Cirque du Soleil is about pushing limits, breaking barriers, doing what seems impossible.  If you’ve never seen them, the performers integrate a combination of dance, acrobatics, gymnastics, illusion, balance, dare and skill in some of the most awesome acrobatic and aerial performances that you’ll ever see.  The words on that sign board describe their mission perfectly:  “We do this so you will know that something else is possible.”

When I think about “doing the impossible” there are two biblical stories that come to my mind.  One is Jesus’ teachings to the disciples about faith found in both Matthew and Luke:  “The truth is,” [Jesus said] “if you have even as much faith as a tiny mustard seed, you can be able to say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move.  Nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17: 20).

The other is the story of Joshua breaking down the walls of Jericho. Joshua was second in command with Moses.  After Moses’ death, God appointed Joshua to continue in Moses’ role of leading the Children of Israel into the Promised Land.  [Moses only sees the Promised Land from a distance. He never gets to enter it.]  As a hint of what is to come, in the first chapter of the Book of Joshua, God tells Joshua to “be strong and courageous” no less than 10 times!  One of Joshua’s greatest challenges was gaining access and taking over the city of Jericho.   Jericho was a mighty city with a thick wall built around it to protect it from invaders.  In one of the most memorable stories of faith, Joshua trusts in God and through sheer faith brings down the walls surrounding the city of Jericho, not with weapons but with the blast of trumpets and shofars.  [A shofar is (usually) a ram's horn which was used in religious ceremony.  The sounding of the shofar always signified something extremely important, such as the announcement of a holy day, or the deliverance of a message from God.]

And like all good biblical stories this one is laced with sex and intrigue.  Joshua sends two “spies” [Israelites] into the city of Jericho who sneak in during the daylight hours when the city gate was open, and for some strange reason are “sent to” or “stay at” (you pick the verb) a house of prostitution or a prostitute’s Inn.  Rahab is “the madam” of the house/Inn who protects these two “spies” and actually saves their lives.   Through her bravery, she is transformed from a woman who was scorned and looked down upon by her own community to a woman who is protected and honored by the Children of Israel!

After the spies return home to the place where the Children of Israel are camped out, God appears to Joshua and tells Joshua this:

“Jericho had barricaded itself against the Children of Israel.  No one could come in or go out.”  Then God said to Joshua, “Listen!  Into your hands I have delivered Jericho, its ruler, and its brave warriors.  Have all your troops encircle the city and march around it once a day for six days.  Seven priests carrying seven shofars made from rams’ horns are to go before the Ark.  On the seventh day you are to march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing their shofars.  When the last long blast is sounded on the rams’ horns – when you hear those shofars sound – the entire army must make a deafening noise by shouting.  The city wall will come crashing down to the ground, and the people will advance with everyone surging forward straight ahead.”

Joshua did as God commanded, and the walls of the city came tumbling down.

For us this may seem like a singular story, but this story is much greater than a singular event.   The walls of the city of Jericho symbolize the “last barrier’ to the land of freedom and prosperity that God had promised to the Israelites when they were held captive as slaves in Egypt.  Those walls and the people who hid within them, are the last barrier to liberation and freedom.

There are so many times in our lives when we think we are “there” and then we run into one more “wall.”  What do we do when we “hit a wall?”  Joshua’s story is the story of our lives, even today.  Through tremendous faith in God and faith in God’s purpose for his life, Joshua “blows away defeat” and the famous “walls come tumbling down.”

Not surprisingly, the story of Joshua became incorporated in one of the most famous “spirituals” sung by African Americans during their time of enslavement in the U.S.  The words of the first stanza of the familiar spiritual are “Joshua fit the battle of Jericho, Jericho, Jericho; Joshua fit the battle of Jericho and the walls come tumblin’ down!”  This ancient story has brought tremendous hope to countless people who have felt “walled out” and kept from their hopes and dreams.

In the early years of the 20^th century, a renowned U.S. attorney named Louis Brandeis became “the Joshua” of social causes that would benefit society.  Among his notable early cases were actions preventing railroad monopolies; defending workplace and labor laws; helping create the Federal Reserve System; and presenting ideas for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

In 1916, President Wilson nominated Brandeis to become a member of the U.S. Supreme Court. However, his nomination was bitterly contested, partly because, as Justice William O. Douglas wrote, “Brandeis was a militant crusader for social justice whoever his opponent might be. He was dangerous not only because of his brilliance, his arithmetic, his courage. He was dangerous because he was incorruptible . . .  the fears of the Establishment were greater because Brandeis was the first Jew to be named to the Court.” He was eventually confirmed and would become one of the most famous and influential figures ever to serve on the US Supreme Court. His case opinions were, according to legal scholars, some of the “greatest defenses” of freedom of speech and the right to privacy ever written by a member of the high court.

Justice Louis Brandeis who served from 1916 to 1939 wrote: “Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done.”

This Sunday we’ll look at the relationship between faith in God and faith in ourselves.  On a scale of 1-10 (ten being the most important) how do you answer the following: “When I seek to solve really difficult challenges in my life, I would rate ‘Faith in God’ as a ____(1-10) and ‘Faith in myself’ as a ____(1-10).”

Have Hope in Hard Times

Keep Faith in God—Keep Faith in Yourself!

Blessings,

Dan

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 at 11:17 pm and is filed under This Sunday's Service. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.