John, chapter 3, verse 16:
"For God So Loved The World...."


The nineteenth chapter of judges is probably the hardest chapter of the bible I've ever read. It's a horribly violent story. I have spent many hours praying on how to preach this story. It seems as if the spirit is calling me to step way out on a limb here. So, being the coward that I am, I stand here, humbly asking you all to come there with me this morning. Preparing this sermon took me places I have never been before. I invite you all to come with me, on this outrageous expedition, out on this shaky limb. It has helped me, and so perhaps will support you as well, to remember that it was Jesus, the great master, who told the most outrageous stories of all, and who scandalized entire towns, and whole governments. If we're going out on this limb, it's because he went out there first. There is precedent for us to be on this expedition.


Here's how the story goes:

Judges 19:22-30

"A certain Levite" takes for himself a concubine, a second wife if you will, from Bethlehem. They quarrel, the concubine gets mad and leaves him, goes running back to her father. The Levite man goes after her, sorry for what he's done, bearing gifts and humble words. Not an altogether unfamiliar scenario, right guys? They make-up, and start their journey back home together. It's a long journey, so they stop in a town called Gibeah to spend the night.

At first they can't find anyone to take them in, and finally an old man comes along and reluctantly takes them into his house. After a while, there's loud knocking at the door as a band of marauding hooligans demands that the old man send out the Levite, so they can have "intercourse" with him. The old man begs them to not be so wicked, but they won't go away, so one of them - we don't know whether it's the old man or the Levite husband - throws out the concubine to the gang instead, and slams the door shut.

Then comes probably the most horrible verse in all the bible: these marauding men "wantonly raped her, and abused her, all through the night until the morning."

Just before dawn, she winds up on the old man's door step somehow, with her hands grasping the threshold. After being tortured all night, it isn't long before she dies, there, at the doorstep, as the sun is coming up. The Levite comes out to start his journey home, and sees his wife lying there, bruised, beaten, and bloodied as she must have been. Not sure whether she's alive or dead at this point, he says (and this may be the second most horrible line in all scripture), "get up, we're going". When she makes no reply, he realizes she's dead. He picks her up and sets her on the donkey and they set off for home.

When they arrive home, the man takes a knife, and cuts his wife into twelve pieces, sending a piece of her to each of the 12 tribes of Israel, saying, "Has such a thing ever happened since the day that the Israelites came up from the land of Egypt until this day? Consider it, take counsel, and speak out".

We can only wonder what in the name of God this story is doing in our holy scriptures. This women is brutally raped and tortured all night long, then killed and chopped into 12 pieces. While her husband and their host lock themselves in behind the closed doors, that may have been some kind of barrier between them and this gang, but could certainly not have drowned out entirely the screams of this women as she was raped and tortured and brutalized all night long.

The gospel according to John, chapter 3, verse 16:

"For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son, that whoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life."

The good news is that God loved that concubine so much, that he gave his only begotten son for her. If she had been the only one on the planet, God would have sent his son to save her soul. And it's a good thing too because we are that concubine.

We find ourselves too often alone and cold and in the dark. We feel beaten by the world, by the system. Too many of us are physically beaten and abused and raped. There are children who are killed at the hands of their parents, there are adults who are beaten by the ones they profess to love, there are adults who were tortured as children who live in the shadow of that horror long into their adult lives.

For God so loved that concubine that he sent Jesus for her.

Thank God.

The good news is that God loved that Levite man so much, that he gave his only begotten son for him. If he had been the only one on the planet, God would have sent his son to save his soul. And it's a good thing too because we are that Levite man.

We are the Levite man when our knees knock in fear when trouble comes: there's racism, and sexism, there's the destruction of the rain forests and extinction of animals, there are crack dealers on the corner, and children shoplifting, but we're too afraid to get involved. We'll get dragged into something terrible and complicated, and someone, somewhere,
will come after us if we drop a dime. We are quick to close the door behind us.

For God so loved that Levite man that he sent Jesus for him.

Thank God.

The good news is that God loved that old man so much, that he gave his only begotten son for him. If he had been the only one on the planet, God would have sent his son to save his soul. And it's a good thing too because we are that old man.

Trying to do the right thing, reluctantly worried for the safety of others, we visit the sick, or serve at the soup kitchen, and staff crisis hotlines. We donate our used clothes when they no longer fit, and toss some canned goods into the boxes at the supermarket every thanksgiving.

But only once in a while. We just don't have the time to help out every week - we have busy lives after all. We'll pitch in if you can't find anyone else, really, but we're not comfortable traveling to the bad sections of town, so don't ask. We'll send a check, if that'll help, just include a self-addressed envelope.

We'll help, but don't ask us to put our lives on the line. We have concubines for that.

For God so loved that old man that he sent Jesus for him.

Thank God.

The good news is that God loved each of the men in that marauding gang so much, that he gave his only begotten child for them. If they had been the only ones on the planet, God would have sent his child to save their souls. And it's a good thing too because we are that marauding gang.

This one's a little tougher, isn't it? Remember that limb I talked about going out on? Well, we're here, this is it. It's easy enough for us to imagine ourselves as the concubine, or the husband, or even the old man, but that's where we have to draw the line. We've never beaten or raped anyone and we surely have never left anyone for dead on someone else's doorstep.

How could the men in this gang have been so brutal? The only way they could have beaten and raped and killed that woman was if they just felt driven to simply do whatever they felt like doing, without thought to consequences or repercussions. In order to beat and rape and kill, they couldn't have really seen the concubine as human. They couldn't have heard her screams, or paid any attention to her struggle to escape. Mostly, they must have been blind to her as a human being, seeing her as different from them, some kind of animal, or object for them to play with.

But we're not like that, or are we?

Who are we kidding? We want what we want when we want it, in much the same way as the gang did, though perhaps not to the same intensity. We won't work for less than $7.50 an hour and we want weekends and holidays off. We are justified in reaching for that drink after work to unwind. Too many of us add that weekend recreational drug use, that after all is not hurting anyone, since we're consenting adults and it's only on the weekend. We joke about road rage, and happy hour. We rush home take off our stiff business suits and ties, slam down our leather briefcases, and slip into our sweatsuits and adidas sneakers, to watch our rented movies and order take-out chinese. We worked hard all week, we deserve to unwind and relax, and indulge ourselves.

We don't think about the sweatshops where children slave away sun up to sun down to make those business suits, sweat suits, and sneakers or the hundreds of them that die in the fire trap buildings they slave away in. We don't see them, or hear their cries.

We forget about the drug trafficking that kills thousands and thousands of innocent people, and ruins the economies of countries, so even more will die in poverty and starvation. We don't think about how alcoholism and drunk driving cause untold death and suffering to families and to our country. We forget that our life-style comes on the backs of millions of people all over the world, who die because of what we want, what we must have, when we must have it.

Perhaps we don't wander stumbling around town, demanding to have intercourse with strange men and their concubines, but our greed, our lust, and our blindness to it, kill as well. It's just that we are fortunate to be able to buy a distance that separates us farther from the bodies.

You know, I don't think we're out here on this limb simply to fall off into despair and guilt. I do think we're here because we are being called to understand, with our hearts wide open, this marauding gang and the marauding gang that lives in each one of us. I don't believe people are born angry and violent. When I look at this gang, what I see is people filled with pain, people who had undoubtedly been the victims of violence themselves, who didn't know what to do with what had been done to them and in their pain they lashed out, desperately trying to get rid of the pain by inflicting pain on someone else.

This message surely gets played out in this story at a broader level as well. What does this Levite husband do with his pain at his wife's violent death? He takes her home, violently chops her into pieces, then demands that all the twelve tribes retaliate. They do, as you'll see later, in extreme violence. This story is here to show us how the seed of violence is sown in suffering that seems too great for us to face. This story is here to help us open our heart of compassion, to see this marauding gang with a new understanding. They are not much different from the Levite man, and the twelve tribes of israel, and us. We all have the propensity to react to our pain by lashing out at others, without regard for who they are.

The Levite man, in chopping his wife into pieces and sending a piece to each of the tribes, was enacting a common custom at the time. At times of crisis, rather than send a telegram, it was customary to cut up an animal, sending a piece of it to each of the tribes, as a call to arms.

This story is a gift, a call to arms for us. It calls us to
acknowledge, accept, and forgive all the parts of ourselves:

The parts of ourselves that feel beaten up and victimized, like the concubine;

The parts of us that are afraid, and shut the world out in that fear, like the Levite husband;

The parts that are ambivalent and reluctant, like the old man;

As well as the parts of us that are filled with pain, and murderous rage and violence.

All those parts need the same healing and forgiveness and compassion.

For God so loved that marauding gang that he sent his only child for them.

Thank God.

In retaliation for the death of the Levite's concubine, the tribes of Israel did consider the matter. They took counsel, and spoke out. The town of Gibeah was in the region of the tribe of Benjamin. so, in retaliation, they slaughter 600 innocent women of the tribe of Benjamin. Surely the cries that went out that night reached all the way to God and echoed back. Surely the screams of 600 women being mutilated and murdered and chopped to pieces lasted all through the night and into the
morning.

It is a harsh lesson to learn:

that violence only begets more violence.

Yet we hear the call of john 3:16, and we are called to remember that God sent his son for the whole world. God's wide heart heard the screams of the Levite woman, as surely as he heard the knee-knocking fear of the Levite husband, and the ambivalence and regret of the old man, and the greed and violence born of the anguish and pain of the marauding gang.

Just as surely as God hears and knows that we cry in pain and anguish, that we are afraid, and ambivalent and filled with doubt and regret, and just as surely as he knows we are full of greed born of desperate wanting.

Violence will only beget more violence. When the land is covered with blood, there can be no room for healing. Responding to the murder of the Levite's concubine by killing 600 more women, only brings more pain, and does little to heal the wounds.

Only when we realize, with our hearts wide open in love, that we are the Levite as well as his wife, that we are the old man as well as the young marauders, only then will we be able to temper our need for a violent justice, with mercy. Only then will we be able to remember, with compassion, that there is little that separates us from them. We all share the same heart. Only when we realize that, will we be able to walk in the footsteps of the master, the son who was sent by the father, who came to save the whole world, including the Levite man, his concubine, the old man of Gibeah, the marauding gang, and US.

Thank God.

Amen


Jacqueline Rotteveel

If you have any comments about
Jacqueline's Sermon, E-mail her here

This Page Hosted by Get your FREE
home page

Our thanks to the IPoint Midi Gallery for the Hymn
"Fairest Lord Jesus"