Holy Strength In Our Hearts

1 Cor. 1:3-9; Psalm 28:1-3, 6-9

            Do you enjoy watching movie villains?    There are legendary and obviously evil ones such as The Wicked Witch from the West, Darth Vader, and more recently, He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named-but-I’m-going-to-anyway, Lord Voldemort.     

            There are also legendary but a bit less obviously evil ones, characters you may reluctantly find yourself feeling sorry for or even relating to on some level.   I’m thinking about villains bent on revenge, like Khan from Star Trek, villains whose hearts have become cold and institutionalized like Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and villains who both horrify and oddly intrigue us like Hannibal Lecter from The Silence of the Lambs.  

            And let’s not forget that there are those who are just plain super fun to watch.  These are usually the creepy but cartoonish ones.   Seven foot tall Richard Kiel as the villain named Jaws in James Bond’s The Spy Who Loved Me comes right to mind.  

            Of course, if you are more of reader, you’ll notice most really great movie villains also happen to have been born in books.        It’s then up casting directors to find just the right actor for the costume and make-up crews to bring to life.  

            When I read Psalm 28 earlier this week, one particular movie villain popped up in my mind like colorful cardboard rising from the center of a book.    This guy’s dark heart is not as easy to identify as, say, The Joker.    I know that many of you here likely have not seen or read about this character, while others of you know the name Seneca Crane quite well.   He’s a character from last year’s first movie adaptation of the popular book series, The Hunger Games.           Seneca Crane is not as obviously evil as his boss, President Snow, whose name rightly identifies him as one cold to the core human being.    But he’s evil in the way our Psalm today describes – he works for the sake of keeping order and peace among a certain society, but he’s the best at doing this because there is nothing but mischief in his heart.

            He’s not menacing looking.   His handsomeness and cool, sophisticated manner balance out his swirling inner darkness.   This said, Hollywood did a great job dressing and grooming the actor to look like what I believe he represents … since he wears black and red and has a thin beard with all sorts of horn curls.    They made him look like what our imaginations have been trained to picture is the Devil.   And he is every ounce as sinister because his job is designing gladiator, fight-to-an-awful-death games.   He does this as a form of entertainment, of reality-TV, for the powerful and elite people in his society.  More horrifying is who he and his government force to participate in these games -- tweens and teens, especially those who are most poverty-stricken, underprivileged, and hence supposedly “weaker” ones.  

            Seneca Crane is an evil mischief maker.    He comes across as acting for some greater cause, but his corrupt heart is really striving only to protect and build up his own reputation and status.   And as it often happens in the real world, his character ends up getting consumed by his own evil strategizing.

            Again, this villain popped into my mind as I read Psalm 28, especially verse 3, earlier this week.  This Psalm firmly reminds us to beware of this sort of person’s smooth but deeply mischievous talk and appearance.  And it warns us against becoming this sort of duplicitous person, for it only leads to brokenness within ourselves and with our good, loving God.  

            There was at least one wicked villain that the writer of this Psalm was struggling against.    So he or she (but most likely King David) cried out to God for holy strengthening and protection.   This cry arose from a place of deep trust within this faithful person’s heart … deep trust in God’s sovereignty, God’s unbreakable rule, over all the many ways of evil.   

            After crying out against those who are workers of evil, who have nothing but sinful mischief in their hearts, the Psalmist offers great praise with the words, “Blessed be the Lord, for he has heard the sound of my pleadings.” (v.6).   A newer translation of this verse, from The Message, has the Psalmist singing it this way – “God … heard me praying, proved he’s on my side … now I’m jumping for joy, and shouting and singing my thanks …”    

            The overwhelming Good News of this Psalm is that God listens to us and responds in holy ways that strengthen us when we need it most.   And it’s also good news to be reminded by this Psalm, as well as by most other the Psalms in our Bible, that sin is defined as trusting in and depending on yourself instead of God.   This mischief is part of every one of us.   It constantly tempts us to disregard the works of God.   It counts on us getting totally self-absorbed, so much so that our thoughts and actions fail to participate in the good and orderly ways that God wants for all of creation and humanity.  

            As the Psalmist seems to have felt, this mischief wants to drag us away and break us down so that we believe destruction and death are the ultimate reality.   When we let this mischief rule our hearts and minds, we can indeed end up like Seneca Crane … locked in an opulent room with only an elegant bowl set before us, stuck with no real choice but to eat the deadly nightlock berries it offers.

            We Christians always have a better choice.   With great trust, we can choose to give thanks for and be strengthened by the amazing grace that God has given to us in Jesus Christ.    Jesus knew the deep mischief within us all very well.  He spent forty days out in a wilderness fighting it off.   And near the end of His life on earth, He faithfully resisted as it tempted Him to turn away from God, to save just Himself, and to walk away from his divine destiny as the Lord and Savior of the world.    Jesus taught us by his own very powerful example never to let mischief rule our hearts.  In Him, we know to keep trusting in the good plans of God.   This trust is what leads to true peace.

            The apostle Paul spoke to this when he wrote a letter to some of the very first Christians.   We heard some of it in our first Bible reading today.  He preached that when we put our trust in the heart of our Lord, we are “enriched” and “strengthened” in speech and knowledge.  We are given every spiritual gift to keep us in faithful fellowship with God, all of humanity, and all of creation.    

            There are always going to be mischievous villains on screen and in our actual lives.   We need to be vigilant in asking God to help guard our hearts against sin.   God will do this for us, for God has already our hearts for good in Jesus Christ.   Our Lord is indeed our strength and our shield.  Amen.