Give us a Protector of the Realm: a Judge

“Give Us A Protector Of the Realm: A Judge!”
If you think the Bible is filled only with images of Precious Moments from your Curio Cabinet and your Nativity figurines, it may be that you have not gotten a chance to read the book of Judges before. And perhaps, that is because, you have not heard a sermon on Judges! Recently, I took a thorough study of the 240 plus sermons that I have preached here at West Grove in the last five years. I looked at the books that we have studied together. For example, we did a long series on the book of Genesis in 2017, 39 sermons in the Psalms, and 60 in the Gospel of Luke! However, I had not yet peached here at West Grove on Judges.

After Moses died, Joshua led the Israelites into the Promised Land. In the style of Moses, Joshua, chosen by God, led the people confidently and followed God. When Joshua died, the Israelites fell away from follow God and from seeking out the ways of God. They forgot who to look to, and how to submit their lives to God. Their lives fell into chaos.

Reading the book of Judges is not so different from catching up on the news this morning. War, violence, and people behaving badly, each play a part. A high school shooting in Alabama on Friday night with 10 injured and five people who died in a Texas shooting yesterday in Odessa. Across time, humanity has often known violence and war, division and pain. The biblical narrative does not happy-wash this truth, nor does the God we serve, remain completely disengaged from this heartbreak. The tragedy of violence often finds God in the messy and often, tragic conflicts and battles. Like God who brought the Israelites to freedom through the Red Sea, God has a preferential option for the poor, the widow, the oppressed, and the less powerful and fights on their side.

If you ever read any of the seven volumes that Game of Thrones was based on, A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin or watch any of the episodes of Game of Thrones, you might understand the Israelites mixed relationship with those who protected them. Game of Thrones debuted in April of 2011 with a story about kings, queens, knights, and renegades all vying for control of the fictional seven kingdoms. With at least ten main characters, many of which are murdered in the early seasons, it can be near impossible to keep track of all of the characters. Most importantly, viewers sought to keep an eye on was on top as Head of State, leading the enterprise as Protector of the Realm. Protector of the Realm is a title earned by the Lord of the Seven Kingdoms through military battle.

For we are like Max, in Where the Wild Things Are. We fight back against the rules we are given and decide to go our own way. We have our wild rumpuses. Later, when we determine want to come back home to have dinner, which is still hot, we are welcomed back. Pride, sin, and self-determination separate us. Love draws us back together.

This is not so different from cry of the Israelites to raise up a judge. God raised up these warriors to rescue Israelite tribes in loose relationships and coalitions. They fell into this predictable pattern and cycle. While in Canaan, the land God had promised them, they worshipped other gods and sinned. God became angry, allowing their enemies to attack Israel. Israel cries out to God for help. God raises up a judge to delivers Israel and returns the people to proper worship of Israel’s God for a time. When the judge dies, the Israelites return to their old ways. The cycle begins all over again.

Judges were by and large charismatic military leaders upon whom the God’s spirit rested. None of these judges were idealized or glossed over. The narrative shares their story plainly. Judges are not always known for their upstanding moral character or for their religious faith, in the same way that political leaders are not intended to be followed in every area of their life. The stories in Judges raise our ire in the same way that a story about human trafficking unnerves us. They raise a holy impatience with selfishness and sin, violence and indiscretion as we look forward to a future hope. But God heard the cry of the people and sent someone to lead the people and show the way towards justice.

This is Deborah, Samson, Ehud, Gideon, Abimelech, and others. But this is also our Gospel lesson that teaches on the characteristics of a judge. Unlike the unjust judge, God gave to us a Protector of the Realm in Christ. Jesus, protector of the realm, who does battles not for biggest title, bragging rights or the most land, bring salvation for each and every person’s wholeness and shalom. We too find ourselves sometimes crying out for justice and following Jesus with all that we are. And other times, forgetting who we are, and doing what seems right to us. There are still those who seek God’s justice today and point to Jesus as the way.

Today, we look for judges like Rev. Dr. William Barber II of the Poor People’s campaign and Moral Mondays and others. Picking up Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. work, and reviving it with the Spirit of the gospel for today, he stands solidly on the words of Jesus as he says, “There is no religious left and religious right…There is only a moral center. And the scripture is very clear about where you have to be to be in the moral center – you have to be on the side of the poor, the working, the sick, the immigrant.(1)” We hear the call for God’s justice and the example of the persistent widow. May you seek justice with persistence and focus following the example of judges around us who ushering in the just realm of God. And when you fall away from persistence, get carried away by the wild rumpus, or discouraged by the violence all around us, may you call out to God. For God is loving, slows to anger and abounds in grace.

God has heard our call – look to Jesus and follow God’s ways of justice.
This is the gospel, the good news of Lord, Jesus Christ, thanks be to God, Amen.

(1) Barber, William, J, ii. And Jonathan Wilson Hartsgrove Third Reconstruction: How a Moral Movement Is Overcoming the Politics of Division and Fear. 2016.

Old Testament Lesson: Judges 2:6-16
When Joshua dismissed the people, the Israelites all went to their own inheritances to take possession of the land. The people worshiped the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the Lord had done for Israel. Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of one hundred ten years. So they buried him within the bounds of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. Moreover, that whole generation was gathered to their ancestors, and another generation grew up after them, who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.

Then the Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and worshiped the Baals; and they abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; they followed other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were all around them, and bowed down to them; and they provoked the Lord to anger. They abandoned the Lord, and worshiped Baal and the Astartes. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers who plundered them, and he sold them into the power of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies. Whenever they marched out, the hand of the Lord was against them to bring misfortune, as the Lord had warned them and sworn to them; and they were in great distress.

Then the Lord raised up judges, who delivered them out of the power of those who plundered them.

Gospel Lesson: Luke 18:1-8
Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’ For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’” And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

Meditations
Sunday, September 1 ~ Saturday, September 7

Sunday: “The people worshipped the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the Lord had done for Israel.” Judges 2:7. When you experience leadership that points to God, share what God is doing! Pray for the leadership of the church and the nation.

Monday: “Moreover, that whole generation was gathered to their ancestors, and another generation grew up after them, who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel” Judges 2: 10. How can you know what you do not know? How can you know what you are not told? If you never tell your family about your faith, how will they know?

Tuesday: “Then the Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and worshipped the Baals; and they abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; they followed other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were all around them, and bowed down to them; and they provoked the Lord to anger.” Judges 2: 11-12. Consider that God is always calling us back to God’s ways of justice and righteousness.

Wednesday: “Then the Lord raised up judges, who delivered them out of the power of those who plundered them.” Judges 2:16. Pray for the judges and people to whom you look for wisdom.

Thursday: “In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, “Grant me justice against my opponent.” Luke 18:3. Listen for the movement of the Holy Spirit. If you hear those crying for justice and can work with them, be an ally. If they are crying against you, consider how God may be calling you to a season of and transformation.

Friday: “yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.” Luke 18: 5. Where is God calling you to a ministry of justice that includes persistence and tenacity for those who need justice?

Saturday: “And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you; he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?’” Luke 18: 7-8. “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice” Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King. Pray for God’s kingdom to come on earth as in heaven and listen for how God uses you to answer your prayer.