We
aren’t sure exactly when Peter wrote this letter to a group of early Christian
churches, but we are sure about one thing: something was testing the members of
those church to their limits. Peter encouraged his readers to stand “firm in
the faith” as they “participate in the sufferings of Christ.” Were they
enduring one of the many persecutions that the early Christians experienced
from the Roman empire? It’s possible. But regardless of the particular
situation in which Peter’s churches found themselves, I’m sure that they
questioned where in the world God was in the middle of it. You can hear Peter’s
encourage them that God was right there with them, no matter what their
experiences seem to indicate. “Stand firm in the faith!” he told them. “The God
of all grace will himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and
steadfast!”
We
need to hear that encouragement, too, when we go through our own fiery ordeals.
Oh, we may not be persecuted because we are Christians; but our faith is
certainly tested over and over again. This weekend is the time that we set
aside each year for remembering our military men and women who were killed
while defending our country. My guess is that they, too, questioned whether God
was with them as they faced their own fiery ordeal. Soldiers, sailors, and
pilots wrestle with that question all the time; and they keep military
chaplains very busy, indeed. Now, it is very easy for those of us who are
sitting safely on a picnic bench enjoying a grilled burger and homemade potato
salad in beautiful late May weather to glibly answer, “Oh, I’m sure that God’s
right there with you!” But that’s not always obvious to men and women who have
seen their comrades die right in front of them. Where is God in this fiery
ordeal, anyway?
Let’s
take a step back for just a minute and examine that question. God has always
been connected with war in one way or another. The Old Testament is full of
stories about God fighting on behalf of God’s people. These stories are rooted
in the ancient belief that every tribe had its own god; and that one of the
jobs of that god was to go to battle on behalf of the people who worshipped
him. Victory in battle proved that your god was the biggest, baddest god
around! Israel was no different. They believed that Yahweh led them into war
and fought on their behalf. Where is God? Why, God is the one leading the
attack, just like Teddy Roosevelt led his Rough Riders in their charge up San
Juan Hill!
Lots
of people believe this. We’ve all heard about radical Muslims who pray to Allah
as they exterminate people they consider to be heathens. The terrorists who
destroyed the World Trade Center on 9/11 did just that. Even some Christians
buy into this kind of thinking. Because we believe that God loves us {which God
does) and because we see ourselves as faithful Christians (which, in most
cases, we are), we fall into the trap of believing that God is always on our
side in war. But maybe we need to rethink that. The book of Joshua contains a
little story about an angel who meets Joshua on the evening of a crucial
battle. Now, if anyone had the right to expect God to fight for him, it was
Joshua! He had been commissioned by Moses himself to take command of the Israelites
after Moses’ death. Under Joshua’s leadership, God’s people have crossed the
Jordan River; and Joshua intends to led them in battle against the Canaanites.
On the eve of the battle of Jericho – a battle that, by the way, he was
fighting on God’s orders – Joshua had a very puzzling encounter. This is how
the book of Joshua tells it. “Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up
and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua
went up to him and asked, ‘Are you for us or for our enemies?’ ‘Neither,’ he
replied, ‘but as commander of the army of the Lord I have come.’” (Joshua
5:13-14) Neither for them nor against them? Why, then, is that angel there at
all? Maybe it was to remind Joshua that God is far above our political concerns.
God is above “taking sides.” Taking sides is for third-graders on the
playground who are caught up in the middle of petty squabbles. We expect
third-graders to choose up sides, and to side with their friends. But God? God
doesn’t take sides. On the contrary, we are the ones who are called by God to
take a side! In the midst of our fiery ordeals, the real question to ask is
“are we for God… or are we against God?”
Abraham
Lincoln struggled with difficult decisions when he was President in the midst
of the Civil War. The story is told that he had invited a group of leaders to
the White House one day to help him in making some of those decisions. At the
end of the meeting one of those leaders asked, “Mr. President, can we pray that
God stays on our side?” Abraham Lincoln’s wise response was, “Sir, my concern
is not whether God is on our side. My greatest concern is whether we are on
God's side.” God doesn’t take sides. After all, both North and South were
convinced that God was on their side! No, we are the ones who are called to
take sides. We are called to be on God’s side. Are we on God’s side? In
particular, are we on God’s side when we must go to war? Surely every soldier
is on God’s side when he or she is willing to lay down his life for the good of
her country, regardless of the political cause for which they are fighting! In
the Gospel of John, Jesus says, “Greater love has no one than this, that they
are willing to lay down their life for their friends.” Sacrifice for a greater
good is surely taking the side of a God who has sacrificed himself for our
welfare!
And
that brings us back to our original question. If we can’t say that God is on
our side politically when we are in the midst of a fiery ordeal; then is God
there at all? The story of Joshua meeting the angel gives us a clue to the
answer. Although God may not be leading us in battle, fighting for us or
against us, God presence will surely be at the side of every single military
man and woman who is prepared to die for their country and for their comrades.
God most certainly is at their side in their fiery ordeal. Wherever our
soldiers are called to fight; whatever they are called to do in battle; and
whether they live or die, God has promised never to leave them alone.
God
has been at the side of our soldiers down throughout our history.
God
was at Lexington when the Minutemen took their first shots at the British, and
God shivered with Washington’s army in the bitter cold of Valley Forge.
God
was at Fort McHenry as the British rained bombs on it; and God stood next to
Francis Scott Key on a ship in the harbor as he wrote “The Star Spangled
Banner.”
God
was at the Alamo when its little band of warriors was exterminated by a Mexican
army.
God
took cover in the Bloody Lane at Antietam, and charged bravely forward with
General Pickett’s men at Gettysburg.
God
endured the trenches of World War I, and walked among the poppies in Flanders
Fields.
God
flew with the Royal Air Force during the Battle of Britain, and waded ashore
with our GIs on Omaha Beach.
God
sweltered in the steaming jungle rivers of Vietnam, and endured years of
captivity in the Hanoi Hilton.
Even
today, God stands guard duty in the burning heat of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Wherever
there are soldiers, sailors, or pilots who are willing to lay down their lives
for those of us at home, God is there, too – with them in battle, in life and
in death – because God loves us more than anything. As God’s presence will
never leave us, God will never leave them, either! Thanks be to God for God’s
eternal loving presence; thanks be to Jesus Christ for showing us what that
love looks like; and thanks be to the Spirit who gives us the courage to show
that love ourselves!
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