I wonder if you ever feel overtaken by events, or if you ever feel overwhelmed. A couple of weeks ago I got up one Monday morning and had a whole plan for how the week was going to go, people I was going to meet, services I was going to prepare for, I was looking forward to it. By the evening I had a slight tickle in my throat, a bit of a cough, nothing too bad, just enough to notice. I pretty much spent the next four days in bed, and I still haven’t shaken the cough. All those conversations with people had to be rearranged, colleagues covered services for me. I had been completely overtaken by events. I had been overwhelmed.
A fairly trivial example, I know, there’s far more serious things that derail our lives, that can cause us to feel overwhelmed. There are conflicts going on around the world now that have seriously overtaken the people involved, and as we read and hear about them we can end up feeling overwhelmed. How much more is that the case for those who have been and are intimately involved.
In our first reading this morning we read about a battle that had overtaken God’s people. They had been led out of slavery in Egypt by Moses, and were making their way through the desert. As they were travelling they were attacked by a hostile tribe, the Amalekites. Moses instructs his general, Joshua, to defend the caravan of women, children, animals, with men of military age, whilst he supports from the mountain top. So, off goes Joshua with the army and engages the enemy while Moses prays for them, arms extended. And for a while, all goes well, but then Moses arms get tired, and he lowers them, and the battle turns, so Moses raises his arms again, and all is well, until he tires. And so on. Until he and his friends Aaron and Hur come up with the plan that they will hold Moses arms up until the battle is won.
Ordinary people overtaken by events, in danger of being overwhelmed. A man praying on his own, wanting to persevere, but not having the strength himself to keep his arms up. Probably not really understanding why it made a difference if he held his arms up or not. A man accepting the help of others, people working together to provide the (literal) support that was needed to keep the community defended, safe, and to bring peace.
But more than this, a God who acts in human history. It wasn’t the skill or strength of the soldiers that won the battle, otherwise the angle of Moses arms wouldn’t have had any effect. It was important that the soldiers were willing to put their lives on the line, but they didn’t win the battle. It wasn’t Moses, or Aaron and Hur, that won the battle, though they had their part to play. It was God’s intervention in response to persistent and persevering prayer that made the difference.
In our reading from Luke’s carefully researched account of Jesus’ life and ministry we hear Jesus warning his friends and followers about a time that is coming in which events will overtake them, and in which they might feel overwhelmed. In the final days of his life on earth Jesus tells them about some of the things that are going to happen once he was returned to his Father in heaven. There is going to be conflict and persecution, but it isn’t just bad news, Jesus also tells them what to do when these things come. He tells them not to fear and to stand firm.
Now that, is easy to say and not so easy to do when we’re in the middle of the events that are overtaking us, or when we feel overwhelmed. Later on in Luke, in chapter 24, we read about a conversation that happened about a week later, when Jesus had been raised from the dead. On his first resurrection appearance to his gathered disciples the first thing he says is, “Peace be with you.”
Of course, they’re completely freaked out by what they think is a ghost, events have overtaken them, and they are overwhelmed. But Jesus calms them down, and invites them to experience the reality of his resurrection, to touch him, to watch him eat, to listen to him.
He then commissions them to go out and share the peace that they have found with others and promises the gift of the Holy Spirit to help them do that.
This morning we remember those who have given their lives in the battle against overwhelming evil and in the cause of lasting peace. It is right to do so. Jesus gave his life in the battle against overwhelming evil and in the cause of lasting peace. But there is a difference. Jesus took up his life again to demonstrate that he had been victorious in that battle. We don’t see the fulness of that victory yet, but as we trust Jesus and his resurrection, as we persist in prayer, as we support each other, we can find that God’s love casts out fear, that we can stand firm, that we can know peace, and that, filled with the Holy Spirit we can take that good news to others and be heralds of the Kingdom of God that we are sent to be.
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