Powerless People
Sermon
Walking With God
Cycle A First Lesson Sermons for Proper 23 through Thanksgiving
Some time ago, someone in Fred's congregation asked him to read a book by a fellow named Tex Sample. As pastor of the church, Fred always appreciated the opportunity to read books recommended by his congregants. His long years of ministry had taught him that in almost every book he could find at least one good idea. Sometimes the idea would find its way into one of his sermons. At other times, the idea would be tucked away for further examination, or it would be presented over coffee to engage the people gathered around the table in a hearty conversation or debate.
He thanked the parishioner for sharing about the book to him, and he agreed to read the book at his first opportunity. He took the book to his study and placed it on his desk. A couple of weeks later he picked it up and started to read it. The subtitle captured his attention immediately.1 He wondered what a book about Will Rogers, Uncle Remus, and Minnie Pearl would be about, and he pondered for a moment the meaning of oral culture.
Not too many pages into the book, however, he began to see what oral culture meant, and he could begin to understand how the people identified in the subtitle fit into what Sample was trying to say.
The more pages Fred turned, the more he could see himself in the book. He had been brought up in a family composed of people who had earned their living by hard work. Later on, he would discover that Sample had a name for such folks. Sample referred to them as hard-living people.2 Blue-collar folks, they had never really been given a chance to rise above their hard-living ways.
Fred always considered himself to be one of the most fortunate people in the world. Brought up in near-poverty, he never dreamed as a young boy that he would get a college education, much less a seminary degree that would enable him to post "Dr." in front of his name.
Of course, he had a number of people to thank for his educational achievement. His mother encouraged him, even though she didn't have any money to give toward Fred's education. With four brothers and two sisters, Fred never intended his parents to pay for his college education anyway. In his last year in high school, he had learned about student grants, and he was able to take advantage of them and the student loans that were made available to him.
And he knew how to work. His dad had taught him that hard work gave a man respectability. Fred found out soon enough that it would also give a university student an income. He worked at night and went to class during the day. Somewhere in between he studied for tests and wrote papers required by his professors and found time to rest.
At seminary he really flourished. His professors taught him how to think and write theologically, and they instilled in him a love for books and articles that stretched him academically. He always looked on his days at seminary with fondness and gratitude.
The day he defended his dissertation was a crowning moment in his academic life, but it proved to be a painful experience too. After he defended his dissertation for a couple of hours before a panel of professors, they invited him to step into the hallway so they could deliberate and come to a decision about what he had written. A short time later, one of his professors escorted him back into the room. There he saw the professors standing, a signal at his seminary that his dissertation had passed. Later that day, he called his dad to tell him the good news. His heart broke when his dad replied to his announcement with one curt question, "So, when are you going to get a job?" His dad's reply made the day bittersweet. He knew in his mind that his dad didn't have any use for education, but in his heart Fred hoped that he would transcend his mistrust of degrees and affirm his son's work. But he didn't.
That day hadn't faded from his memory when he sat in his study and read Sample's book. But reading the book helped him to gain a helpful perspective on his dad, his own background, his family, his ministry, and his congregation.
With his eyes opened to the cultural phenomenon that Sample called orality, Fred went on to read about people who prefer to relate to their world using what they see, hear, and say instead of what they read and write. Their preference for oral communication affects how they relate to other people. As Fred read on, he identified with the description of oral people rendered in the pages of the book. Moreover, he could understand why they behaved that way.
He knew from experience that they usually have little or no power in society. Because of their powerlessness and the mistreatment they receive at the hands of powerful people, they grow suspicious of anything that resembles power over them. An education is something that most of them don't have, and they don't really trust a person who's earned degrees or who talks using words they don't normally use in their own discourse. Fred's father's question made sense to him when he thought about it in light of what he had read.
His mind had been trained well at seminary. Having grasped the reality that people all over the world favor power and long to be powerful themselves, the whole notion of powerless people had the ring of truth for him. He asked himself about how many of the people in his church would consider themselves powerless.
Then he began to reflect on Jesus' popularity with the people, and the idea struck him that they crowded to hear Jesus because they found in him something that enabled them to transcend their powerless existence. Most of them probably couldn't read or write, and they likely had little chance to rise above their poverty-stricken circumstances. In the presence of Jesus, however, the political leaders and the religious leaders of the day didn't seem to be so threatening to them. They felt as if people with power wouldn't hurt them as long as they were near him.
Like Fred came to realize for himself, powerless people live all around us, and hopefully they go to church with us. In the fellowship of other believers, they shouldn't have to be afraid of someone hurting them. At church they should feel safe.
Who would be on your list of powerless people today? Like Sample indicated in his book, people who are illiterate or functionally illiterate make their way to the list. Some of them can't read and write at all. Others can read and write enough to fill out applications, but that's about all. According to a recent census, people who are either illiterate or functionally illiterate compose about 50% of the population of the United States.3Odds are that they live in our community, and hopefully they attend our church. Powerless or nearly powerless in a culture empowered by what's printed on paper, they should find a place in church in which they can have an encounter with God even though they can't read the Bible very well.
Let's compare what Fred learned with the story in Judges 4. In the story, we meet Deborah and Barak. Both of them would likely be on the list of powerless people but not necessarily because they couldn't read or write very well. They were powerless just the same, and they lived in a world in which they had to deal with powerful oppressors.
Deborah lived in a land and at a time when she had no power whatsoever. For one thing, she happened to be a woman. In those days, being a woman gave her only a slight advantage over being a cow or a donkey. In fact, cows and donkeys may have mattered more than women in some of the homes back then.
Her powerlessness also resulted from the fact that she considered herself a citizen of the nation of Israel. According to the book of Judges, being an Israelite didn't mean much in terms of power at that time and in that land. The nation of Israel seemed to be easily kicked around by oppressive enemies.
Like the story in Judges 4 indicated, the leaders of Israel deserved to be kicked around a little. They had a bad habit of getting themselves into trouble because of bad judgment in their relationship with God. Their trouble always stemmed from the same horrible mistake. They repeatedly made the awful mistake of forgetting about the living God who had guided them to the land in which they had settled. That's when they would be vulnerable to the enemy tribes living around them that wanted to do them in at one time or the other.
When the oppression from their enemies made them buckle, the people of Israel would always cry out to the Lord and beg him to help them. Of course, he would come to the rescue by sending a judge, which was really more like a military leader, to deliver them from their oppressors. For a little while after their liberation, they would walk with the Lord. Eventually, however, they would repeat the same mistake again and again and again.
Deborah, an Israelite woman, represents powerless people who live and work in our community. Remember that powerless people know they may never get out of the rut that hard living and injustice has placed them. Their circumstances make for an oppressive environment in which to live. They have few or no choices, and they live at the mercy of powerful people more than they would like to admit, but they can't find a way to get a better choice for themselves.
You may consider yourself a powerless person like Deborah, but again, not because you can't read very well or because of some other reason. You may feel that you've got few choices in life. Or you may feel that you have to contend with oppressive people or entities that have the power to force you to do things against your will. If that's the case, you can identify with Deborah.
Barak's not much better off than Deborah. Granted, he's a man, but that's about all we can say about his power over Deborah in that day. Interestingly enough, the writer of Hebrews mentioned him as an example of faith (Hebrews 11:32). When we read the whole story of Deborah and Barak, we would agree that he deserved to be on that elite list. When we read the song that he and Deborah sang about the Lord's deliverance, we would agree with one obvious observation (Judges 5). Both of these powerless people tapped into a source of power that can inspire us if we tap into it as well.
According to the story, Deborah tapped into the rich resource of a personal relationship with God, which empowered her to do something incredible. Apparently, her walk with God rendered credibility for her among her neighbors. They trusted her to give them wise counsel, so apparently they sought her out to help them find their way. In fact, the place where people met her eventually came to bear her name. Deborah's palm tree stood out as the place where people could find her if they wanted to draw from the deep well of her wisdom. Over time, her wisdom produced for her a fair amount of credibility, but her walk with God nurtured courage in her. She was so courageous that she didn't hesitate to consider the reality that God may speak to her.
Don't overlook what's happened in the story. Apowerless person has been empowered by a relationship with God. It happened then, and it can happen now. He can make us wise, and he can instill courage within us too.
Also, don't underestimate the enemy in the story. The Canaanite army had been oppressing Israel for twenty years, and the oppression had been brutal. The army had acquired the latest instruments of war: iron chariots. In fact, they owned 900 of them, and they used them in their torment of Israel. As you could imagine, the swords and spears of the men of Israel were no match for the sophisticated, tank-like chariots that proved to be unstoppable. With such advanced instruments for battle and an instinct for uncivilized treatment of weak people and nations, the Canaanites had nothing or no one to stop them in their torment of Israel. Indeed, the Canaanite army was a formidable foe.
Yet, God turned out to be stronger. Through Deborah and Barak, he destroyed the army and liberated his people. Imagine that: the powerless nation of Israel defeated the cold-hearted and powerful Canaanites. How did they do it? God worked through them to give them what they could not give themselves so they could overcome. Of course, they enjoyed the victory over the Canaanites because they obeyed the Lord. They trusted God to be faithful to his people and powerful enough to protect them when they turned to him.
The message in this story has a number of applications for us today. In fact, it can be directed to three groups of people, all of whom may be listening to this sermon.
First, if you have power over people, use it wisely. Imitate God by directing your power to help people under your authority and not to hurt them. If you use it to abuse powerless people, you have to realize that you will be held accountable for your actions. You may think the powerless will have no recourse, but the Lord who loves them won't sit idly by for long. Just ask the Canaanites.
Second, if you have the ability and you want to make a difference in the life of a powerless person, then don't wait around any longer to do something. Get started now. Do something, anything. Yes, help adults who can't read or write to learn those important skills. That's only one example. Do anything else that will empower them to rise above their helplessness. But most of all, give attention to helping them have a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Empowering them involves spiritual as well as occupational and relational issues. Tend to all of them as you empower them.
Third, if you find yourself to be powerless and living at the mercy of others, remember that the Lord gives strength to the weak. Rest assured that no oppressor can stand against him. God will enable you to know his wisdom and to walk in his ways. Accordingly, God will work through and in you in ways that will surprise you. So turn to him. And don't forget the question that the apostle Paul raised in Romans 8:31: If God's for us, who would dare be against us? And don't forget the answer either: nobody. Amen.
__________
1. Tex Sample, Ministry in an Oral Culture: Living with Will Rogers, Uncle Remus, and Minnie Pearl (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1994).
2. Tex Sample, Hard-Living People and Mainstream Churches (Nashville, Tennessee: Abingdon, 1993).
3. Sample, Ministry in an Oral Culture, 6.
He thanked the parishioner for sharing about the book to him, and he agreed to read the book at his first opportunity. He took the book to his study and placed it on his desk. A couple of weeks later he picked it up and started to read it. The subtitle captured his attention immediately.1 He wondered what a book about Will Rogers, Uncle Remus, and Minnie Pearl would be about, and he pondered for a moment the meaning of oral culture.
Not too many pages into the book, however, he began to see what oral culture meant, and he could begin to understand how the people identified in the subtitle fit into what Sample was trying to say.
The more pages Fred turned, the more he could see himself in the book. He had been brought up in a family composed of people who had earned their living by hard work. Later on, he would discover that Sample had a name for such folks. Sample referred to them as hard-living people.2 Blue-collar folks, they had never really been given a chance to rise above their hard-living ways.
Fred always considered himself to be one of the most fortunate people in the world. Brought up in near-poverty, he never dreamed as a young boy that he would get a college education, much less a seminary degree that would enable him to post "Dr." in front of his name.
Of course, he had a number of people to thank for his educational achievement. His mother encouraged him, even though she didn't have any money to give toward Fred's education. With four brothers and two sisters, Fred never intended his parents to pay for his college education anyway. In his last year in high school, he had learned about student grants, and he was able to take advantage of them and the student loans that were made available to him.
And he knew how to work. His dad had taught him that hard work gave a man respectability. Fred found out soon enough that it would also give a university student an income. He worked at night and went to class during the day. Somewhere in between he studied for tests and wrote papers required by his professors and found time to rest.
At seminary he really flourished. His professors taught him how to think and write theologically, and they instilled in him a love for books and articles that stretched him academically. He always looked on his days at seminary with fondness and gratitude.
The day he defended his dissertation was a crowning moment in his academic life, but it proved to be a painful experience too. After he defended his dissertation for a couple of hours before a panel of professors, they invited him to step into the hallway so they could deliberate and come to a decision about what he had written. A short time later, one of his professors escorted him back into the room. There he saw the professors standing, a signal at his seminary that his dissertation had passed. Later that day, he called his dad to tell him the good news. His heart broke when his dad replied to his announcement with one curt question, "So, when are you going to get a job?" His dad's reply made the day bittersweet. He knew in his mind that his dad didn't have any use for education, but in his heart Fred hoped that he would transcend his mistrust of degrees and affirm his son's work. But he didn't.
That day hadn't faded from his memory when he sat in his study and read Sample's book. But reading the book helped him to gain a helpful perspective on his dad, his own background, his family, his ministry, and his congregation.
With his eyes opened to the cultural phenomenon that Sample called orality, Fred went on to read about people who prefer to relate to their world using what they see, hear, and say instead of what they read and write. Their preference for oral communication affects how they relate to other people. As Fred read on, he identified with the description of oral people rendered in the pages of the book. Moreover, he could understand why they behaved that way.
He knew from experience that they usually have little or no power in society. Because of their powerlessness and the mistreatment they receive at the hands of powerful people, they grow suspicious of anything that resembles power over them. An education is something that most of them don't have, and they don't really trust a person who's earned degrees or who talks using words they don't normally use in their own discourse. Fred's father's question made sense to him when he thought about it in light of what he had read.
His mind had been trained well at seminary. Having grasped the reality that people all over the world favor power and long to be powerful themselves, the whole notion of powerless people had the ring of truth for him. He asked himself about how many of the people in his church would consider themselves powerless.
Then he began to reflect on Jesus' popularity with the people, and the idea struck him that they crowded to hear Jesus because they found in him something that enabled them to transcend their powerless existence. Most of them probably couldn't read or write, and they likely had little chance to rise above their poverty-stricken circumstances. In the presence of Jesus, however, the political leaders and the religious leaders of the day didn't seem to be so threatening to them. They felt as if people with power wouldn't hurt them as long as they were near him.
Like Fred came to realize for himself, powerless people live all around us, and hopefully they go to church with us. In the fellowship of other believers, they shouldn't have to be afraid of someone hurting them. At church they should feel safe.
Who would be on your list of powerless people today? Like Sample indicated in his book, people who are illiterate or functionally illiterate make their way to the list. Some of them can't read and write at all. Others can read and write enough to fill out applications, but that's about all. According to a recent census, people who are either illiterate or functionally illiterate compose about 50% of the population of the United States.3Odds are that they live in our community, and hopefully they attend our church. Powerless or nearly powerless in a culture empowered by what's printed on paper, they should find a place in church in which they can have an encounter with God even though they can't read the Bible very well.
Let's compare what Fred learned with the story in Judges 4. In the story, we meet Deborah and Barak. Both of them would likely be on the list of powerless people but not necessarily because they couldn't read or write very well. They were powerless just the same, and they lived in a world in which they had to deal with powerful oppressors.
Deborah lived in a land and at a time when she had no power whatsoever. For one thing, she happened to be a woman. In those days, being a woman gave her only a slight advantage over being a cow or a donkey. In fact, cows and donkeys may have mattered more than women in some of the homes back then.
Her powerlessness also resulted from the fact that she considered herself a citizen of the nation of Israel. According to the book of Judges, being an Israelite didn't mean much in terms of power at that time and in that land. The nation of Israel seemed to be easily kicked around by oppressive enemies.
Like the story in Judges 4 indicated, the leaders of Israel deserved to be kicked around a little. They had a bad habit of getting themselves into trouble because of bad judgment in their relationship with God. Their trouble always stemmed from the same horrible mistake. They repeatedly made the awful mistake of forgetting about the living God who had guided them to the land in which they had settled. That's when they would be vulnerable to the enemy tribes living around them that wanted to do them in at one time or the other.
When the oppression from their enemies made them buckle, the people of Israel would always cry out to the Lord and beg him to help them. Of course, he would come to the rescue by sending a judge, which was really more like a military leader, to deliver them from their oppressors. For a little while after their liberation, they would walk with the Lord. Eventually, however, they would repeat the same mistake again and again and again.
Deborah, an Israelite woman, represents powerless people who live and work in our community. Remember that powerless people know they may never get out of the rut that hard living and injustice has placed them. Their circumstances make for an oppressive environment in which to live. They have few or no choices, and they live at the mercy of powerful people more than they would like to admit, but they can't find a way to get a better choice for themselves.
You may consider yourself a powerless person like Deborah, but again, not because you can't read very well or because of some other reason. You may feel that you've got few choices in life. Or you may feel that you have to contend with oppressive people or entities that have the power to force you to do things against your will. If that's the case, you can identify with Deborah.
Barak's not much better off than Deborah. Granted, he's a man, but that's about all we can say about his power over Deborah in that day. Interestingly enough, the writer of Hebrews mentioned him as an example of faith (Hebrews 11:32). When we read the whole story of Deborah and Barak, we would agree that he deserved to be on that elite list. When we read the song that he and Deborah sang about the Lord's deliverance, we would agree with one obvious observation (Judges 5). Both of these powerless people tapped into a source of power that can inspire us if we tap into it as well.
According to the story, Deborah tapped into the rich resource of a personal relationship with God, which empowered her to do something incredible. Apparently, her walk with God rendered credibility for her among her neighbors. They trusted her to give them wise counsel, so apparently they sought her out to help them find their way. In fact, the place where people met her eventually came to bear her name. Deborah's palm tree stood out as the place where people could find her if they wanted to draw from the deep well of her wisdom. Over time, her wisdom produced for her a fair amount of credibility, but her walk with God nurtured courage in her. She was so courageous that she didn't hesitate to consider the reality that God may speak to her.
Don't overlook what's happened in the story. Apowerless person has been empowered by a relationship with God. It happened then, and it can happen now. He can make us wise, and he can instill courage within us too.
Also, don't underestimate the enemy in the story. The Canaanite army had been oppressing Israel for twenty years, and the oppression had been brutal. The army had acquired the latest instruments of war: iron chariots. In fact, they owned 900 of them, and they used them in their torment of Israel. As you could imagine, the swords and spears of the men of Israel were no match for the sophisticated, tank-like chariots that proved to be unstoppable. With such advanced instruments for battle and an instinct for uncivilized treatment of weak people and nations, the Canaanites had nothing or no one to stop them in their torment of Israel. Indeed, the Canaanite army was a formidable foe.
Yet, God turned out to be stronger. Through Deborah and Barak, he destroyed the army and liberated his people. Imagine that: the powerless nation of Israel defeated the cold-hearted and powerful Canaanites. How did they do it? God worked through them to give them what they could not give themselves so they could overcome. Of course, they enjoyed the victory over the Canaanites because they obeyed the Lord. They trusted God to be faithful to his people and powerful enough to protect them when they turned to him.
The message in this story has a number of applications for us today. In fact, it can be directed to three groups of people, all of whom may be listening to this sermon.
First, if you have power over people, use it wisely. Imitate God by directing your power to help people under your authority and not to hurt them. If you use it to abuse powerless people, you have to realize that you will be held accountable for your actions. You may think the powerless will have no recourse, but the Lord who loves them won't sit idly by for long. Just ask the Canaanites.
Second, if you have the ability and you want to make a difference in the life of a powerless person, then don't wait around any longer to do something. Get started now. Do something, anything. Yes, help adults who can't read or write to learn those important skills. That's only one example. Do anything else that will empower them to rise above their helplessness. But most of all, give attention to helping them have a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Empowering them involves spiritual as well as occupational and relational issues. Tend to all of them as you empower them.
Third, if you find yourself to be powerless and living at the mercy of others, remember that the Lord gives strength to the weak. Rest assured that no oppressor can stand against him. God will enable you to know his wisdom and to walk in his ways. Accordingly, God will work through and in you in ways that will surprise you. So turn to him. And don't forget the question that the apostle Paul raised in Romans 8:31: If God's for us, who would dare be against us? And don't forget the answer either: nobody. Amen.
__________
1. Tex Sample, Ministry in an Oral Culture: Living with Will Rogers, Uncle Remus, and Minnie Pearl (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1994).
2. Tex Sample, Hard-Living People and Mainstream Churches (Nashville, Tennessee: Abingdon, 1993).
3. Sample, Ministry in an Oral Culture, 6.
