Sermon: "Unexpected Answers"

4th in the "Prayer" series.
Delivered October 29, 2006 by Rev. John Schmidt.
Other sermons in this series - 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

Theme: God's kind of answers are often unexpected kinds of answers. Principles for getting ready for God's type of answers to prayer.

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Okay, I want you to imagine with me right now, it's 1993, now this is easier for some of us because some of you were not born yet or you were five years old, but some of us we can pretty easily think back to 1993. In 1993 my hypothetical friend comes up and says, "John, I need portable computer storage for somewhere between 90,000 and 100,000 pages of material; that's 20 large file drawers full of material. Had I heard that then, I would have pointed to this miracle thing, this 3.5 inch disk, and I would say, "If you have this and these and this and 1,000 others like it you can store it all", and we were excited about it. Now, if somebody asked me that now, I would say, " Okay, here you are, $49, the size of your thumb." (holds up a thumb drive) Now in 1993, if I would have taken this off of my neck and handed to him and said, "Here you are 90,000 to 100,000 pages worth or storage" it would have been hard to believe. It would have been an unexpected answer; even this was good news. It would have been totally unexpected and people wouldn't have believed the answer.

When we get an unexpected answer an answer that is in an unexpected shape or form, we struggle with that and it's particularly true with prayer. How do we deal with the fact that sometimes God answers us in unexpected ways? Anytime we pray we have an image of what we pray for. Think about the things that you really had on your heart; you've prayed for. If you are praying to get in to a new place to live you have a picture of what that house would look like, the kind of amenities and as you pray about it that is part of your mindset. If we are praying for someone to be healed, we have a specific idea of how God is going to do that, of how God is going to use the doctors and the medicine and the natural healing power of the body or maybe we will believe that it will happen in some spectacular sort of way.

Joanna was a missionary in Japan a number of years ago and she went in to her last term in Japan knowing that she had a back problem, but believing that she was going to be able to serve in Japan despite this problem. But it got worse and she finally found herself in the hospital in Tokyo with a ruptured disc, in great pain and the doctors put her on traction for six weeks saying that if this didn't work she was going to have to go back to the United States for another surgery. She really believed that God had brought her back to Japan to serve and not to be in that bed. The pain would not respond to medication and so she is in pain and finally in the bed she says, "Father, I can't deal with this anymore. I give it to you." When she prayed that prayer immediately, instantaneously, right there on the spot the pain left. The doctors came in later and they found no damage. They declared it a miraculous healing and that evening she walked out of the hospital without pain. Now that's the kind of answer we want. Yes, you pray and either God uses the normal processes to its greatest effect or God does something so spectacular, so immediate that there is no doubt that he has done it and maybe will make the newspaper. That's what we want.

But what about a few weeks ago when we heard about Dutch S. who was led to pray, but had to pray for a year before God answered. That was unexpected. What do we do with unexpected answers? When we pray about something and we have an image and God begins to answer but it's nothing like what we originally envisioned. Well, there is an Old Testament character, Gideon, who had to deal with this. Now Gideon lives in an earlier time than what we have been looking at in some other weeks. He lived in a time in Israel before the temple, before they had kings. So he is in that period of time. Israel has pushed out the other nations and then they are living there as a loose confederation of tribes with no king, no temple and no capital. And it's during this period that there are a lot of angry nations that attack Israel. One of those groups were the Midianites. Gideon is called by God to lead Israel in attacking the Midianites and dealing with this threat and conquering this army. Now there is a lot of unexpected things about this story. We are going to be looking at Judges, Chapter 7, the first 8 verses, but in Chapter 6 there is a few unexpected things that happen as well.

The first unexpected thing is Gideon being used. Gideon doesn't make a good political choice because Gideon is not from a famous clan. He is not from a famous or large family and he is not a leader in his family. He is a nobody from a nobody group of people, but God chooses him. Another reason why Gideon is sort of a surprise is Gideon isn't even particularly a giant of faith. In fact, Gideon is constantly double-checking God saying, "Are you sure about this? You know, why me? Come on, give me a sign." This is Gideon. In fact, one of the most famous episodes in Gideon's life is when he asks for a sign. God has shown him two or three ways that he is the person that he has chosen and Gideon says, "No, would you give me another sign God. I take this fleece, this pelt with wool on it and I am going to lay it on the ground and wet the ground to keep the fleece dry and if the next night make the ground dry and the fleece wet." All of this is to show Gideon that God is really behind calling him. So he is not this gigantic tower of faith. Well God works in Gideon before this element of dealing with God and the fleeces. The Holy Spirit comes upon Gideon and Gideon sends out the word for Israel to assemble, to stand against the Midianites. He is calling together an army and he blows a symbolic trumpet to achieve that. And because of the power of the Holy Spirit being upon him as a leader the people assemble. It's after all of this happens that we read the passage that we are going to look at today.

Let's pray. God, as we read this passage and as we think about it together, speak to us and help us to respond to you in faith. For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

Judges, Chapter 7, beginning with Verse 1:

"Early in the morning, Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) and all his men camped at the spring of Harod. The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh. The Lord said to Gideon, "You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands. In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her, announce now to the people, 'Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.' " So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained.

But the Lord said to Gideon, "There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will sift them for you there. If I say, 'This one shall go with you,' he shall go; but if I say, 'This one shall not go with you,' he shall not go."

So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the Lord told him, "Separate those who lap the water with their tongues like a dog from those who kneel down to drink." Three hundred men lapped with their hands to their mouths. All the rest got down on their knees to drink.

The Lord said to Gideon, "With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the other men go, each to his own place." So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites to their tents but kept the three hundred, who took over the provisions and trumpets of the others."

There are two important principles that I want us to see in this passage that we have just read. The first one is, one answer from God is not necessarily the whole answer. Now, think about this with me. Gideon has already heard from God that he has been raised up to lead Israel to stand against the Midianites and to protect them. God empowers him. He blows the trumpet; sends out the word and 32,000 people assemble. The conversation isn't over between Gideon and God. It's easy to think once we get a vision; once we get an idea of what God really wants to do, it's real easy at that point to run ahead and try to accomplish it any way we can. So God says to Gideon, "That's the enemy. This is the problem. I am making you a leader." So Gideon figures out "well whatever way I can I have to go to lead these people."

This is a problem for us when we get a vision. Whether it's a vision of the fact that we need to reach out to our neighbors, so then we kind of scramble around and do the best thing we can or as a church we are going to go in a certain direction and we create 15 programs to try to do that or we pray for healing expecting that God is going to do it in a certain way. There is all kinds of times that we get a sense of what God might want to do and then we run ahead and try to accomplish it any way we can without conferring with God again.

But that's not what happens here. In fact, the missionary once said, "God's will done God's way will never lack God's supply." It's God will, but it's also God's will done God's way and that's where the struggle comes for us, because we get an idea, yes. God wants to evangelize the world; yes, God wants to feed people, yes, God is on the side of justice; and then we just run after it any way we can. Gideon stands against that pattern because his conversation with God goes all the way to the moment when God fulfills and gives the answer. So one answer isn't necessarily the whole story.

The second principle here is that God's kind of answers are often unexpected kinds of answers. Gideon's story goes the opposite way I would want the story to go if I were writing it. If I were going to write this story, I would have a situation where God would speak to Gideon and say, "Gideon you are the person I have called to lead these people." And Gideon would believe that and he would pray and 300 people would come to his side and then he would say, "God, 300 isn't enough. Look at the size of this problem." And God would say, "You are right. Gideon, can you believe me for even more?" And Gideon would be a strong person of faith and "Yes" and so Gideon would go to pray and 10,000 would assemble and Gideon would say, "Well it is still not quite enough God" and God would say, "Can you believe me Gideon for even more?" And So Gideon would blow the trumpet and he would pray and 32,000 people would assemble and they would trounce the Midianites. Great story. Great faith. It's not what is written.

What happens in the story is the opposite. The Holy Spirit comes upon Gideon and 32,000 people assemble in response to the leadership God has given him. And then when they actually get closer to the actual event, to the actual fighting, God interrupts Gideon and says, "Gideon, there is too many of you." Now what's going on in Gideon's head right now? "God, didn't the Holy Spirit come upon me as leader and that's why the people responded?" Yes that's true. And wasn't it your work in the hearts of the people that so many responded and were willing to come even though they were afraid they came to defend their country. Wasn't that you at work? Yes it was. And you have chosen me to be a leader? Yes I have. Then why are you cutting the group? We don't know, except for what God does say, if you went with the 32,000, you would be tempted to believe that you won because of your own power. And so God cuts the group down to 10,000 left. He comes back to Gideon and says that it is still too many. God is still changing the original situation that God set up in the first place. It is still too many. Now at this point Gideon has more faith than me by a long shot. We look at Gideon and say he is a great example of people who don't have faith. At this point, Gideon is doing pretty well, because he doesn't argue with God here. I would be thinking in that situation what would it look like to be written down somewhere "the famous episode of John Schmidt and the 300 dead Israeli's," because that is where I would be going with this. God cuts it down to 300; a totally unexpected answer to the leadership that God had given Gideon to the prayers.

When it gets down to our lives, we've got to ask ourselves what does a real answer from God look like? And why are we afraid of God type answers? Because I think we are. Think about it, when God answers he doesn't have to answer the way we would write the script. We can't insist that God's answers look like ours would. It won't be on our timetable. It won't necessarily be with the resources we expect. It's not by the people that we choose. It's not as easy to do as we would like and it's not by the world's measure of success. God's answers can be different than our expectation on all those ways.

In 1954 the US Supreme Court ruled that public schools should be desegregated. In 1960, six years later in my hometown of New Orleans, public schools were pressured to receive and admit African-American students. On November 14, 1960, three African-American students entered McDonough #19 in New Orleans, and one child started classes at William T. France School in New Orleans. The girl at that school's name was Ruby Davis and she was six-years-old. Fear and anger erupted on the streets of New Orleans.

There were demonstrations on the streets and one of those demonstrations happened every day outside of the France School as Ruby Davis walked in to school and again every day as she left. People were saying horrific things. People wishing the greatest ill upon her and her family; six-years-old. A psychologist named Robert Coles witnessed this and he decided to do a study on stress in families and that he would put himself into that family if they would accept him, and he would not only study what was happening to them, but he would also provide support for them in this crucial time. So he met with the family of Ruby Davis repeatedly. Weeks had gone by and he asked Ruby's mother, "Is Ruby sleeping alright?" "Yeah, she is sleeping just fine." "What about her appetite, is she eating alright?" "Yeah, she is doing just fine, enjoying her food." "Is she okay when she gets home?" "Yeah, she does her homework and all and she plays with her friends. She is doing just fine." "Does she seem upset in any other kind of way?" "No, not particularly."

Dr. Coles' specialty had been working with families under stress in an affluent area of Boston and from his experience he was absolutely certain that Ruby was under phenomenal stress at that point and she couldn't admit it because of her age and her family couldn't see it and he felt that maybe they couldn't see it because they weren't very well educated. And so, his burden was even greater for this family because they couldn't even see how damaging this was probably going to be on them as a family. One day Dr. Coles talked to a teacher at the France School and she told him that as Ruby was coming in to school and as she left each day she seemed to be talking to the people in the crowd. And so he resolved that he had to talk to her about that and so when he got together with her that afternoon he said, "Today, Ruby your teacher told me that sometimes it seems like you are talking to the people when you come and go from school, to those mean people who are giving you trouble. Are you talking to them?" She says, "Oh no, I am not talking to them. I am praying for them." He says, "Why are you praying for them?" "Well, because they need praying for." "Well, why is it that you are praying for them Ruby?" "Well, because I should" and that's when Ruby's mother piped up and she said, "Yes, we pray for these people. We have made a list of these people and we pray for them by name when we know it every day and our church prays for them every week." And so Dr. Coles asked Ruby again he says, "But Ruby you are the one in the middle of that situation. I am still puzzled. Why are you praying for these people who abuse you day after day?"

And she said, "Well, it should especially be me because if you are the one going through what people are doing to you, you are the one who should be praying. See, my minister told me that Jesus suffered a lot and Jesus prayed for the people who were giving him trouble. He prayed, 'Father forgive them because they don't know what they are doing.'"

As Dr. Coles reflected on this later, he realized that his own response to that kind of situation would have been very different from Ruby's. He realized that his first response would have been to seek police help, but police couldn't have been part of the solution for Ruby, because they had to bring in Federal Marshals because the local police were unwilling to enforce the law. He would have thought that maybe he would go to the newspapers because he believes in the power of the written word, but the newspapers weren't particularly on her side either. He would have spent a lot of time trying to figure out at least how to call them names back, names that were better than the ones that they were using for her. But that's not what she did. And he knows that he certainly would not have prayed for their forgiveness.

So, I am going to ask you, maybe we are better than Dr. Coles, maybe we would pray, but what would we pray for in that situation? When I am honest with myself, I know that I would pray for protection and probably her family did as well, to pray for protection in a very dangerous situation. But beyond that, I think one of my prayers would have been for the crowd to lose interest. You know, "God, make it rain. I don't mind going to school in the rain if it means they go home." Maybe I would have prayed for judgment to come upon them. You know there is enough Psalms that I could justify that theologically you know? "God, rain judgment upon this family and this group of people." I might have been tempted. And I probably would have been praying for great answers to their slurs, to have something ready that would confound them. It's not what Ruby and her family did. They were led to pray that their persecutors would change and be forgiven.

That was a Jesus-type prayer and it was a God-type answer, because what happened was not that the people were dispersed; they were there every day. It's not that these people started to like Ruby or change their minds; that didn't happen. The miracle of this, the unexpected answer is that a six-year-old child went through persecution for a year in perfect peace. She didn't miss a nights sleep. She didn't miss a meal. God gave an unexpected answer in keeping someone safe in the most horrific of situations, emotionally safe, spiritually safe, physically safe and then used a six-year-old to be part of establishing justice in a nation that so desperately needs justice and racial relationships; a six-year-old child.

It's not the way I would have written the story. It's not on my timetable. It's not with the resources that I would have chosen. It's not by the people that I would expect. It's not as easy to do as I would desire and it's not by the world's measure of success, but it was God's sovereign, powerful, unexpected answer. It's not the way I would have written the story, but maybe it never will be, because God's ways are not our ways. Ninety thousand pages on something the size of your thumb. Three hundred men used by God to conquer an army. A six-year-old girl praying for the people who are persecuting her. God gives us unexpected answers. Are we in such a place spiritually that we are ready for those kinds of answers?

Let's pray. God you know how much we hold to our idea of how you need to answer and many times you do and we thank you for that. But help us now to be ready for real life and real answers, those unexpected answers that you give us as we pray, for we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

© 2006, Rev. John Schmidt
Central Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, MD 21204 410/823-6145
www.centralpc.org