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Saturday, June 19, 2004
Sermon: "The Force Be With You"
Scripture: Psalm 46
Reverend Larry Gerber

High-tech weaponry is a staple of the Star Wars series, from light sabers to laser cannons. But otherworldly weapons are not limited to movies any more - we can see them on the nightly news. What's our very-present help in times of trouble?
It happened a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. The year was 1977, and in so many ways we were all living on a different planet.

The Soviet Union was America's biggest threat. Disco ruled. Students wrote papers on typewriters. No one was surfing the Internet. Cell phones were not chirping in church services. Jane, our daughters, and I were still living in New York State, and serving a small peaceful country church of 250. Tthe first Star Wars movie appeared, and in it an impetuous young hero named Luke Skywalker was told that Obi-Wan Kenobi had fought with Skywalker's father in "the Clone Wars."

At the time, no one thought a thing about it. People were too stunned by the film's groundbreaking special effects to notice any mention of "the Clone Wars."
But now, the war has started.

Two years ago, the fifth film of the popular Star Wars series debuted: Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones. This is the sequel to 1999's Episode I - The Phantom Menace, and a prequel to the very first 1977 Star Wars, which has been renamed A New Hope.

Attack of the Clones picks up 10 years after the action in The Phantom Menace. The galaxy is in turmoil. Thousands of solar systems are threatening to secede from the Galactic Republic under the leadership of a charismatic separatist. Without a standing army of the Republic, the overwhelmed Jedi Knights struggle to maintain order as the very foundation of peace and democracy is in jeopardy.

Now you'll have to visit the multiplex to see just how this fighting plays out, but you can be sure that there will be some thrilling deep space battle scenes. High-tech weaponry has always been a staple of the Star Wars series, from light sabers to laser cannons, and the destruction of evil forces has consistently included spectacular cinematic pyrotechnics.
But otherworldly weapons are not limited to movies any more. We can see them on the nightly news.
These days , our planes are sleek and characterless, our professionals are more clean-shaven, and the right color makeup technicians, than warriors, their faces lit by the phosphors of a glowing screen, their language of battle techno-crisp and parsed. Only a few of our thousands of men and women in and around Afghanistan even bother to carry rifles; the rest carry cell phones and credit cards."

And how about signs that the galaxy is in turmoil? Once again, you don't have to pay $8 to see such scenes in Star Wars: Episode II. Click on CNN, and you'll catch all the death and destruction your stomach can handle.

Not that this is anything new. "The nations are in an uproar," observes Psalm 46, "the kingdoms totter" (v. 6). Since biblical times, and even before, there have been countless international struggles, civil wars and divisive plots hatched by charismatic separatists. Ambitious leaders have made selfish grabs for power, while good and noble people have struggled to maintain order and preserve the peace. Truly, there's nothing new under the sun - or under the stars. The saga of Star Wars is only the latest retelling of the eternal struggle between good and evil.

Attack of the Clones, in other words, is a clone of the conflict we know only too well.

Of course if you are not a Star Wars follower, you might catch some similar action on The Left Behind Series of the end times.

In such a troubled world, can we really believe that "The LORD of hosts is with us" (v. 7), a very present help in trouble?

Any witness for Christ in 21C must be able to deal with this question and answer convincingly. And the answer must be more than the pseudo-spirituality of "May the Force be with you." If God is not more than a fuzzy feeling, or an intuitive impulse we feel after singing "God Bless America," God is no God at all, and we might as well pack it in and be done with it. This is not the theology of Scripture, or the answer the masses are looking for.

The Yawheh of the psalmist is more than a mere Force like that relied upon by the Jedi Knights. He is, instead, the one and only creator and ruler of the universe. Look at the language of the text. God is a "refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble" (v. 1). The God of Jacob, we're told, is a "fortress" (v. 7, NIV). He breaks bows, shatters spears and burns shields. If the earth implodes, God is God (v. 2), if the Himalayas are tossed into the depths of the Atlantic, God is God (v. 2); come typhoons, hurricanes and earthquakes, God is God (v. 3).

In short, God is in control. Charismatic separatists and Islamic terrorists may make a grab for ultimate power, but they are doomed to fail. No individuals or cells or movements or nations can overwhelm the agenda of the one true God, the one who is "a great king over all the earth" (Psalm 47:2).

The question: In such a troubled world, can we really believe that "The LORD of hosts is with us" (v. 7), a very present help in trouble?

Yes. God's presence is not simply a neutral power, like the Force of Star Wars that can be used for either good or evil. Instead, God's power is directed "for us," for our good and for our benefit. The original Hebrew of verse 1 actually reads, "God is for us a refuge and strength."

God is for us. Not that God is "for us" and not for anyone else. No need to wave the American flag here. In our darkest hour, God comes to us as refuge, strength, fortress, a God who is "for us" all that we need.

It is God's very nature to be for us a tower of strength, a rock of Gibraltar, a fortress of protection. This is who God is; this is what God does.

Let's not reduce God to a mere Force, or even consider our calling to be akin to that of a Jedi Knight. The power of God is available not just to a few Christian knights particularly skilled at using it, but to all. And God is not a nameless, faceless force that has power only if used by a master, but God is rather a personal, identifiable Being who is affirmatively "for us."

Notice that the psalmist does not refer to God as the God of Abraham, but the God of Jacob. Of all the patriarchs, Jacob is the scoundrel, fast-talker, wheeler-dealer, snake-oil salesman. But Jacob is also the "go-to" guy who gets the job done, the fellow who doesn't buy into sentimental claptrap. If God is a refuge and fortress, Jacob's the one to put it to the test. He's the one on Gilgal duking it out with the Angel of the Lord, and the one who spent the rest of his life looking for a hip replacement. Jacob knows God, and God knows Jacob. And if God has a resume, Jacob is a personal reference. God is, in fact, who God says he is: a mountain-mover, earth-shaker, fortress, refuge and strength. And Jacob and his tribe know it.

Back to our question: In such a troubled world, can we really believe that "The LORD of hosts is with us" (v. 7), a very present help in trouble?

Yes. Thus, the psalmist's advice: Shut up and listen. If you do, you will know that I am God (v. 10)

God rocks. God rules. God is God.
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Sources:
Hunter, Stephen. "Dressed to kill." The
Washington Post, November 26, 2001, C1.

McCann, J. Clinton Jr., "The book of Psalms."
The New Interpreter's Bible [Nashville:
Abingdon Press, 1996], 864-65.
"Ten Years Later," Star Wars Web site.
Starwars.com. Retrieved November 20,
2001.