Peace Through Strength

Read Psalm 29

I went into the United States Marine Corps when the United States was not very strong.  Once they got me, things started looking up.  I’d like to say that but shortly after I was commissioned in 1979, Iran overran the United States Embassy in Tehran.

I was pretty sure that Armageddon was just around the corner, but it wasn’t.  We—the United States—did try a rescue that went terribly wrong.  It was indicative of the state of our armed forces at that time.  Every unit was short people.  Equipment that was broken could not be repaired as there was nothing in the supply line.  Budgets were nearly non-existent and ammunition for training was scarce.

When I went to Africa in 2013, I saw training aids made out of feed sacks hanging in the orphanage schools.  I had a flashback to using C-Ration cardboard to make my training aids while at the expeditionary camp at the base of Mount Fuji.

It was a strange feeling to know that the nation’s finest had diddly squat to train and prepare for war.  I had some first-hand experience with the saying that the Marines have done so much with so little for so long, they now believe they can do anything with nothing.

It’s a nice saying and reflects mostly upon the attitudes of initiative and industry and ingenuity.  But being the cutting edge of the world's premier superpower and being ill-equipped for the task was not a good feeling.  It got better in the 1980s.

Going farther back in time—the early 1960s--and closer to home, my father once worked in the missile silos that peppered the countryside of western Oklahoma.  This was the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis.  I was too young to understand much about it then, but I knew it caused a lot of anxiety.

Some years later, my Dad revealed to me that we couldn’t have launched half of the missiles in those silos due to lack of repair parts.

I think that peace through strength is an effective national strategy for our nation, but I have known times when our strength was paper thin.  Worldly power and strength is always tenuous.  Worldly peace is ever so temporary.

Worldly peace is temporary.

We continue with Love and Peace.  Last week we invested some time in the peace that goes beyond our understanding.  This week let’s look at peace that comes from the strength of God.

The entire psalm is about the strength of the Lord. It is poetic in language, but it is about the power and might of God.  From this poetry we glean:

God is due glory and honor and worship.

His voice thunders and is powerful and majestic.

His voice breaks giant cedars and twists mighty oaks and make the nations giddy.

The voice of the Lord sends earthquakes through the desert.  The Lord is enthroned over his entire creation.  That’s a forever deal, not just for one or two terms.

In the temple of the Lord all cry out about his glory.

You might think that this would be a psalm about the fear of the Lord.  That it would conclude with how humankind should live in fear of being struck down by this mighty God.  We should be on the lookout for lightning bolts headed our way.

Instead, David wraps us this psalm by noting that the Lord gives strength to his people; moreover, he blesses them with peace. 

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom.  This is a good thing.  But the theme here is strength not fear.  The gift is peace not fear. This theme surfaces again in Psalm 121.

I lift up my eyes to the mountains—

    where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord,

    the Maker of heaven and earth.

 He will not let your foot slip—

    he who watches over you will not slumber;

 indeed, he who watches over Israel

    will neither slumber nor sleep.

 The Lord watches over you—

    the Lord is your shade at your right hand;

 the sun will not harm you by day,

    nor the moon by night.

The Lord will keep you from all harm—

    he will watch over your life;

the Lord will watch over your coming and going

    both now and forevermore.

The Lord is strong.  He is creator—the maker of heaven and earth—and yet he knows you and won’t let you slip.  He is not away taking a nap.  He shades you in the heat of the day and keeps you from harm.

Hear the last verse once again: 

the Lord will watch over your coming and going

both now and forevermore.

This is the God who numbers the very hairs on your head and he brings you strength, joy, and peace. He gives us hope.  He is taking care of us.  Why should we worry?

Consider these thoughts from Romans.

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.  For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth, so that the promises made to the patriarchs might be confirmed and, moreover, that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written:

“Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles;

    I will sing the praises of your name.”

 Again, it says,

“Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people.”

 And again,

“Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles;

    let all the peoples extol him.”

 And again, Isaiah says,

“The Root of Jesse will spring up,

    one who will arise to rule over the nations;

    in him the Gentiles will hope.”

 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Paul tells us that as we trust in the Lord—how do we trust the Lord?  That’s right, will all of our hearts.  As we trust in the Lord, he fills us with joy and peace so that we may overflow with hope.  The Holy Spirit is at work in us.

God sits enthroned above all creation and lives within us.  I don’t know that we can truly comprehend that this is not a dichotomy but the fullness and completeness of our mighty God.  He is a God who grants us peace.

I think to the encounter of David and Goliath.  Everyone there saw this giant warrior and a ruddy boy with a slingshot and five smooth stones.  The odds makers were not even taking bets.  This was a done deal.

The giant warrior taunted David.  David replied that Goliath thought he had the finest weapons of the world; they were  in the hands of ungodly people and were no match for the God of Israel.  David would hit his target with one stone and cut off the Philistine’s head, but God delivered the victory.  The battle belonged to the Lord.

All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.

David had courage.  David had skill.  David had experience in other areas—you seldom show up to kill a giant warrior noting on your resume that you had done this before, but he had tested his mettle in other ways.

But his strength came from the Lord.  The battle belonged to the Lord.  David walked into a lopsided battle.  He was the only one who know that it was lopsided in his favor because his strength came from the Lord.  His peace in the middle of battle was from the Lord.

I have ventured to different scriptures—it could have been more—to bring us to one place. 

We serve a mighty God.  When we are weak, his strength is more than enough for us, better than our own strength at its best.

In a single word, God could remove us from existence and eternity.  God is that powerful.  God is that strong, but he created us with the best of intentions for us, and he has not changed course.  He still has good plans for us and is fully vested in seeing those plans through to complete us.

For God to discard us now, is not consistent with the God revealed to us in his holy word.  He has good plans for us!

The Lord is not only strong, he is the source of my strength.

The Lord crushes Satan under our feet.  He makes us victorious in himself.

The Lord desires us to live in peace.  Our peace comes from his strength.

Anxiety, hate, vitriol, acrimony have no place in our lives.  These come out of carnal quarrels.  Peace comes from God’s strength.  Our battle is won.  God has won the victory for us.

God has given us peace.

Live in God’s peace.  It is not a tenuous peace like the world knows.  It is an eternal peace for God is enthroned above all forever.

Receive the peace of God through Jesus Christ and his Spirit who is alive within us!

Amen.

That we might have hope

Read Romans 15

Jesus was on the cross-losing blood and struggling to breath.  He had been beaten and his body mutilated before he was elevated on this instrument of death designed to be ever so painful to the one being executed and a strong visual deterrent to anyone who happened to see any part of one of these executions.

When the lamb was headed to the temple to be sacrificed, it probably didn’t know what was ahead.  It’s moment of sacrifice was brief.  Nobody shouted insults and curses at it.  Nobody taunted the sacrifice.

But the Lamb of God that we know as Jesus did know what was ahead. He did suffer extreme pain. His human body felt every lash of the whip and every sin of humankind.  His innocent flesh was the only sacrifice that would atone for our sin once and for all but this sacrifice lasted more than a moment.

From that cross—that cruel instrument of death—Jesus spoke, “Father, forgive them.  The do not know what they are doing.”

To those who shouted, Crucify him, Jesus replied, Forgive them.              

                                

To those who taunted him to save himself, Jesus ask his Father to consider that they don’t know what they are doing.

To those who just stood by dumbfounded, Jesus saw only people who needed mercy and forgiveness.

In Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi, Paul charged us to take on the nature of a servant as Christ did when he set aside his place in heaven to live and die as a man.  Jesus knew that he would endure much for our sake.  He would give up his life before he took it up again.

Paul told his readers to consider the humility of our Master and be like him.

Now as Paul nears the end of his letter to believers in Rome, he charged them and charges us to once again consider all that Christ did for us.  We who are strong in our faith need to go the extra mile for those who are not. 

We need not only to avoid the things that might be stumbling blocks to another believer, but we are to build up the one who is struggling in their faith.  Sometimes that takes a heart that says, “Forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.”

It’s another round of It’s not all about me but Paul pushes beyond not being an obstacle to being a helper.  Even for those who are making bad decisions, and sometimes repeating them, we are still to assist them in growing in their faith. 

We must not condemn them.  We help them grow in grace.  That does not mean that we reinforce the bad decisions.  It means that we do not condemn people for their mistakes.

Just as Christ accepted us—sometimes after years of being a Christian we forget that part—so too we must accept the fledgling believer who needs our help often more than we realize.

We often say that we meet people where they are.  It is a good mantra for this century, but incomplete.  We must add that we meet people where they are, do so without condemnation, and with the divine heart of Jesus to accept them and help them in their faith.

We are helpers and encouragers and guides and mentors and sometimes even teachers.  Elsewhere Paul wrote that he became all things to all people so that so might be saved.  He builds on that here challenging us to be all things to all believers that they might grow in God’s grace.

What if the person who struggles in their faith never seems to grow?

That doesn’t change much for us.  We accept the one who is weak period.  We would love for everyone to know the joy and peace and abundant life that we know in Christ, but if some struggle all their lives we still accept them as fellow believers.

They are still our brothers and sisters in Christ and we who continue to grow in God’s grace must grow not only in knowledge but in mercy.  God is shaping us in the image of Christ Jesus.  Much of that comes with the renewing of our mind, but much is accomplished in the heart as well.

We are being shaped from the inside out.  It is not all about us and we are being given a heart to live that way and eyes to see our brothers and sisters with such understanding and compassion.

We began Romans knowing that much of it would sound like a biblical textbook but we must take note that is was a letter and contain those things that letters contain.

For instance, Paul noted that he had not only wanted to visit Rome but had at least a strawman of a plan of how that might happen.  He had covered much territory already but was sure that he could be the first to lay the foundation of Christ as Lord and Savior in Spain.

First, however, he had an offering for the poor in Jerusalem that he would take personally.  This was important not only to him but to all those believers in Macedonia and Greece that had given cheerfully and perhaps even sacrificially.

Little did Paul know that this would also lead to that fourth missionary journey to Rome, yes, it would be by government transportation that included a shipwreck and snakebite at no extra cost.  When Paul was on his way to Jerusalem, he was on his way to visit these very believers to whom he had written in Rome.  He just didn’t know it yet.

In the words, “I appeal to Caesar,” Paul’s fourth missionary Journey began.  Granted he would have some substantial prison time along the way, but Paul knew the risk in going to Jerusalem.

He asked the believers in Rome to pray the he be delivered from those who did not believe in Jerusalem while at the same time his service to his Lord be acceptable to those who did believe.  Paul knew that he was doing a wonderful thing by delivering this offering.  He knew he was going into a hornet’s nest in respect to the ruling Jews.  He knew there were also followers of Jesus in Jerusalem that he did not want to disappoint by being less than he had charged all those who follow Christ to be.

It sounds like a crazy place to go and surely a crazy thing to do.  It also sounds a lot like our modern world with so many factions pitted against each other.  I can only think that Paul remembered his own words from this letter.  If God is for us, who can be against us?

Paul wraps up his letter in the next chapter but he has given us a challenge in this chapter.  Accept the one who is weak in his faith.  Not only accept, but help them—go out of our way to help them grow in God’s grace.

Sometimes we think that we get a whole lot of challenge every time that we read the Bible –especially in Paul’s letters—when what we think we need is a bunch of support.  When we consistently dig into God’s holy word, we get both.

If you have ever been a mentor or studied mentoring, you know that these are the two elements of mentoring—challenge and support.  The desired result is growth.

If you challenge too much, your protégée often retreats.  If you support too much, your protégée is simply confirmed in their current state and there is no growth.

There must be a balance.  Challenge must be accompanied by support.  That’s how we get to growth.

But what about those of us who are supporting those who are struggling in their faith, don’t we need some support too?  

Where do we turn?

We are the body of Christ and have each other, but we also have the scriptures for these holy words not only challenge us but give us support and encouragement as well.

For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.

These holy words give us hope.  We know that the prophets before us were often rejected by the world but right with God.  The saints of the early church were often persecuted by the world but preserved by God.

Some scriptures seem to challenge us.

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.

We are to be strong and courageous, but we should note that this verse that challenges also supports.  God says, I am with you wherever you go!

God told us the same thing in our commission.  We are to take his authority and go into the world making disciples, baptizing, and teaching others what he taught us, but that’s not the end of the commission.  Jesus reminds all of those who follow him that he is with us to the very end of the age.

Remember what Paul wrote Timothy.

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Paul reminded the church in Philippi of this.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Let’s go all the way back to the Proverbs.  God has been giving us both challenge and support in the same verses.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart
    and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge him,
    and he will make your paths straight.

The challenge is to trust God over the ways of the world and to be public about that trust.  The support is that God says, “I’ve got this!”

When we read this verse—for the very few of you who might not have it committed to memory—we need to hear God telling us, “I’ve got this!”

We are to be encouraged.  We are to have hope.  We will grow in grace as we dig deeper and deeper into God’s word.

The psalmist tells us that God’s word is a lamp—a light that shows us where to step.  It is illuminates the path before us.

Paul tells us that this same holy word is our encouragement and our hope.

We who are strong or stronger in our faith than others we know are to help them while we are being helped by God’s word.

Here is the thing that we must understand.  Those who follow Jesus never go it alone.  The body of Christ encourages and supports and sometimes even challenges.

God’s word challenges and supports.

God’s own Spirit lives within us and walks beside us and if we will listen, tells us exactly what we should know.

We have given ourselves completely to God—body and mind—and we are being transformed into the exact person that he wants us to be.

That person knows God’s will and that in itself is encouraging for his will is good, pleasing, and perfect.

So we are to help other believers who are struggling and take the help and encouragement and hope that comes in reading and knowing God’s holy word.

It is part of our discipleship.  It is part of following Jesus.  It is part of who we are as his disciples

Amen.