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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.
