"When Walls Need to Tumble"

Pastor Laura Guy

August 17, 2008

Here's an instant replay of what happened in worship:

We recognized that people often have two very different responses to the story of the battle of Jericho in Joshua 6. Some people think it's an inspirational story of God's divine help, and others think it is a troubling passage about genocide.
We wrestled with the violence in the story, how God ordered Joshua and the Israelites to kill every living thing in Jericho. Although we cannot explain it away, we did try to understand why it made sense to the Israelites. They were very concerned with purity - of bloodlines and of religion - so that they could fulfill the mission God had given them to bless the rest of the world. If they left any people alive, there would always be a concern about intermarriage and the introduction of foreign gods.
We tried to set aside the violence in the passage for a while to focus on the encouragement and hope we find in the story. The walls of Jericho are just like the obstacles in our way. We often try to force our way through them, relying on our own power. But this story reminds us that God is the true source of power to bring down those walls. Sometimes God simply asks us to walk for a while - something that may seem pointless to us! - but if we listen and obey, He will bring down the walls in His own time.
We remembered how important this story was to the African American slaves in the 1800s. They sang the song "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho" as they worked in the fields to remind them that God had the power to bring down the walls separating them from freedom. We heard and saw the hope this story gave them when we watched a video of Mahalia Jackson sing that song.
We prayed for God to help us bring down the walls that keep us from doing what He calls us to do.
We shared communion at Christ's table, remembering that he paid the price to bring down the walls that separate us from God.