Blank Check

 Read Psalm 91

Today (this message was delivered on 10 November 2024) is the Marine Corps Birthday, and tomorrow is Veterans Day. Normally, we show a video and have the vets stand and be recognized, but today, we will talk a little about warriors.

There is a lot of war and combat in the Bible. War involves killing but is not always murder. Sometimes it is.

Modern warriors train and trust their training. In most Western societies, plenty of safety measures are in place, not to avoid danger but to practice doing dangerous things.

The old phrase there are no atheists in combat is a lie. The human heart can deceive the mind and declare there is no God, even when there is existential risk. That means risk to your existence. Even when someone is trying to kill you.

Chances are that I won’t ever see a combat zone again, unless we decide we are having a civil war—which is an oxymoron—here in these United States, but God has expectations for warriors.  They are not really that different from those of other Christians. They just hit home a little differently for the warrior.

Christian warriors trust not only their training but they trust God.

They have faith not only in each other—the guy or gal next to you is often your greatest motivation for taking personal risk—but they have faith in God as well.

Bombs and bullets don’t really discriminate. They don’t care about your faith, but the One in whom you have faith does.

I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,

    my God, in whom I trust.”

Surely he will save you

    from the fowler’s snare

    and from the deadly pestilence.

He will cover you with his feathers,

    and under his wings you will find refuge;

    his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.

We understand what refuge is. We know what a fortress is. We know what a shield is. We don’t use the traditional shields that protect the warrior from enemy arrows or swords, but we have other shields.

The psalmist declares that God will be those things for us.

Does anyone know what a rampart is? It could be the walkway at the top of a castle wall or a dirt berm in front of a fighting hole.

What does it do? It stops some, hopefully all, of whatever the enemy is sending your way:  arrows, bullets, rockets, and things that go boom or through your body.

God will be a rampart for you. The psalmist declares that God will protect you.   

Does that mean that only atheists die in combat? No. The risk to life is the same for the righteous and the wicked, but the righteous know that there is life for us even when our life-sustaining functions in this body cease.

So what’s the point of a warrior being a godly person?  It’s no different than for any other person. This message is not for armed combatants. It is for every Christian.

We should have a warrior mindset in much of what we do. What’s that mean?

Let’s start with our mission. We are commissioned to accomplish it. We must see it as an objective assigned to us by our Commanding Officer. What mission?

Go! Make disciples, baptize, and teach. It is that straightforward, yet we often think of it as secondary to the day’s schedule. Yeah, okay, if I can work it in.

Paul used the examples of an Olympic athlete and a soldier to make this point. The soldier—the warrior—wants to please his commanding officer. He is not distracted by other matters.

For us, let’s be creative and say for a soldier of the cross, that means keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, taking his yoke, learning from him, and putting his words into practice. No arrows. No bullets. No bombs, just obedience.

We take his word to the world and make disciples.

We trust in the Lord completely.

We keep our eyes fixed on him and press on.

We desire to please our Commanding Officer more than we might be afraid of what we must overcome.

We trust and obey.

Has anyone read the Charge of the Light Brigade? It’s a classic by Alfred Lord Tennyson from about 170 years ago. The battle takes place in the Crimean War. It is dubbed the Battle of Balaclava. The United Kingdom is fighting Russians. The Russians have the key terrain and are more than ready to defend it and defeat their British enemy if they attack.  And they do.

It didn’t go well. Only after it was too late did the senior officers in the brigade realize they were hopelessly riding to their deaths. For you Trekkies, this was the real-life version of the Kobayashi Maru-the no-win scenario.

But the brigade kept moving forward. The words will sound familiar to most of you.

Half a league, half a league,

Half a league onward,

All in the valley of Death

   Rode the six hundred.

“Forward, the Light Brigade!

Charge for the guns!” he said.

Into the valley of Death

   Rode the six hundred.

And they were decimated. Few survived. The battle was lost but he soldiers trusted their officers and the officers trusted their orders and they kept pressing forward despite the hopelessness.

The battle was lost, but Tennyson kept their courage alive and made it legendary. Despite the mission's impossibility becoming more evident with each passing minute, they rode onward.

Theirs was not to reason why. Theirs was but to do or die.

Nobody is shooting at us, but how often do we abandon the mission that God gave us? Maybe I will give it a try tomorrow. Maybe when I get around to it. Maybe…

We paused today to remember our veterans. A country that forgets its veterans will soon be without warriors to serve today. Today, however, we move beyond remembrance and recognition to adopting some of their warrior qualities.

Translated into 2024 terms, that means:

·       We take his word to the world and make disciples.

·       We trust in the Lord completely.

·       We keep our eyes fixed on him and press on.

·       We desire to please our Commanding Officer more than we might be afraid of what we must overcome.

·       We trust and obey.

We trust and obey.

The story of David and Goliath might have been good for today. I also thought about the Battle of Jericho or of God reducing Gideon’s warriors so it would be evident that God gave him the victory. Still, I ultimately settled on these thoughts on a Sunday when we consider our warriors.

Trust and obey.

I thought that today would be good for a few Marine Corps quotes. Have you seen the one that accompanies the picture of Jim Mattis still in uniform. It reads:  Marines don’t know the meaning of the word quit. Of course, they are Marines and don’t know the meaning of a lot of words.

I don’t think he actually said the last part, but my brothers from another mother keep sending it around anyway.

Today’s Veterans Day message is simple. Trust and obey.

Marne recruits are taught instant, willing obedience from the moment they step off the bus at Parris Island or San Diego. The instant—the immediate—obedience is easy.

Obedience that is instant and willing takes a while longer. But success lies in the warrior's willing obedience.

Every warrior thinks at some point, perhaps at many points, that the orders of his seniors are ridiculous, but they obey immediately and willingly. It’s something of a paradox.

Long ago in a place called Parris Island, I was second in command of a recruit training company. The company commander would send me to the weekly staff meeting.

I would brief him after the meeting. I would say something, and he would reply, "Whose boneheaded idea was that?"

I would tell him the next item and get the same reply, "Whose boneheaded idea was that?"

I would give him the next item and get the same response. Sometimes, I would say that was the colonel’s idea, to which the captain would say, “Lieutenant, that’s what we call a good boneheaded idea.”

Every warrior thinks at some point, perhaps at many points, that the orders of his seniors are ridiculous, but they obey immediately and willingly. It’s something of a paradox.

But what if our Commanding Officer is God, and we don’t think he thought his orders to us through?

We trust and obey. Get in warrior mode and think instant, willing obedience to orders.

Think to Proverbs 3:5-6. Trust in the Lord with all of your heart. I will stop there for a moment.

Trust God with everything you’ve got. You don’t have to understand everything that went into God’s command, but you must be willing to obey what he tells us to do instantly and willingly.

How could we give God less than we expect a soldier to give a human commander?

This is God we are talking about. How can we say, maybe later, to something God has told us to do.

How can we dismiss the commands of our Lord and Savior so casually?

The answer is in the next part of the proverb. We do what we are told not to do and rely on our own understanding over that of God.

We have used this analogy for several decades. The veteran is someone who wrote a blank check to his country at one point in his or her life. It’s a fair comparison.

So, Christian, are you prepared to write a blank check to God? Will you do what he commands, or is it easy to dismiss them as casual suggestions? Let’s start with just a few.

We take his word to the world and make disciples.

We trust in the Lord completely.

We keep our eyes fixed on him and press on.

We desire to please our Commanding Officer more than we might be afraid of what we must overcome.

We trust and obey.

After the Korean War, the United States developed the Code of Conduct for members of the Armed Forces of the United States. The nature of warfare had changed, and the code was required to prepare warriors for possible captivity by the enemy. This was a time of brainwashing and we needed standards.

The words that I remember have been changed somewhat to make them more gender-neutral, but this is how I remember it.

I am an American fighting man. I serve in the forces which guard my country and our way of life. I am prepared to give my life in their defense.

I will never surrender of my own free will. If in command, I will never surrender my men while they still have the means to resist.

The rest goes on to what to do if captured—the name, rank, and service number thing and the duty to escape. It wraps up with this summary.

I will never forget that I am an American fighting man, fighting for freedom, responsible for my actions, and dedicated to the principles which made my country free. I will trust in my God and in the United States of America.

That’s some patriotic stuff right there. Why don’t we Christians have a little mantra like that.  How would it go?

I am a Christian warrior. I serve God and put his commands into practice and they are not a burden. I am prepared to give my life to the One who gave his for me.

I will never surrender to the enemy, for in Christ I am victorious.

If I am surrounded, I will strengthen what remains.

If captured by the enemy, I will trust God’s Spirit to give me the words to say.

I will never stop trusting God and obeying his commands.

I will never forget who I belong to and will give my life to bring glory to his name.

Being a warrior for God, a Christian warrior, a soldier of the cross is mostly about our mindset. As far as the battle goes, it belongs to the Lord and the Lord has won. God wins. We share in his victory.

The question is how we will face the world, especially when our orders seem to send us to certain death, failure, or embarrassment. Not everything is combat, but we should be ready all the same.

Half a league, half a league,

Half a league onward,

All in the valley of Death

   Rode the six hundred.

“Forward, the Light Brigade!

Charge for the guns!” he said.

Into the valley of Death

   Rode the six hundred.

Are we ready to write that blank check to God?

Let’s not be the Summer Soldiers and Sunshine Patriots that Thomas Paine described. Let’s be genuine in writing our blank checks to God.

Amen.