“Though she is an unlikely saint, Rahab is remembered by the authors of Matthew, Hebrews, and James as a faithful witness and as an ancestor of Jesus.”
Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals
In this alternative prayer book I have on my desk, today is the Feast day of Rahab, the famous prostitute who protected two Israelite spies in return for her family's protection during the raid on Jericho. After some negotiating, both sides kept their word: Rahab hung a crimson cord outside her window (thereby creating the very first red light district), and the Israelites spared everyone in her house from death. Rahab eventually became the great-great grandmother of King David and, according to Matthew, part of the lineage of Jesus.
Rahab is important for a variety of reasons. First, it reminds us that not even the Bible can keep a woman down. If you haven't noticed, the Bible doesn't necessarily do a good job of including women in its stories. Women are most often listed as 'mothers of,' and a few have stories dedicated to them, but for the most part they are anonymous characters in a male-dominated landscape. This is, unfortunately, still often the case today. But the story of Rahab reminds us that women are important players in the story of God and we need to remember them by name.
Second, we must remember that Rahab was a prostitute who became the great-great grandmother of David and a named ancestor of Jesus. So often it seems we try to portray church as the place where nice people go, or as the place where the right kinds of people go. But the story of the Bible isn't filled with the right kinds of people – it's filled with cheats and liars, prostitutes and foreigners, adulterers, rapists and murderers. Oh, there are the right kinds of people in the Bible, but they are in the minority. What this tells me is that the Bible's primary narrative isn't how people relate to God, but that the Bible's primary narrative is how God continually reaches out to all of humanity in an attempt to repair the breach.
If that's the case, if God is reaching out to all of humanity, if God is reaching out to all kinds of people in all kinds of circumstances, then we should be willing to make that same effort. Our first response to people looking to connect with God shouldn't be to look for reasons to bar them from entry; our first response to people looking to connect with God should instead be to look for reasons why God is reaching out to them.
On this day, remember Rahab and how God became a part of her life.
On this day, remember Rahab and ask if we are as willing as God to have a person like her in our midst.
On this day, remember Rahab – sinner, prostitute, saint, ancestor of Jesus and beloved by God.
Amen.
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