Faith to see, and to act

Samson was a judge. Don't think black robes on the bench at your local courthouse; these guys wielded swords, not gavels.

I have always considered the book of Judges-tucked between the glorious conquests of Joshua and the glorious conquests of David-to be unremittingly depressing and of little edification, except of the negative kind. But a recent Sunday's sermon mentioned the incident in which Samson ripped the gate posts of Gaza out of the ground and carried them off on his back, which the preacher took to be a flamboyant visual aid communicating that God had given the Philistines over to Israel-if they only had the faith to see it, and act on it!

Instead, the attitude of the Israelites throughout their occupation by Philistia was abject defeatism, timidity, fear, and a resignation to powerlessness. They scolded Samson: "Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? What is this you have done to us?" (Judges 15:11)

I was stunned. Paradigms shifted. Suddenly I saw that the contrast between Samson (a man of faith, for all his philandering) and the Israelites with their low-temperature faith was a contrast between great expectations of God and low expectations of God. Bawdy, bodacious, bad boy Samson was intimate with God, always asking for favor, always expecting it, always receiving it.

What is normal Christianity? Whom do I want as role models? Those sensible Christians who scold that we can't do this or we can't do that because don't-you-know-that-the-Philistines-rule-over-us? Or those who see that God still offers us new conquests-if only we have the faith to see it, and act on it?