Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16
1 Timothy 6 (selected verses)
Jay Rowland
The Good Fight
In the fall of 1976 I entered 7th grade at Susan B. Anthony Junior High School in South Minneapolis. … I was 12 years old.
What I remember most about those two years of junior high is the energy I spent avoiding bullies.
For someone as little and as lightweight as I was, avoiding bullies was Survival 101
But it was also a fool’s errand.
Because you gotta go to class, you gotta take the bus, you gotta do what you gotta do.
And they do too.
All my life, guys were always bigger and stronger, tougher and meaner than me. And in junior high some felt compelled to remind me of this (in case I forgot?)
… between classes
… or during lunch recess
… or at my morning bus stop.
You might perceive that 7th and 8th grade were not my favorite years; too many knuckle-heads determined to humiliate pip-squeaks like me.
I remember wishing, if only I was bigger,
or at least a scrappy little fighter with a mean streak and a reputation
and a sneaky left hook.
But that just wasn’t me.
So I had to summon the courage to walk out my front door every morning because one of those bigger, stronger, meaner dudes rode the same bus as me and waited at the same bus stop as me.
I remember starting most of my days feeling a lump in my throat and a sinking feeling in the pit of my gut as I walked to my bus stop each morning.
If I ever thought about Jesus back then it didn’t last long. I was too preoccupied by my daily predicament. I didn’t think Jesus could help me if He even cared to.
But I never gave Him the chance.
I didn’t realize back then Jesus could have become a vital lifeline.
It didn’t occur to me then. But I know it now.
And I remember this every time I drive past or walk into a middle school.
And I remember what it was like for me.
What I didn’t know then is that Jesus faced bullies too.
On a regular basis.
He faced real bullies, in real-time, without any script. Real bullies with real power. And allies.
And armies too.
Jesus faced them all
armed only with the love of God,
twelve friends
and a multitude of followers comprised of the rejected and the despised,
the wounded and the weak,
and the lost.
Today I understand that God values
and blesses
and expects us to value human dignity and decency and kindness
wherever it is found. Just as I naturally did as a 12-year-old, just as we all naturally do.
What I know now but didn’t know then
is that God stands with the vulnerable and the weak
all who are preyed upon by the strong and the arrogant.
I offered a different translation for Psalm 91, and changed some of the verses from the Timothy passage assigned in the lectionary in order to highlight God’s expectations articulated and proclaimed throughout Psalm 91 and affirmed in Paul’s letter to Timothy.
My experiences as a 12-year-old in 7th grade sensitized me to other situations where the strong prey upon the weak. And for that I’m grateful today; even though at the time I was not.
I got older and wiser and realized that bullies are not limited to middle school, or any school, or any one place; bullies are out there. Everywhere. They always have been. They’re never hard to find.
They continue roaming the hallways and highways of our lives.
Some rising to the heights of the World Stage
bullying their way and their view of world.
I can’t help but grieve how unnecessary that is, to have strength and power
but use it to oppress others, inflicting damage and torment upon the innocent.
Rather than uphold the wounded and the suffering.
Hard as it is to accept, it reveals the beauty of the Gospel and the power of Jesus Christ
spiritually enabling us and empowering us to face life on life’s terms.
Paul passed on to Timothy what he learned first-hand
that bullies are not only “out there” they’re in the church too.
Paul invited people from diverse backgrounds and faiths and cultures;
a volatile mixture of myths and heresies. That was the church. And it still is.
As the Timothy passage reveals, Paul was continually refuting false teachings and interpretations of the power of Jesus Christ in the church.
Some were adept at attaching personal and cultural preferences and expectations, teachings that intentionally distorted the truth God reveals to the world in the person and life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
These distortions were circulating in the very congregations and people that Paul invited into the Gospel community, the early churches he founded:
3 Some people will teach what is false and will not agree with the true teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Here Paul is describing for Timothy what he (Paul) is facing from people inside the church communities he founded, people intentionally creating confusion and division in these new and vulnerable church communities:
They will not accept the teaching that produces a life of devotion to God. 4They are proud of what they know, but they understand nothing. They are sick with a love for arguing and fighting about words. And that brings jealousy, quarrels, insults, and evil mistrust. 5They are always making trouble, because they are people whose thinking has been confused. They have lost their understanding of the truth. They think that devotion to God is a way to get rich. (1Timothy6:3-5 ERV)
If I hadn’t known this came from the Bible I might have thought it came from a recent Op/Ed piece. Remarkable—two-thousand years later, these words still resonate.
This passage bears witness to what we know all too well today
but perhaps don’t realize about the earliest faith communities,
how even there, the strong couldn’t resist the impulse to bully and torment the weak.
But the good news is that God,
our God,
is all about rescuing everyday people from the traps and snares of bullies and their strong-armed tactics. And the sneaky ways some people twist and manipulate the truth for their own purposes leaving God’s people confused and divided.
If we ever doubt or forget that God stands with the vulnerable and the lost and the weak, with all who are oppressed and tormented by the proud and the arrogant and the strong in any community but especially in the community of faith, Psalm 91 is a powerful reminder.
So I am going to repeat these verses, yes! Again!
When these words pass through the air, I pray that the power of God expressed in this Psalm may rest deep in your soul and deep in your heart … and that it may speak to you wherever you are right now. And give you courage to face life right now on life’s terms:
3 God will save you from hidden dangers
and from deadly diseases.
4 You can go to him for protection.
He will cover you like a bird spreading its wings over its babies.
You can trust him to surround and protect you like a shield.
5 You will have nothing to fear at night
and no need to be afraid of enemy arrows during the day.
6 You will have no fear of diseases that come in the dark
or terrible suffering that comes at noon.
My 12-year-old self would not have been impressed.
Because God isn’t promising to remove any bullies or enemies from our midst.
The pain they inflict still happens and it still hurts.
Deeply.
Way down deep in the spirit and soul.
Believing in God does not change any of that.
But I’ve learned over time how God’s presence changes ME.
And how it changes God’s people.
Changing our impulse to fight power with power, to meet violence with violence, to oppose force with force, and to instead lean deeper into Jesus
who empowers and resides most meaningfully in community,
who reveals the power that comes when we realize
that we don’t face the bullies of life and grief alone.
God spoke through this Psalm long ago; God speaks through it still.
Reminding us that however bleak our present moments may seem,
God holds our future in God’s Heart.
God speaks words of life to us each day,
when we feel on top of the mountain where life is good,
and when we are suffering alone in anguish, reeling from illness or regret or grief.
God’s words of Life call out
again and again and again.
For God comes to guide us and to help us make our way
through this at-times harrowing and wonder-filled life.
God comes alongside us to help us fight the good fight:
14 The Lord says, “If someone trusts me, I will save them.
I will protect my followers who call to me for help.
15 When my followers call to me, I will answer them.
I will be with them when they are in trouble.
I will rescue them and honor them.
16 I will give my followers a long life
and show them my power to save.
Long life is ordinary life affirmed by the power of God
alive in communities of faith
and wherever we are held when we’re falling or lost or empty or grieving.
Long life is a place within and a place held
by community. A place where people return day after day, week after week, year after year, generation after generation.
A place where we are met by the God who saves.
The God who loves.
Show us, O Lord, your power to Save.
Speak your life-affirming words again. Speak Lord. We are listening.
Speak to us and empower us O God
to live
in the name
and in the Love of Jesus Christ.
Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16 Easy-to-Read Version (ERV)
You can go to God Most High to hide.
You can go to God All-Powerful for protection.
2 I say to the Lord, “You are my place of safety, my fortress.
My God, I trust in you.”
3 God will save you from hidden dangers
and from deadly diseases.
4 You can go to him for protection.
He will cover you like a bird spreading its wings over its babies.
You can trust him to surround and protect you like a shield.
5 You will have nothing to fear at night
and no need to be afraid of enemy arrows during the day.
6 You will have no fear of diseases that come in the dark
or terrible suffering that comes at noon.
14 The Lord says, “If someone trusts me, I will save them.
I will protect my followers who call to me for help.
15 When my followers call to me, I will answer them.
I will be with them when they are in trouble.
I will rescue them and honor them.
16 I will give my followers a long life
and show them my power to save.
1 Timothy 6 selected verses (3-5, 11-16) (ERV)
3 Some people will teach what is false and will not agree with the true teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ. They will not accept the teaching that produces a life of devotion to God.
4 They are proud of what they know, but they understand nothing. They are sick with a love for arguing and fighting about words. And that brings jealousy, quarrels, insults, and evil mistrust.
5 They are always making trouble, because they are people whose thinking has been confused. They have lost their understanding of the truth. They think that devotion to God is a way to get rich.
11 But you belong to God. So ... stay away from all those things. Always try to do what is right, to be devoted to God, and to have faith, love, patience, and gentleness.
12 We have to fight to keep our faith. Try as hard as you can to win that fight. Take hold of eternal life. It is the life you were chosen to have when you confessed your faith in Jesus—that wonderful truth that you spoke so openly and that so many people heard.
13 Before God and Christ Jesus I give you a command. Jesus is the one who confessed that same wonderful truth when he stood before Pontius Pilate. And God is the one who gives life to everything. Now I tell you this:
14 Do what you were [born] to do without fault or blame until the time when our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.
15 God will make that happen at the right time. God is the blessed and only Ruler. … the King of all kings and the Lord of all lords.
16 God is the only one who never dies. [God] lives in light so bright that people cannot go near it. No one has ever seen [God]; no one is able to see [God]. All honor and power belong to [God] forever. Amen.
