July 20, 2008
Rev. Kip Gilts

         “A mighty fortress is our God.”  What images come to mind when you hear that one phrase that has echoed through the centuries on every continent?  So many come to mind for me: Snow forts in Findlay, Ohio, mountains hideaways protecting the weary traveler from lightning storms and strong winds, the walls surrounding Jerusalem, underground hideouts, bomb shelters, and so many others.  What images come to your mind?  I think the best refuge for me came a little over fourteen years ago.  I was on my first international trip and was so excited.  My passport was crisp and fresh, my sense of adventure at its height.  Tammy and I were on our way to Israel.  We flew KLM, which meant we had to fly through Amsterdam.  There we had a twelve-hour layover after an all night flight.  My enthusiasm was waning just a bit.  KLM thought it best to take us on an excursion to the North Sea rather than leave us in the airport for half a day.  We went to a quaint village of Marken where we were told, we would be greeted by townspeople in traditional Dutch dress and mill about as they had for centuries.  Instead we found a fierce wind blowing over a frigid sea and every townsperson was in hiding.  Most of the shops were closed except for one that faced the biting wind and angry sea.  We made our way into the store and closed the door.  Forty-six people in a store built for 12, but we didn’t mind being cramped over the cold.  We were sure that we had found ein feste burg, a mighty fortress.  I even bought this scarf to remind me of that place and to protect my ears on the quick walk back to the bus.

Today as we continue our series of sermons entitled, Summer Music Fest 2008, we come to what is often called the “National Anthem of Protestantism”.  A mighty fortress is our God was written by Martin Luther and is based on the Psalm that you heard recited by Sterling.  I invite you to hear it again, only this time you needn’t read along.  I encourage you to remove everything from your lap, get into a position that is comfortable without any crossed limbs.  Close your eyes and take a deep breath, breathing in a sense of God’s peace and breathing out any sense of stress.  Breathe in a readiness for God’s Word and breathe out all distractions.  Listen to the scripture as if for the very first time.  Hear now the word of the Lord:

1God is our refuge and strength,
   a very present help in trouble.
2Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change,
   though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;
3though its waters roar and foam,
   though the mountains tremble with its tumult.          Selah

4There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
   the holy habitation of the Most High.
5God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved;
   God will help it when the morning dawns.
6The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter;
   he utters his voice, the earth melts.
7The Lord of hosts is with us;
   the God of Jacob is our refuge.          Selah

8Come, behold the works of the Lord;
   see what desolations he has brought on the earth.
9He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
   he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear;
   he burns the shields with fire.
10’Be still, and know that I am God!
   I am exalted among the nations,
   I am exalted in the earth.’
¹¹The Lord of hosts is with us;
   the God of Jacob is our refuge.

In this psalm the writer encouraged his readers by providing an eternal perspective on a temporal predicament.  Let us pray.

A mighty fortress is our God – what incredible comfort those words can bring.  They tell us that God is our refuge of protection, a river of presence, and a ruler of providence.  Let those words sink deep in your soul this morning, A mighty fortress is our God.

God is a Refuge of Protection

This was the first proclamation of the psalmist and it was a bold proclamation born out of experience.  Most scholars believe that this psalm was written after Hezekiah and his fellow citizens of Jerusalem had been delivered from Sennacharib’s far superior Assyrian army.  The scene is described in 2 Kings 19 where 185,000 enemy forces died overnight and the king himself was taken out by his own men.  The tiny nation of Judah did nothing except hide in the protection of God.  But God is not portrayed as a protection from terrible things, God is described as the protector in the midst of terrible things, when the earth gives way, when mountains themselves plunge in the seas, and when waters wash over the land in a torrent.

We have all either known such times or known people experiencing such times.  This summer has seen the unpredictable soaring of a book entitled, The Shack to the Bestsellers list.  It is number one on the New York Times list in its category and number two overall in sales at Amazon.com.   It is a story of a dad who experiences the tragic loss of a child.  From that moment on there is a Great Sadness that Mack knew all too well.  The author wrote, “The Great Sadness had draped itself around Mack’s shoulder like some invisible but almost tangibly heavy quilt.  The weight of its presence dulled his eyes and stooped his shoulders.  Even his efforts to shake it off were exhausting, as if his arms were sewn into its bleak folds of despair and he had somehow become part of it.  He ate, worked, loved, dreamed, and played in this garment of heaviness, weighed down as if he were wearing a leaden robe – trudging daily through the murky despondency that sucked the color out of everything.”  The description of grief and its frequent companion, depression, is enough to launch the sale of this book.

           I had read that portion of the book just before visiting the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs a week and a half ago.  I had been to the OTC one other time.  It was the day after Ricky Deci, a junior Olympian and the son of my friends, died at the age of 13 after doing a workout at the gymnastic building.  Outside that building we planted a tree in Ricky’s memory.  I went to see the tree and to remember this incredible young athlete and committed follower of Christ.  The Great Sadness draped itself over me as I approached that tree.  I knew that was but a fraction of the quilt that had been draped around the shoulders of his family.  Like the last time that I visited that place, words were unavailable.  All I could do was weep and pray.  Sometimes that is all we can do, seek shelter in the refuge until the storm passes. 

A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing; our helper he amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing.

Fortunately there is more to this book and more to this psalm than hiding in the refuge of protection that is God.  A mighty fortress is our God.

God is a River of Presence

God is in the midst of her.  The psalmist wrote this psalm with three stanzas, and while the first speaks of God as a refuge and the last speaks of God as a providential ruler, the middle stanza refers to God as the river of presence.  While everything is falling apart in the first stanza, there is a pastoral picture of peace in the middle stanza.  Look at the beauty of this image, “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.” 

           In our recent trip to Colorado we spent a lot of time in the mountains where it was cooler.  We were blessed by the remnants of a snowfall that had come about a week before our arrival.  The snow was starting to melt when we arrived, which meant that the rivers and streams were full of clear, swift moving water that caused everything around us to teem with life.  It was a vivid picture of what the writer must have imagined in this psalm.  Right in the middle of it all and what made the psalmist write such words of comfort - was the presence of God.

I read this week of the last days of John Wesley.  Wesley was notorious for journaling every day of his life.  He wrote of visitors he had, sermons he delivered, books he had read, prayers that had been offered, and all sorts of things.  True to himself he was writing on the next to the last day of his life.  He had grown too weak to write legibly and was asked by his friend if she could write for him, “Let me write for you, sir; tell me what would you say?” 

He whispered, “Nothing, but that God is with us.”  Friends started to gather to be with the man who had meant so much to them.  He tried to speak to them, but they could not understand his feeble words, so the aged Wesley summoned all his strength and said, “The best of all is, God is with us!” and then with even more conviction he raised his arms in the air in a gesture of victory and said once again, “The best of all is, God is with us!”

Never read through this psalm so quickly or live through a day so swiftly that you miss that phrase, “God is in the midst.”  The best of all is, God is with us! 

Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing, were not the right man on our side, the man of God’s own choosing. Dost ask who that may be?  Christ Jesus, it is he; Lord Sabbaoth, his name, from age to age the same, and he must win the battle.

Indeed, a mighty fortress is our God.  God is a refuge of protection, a river of presence and…

God is a Ruler of Providence

After all the powerful words and pastoral images of this psalm the reader is instructed, “Be still, and know that I am God.”  What more is needed than those incredible words.  So often we struggle and demand that we call the shots, but God calmly yet convincingly claims, “I am God” and that is enough. 

That was the lesson that Hezekiah needed to learn when facing the Assyrians.  It was the lesson that Mack needed to learn in The Shack when confronting his grief.  It is the lesson that Josh Hamilton, this week’s baseball hero, needed to learn in his hopeless battle with drug addiction.  I have been fascinated by this story of the guy that had 53,000 Yankee fans chanting his name Monday night at the Home Run Derby of the All-Star game.  Josh Hamilton was the first draft pick in 1999.  He was fresh out of high school, had a four million dollar signing bonus, and a chance to develop in the minor leagues.  In 2001 he had a car accident and started experimenting with drugs.  For the next four years he was in and out of rehab eight times, prayed often to die, and did not play baseball for four years.  Then he did something he had never done before.  He said, “I got better for one reason: I surrendered. Instead of asking to be bailed out, instead of making deals with God by saying, ‘If you get me out of this mess, I’ll stop doing what I’m doing,’ I asked for help. I wouldn’t do that before.”  Josh Hamilton is convinced that the whole reason he had the night that he had Monday was so that he could tell a huge audience of the amazing miracle God had done in his life.  In an interview with Sports Illustrated last year he said, “There’s a reason my prayers (to die) weren’t answered during those dark, messed-up nights I spent scared out of my mind. There’s a reason I have this blessed and unexpected opportunity to play baseball and tell people my story.”   That reason, according to Josh Hamilton has to do with the providence of God who desires to use this young man to encourage others who have given up all hope of ever getting any better.

           And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us, we will not fear, for God hath willed his truth to triumph through us.  The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him; his rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure; one little word shall fell him.

That word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them, abideth; the Spirit and the gifts are ours, thru him who with us sideth.  Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also; the body they may kill; God’s truth abideth still; his kingdom is forever.

Martin Luther is said to made three important contributions to the church.  First, is the reminder that we are saved by grace alone.  Second, he insisted that the scriptures be available to all people in their own native language.  Third, he was convinced the singing had to be congregational.   He wrote, “After theology, there is nothing that can be placed on a level with music. It drives out the devil and makes people cheerful. It is a gift that God gave to birds and to men. We need to remove hymn singing from the domain of monks and priests and set the laity to singing.  By the singing of hymns the laity can publicly express their love to the Almighty God.”

It is no wonder that on his tombstone at Eisleben is carved, Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott, which means, A mighty fortress is our God.  How true.  God is our refuge of protection, a river of presence and a ruler of providence.  A mighty fortress is our God.  Amen.