Dirty Hookers in the House of God

An insatiable desire for the infinite comes standard with a human body. You don’t even have to look under the hood. Our cravings make us swim mouth open in a constantly renewing stream of material goods, shallow relationships and experiences. Much of it is simple substitution for the pleasure we were made to find in God. Unfortunately, most of us don’t know that’s what is driving us into the arms of every lover with a promising bankroll of satisfaction or fulfillment. Centuries of unfaithfulness by God’s people, leading all the way to my living room, can best be described as one thing, really. Prostitution. Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, says it poetically: “On every high hill and under every spreading tree you lay down as a prostitute” (2:20b). Ezekiel slaps Jerusalem harder than a ruthless pimp: “You adulterous wife! You prefer strangers to your own husband! Every prostitute receives a fee, but you give gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from everywhere for your illicit favors” (16:32-33). Yikes! The list goes on. Elijah, Isaiah, Amos…

As sensual people, we’re simply willing to give ourselves away for the hope of a payoff. Last night, my brother used a term I was surprised to have not yet heard. It was “transactional spirituality” To sum it up, if we do something of value, we get something of value in return. Our gods – money, sex, power, respect – promise a payoff if we’ll do such and such to get it. And we paint God in those colors, don’t we? If we do good things, we’ll get to heaven. If we repeat the words the preacher tells us to right after he scares the begeezus out of us, we won’t have to go to hell and roast forever. If I sow the thousand dollar seed that the dude on TV with obvious dental veneers is calling for, I’ll “break the back of poverty” and possibly have my own Learjet one day. Excellent. Can’t wait. Maybe I can hire John Travolta to fly me around. Oh yeah, I didn’t have $1000 to give. I suppose maybe $100 will give poverty a nasty case of scoliosis.

David’s great great grand-mom, Rahab, was a prostitute, and one of two women mentioned in Hebrews 11, the “Faith Hall of Fame.” She was also an ancestor of Jesus of Nazareth. Interestingly enough, she was the first woman known to have put on a red light (think “red light district” and “Roxanne” by the Police) when she put her scarlet cord out the window as a sign of her faith and her pact with Jacob’s spies at Jericho. Apparently the glaring red symbol of a prostitute has ancient roots. The Gospels record in detail Jesus interacting with two, possibly three, sexually deviant women: A woman caught in adultery, the Samaritan woman at the well, and Mary Magdalene (Church tradition holds that Mary was possibly the woman caught in adultery or a demon-possessed prostitute). On one level, you could say that these were yet more examples of the grace of God in Jesus extended to the margins of society. On a deeper level, this is very symbolic. Jesus, God’s true and faithful Vine who would become Israel for Israel, meets compassionately with an adulterous woman who deserves death for her legal trespass, rejection for her cultural defiance and shame for her personal defilement. Yet he pardons her, sending her to be something else entirely. A flagrant example of grace. An undeniable testament of God’s mercy. A new covenant retelling of how God feels about his unfaithful wife. Rewind… read Hosea and try not to be awed by God’s desperate love for his dirty hooker wife!

And then there’s “Roxanne.” Listen to the words and maybe you can hear God, in Sting’s piercing register, calling out to you when you drift into the comforting arms of a high-paying job that requires low-lying ethics. “You don’t have to wear that dress.” When you’ve learned to savor the bitter lips of unforgiveness and the warmth of the resentment you swear you deserve to feel and can’t sleep without. “Those days are over.” When a steady visual diet of entertainment (now in high definition) offers you fading glee and you might otherwise devote your attention to getting some wisdom and revelation from the Scriptures. “You don’t have to sell your body to the night.” Need I even mention lust? (My favorite line: ”I loved you since I knew you. I wouldn’t talk down to you.”) It’s not a gospel song. Or is it?

Roxanne
You don’t have to put on the red light
Those days are over
You don’t have to sell your body to the night

Roxanne
You don’t have to wear that dress tonight
Walk the streets for money
You don’t care if its wrong or if its right

Roxanne
You don’t have to put on the red light I loved you since I knew you
I wouldn’t talk down to you
I have to tell you just how I feel
I wont share you with another boy

I know my mind is made up
So put away your make up
Told you once I wont tell you again
Its a bad way

Roxanne
You don’t have to put on the red light
Roxanne
You don’t have to put on the red light