1 Lent (C) February 21, 2010
The Rev. M. Anthony Seel, Jr.
St. Andrew’s Church
Psalm 91
The best stories are true stories, don’t you agree?
Friday night I saw The Blind Side starring Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw and I was blown away. I know that I’m late to the party since the movie was released before Thanksgiving, but there were others in the theater who I presume also were seeing the movie for the first time.
If Leigh Anne Tuohy is half the steel magnolia that Bullock portrayed, then she is to be admired, not only for her spunk, but more so for how she lives out her Christian faith. In 2002, Tuohy takes in a homeless son of a crack-addicted mother from inner city Memphis, Tennessee and gives him a coach to sleep on. Over time, Michael Oher becomes a member of the Tuohy family, overcomes academic problems, and learns the game of football. Because of his size and agility he was a highly sought-after prospect and earns a football scholarship to the University of Mississippi where he becomes an All-American. He was a first-round draft pick of the NFL Baltimore Ravens.
All because a wealthy socialite mom took him in and loved him as her own. Which takes us to our psalm this morning. Psalm 91 pictures God as a mother bird sheltering her young under her wings. The care and protection of God causes one to exclaim,
v. 2b "My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust."
Why do bad things happen to God’s people? Sometimes sin and evil happen to us like a bird caught in a snare. The bird was doing what birds do – gathering food, and snap – it’s caught in a trap. Because there is sin and evil in this world, we are sometimes affected when we are just living our lives in our normal fashion.
This morning’s gospel lesson follows immediately after Jesus is baptized by John in the Jordan River. After His baptism, the Holy Spirit descended on Him, and Jesus, “full of the Holy Spirit,” “was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days (Luke 4:1-2). For forty days in the wilderness Jesus was tempted by the devil. After forty days of fasting Jesus is weakened by hunger and the devil pounces. “If you are the Son of God…” challenges the devil.
At His baptism, Jesus’ heavenly Father said, “You are my beloved Son” (3:22). Forty days of fasting didn’t diminish Jesus’ faith in His Father in heaven nor His attachment to Him. The psalmist writes,
v. 4 He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
Jesus knew the faithfulness of His heavenly Father. Even in the wilderness, face to face with the devil, Jesus can count on the protection of His Father in heaven.
There’s a scene in The Blind Side when Leigh Anne Tuohy takes Michael Oher clothes shopping in his old environs in North Memphis. She is visibly uncomfortable in the predominantly African American neighborhood. She asks Michael, who is also known as Big Mike if he will protect her. “I’ve got your back,” replies Michael as they walk toward the clothing store.
It’s a beautiful scene with all its contradictions:
- a wealthy white women impeccably dressed
- a large African American youth wearing the only clothes he owns
- the clothing store in a Memphis ghetto.
vv. 5-6 You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.
Four and a half years ago, Scott Bader-Saye, a professor at the University of Scranton received an email from a Kate Brennan, a former student. Brennan wrote out of a sense of loss – one of her students, Ani, had died. Ani was just seventeen, a senior in high school. One day Ani was in school and then she suddenly came down with all kinds of symptoms: “constant fever, unnatural kidney function, failing vision” (Following Jesus in a Culture of Fear, p. 98).
One day, Brennan got a phone call with the message that Ani had 24 hours to live. The next day, Ani died. In her email, Kate Brennan reflects,
There’s no making sense of this loss. Ani emanated an incredibly positive
loving energy and was so talented. [p.97]
Bader-Saye wrote back to Brennan the same day he received her email.
I have thought a lot about God and suffering, and at the very least I’ve
concluded that the banal slogans we sometimes trot out of times like
this are usually unhelpful and sometimes harmful. I’ve heard people,
with good intentions I’m sure, say things like “God wanted another
angel,” or “It was her time.” But we all know in our hearts it was not
her time – that’s the horror of it, that’s why we weep uncontrollably at
the loss of the young, while the death of the old allows our grief to mix
with thanksgiving for a full life. I don’t believe God causes disease to
take those we love. That’s simply not the character of God I’ve come
to know through the stories of scripture and the life of the church. God
is a God of life, not death. What that means then, is that for some reason
God has chosen to allow things to happen that are not God’s will. But
this does not mean that God leaves us alone in our suffering and grief or
that events are purely random. [p. 98]
There is so much that we can fear in this life. We can be afraid of the terrors of the night and the terrors of the day. Yet, I think that Bader-Saye gets it right. He continues,
As I read scripture, and look at my own life, God’s usual pattern of
working is not to prevent evil and suffering but to provide a way
through it and to redeem what is lost. So, although tragedy is real and
painful, it is always penultimate in God’s story. For Ani the last word
is not death but resurrection. God redeems evil by refusing to allow it
the last word, by turning even evil to good (which does not mean that
Ani’s death was in any way good, but that God can bring good even
out of evil, as Paul tells us in Romans 8:28). It’s hard sometimes to
accept that good could come, because it may seem to be a betrayal of
the dead, as if we could somehow conceptually make their loss “worth
it.” Certainly not. The good that comes is not a justification of evil or
suffering, it does not make it “right” in any way; it is simply God’s gift
to the broken. [ibid.]
v. 7 A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.
There can be times in our lives when the odds of something good happening for us
might feel like 1,000 to 1 or 10,000 to 1. Yet, if God is with us we have nothing to fear.
All too often we think that what faces us is insurmountable. We imagine a future evil that is
imminent and greater than our abilities to deal with it. Can we not learn from Jesus?
Jesus faces off with the devil and He gives no quarter. Each time Jesus is challenged by the
devil He responds with Scripture. As John Stott says,
However subtle Satan’s insinuations might be, Jesus was prepared neither to
listen nor to negotiate. He was determined to obey God, not the devil, and what
stood written in Scripture settled the issue for him. [God’s Book for God’s
People, p. 32]
How well do you know Scripture? Do you know the Bible well enough to use it to combat the temptations you face? This Lent, maybe God would like you to step up you devotional reading of the Bible. We have copies of the Upper Room devotional and a 2010 Bible Reading Guide. You can find other excellent resources for your devotions at Arrowhead Bookstore.
The psalmist writes,
v. 8 You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked.
After Michael Oher accepts a football scholarship from the University of Mississippi he is brought in for questioning by the NCAA. Both his parents had gone to Ole Miss, his tutor had gone to Ole Miss, and after his signing his high school football coach was hired to be an assistant athletic director at Ole Miss. It all looked a little shady to the NCAA. When Michael was questioned as to whether he received undue influence to attend Ole Miss he got flustered and walked out on the interrogator. Afterwards he questioned Leigh Anne Tuohy about whether she really loved him or was he just a football prospect that she delivered to her alma mater.
Michael left the Tuohy home in the middle of the night and went back to his old neighborhood looking for his birth mother. He ended up in an apartment with drug users and drug dealers and after a few minutes he had sense enough to get out of there. He saw what they had become and he knew what he would become if he stayed there.
v. 8 You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked.
He went back to the Tuohy family.
vv. 9-10 Because you have made the LORD your dwelling place-- the Most High, who is my refuge-- no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent.
Oher was 18 when he first heard the words “I love you” directed at him. Those words came every night from Leigh Anne Tuohy when she tucked him in for bed. After a few months he replied, “I love you too.”
Michael Oher grew up to that point in the projects in North Memphis. His birth mother had 13 children and they were scattered about. Michael attended 11 schools in 9 years. His big break came when a friend’s father brought Michael to Briarcrest Christian School which took him in as a special needs student. Then the Tuohy’s took him in.
Michael was 6’2” and weighed 344 pounds when he entered high school. He came out of high school at a leaner 309 pounds and 6’5. He went into the NFL last season at a more muscular 315 pounds. He was a candidate for Rookie of the Year. So many changes happened in the space of a few years, but most importantly, Michael Oher received Jesus Christ as his personal Savior while he was in high school. If you saw the ABC News 20/20 program on The Blind Side you know that Oher lives pretty well now. Oher is a gentle giant who, like many Christians, is more comfortable with showing the love of God than speaking about it. He has certainly experienced the love of God in his personal life.
The Blind Side movie is based on the book with the same title by Michael Lewis. In the book, Lewis states that Oher’s success came from a series of what he calls “social accidents.” The Tuohys strongly disagree. They see God’s hand at work in bringing Michael out of the projects, to Briarcrest School, to Ole Miss, and to the NFL.
vv. 11-12 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.
Verse 12 is quoted by the devil in the third temptation of our Lord. In his three responses to the three temptations Jesus does not allow the devil to set the terms of His life. Twice, satan says, “If you are the Son of God,” and twice Jesus rebuffs satan’s ploy with Scripture. Jesus is the Son of God – He doesn’t need to prove that to satan, Himself, or anyone else.
Angels could provide protection for Jesus, but Jesus wasn’t going to force that protection. God can save us from anything, but that doesn’t mean that we should walk into the path of a moving bus. God does use supernatural powers to save us, but not necessarily at all times.
Jesus could have jumped and summoned angels to break His fall; He chose not to do so.
Jesus says when He was arrested before He was condemned to the cross that He could have called on legions of angels to prevent His arrest, but He chose not to do so. In the Garden of Gethsemane prior to His arrest Jesus prayed that His heavenly Father would spare Him from the cross, but then He added, “Nevertheless, thy will be done.”
God does not always spare His children from suffering. He did not spare His own Son from the cross.
v. 13 You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.
In this life we know that we face dangers. Can we walk through what Psalm 23 calls “the valley of the shadow of death” and fear no evil? Can we believe that we are never alone, that God is always with us, and as Scott Bader-Saye says, God’s plan for our lives “cannot ultimately be derailed by illness or accident, evil or suffering?” [p. 89] If we walk close to God, if we are conscious of His presence, we can believe that.
v. 14 "Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name. “
That’s God’s promise to us. All who belong to Christ are bound to God in love. God will deliver you; God will protect you.
v. 15 “When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him.
With Christ you will still have to deal with trouble, but you don’t do so alone. In Christ, God is with you and He will rescue you.
v. 16 “With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation."
There are immediate and eternal blessings for those who walk with Jesus. Look at all the “I” statements in verses 14-16:
v. 14 I will deliver him; I will protect him,
v. 15 I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him
v. 16 I will satisfy him
God’s love is all over these verses. God’s love is all over this psalm. God’s love is all over the Bible, from Genesis through Revelation.
Last week I mentioned how the church seasons of Advent, Christmas and Epiphany together form a cycle of light. The light of Christ begins with prophecies in Advent, brightens with the birth of Christ, and continues to brighten as Jesus is revealed as the perfect God-Man by His acts that are highlighted during the season of Epiphany.
Lent, Easter, and Pentecost seasons together form the second cycle of the church year, the cycle of life. The season of Lent prepares us for the new life of Easter.
Dear People of God: The first Christian observed with great devotion the days of our Lord’s passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a season of penitence and fasting. This season of Lent provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism. It was a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism. It was also a time when those who, because of notorious sins, had been separated from the body of the faithful were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness and restored to the fellowship of the Church. Thereby, the whole congregation was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution set forth in the Gospel of our Savior, and of the need which all Christians continually have to renew their repentance and faith.
I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance, by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word. [Invitation to the observance of a holy Lent from the Ash Wednesday liturgy, Book of Common Prayer]
I do invite you to the observance of a holy Lent. Kick up your reading of Holy Scripture. If you are not yet a daily Bible reader, start this Lent.
Join us on Tuesday evenings for our Lenten series on prayer.
Sign up for our prayer vigil on Saturdays in Lent.
Grow in your knowledge and love of God this Lent. He does love you. He loves you immensely. Return His love; love Him back. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.
Let us pray.
