There's A Gideon in You
Although we may hail from various faith traditions, judging from current world events, we'd probably all agree that,
1.) we are living in perilous times, and
2.) the God we serve and the sacred texts we claim have a lot to say about it.
Anytime being Black can get you murdered during Bible study inside a church,
Or being Muslim can get you held in a prison — detained indefinitely without charges simply at the discretion of the US Government
Or being born female means you're automatically a target for sexual exploitation
Or any time a government that staunchly claims it's both by the people and for the people yet justice is only for a certain people, there's a big, big problem.
Dr. King famously paraphrased a quote from 19th century theologian and abolitionist Theodore Parker saying, "The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice." And that's why we're gathered here, because we have the audacity to believe that the Holy One, our God, the architect of the universe and everything within, is concerned about justice.
And while these are indeed perilous times our sacred texts tell us -- sometimes plainly, and other times symbolically or metaphorically -- they tell us stories of people who saw injustices happening to those around them and how the Holy One enlisted them to do something about it. People who were human and flawed, people whose faith was frail, people who held day jobs, but were people who dared to follow Him. People just like us. So it's with this mind that I want to share with you that there’s a Gideon in you.
Gideon's story in the Bible can be found in the Old Testament book of Judges, and in the Tanakh the Sefer Shoftim, both in chapters 6-8, and in the Quran 2:246-252 where Gideon is called "Talut" and the story differs slightly from the Judaeo Christian narrative but the main points remain the same.
In this passage of text we find Gideon, a man minding his own business threshing or beating wheat (that's the process of separating the wheat from the chaff), a job routinely done in a place called a threshing floor, but in Gideon's case, he was beating the wheat in secret to avoid becoming a target for the Midianites. In the opening of chapter 6 of the text we learn that Israel had done evil in the sight of YHWH so He allowed the Midianites to triumph over them for a period of seven years as their judgement. They were reduced to living in the mountains and in caves and whenever they would plant crops, as soon as they were ripe enough the Midianites would sweep in with their men and their animals and snatch up all the crops, leaving the children of Israel hungry and without recourse. They were marginalized, relegated to the hills and rocky places, they were poor and they cried out to The Holy One for help.
It's worth pointing out that the name Midian translates from Hebrew to mean "strife." So in both a symbolic and a literal sense the Children of Israel, these people of faith, were wrestling not only against the sin of their nation but against strife (bitter and violent conflict). Oh, how familiar does that sound? We face strife in our cities and in our neighborhoods and in our country and in our world on a daily basis.
Now concerning Gideon, he probably just saw his beating the wheat in secret as an act of survival -- he was doing his best to make sure he and others had something to eat. But it was also an act of resistance. Not bold action like lobby for new legislation or leading a protest, or climbing a flagpole to take down a flag. But an act that said, "I'm not going to sit idly by while we're being oppressed. I'm going to do something." This was his resistance. But his act of resistance came from a place of fear. He was hiding in the wine press instead of being on the threshing floor where wheat was normally processed because he was scared.
While Gideon was beating the wheat the angel of the Lord appeared to him their interaction was recorded in the Book of Judges chapter 6 verses 11-17 as follows:
11 Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the oak at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press, to hide it from the Midianites.
12 The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, ‘The Lord is with you, you mighty warrior.’
13 Gideon answered him, ‘But sir, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our ancestors recounted to us, saying, “Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?” But now the Lord has cast us off, and given us into the hand of Midian.’
14 Then the Lord turned to him and said, ‘Go in this might of yours and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian; I hereby commission you.’
15 He responded, ‘But sir, how can I deliver Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.’
16 The Lord said to him, ‘But I will be with you, and you shall strike down the Midianites, every one of them.’
17 Then he said to him, ‘If now I have found favour with you, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me.
Now as we can tell from the text Gideon was a man of many questions. I cant blame him either because if the angel of the Lord came to me I'd have a whole lotta questions too.
...And on more than one occasion in the life of Gideon, he was bold enough to ask for different signs that this was indeed the Holy One commissioning him to do this, and interestingly enough, He indulged Gideon's request.
Probably the most powerful reason Gideon asked for signs rested not with his doubt of the Holy One, but with doubts about his own worthiness to be used by Him. When the Holy One spoke this to Gideon he offered up a short litany of buts, or reasons why he thought he couldn't be qualified for the job.
- He had lost hope in Israel's ability to overcome the circumstances
- He was the last born male in his family
- His family was the weakest within the tribe of Manasseh, a tribe that history records received a less than choice blessing from it's patriarch.
So then Gideon's response to The Holy One in this exchange was rooted in his experience of not only being marginalized by the Midianites, but being marginalized within his family and within his own ethnic, religious and social group. The layers of his marginalization are probably ring familiar to many of us in this room...
But isn't that a common theme in our sacred texts? We know enough about the stories of Moses and Pharaoh, and David and Goliath, and Jonah and the Whale (or the Big Fish) to know that the Holy One has a pattern of using the least likely of persons as instruments through which His mission -- the salvation and liberation of His people -- is achieved.
Whether we're fighting for immigration reform, doing advocacy for sexually exploited youth, or whether we're fighting structural racism, or speaking out against police brutality, homelessness, poverty, food scarcity, whatever the fight, the Holy One is on the side of the marginalized, the abused, the ones trampled over and pushed to the edge. And we are just the people to carry out His mission, the salvation and liberation of His people. We cannot allow the layers of marginalization that we face personally or as religious or ethnic groups to interfere with our ability to do the job we've been called to do. As the angel of the Lord declared to Gideon, the Lord is with us, we must go in the power given to us -- He has commissioned us, and the Lord will be with us.
We are all in this room because we recognize that it's time for all of us to come out of the secret places we have hidden, either intentionally because we've been scared or because of circumstance, to get off the sidelines and get in the game. We've been called right where we are in our humanity, in our frailty, in our doubt, to simply say "yes."
So what happens now? We can draw a few ideas from the understanding what happened to Gideon after he said "yes."
The texts record that after Gideon was satisfied that he was indeed being commissioned to do this work by the Holy One, the first thing he did was to begin dismantling the idols in his own families' backyard. Our sacred texts record a few times when the Children of Israel lost their way and struggled with idolatry on a few occasions. And it was idol worship that landed them in the hand of the Midianites in this instance. So Gideon started with changing the hearts and minds of those within his immediate sphere of influence.
When we're called to take on a specific area of social justice the first thing we must do is to clean our own houses. We must align our selves, our thoughts, and actions with the Holy One's view of the matter. Just like Gideon, we must do what we can to influence our family members and friends, our neighbors, people on our jobs and in our mosques, temples and churches to take a stand and advance the cause to which we've been called.
Gideon went on to assemble a group of soldiers who had renounced idol worship from among the other tribes, and after asking the Holy One for three more signs that he was really supposed to take on the Midianites (remember, this guy had questions!), he led a small army of like-minded soldiers into battle and was overwhelmingly victorious over the Midianites.
Here we see the next step. A huge part of social justice activism is realizing the power of being in relationship with like-minded people. To underscore that point I want to close with a quick story.
Activist Leymah Gbowee wrote a memoir called Mighty Be Our Powers which chronicles her life as a girl and later a young woman living in the midst of a brutal civil war in Liberia. Years of fighting destroyed the country, tore apart her life and claimed the lives of countless relatives and friends. As the conflict raged on she eventually married and became a young mother, during which time she endured the nightmare of domestic abuse. It was through these experiences that she found the courage to turn her bitterness into action, propelled by her realization that it's women who suffer most during conflicts—and that the power of women working together can create an unstoppable force. In 2003, Leymah Gbowee helped organize and led the Liberian Mass Action for Peace, a coalition of like-minded Christian and Muslim women who sat in public protest, confronting Liberia's ruthless president and rebel warlords. With a small army of women, Gbowee helped lead her nation to peace—in the process emerging as an international leader who changed history.
Leymah Gbowee was like Gideon. In her book she tells of hearing the call to act in many different ways but she had a litany of reasons why she was an unlikely candidate for the job. First of all she was a woman living in a patriarchal culture. She was from a rural area of the country, uneducated, and a domestic violence survivor in a culture where women are routinely encouraged to stay in abusive relationships. Yet she realized that the Holy One was is a god justice and that He was on her side. She and her army of women were able to help bring an end to the civil war and advance rights for women and survivors of domestic abuse.
Like Gideon, you and I live in a nation with a long history of sin against the Holy One.
Like Gideon, you and I see problems all around us but don't necessarily see solutions.
Like Gideon, many of us may not see ourselves as leaders but we've been commissioned into leadership by the The Holy One.
Like Gideon, many of us are afraid, but today let us all make up in our mind that we're going to do it anyway.
Our names may be Gideon Gutierrez, Gideon Wong, Gideon Goldstein, Gideon Singh, Gideon Proudfoot, Gideonna Abdallah but the Holy One is a god of justice and He's on our side.
The Lord is with us, we must go in the power given to us, and the Lord will be with us.
And now I leave with you a Franciscan Benediction:
May God bless you with discomfort
At easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships
So that you may live deep within your heart.
May God bless you with anger
At injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people,
So that you may work for justice, freedom, and peace.
May God bless you with tears
To shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger and war,
So that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and
To turn their pain into joy.
And may God bless you with enough foolishness
To believe that you can make a difference in the world,
So that you can do what others claim cannot be done
To bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor.
Amin, Asé, Amen.