Judges 4:1-16 “Fighting Fear with Faith”
Many of you are in the
business of raising children, or have already raised them.
More than likely you have
been through one of those situations
where you sign up your child for soccer, or piano lessons,
or scouts, or whatever,
and then 2, 3, 4 weeks later, the whining begins.
“I don’t want to go.” “I don’t like it.” “It’s too hard.”
I’ve been there and done
that.
It takes a discerning parent
to figure out when to push and when to back off.
And those times where I knew
I needed to push
there was some mother wisdom I would use on my 3 sons:
“Winners never quit, quitters
never win.”
You’ve heard that, you’ve
probably said that.
We want our kids to learn to
learn to get back up when they get knocked down,
like they sang today.
In today’s scripture reading,
we’ve heard the story of Deborah,
part of our summer sermon series on people of faith from
the Bible.
Deborah was a winner.
She was also a leader, a
prophet,
and a judge for the Israelites before the time of the
Kings.
Of the 12 judges recorded in
the Hebrew Bible, she was the only woman.
When we hear “judge” don’t
think a lawyer type -- or even a Judge Judy type.
A judge in the Bible was a
person of wisdom, who listened to God,
and used that to rule on disputes between the
people.
On a personal note, the only
thing we know
is that she was the wife of a man named Lappidoth,
and when we translate the phrase “wife of Lappidoth” from the Hebrew,
it literally means woman of fire.
It fits, doesn’t it, because
most of all Deborah was full of faith,
not fear.
It was once said to lead is difficult when you’re a
follower of fear.
Deborah was no follower of fear.
And because of that she was a
leader and a winner
We like winners in our
society. We like to BE winners.
But most of the time we act like the average school boy
who grows up dreaming to be the big basketball or
football star.
He doesn’t have a clue what
it takes to be that winner.
He just doesn’t understand
that to be a winner requires him to DO SOMETHING.
There’s an old story about
this very point.
There was once a Jewish man
named Reuben who had been in charge
of taking care of the grounds of the local synagogue for
30 years.
One Friday afternoon, he came
into the rabbi’s office and announced,
“I am quitting. I am out of here. I resign!”
The rabbi said, “How can you
do this?
You have been one of our most
valued employees for 30 years.
Why are you acting so
impulsively?”
Reuben answered, “I will be
honest.
I do not believe that there
is anything to what we are doing here.
It’s all a sham.”
The rabbi asked, “How can you
say such a thing?”
This groundskeeper responded,
“I will give you an example.
Every Friday afternoon, as
the sun is going down and the Sabbath is about to begin,
I have gone into our holy
space of the synagogue, and I have knelt down and prayed, ‘Yahweh, Lord of the
universe, please help me win the lottery tomorrow night.’
I have done this now for 30
years and nothing has ever happened.
I have concluded that there
is no one on the other end of this faith-in-God business.”
The rabbi said, “I doubt that
this is a valid test, but the Sabbath is about to begin.
Let me go into the holy space
with you and maybe I can discern what the problem is.” So they went in together and Reuben the
groundskeeper repeated the request
that he had been making for all those years.
Suddenly, though, from high
up in the shadowy eaves of the temple,
a deep resonant voice - surely the voice of God -
boomed,
“Reuben, Reuben. Give me a break! Buy a ticket!”
This is more than a funny
story. There is truth in it.
Faith in God has to translate
into our commitment to action.
We can’t just sit around thinking “God will
provide.”
We can’t just sit around thinking “Somebody else will
do it.”
Has anybody ever heard that
old Jerry Garcia quote?
“Somebody has to do something, and it’s
just incredibly pathetic it has to be us.”
In order to win the battles
of life we have to do our part,
sometimes when we think we are least able.
God is our refuge and our
strength so the psalm says, but for some reason,
God often seems to want to
use us as part of the solution to our problems.
In any given situation, there is usually some
combination
of divine and human hands working
together.
That’s what today’s Bible
story is about.
It comes from the Book of
Judges, a book we preach from infrequently --
because it is a difficult book.
James, my youngest son, says
about these kinds of texts -
“I can’t believe that’s in
the Bible.” No wonder.
This book is exciting and disturbing.
There’s love and hate.
Assassination and lies. Rape and
murder.
Power and greed. Sex and violence.
War and peace.
Frankly, if you would turn this book into a movie it would be R-rated.
But don’t get stuck in the violence or mayhem here
or you’ll miss the lessons this book - and Deborah - have to teach us.
By the time we get to
Deborah’s story,
there is a familiar cycle going in the Book of Judges
which is actually the same storyline that weaves through
the whole Bible:
The Israelites turn away from
God.
Things then go from bad to
worse.
Then they turn back to
God.
And God sends them someone to
help them --someone usually pretty ordinary --
not someone we would normally pick from a hero lineup -- but someone faithful.
This time that someone is
Deborah.
Deborah has what it takes to achieve the victory here
--
she’s got confidence and trust that God will
provide, and courage to take action.
But she also knows that very often God chooses to work
through human beings.
Case in point: this story of
Deborah and Barak.
God didn’t just sweep in and
wipe out the Canaanite army, and Sisera, the bad guy.
He worked through his human
instruments -- Deborah and Barak --
and they had to work it out together.
That working it out together
is not always as easy as we would like.
The conversation between
Deborah and Barak is worth a second look
because it’s very ambiguous,
and it illustrates something about the give and take of
problem solving.
Deborah calls for Barak and tells him clearly that God has ordered him into
battle,
his 10,000 troops against the 100,000 Canaanites.
Should be no problem,
right? God is our refuge and our
strength.
But Barak
hesitates. He balks. We don’t know why.
It would all depend on his
tone of voice.
Was there fear?
“I don’t know about that --
we’re too small. I’m not going without you.”
Maybe he was just being
realistic.
“Are you nuts? We don’t have
the resources. I’m not going by myself.”
Maybe he’s cynical.
“We’ve been there and done
that. I know just how this one is going
to turn out.
There’s no way this is being
dumped on me - again.”
We don’t know the tone of her
answer either.
Was she just stating the
facts?
“Sure, I’ll go with you. But then you won’t get the credit. A woman
will.”
Is she exasperated?
“Come on, Barak. Yes, I’ll go!
And you know, all the glory is not going to you but to a woman!”
Maybe she’s just being
encouraging.
“Oh Barak! Have
faith in the Lord! We’re all in this
together. And a woman is going to end up being part of this glorious victory!
Any or all of those are
possibilities. Biblical scholars agree that we just don’t know.
But whatever the problem was,
they solved it.
When Deborah heard Barak say “no” she didn’t just give up.
They worked it out. They collaborated.
Barak calls out his 10,000 warriors, and the two leaders
move forward into battle.
Deborah becomes the voice of
encouragement and prophecy.
“Up! For this is the day on which the Lord has given Sisera into your hand.
The Lord is indeed going out before you.”
Deborah and Barak together
have what it takes to be a winner:
They have faith in God, they overcome their fears
and they DO SOMETHING.
Together Barak
and Deborah march out with the troops.
Notice the part about the
troops.
No matter how great Deborah was as a leader
and what a warrior Barak
was, they couldn’t have done it without those troops. Everybody had
a part to play.
There’s more to the story,
which even though we didn’t read in worship,
I encourage you to look up
and read the rest in chapter 4.
In an even wilder twist, an
unknown woman named Jael
ends up being a heroine by finishing off the bad guy Sisera.
Chapter 5 tells the story
again - this time in a long poem.
I urge you to read this
sometime this week, if you haven’t already.
Okay, so today we have
explored a pretty exciting Bible story
and an interesting character. Somebody ought to make this one into a movie.
But that’s not the most
exciting part and this is why I get so
excited about the Bible. There is
something in this story for us, something relevant, something important.
This story has something
important to teach us right now in this church.
Let me explain.
We have been talking for some
time about moving forward
at Peachtree Corners Christian Church.
What this story teaches us that to move forward,
we must have faith in God, overcome our
fears, and DO SOMETHING.
Maybe some of us are feeling
a bit like Barak,
when he first faced 100,000 enemies with 10,000
troops.
But if we are going to win
the battle of turning this church
around,
we all have a part to play. We are all needed.
Needed not just for our
tithes and financial giving,
but needed to be here in worship,
needed to commit to learning together as a church,
and needed to serve the community around us.
Commitment is
needed in our church.
Not just one foot in, one
foot out, waiting to see if maybe this time,
things are going to work out. That’s not commitment. That’s fear.
You know what Fear F-E-A-R
stands for? False
Evidence Appearing Real.
What we need in this church most of all is not fear, but faith!
The Rev.
Martin Luther King,, Jr. said
“Faith is taking the first
step even when you can’t see the whole staircase.”
It’s as simple as taking one
step at a time - that’s what our kids sang this morning.
That’s what makes us
winners.
But the lessons we can learn
in this church about winning and losing
are critical life lessons that apply to our own lives,
not just the life of this church.
Lessons about trusting God,
overcoming fears, and DOING SOMETHING
Maybe we are struggling with
a family problem. A
relationship problem.
An
addiction problem. A mistake or failure. A health problem.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not suggesting that faith alone solves
everything.
And sometimes learning to
live with a problem is the solution.
But being a Christian makes a
difference.
Faith in God gives us power
and courage and strength to win battles
that we on our own simply cannot. 12 step groups know this secret.
Strength is NOT in our own
selves and just trying harder and harder.
God is our refuge and our
strength.
When we trust in that, we can overcome fears. We CAN DO SOMETHING
Right after worship, we will
meet as a congregation to vote on a budget for 2007 -
a little late but that’s okay - and a board for the
2007/08 service year - right on time.
All of you are invited to
stay.
And I hope you do, both to
demonstrate your commitment
to the work we have ahead of us
and to the good leaders you have right here among
you.
We’ve got everything we need
to turn around our church.
What we don’t have God will
send us when we need it,
or teach us something through not having it.
The first step is trusting
God.
The Lord is indeed going out before us. Will YOU come with us?