One Little Word

 Psalm 46

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  

Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult.

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High.

God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved; God will help it when the morning dawns.  The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts.

The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.

Come, behold the works of the Lord; see what desolations he has brought on the earth.  He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire.

“Be still, and know that I am God! I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted in the earth.”

The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.

 

Martin Luther, back in 1527, right in the middle of the Plague… wrote about how Christians should act in the midst of that terrible time.  Some people, he wrote, “are much too rash and reckless, tempting God and disregarding everything which might counteract death and the plague. They disdain the use of medicines; they do not avoid places and persons infected by the plague, but lightheartedly make sport of it and wish to prove how independent they are… That is not trusting God but tempting him!”

Luther’s plague was caused by an infection from a bacterium since named Yersinia pestis.  Our plague of COVID-19 is caused by an infection of a virus named SARS-CoV-2.  Beyond those details of microbiological nomenclature, it would seem there are many similarities between the plague of 1527 and the plague of 2020.  We too have our own “rash and reckless” who tempt God by disregarding science. We too have those who “do not avoid places and persons infected by the plague, but lightheartedly make sport of it and wish to prove how independent they are.”  

Back in 1527 Luther felt that Psalm 46 spoke to that time.  He even set that Psalm to a popular beer drinking tune to create the hymn A Mighty Fortress is our God.  I think this Reformation Sunday I appreciate Psalm 46 more as Luther did than in any other year of my life.  This year HAS felt like the earth is changing, the mountains are shaking, and the waters are roaring.  This year, more than any other, feels like our nation IS in an uproar… our kingdom is tottering and if that weren’t enough, the earth is also melting with wildfires and receding glaciers!

 

Now, Luther didn’t put Psalm 46 to music just to rub in the horrors his people were dealing with in their time. He set that Psalm to music to remind his people how important it is to first NAME and BE HONEST about what they were going through AND THEN ALSO to remind them that God’s promises are always TRUE… EVEN when the troubles are as big as the earth shaking… even when the horrors are as awful as the Black Death!

It is really important for us to do both as well in our time.  We too must acknowledge, name, and face up to the realities that the world presents us, including the horrors of our time.  It is now more than 225,000 times clear, that shouting denials, demonizing medical experts, or calling it a hoax does not keep anyone safe from the plague of our day.  Both the Psalmist and Luther both recognized the importance of facing, with honesty, the realities of this life.  But both the Psalmist and Luther ALSO knew that just facing our realities was not where we should stop.  Regardless of how bad reality is… even when it’s as bad as plagues, mountains shaking, waters roaring, kingdoms tottering and the earth melting… there has been, there is now, and there always will be our God… standing with us through it all.  Our God, who is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  Because of that Truth, the Psalmist, Luther and I will tell you all again… WE WILL NOT FEAR! 

We will NOT fear.  When the Psalmist, Luther and I tell you we “will not fear” it is because all three of us know that God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble and it is because of that TRUTH that we have been given the ability not to fear.  The three of us are not advocating denial!  The three of us all clearly lay out our time’s genuine realities, regardless of how terrible they are.  BUT IT IS BECAUSE we honestly face that reality WITH GOD, that we need not REACT to, or DEAL with those realities with fear… FEAR… which limits our brains to only our basest of instincts… fight or flight, attack or denial, rage or inaction.  

When we react out of fear, our brains only allow us to choose from those two polar options.  What the Psalmist, Luther and I are trying to remind you of today, is that with God as our our strength, our refuge, our present help, our mighty fortress, our calming mantra inside our heads… with God’s presence, however it is described, we can face all of it… the very real plagues, the insanity of these elections, tottering kingdoms and even the melting earth!  And we can face it all head on.  Because with God's presence we are not trapped in our responses by the limitations imposed on us by fear.  With God and without fear, we have access to the entire breadth and width of the human brains God has given us, and we can use those brains to confront and tackle even the darkest of this world’s horrors.  

In fear we only have access to the part of our brains we share with orange lizards, green turtles, and side-winding snakes.  With God as our bulwark, our champion, our sword and shield… with the Lord of Hosts standing with us, this world’s tyrants can rage all they want (and they want to rage a lot!) but we are rock-solid-guaranteed that every tyrant’s might is doomed to fail because ONE LITTLE WORD subdues them.  

That one little word is love.  It is with love that God created this world.  It is with love that God redeems this world and it is with love that God will move us all through every plague and tyrant’s rage and toward abundant life.  Living in fear we cut off our access to that love.  Standing with God as the Psalmist did... standing with God as Luther did... Standing with God as we do now... God calls us beyond the limitations of fear and into the limitless possibilities of love.  May you and I and all of creation be strengthened in the days ahead by God’s unmoving presence in our lives and may we join with God in living our lives out of the immeasurable power of that one little word.  Amen.