Jephthah and Jim Francis

JEPHTHAH

Here we are, back with the familiar story –

Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord. They served the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites and the gods of the Philistines. And because the Israelites forsook the Lord and no longer served him, he became angry with them. He sold them into the hands of the Philistines and the Ammonites, who that year shattered and crushed them. For eighteen years they oppressed all the Israelites on the east side of the Jordan in Gilead, the land of the Amorites. The Ammonites also crossed the Jordan to fight against Judah, Benjamin and Ephraim; Israel was in great distress. Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord, “We have sinned against you, forsaking our God and serving the Baals.”  Judges 10:6-10

It seems this time that God is losing patience with them though –

“When the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines, the Sidonians, the Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed you and you cried to me for help, did I not save you from their hands? But you have forsaken me and served other gods, so I will no longer save you. Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you when you are in trouble!”  Judges 10:11-14

This sounds like Nicola and her friends. They fight. They are mean to her. We get involved. It all gets sorted. And then she makes friends with them again and it all starts all over again!

But God does not follow through on this threat. He can’t. He loves them. He has mercy on them. He listens and watches and responds.

But the Israelites said to the Lord, “We have sinned. Do with us whatever you think best, but please rescue us now.” Then they got rid of the foreign gods among them and served the Lord. And he could bear Israel’s misery no longer.  Judges 10:15-16

Love wins.

Enter Jephthah. Son of Gilead. Son of a prostitute. Exiled by his siblings. Surrounded by rogues and scoundrels.

And then invited by the elders of Gilead to lead them into battle.

Really? After all that they have done to him? You must be joking!

And yet he is convinced. He will do it. He starts by trying to negotiate with the Ammonite king. The argument is over land, of course. Isn’t it always?

Jephthah knows his history and geography. What right do the Ammonites have to this land? Why pick a quarrel now after 300 years of occupation?

The king of Ammon takes no notice. He’d better watch out! –

Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Jephthah.  Judges 11:29

The time for talking is over. And Jephthah makes a vow to the Lord (quite a rash vow in my opinion – I can see this coming back to bite him in the bum!) –

“If you give the Ammonites into my hands, whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord’s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.”  Judges 11:30-31

So Jephthah fights. And God gives him the victory. And the Israelites subdue the Ammonites.

He returns in victory and his only daughter is the first out to greet him. His only daughter. Disaster! He is devastated.

She gets Jephthah to agree to allow her two months roaming the hills and weeping with her friends before he carries through on the vow he has made.

What a weird story – remembered and commemorated by the young women of Israel for years to come.

And after the event – after the whole battle – the people of Ephraim confront Jephthah asking why he didn’t allow them to go into battle with him…..the same as happened with Gideon before him….Jephthah’s argument is that he did ask and they did not come so he fought without them.

Now it seems it is time to fight against them. Tribe against tribe.

The Gileadites defeat the Ephraimites and capture their land. Every time a survivor tries to cross over the fords of the Jordan, they are asked to say the word ‘Shibboleth’. The people of Ephraim cannot pronounce this word you see – they say ‘Sibboleth’. If you say ‘Sibboleth’ instead of ‘Shibboleth’ you die. Simple as that.

There was a brilliant West Wing episode based on this story – a story I had never actually read before today.

And Jephthah led Israel for six years.

 

JIM FRANCIS

About eight years ago, I really felt a calling from God to look into training for some sort of ordained ministry within the Anglican Church. Given my background, this was a massive thing for me – it was hard to shake off the feeling that this sort of ministry was not for women. And even harder to shake off the feeling that this sort of ministry was not for a woman like me. And yet I can still remember the moment as clear as day – stood at the back at a service at Hillside and knowing without a shadow of a doubt that this was God talking to me.

For whatever reason, this has not worked out, but one of those reasons can never be that I was not willing and ready to give it a go. My life has gone in a completely different direction and I know that I can still serve God everyday in the roles that I currently have without needing to feel I have failed because I am not wearing a dog collar.

My vicar felt that I needed more experience of the wide and diverse stream that is Anglicanism and suggested I attend the Living Theology Today course in Durham. The course ran every Wednesday evening for a year with some Saturday sessions and two dissertations to be written. And yes, there was a wide range of spiritual experience and knowledge and perspective in that room every week.

I came from an evangelical background that held the belief that we had it right and everyone else was a bit misguided. During that year, I came to change my position. I listened more. I did not feel it was my role to challenge or persuade or convince. More than at any other time, I came to see that everyone’s journey with God is different and yet equally valid.

I experienced this most of all with the course tutor, Jim Francis. He was a gentle man, a humble man of God, a hugely intelligent man – with some pretty strange theological views (imho!). After the introductory session, I emailed him, detailing the things he had said that I was struggling to get my head round (ie. did not agree with). He responded promptly, sensitively, wisely and in detail. He admitted he may have been rather dogmatic in his delivery……..which must take a lot of courage and humility for a tutor to do after only the first session.

Jim and I came to develop a mutual respect from that point on. He encouraged me to expand my knowledge and express my theology. He challenged me to listen and learn, to grow and develop in unexpected ways. He inspired me to have the courage to write more – he was always so positive about my contributions and writing.

We were not on the same page theologically. We never will be. But that didn’t matter. We were open to learning  from each other.

He pretty much knew all there was to know about the Bible and yet never gave up wanting to learn more from wherever a fresh insight may arise.

No one should ever feel that they have arrived, that they have learnt all there is to learn, that they have got it right and sorted and nailed.

We all have so much to learn from each other all of the time.

Our God is a God of surprises and will surprise us every day with fresh insights from the most unlikely of sources.

PS: Living Theology Today is a great title by the way, isn’t it? This is what we should all be doing everyday – living out our knowledge of God in our lives, right here, right now.