Street Signs of Life: No Parking

Pastor Meyers' Sermon

Sunday, August 13, 2006

My Friends, they are crop-destroying, plague-deploring, quite annoying, these mighty menacing Midianites. They are fond of fighting. They strike like lightening. Man, they are frightening, these mighty menacing Midianites. And they want to steal, kill, and destroy every man, woman, girl, and boy. They are truly mighty menacing Midianites. They come from a union between Abraham and his second wife, Keturah. We've seen them before in the book of Numbers on the plains of Moab as they seduce Israel to worship another God. And now we see them again in the book of Judges where they are on the plains of Jezreel going down the Mediterranean coast all the way down to Gaza unleashing on Israel their top secret weapon, domesticated camels. And Israel , at this time, is politically, economically, spiritually, and militarily bankrupt. They have people who are living in villages with no walls. There are people who are living in caves and in cliffs. There is no standing army, and there is no central government. And we are told four times in the book of Judges that they have no king. And so for seven years, the Midianites are sweeping down on them like swarms of locusts, not sparing any living thing.

Now eye witness accounts of locust attacks in modern day Israel testified to seeing swarms that are ten miles deep and twenty miles long. And so like swarms of locusts, Israel 's enemy is crop-destroying, plague-deploring, quite annoying. They are indeed mighty menacing Midianites. And for the Israelites, things are looking hopeless.

Do you have any Midianites in your life? Enemies that appear like swarms of locusts ten miles deep and twenty miles long, not sparing any living thing? Sure you do and so do I. Historically, the church has called them the seven deadly sins, anger, pride, envy, greed, lust, gluttony, and sloth. And they are fond of fighting, they strike like lightening, and, man, they can be frightening. And the chief mighty, menacing Midianite uses these seven deadly sins to steal, kill, and destroy every man, woman, girl, and boy and he goes by several names, murderer, liar, and the father of all lies, a roaring lion seeking to devour someone, the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan. And Satan is marriage-destroying, perversion-deploring and he is more than just a little annoying. And just like the Israelites, things, too, can sometimes look hopeless for us.

And so today we're starting a new sermon series on changed lives where God gives hope where there is hopelessness. Where there is fear, God gives courage. And here, in the book of Judges, with Gideon, we see He starts with a word of affirmation. Judges 6:12, “When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, He said, ‘The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.'” Now Gideon, he is threshing wheat but he's not doing it with an ox and a sledge on an open elevation. No, he's doing it in the cramped confines of a wine press, a hole in the ground, afraid of the Midianites. And when I continue reading about Gideon, he reminds me of Barney Fife. You remember Barney Fife from the 1960's TV show, The Andy Griffith Show ? He is a bumbling, over-eager deputy sheriff from Mayberry. And he is the one who could only carry one bullet and it wasn't in his gun. It was in his pocket. And Gideon, who is the weakest link, who is afraid of his own shadow, my Friends, Gideon is the Barney Fife of the bible. And he might as well have come from Mayberry. He comes from a town known as Ophrah and, in Hebrew, it means place of dust. That's really a place you would like to launch a campaign against the Midianites, isn't it? Place of dust?

So Gideon responds, “How can I save Israel ? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I'm the least in my family.” So why does the Lord call on Gideon to save Israel ? Well, welcome to the book of Judges. The Lord called on Ehud, a left-handed Benjamite, when left-handedness was considered almost a disability, to deliver Israel from the Moabites. God calls on Deborah, who is known as the Mother in Israel , and Jephthah, a robber with a big mouth, to protect Israel from the Canaanites and the Philistines. And He even called Samson, a sex-addicted Nazarite, to help Israel when, once again, they find themselves oppressed. Why? St. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians, “Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards. Not many were influential. Not many were of noble births.”

And so today, the Lord is calling us. He's changing us in spite of the fact that, to a person, we have skeletons in our closet that, if they were made public, we would die in embarrassment. In spite of the fact that, to a person, we have the daily propensity to like darkness rather than light, lies instead of truth, pride instead of humility, yet here this loving and life-changing word of affirmation, the Lord is with you, Mighty Warrior, because Almighty God has equipped us, ready to do His calling, ready to change by faith in Jesus, we have the helmet of salvation. We have the breastplate of righteousness. We have the shield of faith. We have the sword of the spirit. We have the belt of truth buckled around us, and our feet are fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. Indeed, God says it, Mighty Warriors. Faith believes it. We are armed and dangerous. We are mighty warriors. But with so many Midianites around him, Gideon not only needs a new view of himself, he also needs a new view of his God.

So the word moves from affirmation to revelation, Judges 6:24, “So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it ‘The Lord is Peace.'” Gideon took meat and unleavened bread and placed it on the rock and fire came down and consumed the meat and the bread. There was nothing left as the Lord revealed that He is the God of wholeness, of healing, of peace who puts back which is broken, back together again. And on another altar called Golgotha , the Lord reveals His ultimate gift of peace and it's not meat and bread but His one and only Son is consumed on the Roman instrument of death and, after the kiss and betrayal and the arrest, after the thorn and the spitting, after the seven words and the bleeding, there is nothing left. And this total loss would last for exactly three days, for in the glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ, our heavenly Father once and for all revealed, through the blood of Calvary, He offers you the gift of peace, peace that the world cannot give, peace that we cannot understand, who see God in the magnificent revelation at the cross and exclaim with the words of the familiar song, “My God is So Big, So Strong, and So Mighty, There's Nothing My God Cannot Do.” And know that His peace puts your broken life back together again.

So God is calling us through affirmation, calling us Mighty Warriors. He reveals to us on the cross that He is a God of peace and wholeness and now confrontation. Judges 6:25, the Lord says to Gideon, “Tear down your father's altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it.” Now Baal and Asherah are typical ancient near Eastern gods that promise field and family fertility to those who perform the worship rites. And these rites consist of mega-doses of sex, drunkenness, and every form of indecency. But the question for us today is what's the Baal in your backyard? What's the idol in your life? What are you allowing to erode your relationship with Jesus Christ? Are you tearing down others so you can build yourself up? Are you looking to trust in other things other than God? Are you addicted to internet pornography? Maybe it's binge spending or binge drinking that is the way you can feel good about yourself. Maybe it's reveling in church gossip. Whatever it is, the Lord says cut it down and that is what Gideon does. Gideon refuses to be conformed to this present age. He refuses to be compromised with evil. He refuses to blend in. And so to all of us today, the Lord has a direct word of confrontation. You see that Baal in your backyard? Cut it down. Because God comes to us with affirmation. You are a mighty warrior because of what I've revealed to you on the cross, that I am a God of peace and wholeness so you would want to do what I would have you do.

But we need motivation. And that's what God gives Gideon. He gives him motivation. Now Gideon begins with 32,000 men to fight the Midianites. But then the ranks thinned down to 10,000. Finally, they thinned down even more to an imposing site of 300 men. And these men lapped water like dogs. Gideon gets less than 1% of his original army and the odds now are 450 to 1 against a fond-of-fighting, strike-like-lightening, man, they are frightening, the mighty menacing Midianites. It looks impossible. So Gideon needs motivation. Judges 6:34, “Then the spirit of the Lord closed Gideon.” Gideon is not left alone and so, closed with the spirit of the living God, he makes mincemeat out of 120,000 Midianites. It looks impossible, doesn't it, to be believing and to be speaking and loving and living only for Jesus? But we are not left alone. The Lord closed us with the comforter, the spirit of truth who will be with us forever. Baptism delivers Him. Holy communion celebrates Him. God's word imparts His power to the end so we are spirit-led and we are spirit-filled, having motivation to begin and to continue and to end victorious in the name of Jesus.

And you thought all Gideon did was write those bibles in hotels. No, for all his hesitation and weakness and doubt, finally, Gideon, the Barney Fife of the bible, stood up to his enemies and so shall we by the grace of God, our lives forever changed. Stand up, for the Lord is with you, Mighty Warriors. Amen.

Copyright 2006 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church