Enough Rope - A Devotion

Joshua 2:15

Then she let them down by a rope through the window,

for her house was on the outer side of the city wall 

and she resided within the wall itself. (NRSV)

The expression "enough rope" sometimes refers to the idea that "you need just enough rope to hang yourself with". Mission is like that. We need just enough rope to be dangerous? If things are under our control, they are probably not free enough for us to be open to the transformation that only God can bring. This is the story of a woman who has enough rope to hange herslef, and she puts herself in danger as a survival strategy.

Joshua's spies are sent to Jericho and they find Rahab in the margins. Rahab, labelled a prostitute, is the missionary-survivor in the margins. She becomes the "insider" for Joshua's spies because she 'fears' God. Being both a prostitute, and one who fears God, makes her an "outsider" for her own community in Jericho. The text tells us that she resides doubly in the margins. She uses red rope as both the symbol of her despised commodification and also as the hope of escape for the outsiders.

Rahab reminds us that those used by God are not always in the centre of acceptability. Those used by God are often pitted against leaders. It is not enough, however, to acknowledge (or confess) the marginalization. The marginal life itself needs healing. It needs new ways to work together through our journeys toward survival and the hope of eventual wholeness.

I was reminded by (Rev Dr) Jione Havea, at a meeting on Mo-orea (French Polynesia) that Liberation Theology uses solidarity to move through resistance for the sake of justice and freedom. God has a priority heart for the vulnerable and poor. Liberation assumes a movement from enslavement to choice, It is about breaking chains, or loosening the ropes, that bind us.

In Pacific Theology, solidarity leads us to using islanders ways, and refocusing on survival. For Pasifikas, the emphasis for life-flourishing is not about choices nor oppressions. Decolonization and self-determination will not themselves result in our survival (as desirable as they may be). In the islands, we dwell in the liquid margins of the world. Unconsciously, the rest of the world can destroy us without even leaving their homes, for we are dependent on the interconnectedness of the oceans. As plastic rubbish islands multiply (7 globally, 5 now in the Pacific) and sea-levels rise, we bathe in the plastic and nuclear waste that will finally drown us with the tsunami of salty tears from the desecrated oceans.

Reduction strategies are needed to arrest destruction. However, restoration and repair require a commitment to replant coral reefs, decontaminate ancient desert homelands and invest in rebuilding for sustainable survival.

Have mercy, O God!

PRAYER

We confess and commit to walk gently unpon the nests of the land.

We are people who live in holiness with the "moana" to remind the people of justice and truth.

[Jione Havea, 29 October 2025]

The Lord’s Prayer to My Moana

Oh my Moana,
you are like my mother — for you feed me when I hunger,
you are like my father — for you carry me when I am lost.
You are like my sister and my brother,
for in your arms I laugh, I swim, I play,
I make memories that taste of salt and joy.
You are like my grandparent, ancient and wise,
watching as I teach my grandchildren how to live, how to heal,
how to breathe again in your cool embrace.

And as I sit in this Fare Poteé (bure) listening to the Word of God,
to the Lord’s Prayer, spoken by Rev. Jione, tears fall.
For when I was a child and when i get hurt,
I remember that pain — but I know, my Moana, 
your pain is deeper than mine.

Your whole Ópu Feetii or kainaga 
your family of creatures, of reefs and tides and sand — is hurting.
We hurt you, when we throw rubbish into your hands,
when we crush your coral, when we let plastic drift like broken promises.
We make you carry the sins of the world — drugs that float in shame, 
fuel that burns your breath, wounds that never heal.

Oh my Moana, forgive me.
I am deeply sorry for what I have done, for what we all have done.

And oh Lord —
Lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from the evil of carelessness, 
the evil of greed, the evil of forgetting that You placed us here 
to love, to protect, to serve Your creation.

For Thine is the ocean, 
and the power,
and the glory,
forever and ever.
Amen. 

[Fuata Varea-Singh, CWM Pacific Programme Associate]

Poem Reflection