Sermon on Joshua 2

Graduation is coming. Whether I like it or not. This is my sermon that I preached at Blacksburg Baptist on November 26th. It's pretty long for a blog posting, but its all here. Enjoy!

Who are they afraid of?

Read Joshua 2:1-14

To get a better idea of the Baptist Collegiate Ministry identity we as Virginia Tech students decided to create the profile of a typical student at the BCM. We decided that the typical BCM student was Caucasian, upper middle class, had a Baptist background, and was usually from the state of Virginia. We also figured that because Virginia Tech is a science oriented university; most students that walked through our doors were going to be in a science related field. We sat down and discussed this in order to gain a perspective of the group as a whole, and also to make ourselves aware of the students that we were not connecting with.

The story of Rahab in the book of Joshua is a story about connecting with people that are outside the church. Rahab herself lived in the city of Jericho and she was a prostitute. Prostitution for her was a necessity because most likely her family was poor. Since poverty was prevalent in these areas, prostitution was the alternative to starvation. We do know that her house was adjacent to the city wall and that her family lived in the city. Rahab had knowledge of who the Israelites were and had heard all the rumors milling around town about the incredible events that occurred. Little did Rahab know that a few Israelite spies would be knocking on her door. By the end of this story, Rahab protects the very lives of these Israelite spies.

One important aspect of this story is the knowledge Rahab has of the Israelite people. In verses 8-14 she explains to the spies why she is protecting them from the king of Jericho. She knows that the Lord is with these people and has heard all the rumors about the Red Sea and the Jordan River. She has also heard about the defeat of the two kings of the Amorites. She has every right to fear these people because she knows full well the power of their God that leads them. Rahab also sees the inevitable doom of the city she lives in and she sees her opportunity. She wants to save herself and her family from death by pleading with these spies in verse 14. She also sees the opportunity to leave the broken poor life of prostitution by trying to help the Israelites. In other words, she’s poor, desperate, and wants out of the life she’s living. She doesn’t know the God of the Israelites fully, but she knows that there is hope among the Israelites.

The truth of the matter is that most people outside the church are just as fearful of us just like Rahab and the people of Jericho were fearful of the Israelites. One of the reasons why this occurs is that they see us Christians and they assume that we have it all figured out. They see us with our smiles, our Christian T-Shirts, and our perfect family life and they become frightened. Sometimes we let people believe that our lives are going perfectly, when we all know full well that they are not. We see the problems in our lives, the pain, the frustration and all the pressure we face, but to them we could seem like everything is so much better and so unattainable.
Another reason why outsiders of the church could be fearful of us is that we seem to have all the answers. We have our Bibles ready and sometimes non Christians feel like we have all the nice little neat Sunday school answers for all life’s complicated problems. The truth is that life is too complicated for all the neat little Sunday school answers. We all know this full well, but to them we may make it seem like Christianity has neat little answers for everything. Sometimes we don’t allow them to see our struggles with who God is and why he is doing what he is doing. We may have a tendency to hide our vulnerability.

Non Christians may have another fear and that is the fear that Rahab had: the fear of God himself. They may have been told that God himself is so sovereign and so much bigger than we are, that it seems either impossible for them or too good to be true. In our culture today there is an emphasis on the individual and what I can do and who I can be. The idea that we as Christians are supposed to deny ourselves and take up our cross daily is a completely foreign concept to them. To surrender their hopes and dreams to this sovereign God sounds impossible and possibly terrifying.

The last reason I think non Christians are scared of us and the church is that we’ve created an us versus them mentality. We’ve even created special words for this: secular, Christian, and Non Christian. In the US today, Christians have their own subculture: Christian music, Christian books, and Christian conferences. The divide between the church and people outside the church has become ever greater. Because we as Christians have created our own subculture and our own identity apart from the world, we’ve also created a Christian mold. Every church has its own mold, because every church has its own demographic. Certain churches reach out to different communities, whether it is the latino community in Blacksburg or the Causcasian upper middle class of Blacksburg. I believe that there is a mold here in this church, just as there is a mold in the BCM at Virginia Tech. We’re prone to this problem. When it comes down to it, there are some people who are afraid of the church because they don’t feel like they fit the mold of that church.

Going back to the passage from Joshua, we see that Rahab did not fit the mold of the Israelite community. She was not an Israelite, so she did not come from the same religious background. She was also a prostitute, which was an important separating factor in her situation. However, the important message of the story was the fact that the spies and Rahab had something in common. They were both desperate for God. The spies were dependent on God for their safety and their victories in battle. Without God the Israelites were completely powerless. Rahab was desperate for some hope of a better life outside of her poverty. We as Christians and outsiders of the church both have that in common, we are all desperate for God.

So do we how close the gap between Christians and non Christians? I think the first practical way is to get to know people on a personal level. Non Christians need to see us completely with strengths and weaknesses included. They need to know that we do have bad days and that we don’t always have an eternal smile on our face. They also need to know that there aren’t always easy answers to tough questions. We need to be honest with them about the hard questions of our faith. We need to show them that there are sometimes grey areas that are hard to figure out. Besides breaking down the façade of Christianity, we need to represent Christ well. We show non Christians who Christ is whether we realize it or not, and it is important that they know that there is joy in submitting to the will of the most high God. We also need to show them that God is a sovereign God, but is also a God of mercy. I believe that in our honesty and our humility we can help bridge the gap between the church and non Christians.

The apostle Paul addresses this topic in his first letter to the Corinthians. He emphasizes the need for Christians to not be afraid to show their humility and weakness. In 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 it says […]. Verse four of this passage is important because it emphasizes the role of the Holy Spirit in his witness to these people. Paul allowed the Corinthians to see his weaknesses, so that the non believers could see God. In conclusion, we as the church should humble ourselves before non believers so that they can see God. In our weakness they will see God and what our faith is really about.