March 11 Sermon about Gideon

Judges 7:1-8

Then Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the troops that were with him rose early and encamped beside the spring of Harod; and the camp of Midian was north of them, below the hill of Moreh, in the valley.

 The Lord said to Gideon, ‘The troops with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand. Israel would only take the credit away from me, saying, “My own hand has delivered me.” Now therefore proclaim this in the hearing of the troops, “Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home.” ’ Thus Gideon sifted them out; twenty-two thousand returned, and ten thousand remained.

 Then the Lord said to Gideon, ‘The troops are still too many; take them down to the water and I will sift them out for you there. When I say, “This one shall go with you”, he shall go with you; and when I say, “This one shall not go with you”, he shall not go.’ So he brought the troops down to the water; and the Lord said to Gideon, ‘All those who lap the water with their tongues, as a dog laps, you shall put to one side; all those who kneel down to drink, putting their hands to their mouths, you shall put to the other side.’ The number of those that lapped was three hundred; but all the rest of the troops knelt down to drink water. 

Then the Lord said to Gideon, ‘With the three hundred that lapped I will deliver you, and give the Midianites into your hand. Let all the others go to their homes.’ So he took the jars of the troops from their hands, and their trumpets; and he sent all the rest of Israel back to their own tents, but retained the three hundred. The camp of Midian was below him in the valley.

You may have noticed by the number of phone calls you received this week that it is an election year. In election years we usually tend to group states in two distinct groups: red states and blue states. Tennessee is usually a red state, as it trends Republican most years. Kentucky, where I grew up, is also a red state.

Except it's not.

Because in Kentucky, there are things that are far more important than politics. Mostly, there is one thing more important than anything else: the basketball team that plays for the University of Kentucky. It's hard to explain the fan base of Kentucky basketball. For starters, you have to realize that there aren't any professional sports teams in Kentucky. There are some other college teams, none of which I find worthy of mention, but the blue and white from Kentucky dominates the sporting landscape. Well, there's a little horse race in May, but the only reason anyone goes is because basketball season is over. I think the best image is the caller to the Cats' weekly radio show who said, “we're 23-2, but I'm not giving up yet.”

In Kentucky, most kids grow up wanting to play basketball for the University of Kentucky. Now, simply math would tell you that the chances of any child in Kentucky playing for UK are pretty slim. As hard as it may be to believe, I played basketball for years growing up, and the vast consensus was that I am a terrible basketball player, which you probably could have guessed simply by looking at me. God didn't bless me with those gifts.

Now, it would be easy for me to spend my life bemoaning the fact that I never played basketball for the University of Kentucky. I could wake up every day and curse God for not making me eight inches taller. Seeing as how I still have all my eligibility remaining, perhaps God would relent and I would grow eight inches taller overnight and UK would come calling. The more likely scenario? I would die a miserable person, having never tended any of my other qualities, focusing only on what I couldn't do. Imagine how sad other people around me would be, watching me waste my life because I was so busy focused on what I can't do.

It would be sad for me to do this with my life. I believe that God has given me some exceptional qualities, and to waste them because I spent my life lamenting what I didn't have would be terrible Christian stewardship on my part. Think how else that could infect life—if I got up every Sunday and lamented that I didn't have a $100 million trust find like Mitt Romney's children do, you'd all get pretty tired of hearing about it, wouldn't you? If I stood up and complained about how I will never sing a solo for the Easter Cantata, eventually you'd want to slap me, right?

As Christians, we're called to be good stewards of the gifts we have been given. That means we're supposed to grow and develop our strengths, all the while acknowledging our imperfections and weaknesses, but never dwelling on them. God gave us certain gifts and choose to give other people other gifts. I'm not a 6'8” basketball player because God needed someone else to do that. That's ok.

But we get caught up in what we're not. Particularly as a church.

Now, New Hope is a small church. We've got about 120 members, which means we're a pretty small fraction of Christ United Methodist Church. Highland Park Baptist probably has Sunday School classes the size of our worship service. Covenant Presbyterian Church may well have a youth group larger than our Wednesday Night Suppers.

And that's ok. In fact, I think it's a good thing. I think it means that God is doing different and amazing things.

But it's often hard for those of us on the smaller end of things to come to terms with the fact that we have different gifts. Think about it—do you think Goliath ever lamented that he wasn't David's size? The Israelites ran in fear of Goliath—but Goliath probably wasn't too jealous of the Israelites, except when it came to buying clothes or looking for furniture. But I bet a few of the Israelite soldiers wished they could be Goliath's size.

In the same way, small churches have a hard time coming to terms with the fact that there are many things we can't do. I've been involved with small churches my whole life—I grew up in one, and I'm honored to serve as the pastor of one. And, having been to larger churches, I know full well the number of things large churches can do that we cannot. In Atlanta, Rachel and I worshiped at Peachtree Presbyterian, which happens to be the largest Presbyterian church in the denomination. When they baptize children, they baptize about ten kids at once. It's quite a sight.

We have to accept the fact that right now, this is who we are. God has called us to be the church we are now, today, and it's ok that we can't do a lot of the things larger churches can. Many of them are doing those things exceedingly well. Many people are in search of a large church experience, and they wish to remain anonymous in a congregation before a well-polished worship service.

That's not us. And that's ok—there are also many people looking for a small church worship service, where they can feel embraced by a congregation and know each person by name. God has called us and gifted us to be that congregation right now. So let's celebrate that.

It's precisely what Gideon does. In the text today, God whittles Gideon's army of 32,000 down to 300 men. In doing so, he presented Gideon with two choices—Gideon could watch 31,700 men turn their backs to the army and wander home, cursing God for endangering his life and wondering how long he had left to live, or he could trust God to do something amazing through this small group. It's not about the size of the army, God tells Gideon—what matters is the God who stands behind it, and he assures Gideon that he cannot lose if he obeys God.

Had we been in Gideon's shoes, it might have been tempting to grab those guys on their way out and have them standby just in case. But Gideon trusted in the Lord. He trusted in God to do a large thing with a few people, because he trusted in God's power and God's wisdom. He trusted that God would not disappoint.

As a small church, it's important for us to trust God, too. God has assured us that he will lead us forward into the future he is preparing for us. He has assured us that he will always be with us, that the Holy Spirit will be our comforter and our guide, and that he will never abandon us. It's not about us doing things through our awesome numbers or might—it's about God working through us.

As we see in the text today, God wants people to know that He is God. He wants to demonstrate to the world that he is ruler of all, that he is all-powerful and worthy of worship. It's not about the Israelites proving how great they are—it's about God using the Israelites to demonstrate his power.

It's the same with us, today, here and now. It's not about us, about how great we can be or how we can conquer East Brainerd with sheer numbers. God isn't interested in the world seeing how great we are. God's interested in the world seeing how great God is through us. God's interested in putting us in places that we might let the light of Christ shine through us. God's interested in his power working through us.

And if we're willing to set aside all our stress and fears about who we are not, we will see that God is still doing large things through a few people. God is still at work, just as strong, in faithful people today. It doesn't matter if we have two or twenty or 202,000—what matters is God's power at work within us.

So let's not worry about who we aren't—let's focus on listening to the voice of God speaking to who we are today, and let's let God do amazing things with us, just as he has called us, and trust in God to supply grace for tomorrow.

Let us pray