A Very Freaky Gospel

Judges Week! Thanks to the Rev. Linda Sharon for the scripture and interpretation.
The music choice is all mine.


Judges 16:6-14

So Delilah said to Samson, “Tell me the secret of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued.”

Samson answered her, “If anyone ties me with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, I’ll become as weak as any other man.”

Then the rulers of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she tied him with them.

With men hidden in the room, she called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” But he snapped the bowstrings as easily as a piece of string snaps when it comes close to a flame. So the secret of his strength was not discovered.

Then Delilah said to Samson, “You have made a fool of me; you lied to me. Come now, tell me how you can be tied.”

He said, “If anyone ties me securely with new ropes that have never been used, I’ll become as weak as any other man.”

So Delilah took new ropes and tied him with them. Then, with men hidden in the room, she called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” But he snapped the ropes off his arms as if they were threads.

Delilah then said to Samson, “All this time you have been making a fool of me and lying to me. Tell me how you can be tied.”

He replied, “If you weave the seven braids of my head into the fabric on the loom and tighten it with the pin, I’ll become as weak as any other man.” So while he was sleeping, Delilah took the seven braids of his head, wove them into the fabric and tightened it with the pin.

Again she called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” He awoke from his sleep and pulled up the pin and the loom, with the fabric.

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She's a very kinky girl,
The kind you don't bring home to mother.

"Super Freak" recorded by Rick James, written by Rick James and Alonzo Miller, from "Street Songs"

In the story of Samson and Delilah, this dialogue is where Delilah asks and Samson lies avout the source of his strength. He tells three different lies before he tells her the truth of how to subdue his strength. In the first lie, Samson is bound with fresh bowstring. In the second, he is bound with new ropes that have never been used. In the third, his hair is pinned into a loom.

In each of these stories, Delilah cries, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” This is Samson's cue to escape the bonds and kill the Philistines. The third of these stories ends as Samson awakens to Delilah's screams. Only after these three false starts does Samson tell the truth and Samson is subdued.

One of the things Pastors often hear from the flock is that holy writ is so old, and so ancient that it has precious little to do with life today. Often this is code for "scripture is not very interesting or relevant." Look at this story again. When we read it, we read Samson is bound while asleep and Delilah awakens him to the threat of the Philistines. Oh really?

So now, look again, no where in the first two trials does it say Samson slept? It doesn't say Delilah wakes him. That doesn't happen until the third.

Often, people say that scripture is stale, stodgy, sterile. There's nothing like today's life and time in it. Well let me just say this about Delilah, "She's a very freaky girl." Samson liked her freak too. If he was awake while Delilah bound him with bow string and then with new ropes, and scripture doesn't mention sleep until the hair-pinning incident, this story suddenly reveals a much kinkier twist.

It then also goes deeper to remind us of this tried and true lesson--We are not punished for our sins, but by our sins.

There is a lot of scripture we never see because we think we've seen it all. Beware, and be alert. There are a lot of things we gloss over because we think we already know when unless we pay close attention we don't.

Voulez Vous Couchez a la Moulin Rouge?

Judges Week!


Judges 5:28-30

Out of the window she peered,
the mother of Sisera gazed through the lattice:
‘Why is his chariot so long in coming?
Why tarry the hoofbeats of his chariots?’

Her wisest ladies make answer,
indeed, she answers the question herself:

‘Are they not finding and dividing the spoil?—
A girl or two for every man;
spoil of dyed stuffs for Sisera,
spoil of dyed stuffs embroidered,
two pieces of dyed work embroidered for my neck as spoil?’

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Itchi gitchi ya ya da da
Itchi gitchi ya ya here
Mocha-choca-lata ya ya
Creole Lady Marmalade

Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?
Voulez-vous coucher avec moi?

"Lady Marmalade" by Mya, Pink, Lil' Kim, and Christina Aguilera featuring Patti Labelle, recorded at the 2002 Grammy Awards from the movie "Moulin Rouge" written by Kenny Nolan and Robert Crewe.

Looking at yesterdays entry, some were wondering just what was going on. First read the book of Judges, cover to cover, all in one sitting. If you can read it and not come away asking yourself "what was going on?" then music selection may be the worst of the problems with Judges Week. It shouldn't be, but it is.

So, as for the song selection? Why a song (to put a dull point on the knife) about a sex worker? The last time I heard this song, the original Labelle version (this version is fine, but I do love 70's R&B), the phrase "Hey Sister, soul sister" started rolling on my tongue and with it the name Sisera and I got a smile out of the way it blended rhythmically and lyrically.

But, more, there is a power in the lyrics. There is a power in the delivery. There is a power to knowing the original was done in 1975 and this hadn't been seen before by a network audience. (This thirteen year old boy from the burbs sure hadn't seen anything like this before.) There's power there. And when Patti Labelle points to the blonde gentleman while singing... well, there was power in that moment that was sensual and sexual, but there was more. It harkens back to gender roles. It harkens to race. But in that moment there is no denying there is power and it does not belong to the traditionally powerful person in the equation, the white male.

Admitttedly, no matter the power exchange happening in that moment; no matter the financial exchange happening between patron and Call Girl; no matter the implicit and explicit exchanges made between the Courtier and a Courtesan, you will never find the "Sex Worker" table at Career Day.

Nope. Never.

But I do want to display an overtly sexual element because I wonder if there wasn't a covert sexual element in the original story. There is scandal in the General entering Jael's tent. Was there a sexual metaphor being used when Sisera asked for water and Jael offered a skin of milk? I don't know and again, not a biblical scholar, just a guy willing to ask a weird question or two.

But here is something in the realm of gender power relationships that must be considered... Sisera's mother awaited her son's triumphant return, a return that would come not on his war horse but on his shield. When the Catty Canaanite women who were in the court of the General's mother talked about dividing the spoils, they spoke of a girl or two for every man the same way as the dyed stuffs embroidered for her neck. They compared female slaves who would have been used in any number of ways, including sexual, the same way they talked about a nice scarf.

Maybe Jael did move like a woman wooing a man, like a harlot making her mark; all to kill Sisera, end this war, and do the will of God. The tease more than the act, but either way, my professor would have been right... if we're uncomfortable with these questions from the world of the Judges, surely Biblical Scholars would have a disagreeable thing or two to say.

Sisera thought he had the power. Then he had to run for his life right into the arms of Jael. It was then Jael who fulfilled Deborah's prophecy, the glory of the victory belongs to the women.

It's Different for Girls

John 8:2-9

Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, they said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.

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Don't you know that it's different for girls?
You're all the same

"It's Different for Girls" by Joe Jackson from "I'm the Man"

A friend once asked me the most provocative question about this scripture, she asked "Where is the man?" For those who questioned her intention with raised eyebrows she asked "Where is the man, the one who also must have been caught in the very act of committing adultery?"

Man, it's different for girls, isn't it?

So all of the fat cats in the synagogue are making their points and pointing their fingers and getting ready for a good old fashioned stoning, you know, the kind we had when we were little but don't do so much any more? In the midst of all of this, here's Jesus, just writing on the ground with his finger while all around him blows up.

It calms down enough so that Jesus is demanded to make his judgement against the woman, and judgement against is the foregone conclusion, when he stands up and says, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” That's when time freezes.

Jesus returns to his writings and the crowd begins to turn away, beginning with the Elders.

My friend thinks that Jesus has been writing the names of the scribes' and Pharisees' girlfriends in the dust. Hypocrites, you're all the same.

I guess in this case it was different for girls. She was taken to the temple, presumably in a state of undress. She was dragged through the streets. She was screaming while everyone else was yelling. It was going to be an old fashioned stoning just like the stonings when we were kids. But Jesus reminded them of one thing, that they were not without sin either.

Somewhere there was a man who was sharing the same sin. Somewhere there were friends and family who were just as guilty as she. Maybe not of the same sin, but in the sight of God, what the difference one sin to another.

Jesus knew this. He reminded the scribes and Pharisees that their judgement was coming along too. Maybe this is why the elders left first. They had lived enough life to know when they were indicted. They had the wisdom, they just needed the sharp reminder. As for the young men, they got the message. It's our message too. There is none without sin, and to say so is like dragging this woman through the streets and leaving the man at the scene of the scene.

Readers might ask why I didn't take this writing to the end, all the way to "go and sin no more." There are two reasons:

The first is that today I wanted to focus on the hypocrisy of sexism and how there are times where the sins men and women commit are different for women. I want to say that this is not so.

The second, well, if nothing else, life has shown us that we as a society don't get "go and sin no more." Just watch the news and get back to me on that one.