August 9, 2020: The Scarlet Cord Between
Joshua 2:1-21
Rev. Dr. Rhonda Blevins
Then Joshua son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, “Go, view the land, especially Jericho.” So they went, and entered the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab, and spent the night there. The king of Jericho was told, “Some Israelites have come here tonight to search out the land.” Then the king of Jericho sent orders to Rahab, “Bring out the men who have come to you, who entered your house, for they have come only to search out the whole land.” But the woman took the two men and hid them. Then she said, “True, the men came to me, but I did not know where they came from. And when it was time to close the gate at dark, the men went out. Where the men went I do not know. Pursue them quickly, for you can overtake them.” She had, however, brought them up to the roof and hidden them with the stalks of flax that she had laid out on the roof. So the men pursued them on the way to the Jordan as far as the fords. As soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut.
Before they went to sleep, she came up to them on the roof and said to the men: “I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that dread of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt in fear before you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites that were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. As soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no courage left in any of us because of you. The Lord your God is indeed God in heaven above and on earth below. Now then, since I have dealt kindly with you, swear to me by the Lord that you in turn will deal kindly with my family. Give me a sign of good faith that you will spare my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death.” The men said to her, “Our life for yours! If you do not tell this business of ours, then we will deal kindly and faithfully with you when the Lord gives us the land.”
Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was on the outer side of the city wall and she resided within the wall itself. She said to them, “Go toward the hill country, so that the pursuers may not come upon you. Hide yourselves there three days, until the pursuers have returned; then afterward you may go your way.” The men said to her, “We will be released from this oath that you have made us swear to you if we invade the land and you do not tie this crimson cord in the window through which you let us down, and you do not gather into your house your father and mother, your brothers, and all your family. If any of you go out of the doors of your house into the street, they shall be responsible for their own death, and we shall be innocent; but if a hand is laid upon any who are with you in the house, we shall bear the responsibility for their death. But if you tell this business of ours, then we shall be released from this oath that you made us swear to you.” She said, “According to your words, so be it.” She sent them away and they departed. Then she tied the crimson cord in the window.
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You might be coronacrazy if:
1. You kiss your spouse goodnight, then wipe hand sanitizer all over your lips.
2. You sneeze and wonder if you should dial 911.
3. Sasquatch got nothin’ on you.
4. You have copies of your will neatly placed on the dining room table, and your nightstand, and your coffee table, and taped to your abdomen, and on microfiche in your wallet.
5. Your doctor answers the phone saying, “You. Don’t. Have. Covid!”
6. You’ve rented a storage unit just for the extra toilet paper you purchased.
7. You constantly spray your phone with Lysol, but you haven’t left the house since February.
8. You check your zoom account instead of your calendar to remember what you’ve got going on today.
9. Your dog goes on strike and refuses to take that 17th walk today.
10. You can sing every word to the entire Hamilton soundtrack.
I’m a little coronacrazy. Are you? It’s probably wise to be a little coronacrazy, even a lotta coronacrazy. I was talking with a friend this week who literally hasn’t left her house since February, doing everything in her power to keep herself and her at-risk loved ones protected from COVID.
Protection. Safety. Both foundational in Maslow’s “hierarchy of needs,” you may remember. Maslow’s “hierarchy” came up in one of the sermon-based small groups that met this past week:
Physiological needs like air, food, shelter is at the very bottom, the base of the hierarchy of needs;
Safety (protection) needs like health, security, a source of income;
Love and belonging comes next—friends and family;
Esteem, freedom, respect, status;
Self-actualization—the desire to be all that you can be.
The small group was observing that as a society, we’ve probably dropped down a notch or two on the hierarchy of needs since the beginning of the pandemic as many of us have focused our energies on one of the most basic of the human needs . . . safety. Protection. They seemed to agree that we should go easy on ourselves if we haven’t accomplished all that we set out to accomplish in a day less fraught with danger than today.
Speaking of danger, on July 16, 1969, just over 51 years ago, three men entered the Apollo 11 spacecraft, embarking on a voyage to the moon. At 9:32 am from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A, the men were lunar bound. Up, up, up into the air they traveled. Four days later, Captain Neil Armstrong would proclaim the now famous line, “The Eagle has landed.”
You know this history. But what you may not know—something that got very little press at the time—was what happened between the Eagle’s landing, and the first steps Armstrong took on the moon. You see, Buzz Aldrin was a Presbyterian Elder. Before his space voyage, he had the pastor of his church consecrate communion elements, bread and wine, which Aldrin took with him to the moon. And in Aldrin’s own words:
I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given me. In the one-sixth gravity of the moon, the wine slowly curled and gracefully came up the side of the cup. Then I read the Scripture, “I am the vine, you are the branches. Whosoever abides in me will bring forth much fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing” . . . I ate the tiny Host and swallowed the wine. I gave thanks for the intelligence and spirit that had brought two young pilots to the Sea of Tranquility. It was interesting for me to think: the very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the very first food eaten there, were the communion elements.”[1]
That’s not all. In addition to the communion elements, and the verse of scripture from John 15, Aldrin carried another symbol of faith. He carried a copy of the “Prayer for Protection” written by James Dillet Freeman:
The light of God surrounds us;
The love of God enfolds us;
The power of God protects us;
The presence of God watches over us;
Wherever we are, God is!
One source said that the prayer was left in a time capsule that remained on the moon.[2]
If you were taking a first-ever flight to the moon, do you think you might offer a prayer for protection? Or two?
When I think about our scripture lesson today, I am struck by Rahab begging the Hebrew spies for protection. If you knew that 600,000 Hebrew men wanted to overthrow your city, and that your city would surely fall against their attack, do you think you might offer a prayer for protection? Or two?
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
The two Hebrew spies entered Jericho and spent the night at the prostitute, Rahab’s, place. (I’m sure it was all on the up and up, right?) When the king heard about the presence of the spies and demanded Rahab turn them in, she risked her own life to hide the spies. She begged the men to spare her and her entire extended family when they attacked her city. The spies agreed, telling Rahab to gather up her entire family in her place and to hang a scarlet cord from her window, which was a part of Jericho’s city wall.
And so Rahab did as the spies instructed. She took a scarlet cord. And like a prayer for protection, she carefully placed the scarlet cord out of her window. You can almost hear her desperate plea:
Light of God please surround us;
Love of God please enfold us;
Power of God please protect us;
Presence of God please watch over us;
Be with us here. Be with us now.
Have you found yourself uttering a similar prayer lately? I know I have.
In addition to praying for safety and protection for my family, I have uttered many a prayer for you, my church family. Some of those prayers have been embodied prayers, prayers in the form of actions:
Each board meeting to make decisions about closing and opening, a prayer (God, please protect us).
Each pre-recorded worship service, a prayer (God, please protect us).
Each decision made, limiting entrances, removing hymnals, purchasing hand sanitizer and pre-packaged communion sets, and so much more, a prayer (God, please protect us).
Each scarlet cord purchased in order to rope off pews, a prayer (God, please protect us).
Rahab hung a scarlet cord from her window as a prayer for protection. We hang scarlet cords on every other pew as a prayer for protection. And those of you worshipping in person today, I invite you, if you are comfortable doing so, to grab one of the scarlet cords we have placed on our pews as a prayer of protection and hold it for a moment.
Some biblical interpreters see foreshadowing, symbolism in Rahab’s scarlet cord, to represent the blood of Jesus that would be humanity’s most powerful embodied prayer of protection. Some recognize the symmetry of the scarlet cord protecting Rahab’s family in the same way that blood over the Hebrew’s doors protected them from the 10th and final plague in Egypt, the death of the firstborn. God would pass over the homes that had blood over the doors, hence, the “Passover.” To me it is doubtful that Rahab, a Canaanite woman, had either of these things in mind. A pragmatist, Rahab just wanted to protect her family.
In the same way, I didn’t think about Rahab’s scarlet cord, or the Passover, or the blood of Jesus when, one by one, I placed a scarlet cord at the end of each pew—a pragmatic action that continues to serve as a prayer for protection.
But now, holding a scarlet cord in your hand literally (or perhaps figuratively if you are worshipping from home or at “Chapel by the Screen”), what is your prayer today? For whom do you pray God’s protection? From what do you pray protection? What is the prayer of your heart today? Holding a scarlet cord, take a moment and offer a silent prayer as you feel so moved . . .
Back to Rahab. You know the rest of the story, right?
The Hebrews came. The walls of Jericho fell. The people of Jericho, slaughtered (subject for another sermon). Rahab and her family? Spared. Incorporated into the Hebrew people. Moreover, Rahab married a Hebrew man. We find her as the second woman named in the first chapter of the first Gospel in the New Testament. She finds prominence there as being a part of the lineage of Jesus. Rahab shows up again in the New Testament, one of two women named in the roll call of faith in the book of Hebrews. Rahab. The prostitute.
Rahab’s embodied, practical prayer was answered in ways she never could have imagined.
In the same way, your prayers will be answered in ways you cannot even imagine. We don’t, we can’t, fully understand how God works. But we hold out a scarlet cord, knowing that there is so little we control. We don’t like to admit this. But sometimes all we can do is hold out our scarlet cord of prayer, to place that scarlet cord around our lives. And trust God for whatever comes next.
Back to the moon.
On July 26, 1971, two years after that first voyage to the moon, the Apollo 15 crew would blast off from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A at 9:34 am. Up, up, up into the air they traveled. Four days later, the Falcon would make its landing on the moon. Aboard the Falcon were astronauts James Irwin and Dave Scott. While Irwin was exploring the moon’s landscape with commander Scott, he was reminded of a favorite Bible verse. Speaking to Mission Control in Houston, Irwin quoted from Psalm 121: “I look unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.” And not missing a beat, Irwin added, “But, of course, we get quite a bit [of help] from Houston, too.” Something unusual happened to Jim as he performed his moonwalk. He would later tell people that there on the moon, he felt the power of God as he had never felt it before. Within a year, he left NASA, and founded a Christian mission organization. What’s more, Irwin left a poem on the moon. The poem, interestingly, was composed by the same man who wrote the “Prayer for Protection” carried to the moon two years prior by Buzz Aldrin. I close with the poem Irwin left on the moon 49 years ago, James Dillet Freeman’s “I Am There.” May this poem be a scarlet cord of protection wrapped around your soul this day:
Do you need Me?
I am there.
You cannot see Me, yet I am the light you see by.
You cannot hear Me, yet I speak through your voice.
You cannot feel Me, yet I am the power at work in your hands.
I am at work, though you do not understand My ways.
I am at work, though you do not recognize My works.
I am not strange visions. I am not mysteries.
Only in absolute stillness, beyond self, can you know Me as I am, and then but as a feeling and a faith.
Yet I am there. Yet I hear. Yet I answer.
When you need Me, I am there.
Even if you deny Me, I am there.
Even when you feel most alone, I am there.
Even in your fears, I am there.
Even in your pain, I am there.
I am there when you pray and when you do not pray.
I am in you, and you are in Me.
Only in your mind can you feel separate from Me, for only in your mind are the mists of “yours” and “mine.”
Yet only with your mind can you know Me and experience Me.
Empty your heart of empty fears.
When you get yourself out of the way, I am there.
You can of yourself do nothing, but I can do all.
And I am in all.
Though you may not see the good, good is there, for I am there.
I am there because I have to be, because I am.
Only in Me does the world have meaning; only out of Me does the world take form; only because of Me does the world go forward.
I am the law on which the movement of the stars and the growth of living cells are founded.
I am the love that is the law's fulfilling. I am assurance. I am peace. I am oneness. I am the law that you can live by. I am the love that you can cling to. I am your assurance. I am your peace. I am one with you. I am.
Though you fail to find Me, I do not fail you.
Though your faith in Me is unsure, My faith in you never wavers, because I know you, because I love you.
Beloved, I am there.
[1] https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/communion-moon/
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALFOEbhn8VE