Sermon: "The Strength We Need" (Judges 6 : 11-16)

Our story today is about a young man named Gideon.

Some of you who were at Vacation Bible School will remember Gideon. Gideon is the one who was threshing his wheat in a winepress, which is a large pit in the ground.

That’s a strange place to be threshing wheat.

To thresh wheat, you bang it with a large mallet or whack at it with a large stick. As you do so, the heads separate from the stalks. You do this out in the open, because you need room to swing, and also so that the wind can blow through and help separate the grains from the chaff.

It doesn’t work as well if you’re down in a pit.

But Gideon had to thresh his wheat in secret. He had to hide from the Midianites.

The Midianites were cruel and ruthless. The Midianites were mean and vindictive. They would come in and destroy the crops and steal the wheat and kill the livestock of the Israelites. They would come at the Israelites like a swarm of locusts - they were too many of them to count.

So Israel became very weak, and worn down, and Israel cried out to the Lord.

God sent a messenger - an angel - to Gideon. The messenger said: “God is with you, you mighty warrior!”

But Gideon thought the messenger was mistaken. He didn’t feel like a mighty warrior. You remember this from VBS, right?

It’s hard to feel like you’re a mighty warrior when you are in hiding.

Gideon doubted the messenger’s words.

Gideon also doubted himself. He doubted his own abilities. He didn’t think he was capable.

So God said to Gideon, “You have strength. You have the strength you need, to go and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am with you, and I will be your strength. And you will defeat the Midianites, that mighty swarm of locusts, as if they were just one person.”

When God is with you, you have all the strength you need. Some of you don’t feel very strong. Some of you feel weak. Some of you feel old. Some of you feel tired. Some of you feel incapable.

But when God is with you, you have all the strength you need. When God is with you, and you accept that, you are given an inner strength, the strength of a mighty warrior, just like Gideon.

Some time later, the Midianites set up camp in the Jezreel Valley. They were joined by the Amalekites and others, making their numbers even greater and their power even stronger.

By this time, Gideon was starting to accept his status as a mighty warrior and a leader of warriors. Gideon summoned his people, and gathered an army together and set up camp not too far from where the Midianites were camped. A battle was coming, a battle that was sure to be one for the ages.

The Lord said to Gideon: “You have too many people. The battle will be too easy, and the Israelites might claim credit for themselves rather than for me, thinking, ‘We saved ourselves.’”

The Lord told Gideon to send some people home, so Gideon said that anyone who was afraid or who wanted to go home was free to leave. 22,000 people left, leaving only 10,000 in the camp.

The Lord said, “there are still too many. Do this: Take them down to the water, and have them drink.”

So Gideon did.

Some bent down on their knees and scooped water up in their hands to drink, while others got down and lapped the water like dogs do. God said, “Those who lapped the water with their tongues, keep; let everyone else go home.”

After that, there were only 300 people left. The army had gone from over 30,000 to just 300.

Does it seem strange that God would stack the odds against God’s people? 300 vs. an army of tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of people is hardly a fair fight. In fact, it would appear to be impossible.

Not long after Gideon, the Spartans would try the same thing: 300 Spartans went against an army of 100,000 Persians at Thermopylae. Sounds crazy. Impossible. 300 soldiers, against an army of 100,000...

Let me ask you a question: have you ever faced a situation that you thought was impossible? A personal challenge, perhaps? A health scare? A difficult time of employment (or lack of employment)? Family issues, family members in trouble with the law, or caught up in addiction? Or maybe you were the one facing the addiction?

Some years back I caught an episode of the TV show The Biggest Loser. I don’t know if it’s on anymore. It’s not a great show, but I couldn’t help but be impressed by the participants, who would lose an incredible amount of weight through diet and exercise and turn their lives around. That’s not an easy thing to do! Walking when you’d rather be sitting, running when you’d rather be walking, and completely changing your eating patterns. For many people that’s an impossible change. For many people taking on a challenge like that, the odds are stacked against them. Like going up against an army of 100,000 when you only have 300. But they did it. For some of them, the changes didn’t last, but for some they did last.

So many of the challenges we’ve faced and overcome, we did so with God’s help. We know that God was there with us, giving us strength, and that without God, facing those challenges would have been impossible. We remember that, and we give glory to God.

God made it hard for the Israelites, on purpose, so that the Israelites would know that it was through God’s strength that they had prevailed.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. The battle hasn’t come quite yet. Gideon still had his own fears to overcome, his own anxieties, his own insecurities. These things had not gone away. This story began with him hiding in the winepress, claiming that he was the smallest brother from the weakest clan, a man who was by no means a “mighty warrior,” and even now, on the eve of the battle, he still had his doubts… just like many of us still have our doubts about our worth and our own abilities.

So the night before the battle God said to Gideon, “If you are still afraid, sneak over to the Midianite camp and hear what they are saying.”

Gideon did, and the first thing he noticed was that the Midianite army was even larger than he thought. Calling them locusts was not even an adequate description; now they were like grains of sand on the seashore! That’s how many of them there were.

Gideon may have wondered what God was playing at, since this only increased his fear and anxiety, instead of calming him and giving him courage and confidence.

But then he overheard a man telling his friend about a dream. The man said: “Get this! I had a dream that a loaf of barley bread was rolling into the Midianite camp. It came in like a powerfully thrown bowling ball. It came to a tent and hit it, and the tent collapsed. In fact, it rolled the tent over upside down, so it fell flat.”

And the friend who was listening replied, “Can this be anything other than the sword of that Israelite Gideon? God has handed over Midian and its entire camp to him!

In hearing that conversation, Gideon was convinced. He realized that it was all true, that he had the strength of God, the strength to do what needed to be done, the strength of a mighty warrior.

And right then and there, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its meaning, he worshipped.

The scripture doesn’t say how he worshipped, or who he worshipped with. His servant had gone with him to the Midianite camp, so maybe it was just the two of them.

This worship comes at a key moment. Gideon had finally been made fully aware of the task before him: he had seen the immense size of the Midianite army, while his own army had been cut down to just 300. He had struggled to overcome his own doubts about his abilities, which really was half the battle. From hiding in the winepress out of fear to daring to lead an army of 300 against an army of tens of thousands - that’s quite a journey! A journey that would have been impossible, had God not been with him.

And now he hears that Midianites are having dreams in which Gideon is victorious, dreams which strike fear into their hearts, and Gideon knows that God is truly on his side, and that the battle, though it will be difficult, will be a success….

In the midst of all your battles and struggles, have you ever just stopped what you are doing - just stopped - and worshipped? In the midst of an impossible challenge, have you ever just stopped to give God praise and glory?

I hear from friends who are on the front lines for peace, the front lines for justice, the front lines for caring and working on behalf of the poor, immigrants, and minority rights; people who are on the front lines of the struggle for LGBT equality; people who are on the front lines of the battle to save the environment; people who are on the front lines of the struggle to get guns out of the hands of those who would use them to harm others...

I hear from them that, in these difficult times, they are tempted to lose hope. The situation in this country seems bleak. Hate is on the rise, racism is on the rise, oppression is on the rise, inequality is on the rise, violence is on the rise. The task before us seems impossible.

But those who fight for these things - those who fight for what’s right - know that God is on their side. The struggle does seem impossible at times, but God is on their side. God is on our side. God is on the side of justice and peace and equality. The struggle seems harder than ever. The challenges seem greater than ever - or at least greater than they’ve been in my lifetime and the lifetimes of those friends I know working for these things. How do we keep from despair? How do we keep from giving up?

By remembering that God is on the side of justice. By remembering that God gives us the strength we need. By remembering that, ultimately, the victory is in Christ. By remembering that the moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice. By remembering that, though it may seem dark now, dawn is coming. By remembering that Good Friday is always followed by Easter.

That’s how we carry on. That’s how we do not lose hope. That’s how we remain strong.

Have you worshipped God in the midst of your struggle? Have you given God praise in the midst of your challenge? The battle was imminent. Gideon had 300 soldiers, against a Midianite army that was like a swarm of locusts, an army as numerous as the grains of sand on the seashore. Yet in that moment when the battle was imminent, he worshipped. He worshipped, because he knew: in the battle that was about to take place, God was with him. God’s strength was with him. He wasn’t going into battle alone.

Here at BKCC, we are in a time of challenge. We are in a discernment process to figure out how we can more effectively carry out our ministry. The result of this time of discernment will likely be change. Maybe a lot of change. And make no mistake: change is struggle. We will struggle with the process, and we will struggle with the result of the process, and we will struggle to implement the decisions we make.

At times, it may even seem impossible.

With a congregation our size, especially…

But maybe this all has a purpose, and maybe that purpose is to make us realize that whatever happens, it is not our own doing, but God’s doing. If it were easy, maybe we’d be tempted to say, “Look what we did!” instead of saying, “Look what God did!”

...If we stand for what is right, if we keep our hearts pure, if we act in ways of love and kindness, and most of all, if we rely on God’s strength within us, then we, too, will humble ourselves before God and worship, right in the very midst of the struggle, before the outcome is known, and give thanks and praise to God.

Give thanks and praise to God for calling us into the struggle, for it is a struggle that is worth all that we commit to it.

Give thanks and praise to God for giving us the strength and the stamina we need. Maybe you need some reassurance from time to time, and that’s OK. Gideon needed reassurance, too! Just know that God’s strength is there for you, God’s strength will uphold you. As God says through the prophet Isaiah: “Don’t fear, for I am with you; don’t be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will surely help you; I will hold you with my righteous strong hand.”

Give thanks and praise to God because God is calling us out of hiding, and has given us the strength we need for the battles we face. 

Selling Ourselves Short (Jeremiah 1:1-10)

About three years ago, a friend of mine came to me with what sounded to me like a crazy idea.  Her name is Leah Dewey, and she said, “I have a dream of holding a music festival at Loch Leven, and I want you to help me plan it.”

A few weeks later, there were three of us: Leah, Doc Rogers, and myself.  Leah said, “I want to put on a music festival at Loch Leven, to support the camp.” 

Doc said, “It’s going to be just like Spirit West Coast,” which is a multiple-day Christian music festival that draws 20,000 people.

I just looked at them like they were nuts.  And I said, “You want to do THAT at Loch Leven?”

And the answer I got was, “Yeah.  More or less.”

My next thought was, “What can I possibly do to help make this a reality?”  I looked at the two people sitting across from me, and there was some hint that maybe they knew a little about what they were proposing – Doc in particular, with his music experience – but come on!  We were just three people, and we were talking about a music festival that would draw, well, maybe not 20,000 people, but certainly more people than had ever been on the grounds of Loch Leven at one time. 

But still; what could I possibly contribute to this, I who knew nothing about putting on any kind of a concert, much less an all-day music festival?

Have you ever been called to a task that you felt you just weren’t up to?  Did you ever feel asked to do something, and think that, just maybe, the one asking you had chosen the wrong person?

It’s a common experience.  Especially when we’re asked to do something by God.

Consider the case of Jeremiah.  God spoke to Jeremiah, saying: “I know all about you.  I’ve been watching you, I’ve been with you, and I have chosen you to be a prophet to people of all different ethnic groups and walks of life.”

Jeremiah’s response?  “Whoa, whoa, whoa; back the truck up.  A prophet?  You mean, one who speaks for you? You want me to act as your mouthpiece to people from different nations?

“But I’m just a boy.  I’ve never done anything like that.  I’ve never so much as taught a Bible study at my local synagogue…. Besides, it’s just not­–  well, it’s just not cool to go around talking about God and religion when you’re a teenager… no offense.”

Jeremiah’s not alone.  Isaiah experienced something similar when God called him to be a prophet.

Isaiah was there, minding his own business, when all of a sudden he had this vision of God sitting on a throne in the temple.  There were seraphs all around God, strange creatures with six wings: a pair of wings covering their faces, a pair of wings covering their, um, private parts (apparently they were both naked and shy, these seraphs), and a pair which they used to fly.

And the place shook and was filled with smoke, and Isaiah knew that this was something major, something significant, something involving him, and he said, “Whoa, whoa, whoa!  There’s got to be some mistake!  I’m a person of unclean lips.  I said two cuss words just last night when I banged my head on the top of the doorway.  I really wish doorways weren’t so low… Anyway, this can’t be all for me, you must have the wrong guy…”

Then there is Gideon.  You’ve heard of Gideon, right?  His Bibles are in every hotel room in the country.

When Gideon was a young man, Israel was suffering through a difficult time.  God came to Gideon and said, “Gideon, I want you to use your might to save Israel.”

And Gideon said, “What might? My family is the weakest clan in the land, and I’m the weakest member of my family.  I’m the one everyone else always picks on... And you want me to use my might?  What might?”

How often do you feel weak?  Inadequate?  Lacking in power? 

How often do you feel like Gideon?

And then there is Moses.  Once upon a time, Moses had exercised some leadership in Egypt, but when that responsibility got to be too much for him, he fled into the wilderness and became a shepherd.  And he thought to himself, “Yes, spending time alone with the sheep suits my abilities better than trying to be a leader.”

I think maybe Moses was an introvert.

But then God called to Moses; and God said, “Moses, I’m sending you back to Egypt.  You are going to march into Pharaoh’s palace, go right to Pharaoh himself, to bring my people out of Egypt and out of slavery.”

And Moses presented God with not one, but four, objections.

Objection number one:  “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh?”

Objection number two: “I don’t know what to say.  What do I say when Pharaoh asks who has sent me?”

Objection number three:  “What if no one believes me?”

Objection number four:  “I’m a terrible speaker.  I’m not eloquent.  I failed public speaking in college, and I have terrible stage fright.”

Well, apparently, after enough complaints and objections and whining, even God can lose patience.  God said to Moses:  “Come on!  Who gave humans their speech?  Who makes them mute or deaf, seeing or blind?  Is it not I, the Lord?  Now go on, get out of here.  I’ll give you the words to speak.  Just go!”

God, it seems, has an answer to every one of our objections.

When Gideon complained that he was too weak, God simply said, “But I will be with you.”  That’s an assurance God makes to every person God calls.  And how weak are you, really, when God is with you?  Your weakness only serves to show God’s strength and glory all that much more.

And in response to Isaiah’s objections that he was a man of unclean lips, one of the seraphs flew to Isaiah and touched his mouth with a live coal from the altar, and said, “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.” 

And then the voice of the Lord said, “Whom shall I send?  Who will go for us?”

Isaiah looked around and didn’t see anyone else.  Was this a rhetorical question? 

Apparently God really was calling him, despite his imperfections.

And in response to Jeremiah’s objections, God said:  “Don’t say, ‘I am just a boy.’  There is no ‘just.’  I have consecrated and appointed you.  I will give you the words to speak.  Your imperfection and lack of experience is just what I need; it will allow my words and my glory to be seen in you.”

At the General Assembly, in one of the workshops I attended, folks were invited to introduce themselves.  Now there are a lot of pastors at General Assembly, and as we went around the room, it became clear that about half of our group were ordained ministers.  And the others, when they introduced themselves, would say, “I’m just a layperson.”

There is no just.  Ordained ministers like myself are called to a specific role in the church, but so is everyone else.  Every person has a ministry, and every ministry is significant.  Every person is called. 

There is no just.

God called Jeremiah, and said, “Now I have put my words in your mouth.  I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”

All those who are called by God are given great power, but too few realize it or are willing to exercise it.

It won’t be long now until we start looking to 2014 and filling the various leadership roles we have here at Bixby Knolls Christian Church.  Those who are asked to fill various leadership roles are asked because the congregation believes that God is calling them to that particular role.

Sometimes they respond by saying yes and accepting the call.  Other times they say no and decline the call.

Sometimes the reasons they say no are good and valid.  They may be going through a difficult time personally.  They may feel overcommitted already.  Those are good reasons to decline the call.

But sometimes they say they don’t feel qualified.  They feel that their faith isn’t strong enough.  They say they feel as though they’re still figuring out this whole faith thing, that they have more questions than answers and don’t feel that their faith is strong enough for the role to which they’ve been called.

Perhaps they recall others who have held that position, and it seemed to them that they were men and women of great faith: strong, confident, with gifts of leadership and influence.

They don’t think they measure up to other leaders they’ve seen, and when they are called, they end up selling themselves short, insisting that they just aren’t qualified.

But God never calls those who are qualified.  God qualifies those who are called.

If the examples presented today don’t convince you, just look at the disciples.  A more motley crew of bumbling misfits, one couldn’t find anywhere. 

What qualified them for the task was their willingness.  Their willingness to say, “Yes, here I am.”  Their willingness to learn.  Their willingness to make mistakes.  Their willingness to stumble, stand back up, brush the dust off, and keep going.

Rock the Loch is one month away.  It’s our third year.  All of our music acts so far have been musicians and bands that have volunteered their time and talent; people who believed in Rock the Loch enough that they agreed to perform for free.  However, this year, for the first time, we are able fly out to California a professional singer/songwriter from Nashville to be our headline act.  Her name is Andra Moran, and many of the songs we sing here in worship were written by her.

Also, this year, for the first time, we have several food trucks that will be present.  Food trucks aren’t going to drive all the way to some place like Loch Leven unless they can be assured that there will be a crowd.  Because of the success of Rock the Loch over the past two years, we were able to assure them that we’d have a crowd for them.

There is a lot of buzz surrounding this year’s Rock the Loch.  It will certainly be the biggest one yet, and the biggest event Loch Leven has ever hosted. 

And as a member of the planning team, I have found that there are ways for me to contribute to the success of this event, even though I still feel that I don’t have a clue what I’m doing. 

But I’m glad I said yes.