This is a sermon I wrote several years ago and recently rediscovered in going back through some of my files. I still like it, though if I were writing or delivering it today, I would say more about the probable origins of the book of Joshua during the reign of Josiah.
***
***
The Rocky Horror Picture
Show (1975) is a unique B-Movie science-fiction / horror / comedy / rock–n-roll
musical based on the stage musical of the same name. It appears on the silver
screen complete with the obligatory mad scientist -Dr. Frankenfurter- in a
lonely castle, the “creature” created in the laboratory, aliens from another
planet, and the infamous Time Warp dance.
It's astounding
Time is fleeting
Madness takes its toll
But listen closely
Not for very much longer
I've got to keep control.
I remember doing the Time Warp.
Drinking those moments when
The blackness would hit me.
And the void would be calling,
"Let's do the Time Warp again."
"Let's do the Time Warp again."
It has often been
described as a “Cult Film” – the word “cult” as opposed to “occult” (which
actually means “hidden” but is usually used to mean something to do with the
demonic or satanic – though the argument could be made that the R.H.P.S is that
too) Cult means worship and a religious group. And in some sense this is truly
a “cult” film.
Millions of people
around the world come together at midnight at local theatres to participate in
The Rocky Horror Picture Show. They are a diverse group, male – female -
transgendered, young and old, but they share an attraction to the movie.
It really is unlike all
other movies. When the lights go down in the theatre for other films, the
audience sits quietly in their seat watching as the actors on the screen enact
a story. When the lights go up, the audience goes home. But when the lights go
down for the midnight showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show something
entirely different begins. The audience doesn’t passively sit back to watch the
film.
They, instead, begin to
participate in the story.
Many of them have
already arrived at the theatre dressed in the costumes of the various
characters – each more outlandish than the last. And they’ve brought with them some
props (lighters, rice, rubber gloves, etc…) to use during the show. When the young
couple on screen gets married at the beginning of the film, the audience (both
on screen and in the theatre) throws rice. When the Mad Scientist snaps his
rubber gloves, the audience snaps theirs as well. They recite the lines with
the actors on screen – and they interject lines of their own – interacting and
participating with the story… the audience becomes a part of The Rocky Horror
Picture Show - even to the point that some members of the audience enact the
entire show at the front of the theatre below the screen, as the movie plays
above them.
It’s a story that (no
matter how depraved) they feel that they connect with, and feel a part of. It
is a story of weirdoes, misfits, and outsiders, and the fans of the R.H.P.S at
some level feel that they, too, are weirdoes, misfits, and outsiders, so the
R.H.P.S is a celebration of what they see in themselves.
Through their
interaction and participation in the movie they worship at the theatre (and,
it’s important to remember, all theatre began as religious ceremony) in the
cult of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. They participate in the cultic worship
the film is their sacred text. They have memorized its verses and they sing its
hymns.
What they are
worshipping, of course, is their own self, and the fulfillment of their own desires
for unrestrained freedom (particularly sexual freedom) without constraints of
any kind; moral or ethical.
Give yourself over to absolutely pleasure
Swim the warm waters of sins of the flesh
Erotic nightmares
Beyond any measure
And sensual daydreams
To treasure forever.
But we're not here to
celebrate the R.H.P.S. So why do I bring
it up? Because of the way it can help us to understand what happened with the
people of Israel as they renewed their covenant with Yahweh, and what happened
after Joshua died. The fans of the R.H.P.S are not like other movie goers. The
story is THEIR story – made so by their interaction with and participation in
the sacred text / film. The same is true in the way that Joshua and the people
of Israel renew their covenant.
In chapter 24 of Joshua
the Israelites had conquered, divided up, and settled in the land. But now as
Joshua is preparing to leave the people; for he is old and ready to die, he
orders a national assembly: The tribes gathered at Shechem along with their
elders, leaders, judges, and officials, and they, as a whole body, presented
themselves in God’s presence.
And Joshua began to
tell a story. Their story.
From time immemorial,
your ancestors Terah, father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the River, and
served other gods. Then I brought your ancestor Abraham from beyond the River
and led him through the length and breadth of Canaan. I increased his
descendents and I gave him Isaac. To Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. To Esau I
gave possession of the mountainous country of Sier.
Jacob and his sons went
down to Egypt. I then sent Moses and Aaron, and plagued Egypt with the wonders
that I worked there; finally I brought you. I brought your ancestors out of Egypt
and you came to the Sea; the Egyptians pursued your ancestors with chariots and
horsemen, to the Sea of Reeds.
Note that: “finally I
brought YOU out… YOU came to the Sea…”
The people that Joshua
is speaking to were NOT the people who came out of Egypt, not the people who
came to the Reed Sea. That generation of Israelites had perished in the
wilderness during the 40 years of wandering because of their refusal to obey
Yahweh. Yet Joshua deliberately says, “YOU.” Yahweh brought YOU out of Egypt.
They then called to
Yahweh, and he spread a thick fog between you and the Egyptians, and made the
sea go back on them and cover them.
You saw with your own
eyes what I did in Egypt. Then, for a long while, you lived in the desert. I
then brought you into the country of the Amorites, who used to live on the
further side of the Jordan; they made war on you and I put them at your mercy;
after which, you took possession of their country, since I destroyed them
before you. Next, Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab, rose to make war on
Israel, and sent for Balaam son of Beor to come and curse you. But I would not
listen to Balaam; instead he had to bless you, and I saved you from his power.
This is not just a
story from Israelite History 101. This sacred story is THEIR story – even if
they hadn’t been born when it happened, they are becoming a part of it through
Joshua’s telling.
“You then crossed the
Jordan and came to Jericho, but the inhabitants of Jericho made war on you:
Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivities, and
Jebusites, and I put them all at your mercy. I sent hornets ahead of you, which
drove out the two Amorites kings before you; this was not the work of your
sword or of your bow. And now I have given you a country for which you have not
toiled, towns you have not built, although you live in them, vineyards and
olive groves you have not planted, although you eat their fruit.
Many of those who
gathered for this national assembly probably didn’t remember these events
either. They had been born in and had grown up in the Promised Land. They did
not remember the crossing of the Jordan or the fall of Jericho – but they are
becoming a part of the story… YOU… This is their sacred story.
So now, fear Yahweh and
serve him truly and sincerely; banish the gods whom your ancestors served
beyond the River and in Egypt and serve Yahweh. But if serving Yahweh seems a
bad thing to you, today you must make up your minds whom you mean to serve,
whether the gods whom your ancestor served beyond the River, or the gods of the
Amorites in whose country you are now living. As regards my family and me, we
shall serve Yahweh.
The people replied,
‘far be it from us to desert Yahweh and serve other gods! Yahweh our God was
the one who brought us and our ancestors here from Egypt, from the place of our
slave labor, who worked those great wonders before our eyes and who kept us
safe all along the way we traveled and among all the peoples through whom we
passed. And Yahweh has driven all the nations out for us, including the
Amorites who used to live in this country. We too shall serve Yahweh, for He is
our God.”
They have become a part
of the story – they are interacting with it. “Yahweh was the one who brought US
out of slavery….from the place of OUR slave labor.” They could not physically
remember the cruel lashes of the Egyptians whips on their backs – but through
the story they can feel that pain. Through the story they can sense the awe and
wonder of the plague and wonders Yahweh inflicted on Egypt. They can feel the
amazement of seeing the walls of water part before them. And as they remember
the story – they begin to participate in the ongoing story, “We too shall serve
Yahweh, for he is our God.”
Through the story they
have connected with the God of their ancestors. The stories are not dusty
rehearsals of long forgotten events, but life-changing in their immediate
relevance.
Joshua then said to the
people, “You will not be able to serve Yahweh, since he is a holy God; he is a
jealous God who will not tolerate either your misdeeds or your sins. If you
desert Yahweh and serve the foreigners’ gods, he will turn and maltreat you
anew and, in spite of having been good to you in the past, will destroy you.’
The people replied to
Joshua, “No! Yahweh is the one we mean to serve.’
Joshua then said to the
people: You are witnesses to yourselves that you have chosen Yahweh, to serve
him.’
They replied,
“Witnesses we are!”
“Then banish the
foreign gods which you have with you and give your allegiance to Yahweh, God of
Israel!”
The people replied to
Joshua, ‘Yahweh our God is the one whom we shall serve; his voice we shall
obey!”
That day Joshua made a
covenant for the people; he laid down a statute and ordinance for them at
Shechem. Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God. The then took
a large stone and set it up there, under the oak tree in Yahweh’s Sanctuary.
Joshua then said to all the people, “Look, this stone will be a witness to us,
since it has heard all the words that Yahweh has spoken to us; it will be a
witness against you, in case you should deny your God.’ Joshua then dismissed
the people, everyone to his own heritage.
The people, through
their participation in the story of God’s deliverance of Israel, became the worshipping
and covenantal community of God. The story of deliverance was their story. And
the God of their ancestors was THEIR God.
Unfortunately it didn’t
continue…
Joshua having dismissed
the people, the Israelites then went away, each one to his own heritage, to
occupy the country. The people served Yahweh throughout the lifetime of Joshua
and throughout the lifetime of those elders who outlived Joshua and had known
all the great deeds which Yahweh had done for the sake of Israel. Joshua son of
Nun, servant of Yahweh, was one hundred and ten years old when he died. … And
when that whole generation had been gathered to its ancestors, another
generation followed it which neither knew Yahweh nor the deeds which he had
done for the sake of Israel. Judges 2: 6 – 10
The generation that had
participated in the crossing of the Jordan, and those who had seen the walls of
Jericho topple died, and “went the way of all the earth,” and those who grew up
after them, who could not remember the crossing of the Jordan, or the fall of
the walls of Jericho – let alone the crossing of the Sea of Reeds or the
slavery of Egypt – no longer participated in the story of deliverance.
They had forgotten the
story. They no longer participated in it, and they no longer participated in
the worship of God. As they forgot the story, they forgot their place in the
covenant; just as Joshua predicted they would.
Why do we gather to
worship? What’s the point? Are we here like people at a theatre who want only
to passively watch a story performed on the screen in front of us? Or are we
here like the fans of the Rocky Horror Picture Show – who, as misguided as
their worship is, are frantic participants in the story; making it their story?
Our worship is not just
listening to scripture as it is read, or the praying of prayers, or the singing
of songs and hymns. We are here to make the Salvation Story, the story of
Redemption, the story of how God rescues his people OUR story – to become one
with the story, and to participate in the covenant community.
If the story becomes a
dull recitation of things long ago – or merely something we do on Sunday
mornings – irrelevant to our everyday lives, then we are in danger of
forgetting OUR place in the ancient story. And when we’ve forgotten our place in
the story, we’re forgetting our place in the covenant of God.
(words and music from
the Rocky Horror Picture Show by Richard O'Brien)
No comments:
Post a Comment