day with a pillar of cloud and by night with a pillar of fire. God was intimately involved in protecting them and providing for them.
And, then the people came to the Promised Land – they reached their goal. Joshua led them into the land promised by God. But, the land wasn’t empty of people….different groups dwelled there. And, many of those groups were actually related to the people who traveled there from Egypt – they were descendants of Abrahan’s nephew Lot….they were descendants of Abraham’s son Ishmael….they were descendants of
Esau, Jacob’s twin brother. So, the people in the Holy Land were distant relatives of the people who left Egypt to settle the Holy Land.
The writers of the Bible wrote that God wanted the people who left Egypt to kill all the people who were occupying the Holy Land, and take over their farms and villages and cities. But, the people who left Egypt, the descendants of the 12 tribes of Israel, had trouble doing this….they didn’t want to kill them all….these people were their cousins…and maybe they didn’t have the military strength or the ability to kill them all anyway.
So, they settled alongside the people who were already in Israel. Their kids played with the neighbor’s kids. Their sons married their daughters. They shared common hearths to bake their bread. They washed dirty clothing together in the streams that dotted the land. Soon, the Hebrew people, the descendants of the 12 tribes of Israel, started worshipping their neighbor's gods and goddesses too….what is good for my neighbor is good for me too, right?
Well, God didn’t like this. The people of Israel, the people God cared about and provided for and taught and made covenants with, were not supposed to worship false Gods….and they weren’t supposed to get married to people who worshipped false gods…and they were supposed to be loyal to our God….to remember God’s words:
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.“You shall have no other gods before me.”
But, the people were disobeying and worshipping other gods. And, were not following God’s laws.
God observed the people were not holding up their end of the bargain – their end of the Covenant. So, since the people weren’t being loyal to God, God wasn’t loyal to them – or so thought the writers of the Bible. So, God didn’t help the people when they were attacked by neighboring tribes and armies. God allowed them to suffer.
But, God still loved the people. And, God felt bad when they struggled. So, God would raise up “Judges” who helped the people – some of them were prophets who talked to God – others were mighty warriors who protected the people militarily. The Judge in Lucia’s passage, Shamgar, was a common farmer who used the tools of his trade, an oxgoad, to defeat an enemy. He was an unlikely warrior but God used him to help the people and protect them from their enemies.
Throughout the book of Judges, when the people were led by a helpful Judge, the people fell into line. They stopped worshiping idols and started worshipping God. They followed God’s commandments. They were faithful.
But, whenever the Judge who helped them died, the cycle started over again…..they started worshiping false gods, they were attacked by enemies, God raised up a judge, they fought off their enemies, the people fell into line, and then the Judge died and chaos resumed.
This chaos continued until God finally listened to the pleas of God’s people and gave them a king – we can read about how that went down in the books of Samuel.
The book of Judges concludes with this line: “ In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.”
As we read through the book of Judges, and as we read about human history when there has been a power vacuum, it is never good when everyone does whatever they want. Society slides into chaos very quickly – might becomes right – weaker people suffer – many people end up without the basic necessities they need for life.
The antidote to this chaos is Jesus. Jesus’s message to us was radically different than everything that came before Jesus.
Jesus cut though all of the divisions that previously separated people. “There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.” We are all one in Jesus Christ. All people have intrinsic value….all people are equal in the eyes of God and in our own eyes. We are mandated by Jesus to care for the least of these: the hungry, the thirsty, strangers, the naked, the sick, and the imprisoned. We are commanded to love our neighbor as we love overself.
And, we are to follow the greatest commandment, to: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
Jesus’ antidote to chaos is love. As people of faith, we are called to take action to help other people – especially people who are weaker than we are, who don’t have the same amount of power or privilege we have. Our command as Christians, our duty as Christians, our opportunity as Christians is to work to care for each other and to care for the people in the world who are struggling. So, we can’t just do what we want. We can’t only do things that bring us pleasure, or make us happy, because we are commanded and challenged to take action to improve the lives of other people – do make them happy….to free them from their burdens.
The book of Judges is a guidebook to teach us about how people can get things wrong – As followers of Jesus, it is our opportunity to work on behalf of each other and get things right – to make a positive difference in the lives of other people.
Let us do so with love in our hearts today and all days. Amen.
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