St. Andrew's United Church of Christ & Olivet Reformed Church, UCC

Message From the Pastor

"In God We Trust"

"The LORD said to him, 'But I will be with you, . . ..'" – Judges 6:16a

Consider the story of Gideon from the Book of Judges. God's people Israel were being oppressed by the Midianites and they cried out to the LORD for relief. God called Gideon to lead the people, and he gathered an army of thirty-two thousand men to march against the enemy. 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.'" God commanded Gideon to assemble his army, ordering those who were afraid to return to their homes; only ten thousand troops remained. The troops were still too many, so God devised a test to winnow the force even further. Gideon led his troops down to the water to observe how they drank it, and God sifted out only three hundred; the rest were sent back to camp. Such was the force that Gideon led when he attacked the Midianites and their allies, the Amalekites and all the people of the East. The enemy forces were encamped in the Jezreel Valley "as thick as locusts, and their camels were without number, countless as the sand on the seashore." Against this horde, Gideon divided his hardy little band into three companies and attacked the encampment, and God gave them the victory!

It seems that we have been in a winnowing process in the Church for as long as I can remember. The decrease in our numbers has not been so immediate as the two-thirds reduction Gideon experienced when he sent home those who were afraid, but over time it has been similarly significant. The experience has been the same for the Church of Jesus Christ in Europe and in North America, for the traditional mainline Protestant denominations in the United States, for our United Church of Christ, and for our own congregation, as well. Perhaps our smaller forces can also take advantage of the element of surprise and, by God's grace, accomplish the seemingly impossible. Our forces, too, have been winnowed and sifted and reduced and divided, and like Gideon's, we, too, can rely only upon God for deliverance.

In Gideon's story, everything depended upon that final contingent, the three hundred. Not only did they bear responsibility for driving the Midianites away, but then also to them fell the task of helping the Israelites to appreciate all that God had done for them. It would have been especially easy for these to claim credit for the success of their efforts. I suspect that earlier, down by the water's edge, the LORD had sifted out those who understood that apart from God, nothing could be accomplished. In the Church of the twenty-first century, it is much the same: that small company required to bear the greatest part of the burden, to them also falls the task of helping the others to appreciate what God has done for all of us. It is God who has called us into service in Christ's Church, and it is God who has enabled us to come this far. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, the faithful find strength sufficient for what lies ahead, never forgetting to be thankful for what God has done.