Knox Presbyterian Church

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*SCRIPTURE READING: Psalm 33:13-18
13THE LORD LOOKS DOWN FROM HEAVEN; HE SEES ALL HUMANKIND. 14FROM WHERE HE SITS ENTHRONED HE WATCHES ALL THE INHABITANTS OF THE EARTH— 15 HE WHO FASHIONS THE HEARTS OF THEM ALL, AND OBSERVES ALL THEIR DEEDS. 16A KING IS NOT SAVED BY HIS GREAT ARMY; A WARRIOR IS NOT DELIVERED BY HIS GREAT STRENGTH.
17THE WAR HORSE IS A VAIN HOPE FOR VICTORY, AND BY ITS GREAT MIGHT IT CANNOT SAVE. 18TRULY THE EYE OF THE LORD IS ON THOSE WHO FEAR HIM, ON THOSE WHO HOPE IN HIS STEADFAST LOVE,

SERMON Rev. Paul Seebeck
“Don’t Bet on the War Horse”

I was having coffee this week with a friend that I haven’t seen in awhile. We’d gotten together to catch up on some of the transitions that are happening in our lives. What with Patty and I having a daughter (AMY) graduating from college next weekend (am I really that old? have I really been a live for nearly a half of a century?) She’d had some recent health trouble and wanted to talk to me as a pastor about some of her unspoken fears.

She told me she always felt that God was with her – until her recent sickness. During her recovery time in rehab she began to feel like she was utterly alone, and in this alone-ness she began to wonder if she was worthy in God’s eyes. She told me that she had prayed to Jesus, apparently to no avail from her perspective, because this doubt still hadn’t left her.

She kept talking, and I kept listening, when she suddenly said, “let’s change the subject.” I said, “before we do that, can we pray together,” which we did. After our prayer she asked me about Amy who is graduating, and Ben who is half way through college. She started about her children that have blessed her with grandchildren now. She and her kids were all talking recently about years gone by, when they were all teenagers, each of them was remembering the times they got into trouble, that teenagers tend to get into. Then she said, “You know, Paul I don’t even think about or remember any of that, what I see is how beautiful each of them have become as a person.”

I said,” listen to what you’ve just said to me! If you’re able to see your children this way as a human being, imagine how God must see you, in all of your beauty, not holding on to any those things that you are holding on to in your fear and doubt, and in your loss of some of your physical strength.” There was quite pregnant pause and then my friend said, I’d never really thought about it that way.” I wish you could’ve seen the light in her eyes and face, as the imagination of hope that trusts in God’s goodness and love for humankind began to return to her.

What a great image for us to hold onto, as we enter into Psalm 33 that asks us to consider who it is that we trust, and what it is that we put our hope in. My friend is learning to trust and hope again in the midst of her loss of physical power, and in the midst of her feeling that God abandoned her.

I started thinking about this in relationship to how Jesus felt abandoned by God – how he cried out on the cross, “My God, my God why hast thou forsaken me?” Yet it seems to me that in spite of how his physical life ended, how Jesus lived his life, and how he acted – his values if you will – were centered in trust in God’s and love for humanity – this is God’s power if you will – and nothing else. These values were on display during holy week when Jesus was facing his own death. He would eventually let go of his life, releasing it into the hands of the authorities and to the Roman Empire that occupied Jerusalem. Believing it could control and dominate the world the Roman Empire put its trust in its own power, in the power of its glory and in its violence. Jesus rejected these values of empire. Remember how he rode into Jerusalem? Jesus didn’t put his trust on a warhorse! Instead he rode on a lowly donkey setting up the confrontation with the dominant military power of his time. The gospel of Matthew interpreted this climactic act for us by quoting the prophet Zechariah –

Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your
king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. He will cut off the war-horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations.

We live in time where shifts of power are taking place around the globe, which creates great uncertainly, causing all of humanity to wonder whom it can trust and where peace might come from. Dr. Robert M. Bowman, a retired lieutenant colonel and presiding bishop in the Catholic Church, is a frequent lecturer on national security. He often quotes these words from Psalm 33: “A king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. A warrior is not delivered by his great strength. The war horse is vain hope for victory, and by its might it cannot save.” This obviously gets his audience’s attention. “Then what can we do,” they cry. “How can we be secure?” “Is there nothing we can do to provide security for our people?” Bowman tells them the answer is found just a page or two later in the book of Psalms, Psalm 37:3 says, "Trust in the Lord and do good, that you may dwell in the land and have security." “There it is,” he says. It’s so simple. "Trust in the Lord and do good, that you may dwell in the land and have security."

Is it that simple to trust in the Lord?

Can we possibly hope again in God’s goodness and love for all of us humans?

Is that enough – to do good and then we have security?

(AD LIB)

I read something this week incredibly hopeful this week in this week’s Newsweek.
It was in the June 9th issue of Newsweek. It was on religion, specifically on The New Face of Islam. Apparently there is movement afoot in the Muslim world that is rejecting Osama Bin Laden and Al Queda’s vision of jihad (holy war) (the war horse). Religious, theological and intellectual Muslim thinkers are coming together to re-examine the tenants of their faith.
These thinkers who are quick to deny that there work represents some sort of Islamic Reformation – they say there is no Martin Luther among them – there are no theses that they are going to nail to door. But they are doing a “re-thinking” or a “re-understanding” of their sacred texts” according to modern concepts like democracy, human rights, women’s rights, and universal values. They are speaking out about how Bin Laden cherry picked quotations from Islamic scripture and then called on dubious scholars to back him up, to give his followers license to kill innocents – and themselves – in the cause of holy war.

This is hopeful, but it is also terrifying because of the recognition that the same thing can happen with our holy scripture. I encourage you to do good by resisting this temptation to trust in this kind of power which claims to be speaking for our faith but twists scripture for political power or ideological gain.

The God of the universe, who cares for all of humanity, over all the earth, showed us the way to peace through the life of Jesus – even as Jesus was letting go of his physical life, he unleashed a even greater power that was meant to cut off the warhorse, to bring peace to all the nations. This is still the vision of the Kingdom of heaven on earth.
Please pray with me.