“…if I have repaid my ally with harm or plundered my foe without cause, then let the enemy pursue and overtake me, trample my life to the ground, and lay my soul in the dust.” Psalm 7:4-5

“No matter how just, how holy, how true, how Godly your cause may be, it is still imperative that you conduct it in fear and humility, respecting God’s judgments and confiding alone in His mercy. Judas Maccabaeus was defeated in a holy war, and many others have been overcome in worthy causes. Judges 1:20 describes the defeat of the children of Israel because they depended upon the rightness of their cause instead of the mercy of God. By His own example in times of trouble David teaches us that it belongs to no one arrogantly to demand justice for himself, to justify a tumult by the rightness of his cause, and to plan revenge by power or by law. He should pray for his enemies according to his conscience, since no adversary can have just cause against the man [woman] of good conscience.” (“The Importance of Humility”, Devotions and Prayers of Martin Luther,  Andrew Kosten, translator)

Hearing Martin Luther’s words today: “No matter how just, how holy, how true, how Godly your cause may be, it is still imperative that you conduct it in fear and humility, respecting God’s judgments and confiding alone in His mercy.”, I am not so sure many of the causes today, many of the movements and protests we have witnessed in the last few years have taken this warning to heart. Now, I believe Martin Luther King Jr. did just that in his non-violent crusade to push back against such endemic prejudice in 1950’s America. But watching rallies that go on in the streets of America today, I mainly see anger—hatred—shouting—rock-throwing—and the such; not G-dly fear and humility. Yes, there are times and situations that require “righteous anger”. But at some point the anger must cease, and our actions need to reflect the love, mercy and Grace of Jesus.

Pastor Dave

“Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.”  Psalm 139:7-12

“In reading about ancient Egypt one gets the impression of a culture in which the main business of life was the attempt to secure the well-being of the dead. It looks as if God did not want the chosen people to follow that example. We may ask why. Is it possible for men to be too much concerned with their eternal destiny? In one sense, paradoxical though it sounds, I should reply, yes. For the truth seems to me to be that happiness or misery beyond death, simply in themselves, are not even religious subjects at all. A man who believes in them will of course be prudent to seek the one and avoid the other. But that seems to have no more to do with religion than looking after one’s health or saving money for one’s old age. The only difference here is that the stakes are so very much higher. And this means that, granted a real and steady conviction, the hopes and anxieties aroused are overwhelming but they are not on that account the more religious. They are hopes for oneself, anxieties for oneself. God is not in the center.

For those who love God will desire not only to enjoy Him but ‘to enjoy Him forever’, and will fear to lose Him. It is arguable that the moment ‘Heaven’ ceases to mean union with God and ‘Hell’ to mean separation from Him, the belief in either is superstition; for then we have, on the one hand, a merely ‘compensatory’ belief and, on the other, a nightmare which drives [humanity] into asylums or makes them persecutors. Most of us find that our belief in the future life is strong only when God is in the center of our thoughts…” (“Examining Ideas of Heaven from Other Faiths”, “Reflections on the Psalms”, “Death in the Psalms”, Preparing for Easter, C.S. Lewis)

Having G-d in the center of our thoughts—this is the daily struggle—because we don’t want to worry about damnation, or we choose not to. And so in choosing to ignore Hell, we also decide, consciously or not, to avoid Heaven in our daily thoughts as well. But as the Psalmist suggests, we cannot hide from G-d. There is no where that G-d cannot see us, cannot perceive us, cannot make G-d’s self present to us. And that is true for our thoughts as well. As we turn toward the season of fall, we will notice in the headlights of our lives, the seasons of Advent and Christmas. Before we know it, we will be staring at the Christ child. Perhaps that thought should encourage us to consider Christ in our lives every day.

Pastor Dave