Soon through your hands will be passing a scarlet thread, a scarlet cord. I do not say a red cord, but a scarlet cord.
Scarlet, you see, is a special kind of red color. The art books tell us that scarlet is a bright red with just a tinge of orange in it. And scarlet has some special characteristics.
Scarlet is, for some, an attractive color, a festive color. Scarlet makes a brave statement. When the United States Marine Band suits up to play for the President, scarlet tunics are worn. When the Royal Canadian Mounted Police get their man astride of powerful horses and strap on their broad-brimmed hats, their coats are not just red – they are scarlet. Scarlet makes a statement.
Scarlet, too, can be seen. It can be seen at a distance and it seems just about indelible. It attracts the eye. The chapel staff at American University, one of the places where my wife serves, did a brochure a few years ago. The brochure was printed, for the most part, in soft grays and white. But here and there, dotted throughout that gray brochure, a scarlet swatch where they really wanted to make sure you did not miss something important. Scarlet is visible, it seems unmistakable, it seems indelible.
Ah, but scarlet has also been for centuries the color of sin. Who knows how it began or why? All I know is that the prophet Isaiah spoke of our sins being like scarlet, and that the seer of the Book of Revelation pronounced the doom of the city of Rome and described its sin as clothed in purple and scarlet and sitting on a scarlet beast. Scarlet the color of sin -- so powerful, so unmistakable, so indelible.
In fact, this distinctive color, which you now hold in your hands, and which is threading its way through the entire congregation … not missing a one of us ... this bawdy color became known not just as the color of sin but as the color of sexual sin. It became known as the color of prostitution and of sexual infidelity. Revelation again speaks of the harlot clothed in scarlet, and in more recent times, it could be used as a way of labeling that wayward woman who sells her body to equally wayward men ... we speak of a "scarlet woman". The novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote of "The Scarlet Letter", referring to the awesome punishment inflicted on adulterers in colonial New England - a big, brazen, letter A, a scarlet letter, an unmistakable message, an indelible thing.
I’ll bet some of you have let go of the scarlet thread by now, haven’t you? Don’t want to be associated with that!
Oh, but today hear of the designing woman for whom the scarlet thread became the unmistakable message of redemption. Hear today of the designing woman for whom the blazing scarlet became the red badge of courage. Hear today of the designing woman named Rahab whose scarlet sin, thought to be indelible, was taken away.
And hear today of a God of surprises: hear today of a God who will enter even a red-light district to extend the ties that bind us to Him. Hear today of a designing woman, working the world’s oldest profession in one of the world’s oldest cities, encountering the design of God.
And hold on to that scarlet cord. It marks you, but it will demonstrate also your salvation.
The writer of Hebrews, summarizing the life of the third designing woman we have reflected on this summer, says:
"By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had received the spies in peace."
That summarizes very succinctly what you read about in the second chapter of the Book of Joshua. Remember, now, the setting: For forty years the people of God had meandered through the wilderness of Sinai and of the Jordan, led by Moses. They were now in sight of the land promised to them by their God, who had freed them from Pharaoh’s slavery. They no longer have Moses, but they do have a bright, capable, energetic younger leader, Joshua. And it falls to Joshua to get them across Jordan’s stormy banks and to secure a place for them among all the hostile Canaanite peoples who already live there.
And so as the story in the Book of Joshua opens, the commander has cast a wishful eye at Canaan’s fair and happy land, and has decided to send in the CIA ... he’s sending in spies to find out how strong the defense of Jericho is.
When the spies enter, they go immediate1y to a certain house that is built right into the city walls, the house of Rahab, the house of ill repute. Listen to the account:
Joshua 2:1-24
Rahab, after all, was not born yesterday. Rahab has learned, as I suspect folks in her line of business would have to learn, how to be street-smart. Joshua may have sent in his CIA, but Jericho’s king also has an effective KGB, and the word is out that Hebrew spies are in the house of Rahab.
Ah, but Rahab is a designing woman. Rahab has a plan. And Rahab is first and foremost a survivor. Rahab knows how to deal. And deal she does.
Rahab sends the soldiers of Jericho’s king off on a wild goose chase; she hides Joshua’s spies on the roof of her house; and, most of all, she opens her heart and her mind to her rooftop guests with a proposition quite unlike the propositions she usually offers:
"I know that the Lord has given you the land ... for we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you ... for the Lord your God is He who is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. Now then, swear to me by the Lord that as I have dealt kindly with you, you also will deal kindly with (me)."
Rahab has seen the power of God; and Rahab has made a decision about whose she will be and whom she will follow. And Joshua’s spies respond; they promise that they will honor this pact, and that all she needs to do is to put a scarlet cord in her window, so that when the armies of the Hebrews march forward, they will know which house to spare. Very simple, very straightforward, very clear.
Very, very clear ... for scarlet sends a message. Scarlet is unmistakable, scarlet is visible. And scarlet is indelible. Scarlet cord for the scarlet woman ... but about to become a red badge of courage and a label for salvation.
I
You see, what Rahab found out from Joshua’s spies is that God is ready, willing, and able to use even the most flagrant of sinners. The God of Israel, the God of surprises, is ready and even eager to honor the scarlet cord of salvation and safety, no matter who hangs it out. No matter how flagrant and how shameful their sin might be.
I have described Rahab as a designing woman, a woman with a plan. And so she was. But her plan would not have worked had she not encountered a God with a plan, a designing God, a God who traces on the map of all of human history his plan, his design for salvation. And the plan of God is to seek and to save everyone … and to make use of everyone, no matter how degraded they may be.
For some reason a whole lot of Christian folks have decided that scarlet sins are indelible. That sexual sin is worse than any other kind and that it just can’t be overlooked. Somehow we seem to have taught in the church that if you stray outside the sexual boundaries, you are lost and gone forever.
Rahab says No. The God who made a bargain with Rahab says No. The design of God to save and to use all persons says No. The scarlet thread you hold in your hands says No. Our God is ready, willing, and able to save and to use anyone, no matter their past or their reputation. And that includes every Rahab, that includes every John who knows Rahab. And that includes us all, every one of us who touches the scarlet cord.
Now I am going to say very quickly and very decisively that nothing I have said this morning should be construed as offering permission for sexual wandering. I want to be very sure that this is heard and heard accurately. I believe with all my heart that the plan of God is for sexual expression to be within the bonds of marriage. I believe and teach as firmly as I know how that the only sexual union sanctioned and affirmed by the Bible is the sexual union between a man and a woman who have committed themselves, before God and God’s people, to a lifelong union we call marriage. On that I do not think we can compromise.
But I am also trying to say this morning to every one of us that our loving God is able and willing and eager to forgive. Our loving God is able and willing and eager to hang out the scarlet cord for every scarlet woman and every sin-stained man. If you have made a mistake, don’t count yourself out. Don’t count yourself lost forever. Don’t imagine that you can never be of any use or any value again.
You are Rahab ... and if you, like Rahab, can say, "I know the Lord ... and I have heard of the Lord ... and I see that the Lord is God of heaven and earth", then you can be forgiven.
You are Rahab, and if you, like Rahab, can plead, “Deal kindly with me" and can cry out to God for mercy, he will change you, he will forgive you, he will use you, he will rescue you.
Whoever you are and whatever you have done ... though your sins be as scarlet, they can be cleansed, they can be washed away. This scarlet is not indelible. You can be as clean as the white snow. Just ask. Just ask. Grasp the scarlet cord, and ask.
II
But now I also want to speak to Joshua’s troops, sitting over on the other bank of the Jordan. I need to speak for a moment to the Christian who feels that he has not strayed, that she has been pure. I need to speak to the troops, the people of God, sitting over here with Joshua and just waiting for a chance to claim the promised land.
Can you just imagine what Joshua’s army said when the spies came back and reported where they had been and what kind of a deal they had made? Can you just imagine the hootin’ and the hollerin’ that filtered through the reeds on the east bank of the Jordan?
You went to what kind of house?! You slept on the roof ... alone?! A likely story!
You promised Rahab what?! We are supposed to go in, take the city, destroy and burn everything, except the house where the red light bums and the red thread hangs?! Come on, guys, if anybody ought to be punished, surely it would be this woman Rahab!
But, good Christian folks, do you see what happened instead? Do you see that Rahab, instead of being destroyed ... instead of being killed ... instead of being criticized and ostracized ... do you see that Rahab came on over and joined the people of God?
The Scripture reports some wonderful things. The Scripture reports a few chapters later, after the walls came a-tumblin’ down, that, according to the plan, Rahab was saved. And then, wonder of wonders, if you keep on looking for Rahab’s name throughout the Bible, you find some wonderful things.
Did you know that this Rahab is the great-great-grandmother of King David? She is received into God’s people; she changes her way of life; she becomes a woman honored in Israel, and in her lineage is Israel’s greatest King. That’s what happens when sinners change their ways and when God’s people receive sinners!
Keep on going. Read in Matthew’s Gospel. Matthew reports the ancestry of the Lord Jesus. Back he goes, generation upon generation, naming men and men only. The father of Joseph the carpenter of Nazareth was Jacob; the father of that Jacob was Matthan; the father of Matthan was Eleazar ... back and back he goes, naming only men. The father of Solomon the King was David; the father of David was Jesse; the father of Jesse was Obed; the father and the mother of Obed were Boaz and Ruth and the father and the mother of Boaz were Salmon and Rahab. Only two women mentioned in the ancestry of Jesus, and both are foreigners and one was a scarlet woman!
Oh, great God, where do we come off sniffing our noses at folks who have made a mistake when God Himself did not disdain to bring us the savior of the world through the lineage of a harlot?!
I am saying this morning to every Rahab and every Rahab’s John, you need not only to plead for God’s forgiveness, knowing that it will be there, but you need also to come on over to the people of God. You need to follow through and change your life; you need to leave off doing what you have been doing and do things God’s way. And when you come, there will be a welcome here. There will be if we are God’s people.
And I am saying this morning to every one who has sat on the banks of Jordan and lived a good, clean life, and who does not feel particularly stained … I am saying to you, look down at what is in your hand. You too hold the scarlet cord. You too have been forgiven; maybe your sin was not the sin of prostitution or the sin of adultery or some other sexual sin. Maybe your sin was not what the world calls serious. But it was serious in the sight of God; and one day you too hung out the scarlet cord and you too asked for forgiveness. So receive as you were received; accept as you were accepted. The mark of scarlet is for you too.
The church, you see, is not a rest home for ready saints; the church is a hospital for sick sinners. And Paul says in one of his letters, "Neither the immoral ... nor adulterers, nor sexual perverts, nor thieves, nor the greedy nor drunkards ... nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed ... you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
All of us are marked by the scarlet. All of us. But we can be cleansed and we can be received, changing our ways and living a new life, we can be and must be received into God’s people.
Scarlet, you see, is a special kind of red color. The art books tell us that scarlet is a bright red with just a tinge of orange in it. And scarlet has some special characteristics.
Scarlet is, for some, an attractive color, a festive color. Scarlet makes a brave statement. When the United States Marine Band suits up to play for the President, scarlet tunics are worn. When the Royal Canadian Mounted Police get their man astride of powerful horses and strap on their broad-brimmed hats, their coats are not just red -- they are scarlet. Scarlet makes a statement.
Scarlet, too, can be seen. It can be seen at a distance and it seems just about indelible. It attracts the eye.
And scarlet is the color of sin. For centuries we have spoken of scarlet women and of their equally stained men.
Ah, but I see another scarlet too. I see the scarlet of fresh blood. I see the bright, unmistakable red badge of courage poured out from the hands, the feet, the side of the descendant of the designing woman Rahab. I see arms, tinged with scarlet, spread out on a terrible cross, but reaching to include me and to include you. And I see an unending fellowship, the fellowship of the scarlet thread, whom He has marked as His own.
Grasp that scarlet thread; wind a portion of it around your hand, remembering the scarlet-flowing blood of the Savior, and feel that blest tie that binds us together. The fellowship of the brothers and sisters of Rahab; the fellowship of the scarlet cord.
