The second in our Advent series on the theme of important births.
This week, some thoughts on the story of Samson.
Like Moses before him, Samson is destined to be a leader of God's people.
But what kind of a man, and what kind of a deliverer is he?
In the story, it's also interesting to see who and what is named, or not named.
Who is given value by the writer of the text, through the power of naming,
and who is deemed unvalued? And then, there's the power of names in and of themselves...
Below, our readings, a brief reflection, and then today's sermon.
READINGS: Judges 13:2-24; Judges 16:4-17; Judges 16:18-31
REFLECTION ‘Her name means “night”’
She is dark of night
to his blazing sun;
schemer, and betrayer
to his strength and heroic status.
She is called to cause his fall;
he is called to bring deliverance.
Seems so simple,
so very black and white.
Delilah, the bad
to Samson’s good.
But this is not some Hollywood Western:
bad girls in black hats,
the good guys in white.
Her name means ‘night’,
forever a creature of darkness,
but when men hold all the power
and she is fighting to survive,
she’ll use what she can.
And when the men in power
see the Champion of their enemies
in her company
what is she to do?
Oh, they’ll pay her well,
but if she refuses,
they know where her family live.
His name means ‘sun’
and he believes the world revolves around
him,
sees nothing but his own need.
A flawed hero
who’s already left his first wife
to the world’s tender mercies.
She makes the meal,
pours the wine,
uses her power
to live.
© N Macdonald
SERMON ‘The sun child’
Let’s pray: may the words of my mouth and the thoughts of all our hearts
be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen
Sometimes when people name their children,
they don’t realise what a burden they are
placing on that child for the rest of its life.
For example, it would be pretty hard getting through life with a name like:
Ben Dover
There’s a biblical scholar named Eugene Boring...
who, incidentally, isn’t.
It might be a tad tricky being a political candidate with the name Oliver Loser –
or the political analyst rejoicing in the name Krystal Ball...
actually, I think we could use her here in the UK at the moment with all this Brexit stuff.
Would you buy property from a real estate agent called Wendy Whacko?
Now, if you’ve escaped a tricky birth name,
what happens when, due to life circumstances, your name changes?
In the unfortunate double-barrelled married name department,
meet Joe McDonald who married his sweetheart, Catherine Berger,
so becaming the McDonald-Bergers... this is true, honest!
Or, in the ‘I’ve got a new title to put in front of my name’ category
we remember the now-deceased Bishop Jaime Sin, who became a Cardinal...
thus becoming Cardinal Sin.
Names can be a very difficult and tricky business
and, as we see in our Bible reading this morning,
names can be carried down through the centuries and become weighed down with meaning.
It would be hard to live up to a name such as Samson if you were just a wee, frail laddie
– or, for that matter, if as a girl, you had to try live down being given the name Delilah,
with some of the less than savoury overtones that’s gathered over the years.
Some of those old Hollywood Biblical epics have a lot to answer for, I think.
However, both names come with quite a reputation.
Let’s think about Samson’s story –
and truly, I’ve never really quite known what to make of it –
there are so many contradictions and moral ambiguities.
Perhaps this is an example of God's community learning together,
so I look forward to conversations over coffee after worship!
Anyway, Samson’s story –
There’s a few names in the beginning:
We have a place name: our story begins in Zorah.
And we zoom in on a chap called Manoah.
He belongs to the clan called the Danites.
His wife... oh, wait.
All these names, and yet, when we get to her – she is unnamed.
But, it’s to this unnamed woman that the angel of the Lord appears and says:
‘You will conceive and have a son’ –
I suspect we may be hearing similar words spoken
by an angel to a woman in upcoming weeks...
The angel, having told the woman that she'll have a baby
proceeds to give some strict instructions:
this is going to be a very special child –
while she is pregnant she must not drink alcohol or eat unclean food.
When she’s had the child, who will be a boy,
the child must never drink alcohol,
must never eat prohibited food,
and must on no account cut his hair.
Why?
He is to become a Nazirite.
What's that?
Basically, a person set aside for God’s work, in this case, to deliver Israel from her enemies.
Incidentally, even the enemies are named:
the Philistines.
As we heard in the story, the woman with no name heads off to tell her husband.
Eventually the husband meets with the Angel,
and, in conversation, asks the name of the angel.
No name is given – the Angel declares that it’s beyond human understanding.
Eventually, the child is born and we learn that his name is Samson.
Now the general rule of thumb when telling a story is that,
you tend to know who the important people are – they get a name.
The ones deemed unimportant, well, why waste time and effort giving them
a name, after all, to the teller of the tale, who cares?
But of everyone and everything that is named so far
- apart from Samson -
it’s the two who don’t have names that matter the most.
Let’s be blunt, there’s nothing insignificant about the angel of the Lord:
this is God’s messenger, sent from the very heavens to earth to deliver huge news –
God has seen the plight of Israel and will rescue them.
And then, there’s the woman:
without her, there can be no special child, no deliverer to come to Israel’s aid.
Behind the story, we find that, whether named or unnamed by fellow human beings,
nevertheless, all are known to God,
all have their place, and purpose,
for all are God’s children,
and all are called,
and all are important to God's story overall.
But let’s think about this special child, Samson.
His name means ‘sun’.
He will rule as a Judge in the time when Israel has no kings.
It’s a pretty chaotic time, a time when good leadership is needed.
So, in a sense, the light of Samson’s rule as a Judge should bring relief to
the beleaguered Israelites suffering constant attack by those pesky Philistines.
Just as the planets revolve around the sun, so the people look to Samson.
But he’s a flawed hero:
he’s utterly self-absorbed.
He lives up to his name in so far as in his own mind,
everything revolved around him and his needs.
Sure, he’ll go and kill a bunch of Philistines every now and then,
but... he is not a wise leader.
He deliberately provokes and enjoys causing trouble –
a seeker of peace he is not.
And, remember those conditions placed upon him as a baby?
Yeah, he’s cheerfully not bothered much about them at all.
Samson is obsessed with violence and women.
He may be physically strong,
but his mentally and morally puny.
There’s a dark side to Samson – the ‘sun’ child.
And what of Delilah?
Her name means ‘night’.
She is the night to his sun...
and she’ll be the one who will cause him to finally succumb to his
enemies because of his lack of inner strength.
Samson, the ‘sun’, will be captured,
his purpose as a deliverer seemingly snuffed out.
His power, his purpose, even his sight, will fail
and he will fall into the darkness of captivity –
he too, will become like night.
The ironic thing about Samson is that,
it’s only at the end of his life when he has lost everything,
and, when he’s had time to reflect - for that is all that’s left to him -
it’s only then, that he seems able to look beyond himself and cry out to God:
the God, who has always been with him,
but who Samson had pretty much ignored up to this point.
As he thinks of God,
Samson remembers he is special,
that longed-for child foretold by an angel;
the one who would deliver Israel.
Here, in the temple of another God,
chained to the central pillars,
blinded, shamed, enslaved,
Samson remembers God’s call upon his life.
And yet, he has always been a violent man, self-centred man.
Even as he remembers that call, he finds a way to make this about him:
so he seeks revenge and a death by violence.
The writer of Samson’s story tells us that he finds his strength and, in one last act,
this flawed hero of Israel manages to kill more Philistines as he dies,
than in all of the time he lives.
What do we make of Samson?
I suspect that, despite some of the old Sunday School resource material
I used to see around the place, Samson’s probably not the best
role model for your children... or perhaps any of us.
Perhaps this is less a story about a hero,
and more a story about potential wasted?
Perhaps it’s also a story about how we define strength and power.
Samson ruled by physical might – his sheer, brute strength.
His fists bought peace for a time,
delivering Israel from the attacks of Philistines,
but in no lasting way.
Violence brought more violence –
an endless cycle:
again, he was no man of peace.
His life begins seemingly so favourably:
this is God’s special child;
this child is given particular gifts;
he grows up and becomes a leader –
but one more interested in looking out for himself,
not looking out for the people...
sometimes those interests coincide,
at times they don’t.
He has been given a good start in life,
and he has been given much during his life –
as well as taking much.
In the end, after a lifetime of suiting himself,
when he finds he no longer has any power
at all, he rediscovers God.
Deliverer or destroyer?
Hero or anti-hero?
Perhaps he’s a useful warning:
of what happens when you squander your God-given gifts and potential?
It’s a very mixed tale with Samson.
Having led the people for twenty chaotic years, he dies.
There will be others that God raises up to help deliver the Israelites –
some will be a whole lot better than Samson,
yet all are flawed and fallible humans.
Even the great King David is guilty of murder.
Who can the people of God turn to?
Who will be the one deliverer
who won’t fall, or fail?
In this season of Advent, when thinking of God’s promise of deliverance,
it’s not to Samson we turn –
even though an angel proclaimed his birth.
In the end, God sends Jesus:
the only one able to truly, fully deliver God’s people –
each of whom are known and named:
for in God’s story,
whether weak or strong,
high profile or barely visible by the standards of the world...
we are all important and our names matter,
and all of us worth rescuing. Amen.
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