“Subversion from beyond”

Written by Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Saturday, November 27, 2021

Psalm 144 (Forward, p. 29) CEV p. 642

I have read the psalms many times over the years, and so it might seem natural to assume that I won’t find anything new there.  However, it seems to occur all this time—again, today, as it so happens.  I was struck by something that King David mentions twice, namely ‘those lying foreigners who can’t tell the truth’ (verses 8 & 11).

In this modern era, with its cyber hacking and deliberately skewed and erroneous propaganda campaigns orchestrated by outsiders, namely hostile foreign nations, this seems quite contemporary.  But in reading history, I find that foreign ‘influencers’ have always been around and steadily at work.  For instance, during World War II there were Nazi sympathizers at work in Canada and the United States among people of German descent trying to influence them and win their support.  And that kind of thing goes back generations.

You might well wonder, however, about the time long before Christ, long before the social media came to be in existence or mass communications were even possible.  However, you have Tobiah ‘worming’ his way into the good books of much of the Judean leadership, ingratiating himself to them, to such an extent that he had rooms in the very precincts of the Temple itself (see Nehemiah 6:17-19; 13:4-5).  And you have the Assyrian field commander speaking in Hebrew, directly to the people of Jerusalem, trying to persuade them not to trust in Hezekiah or in the God of Israel, and instead to surrender to him (2 Kings 18:28-35).  So, whispering campaign, lying words, are nothing new, and nothing, in particular, to be worried about.

In fact, they go right back to the Garden of Eden, for is that not the very thing that the snake was guilty of?  Was this not a bunch of lies, a not so subtle whispering campaign that sought to undermine the faith of Adam and Eve in the care and love of God?  And is that not exactly what Satan, the father of lies, has been up to ever since?

And so, it is extremely crucial that we be embedded in the truth, conversant with it and ever abiding in it.  The primary way, of course, is to remain constant in our reading, studying and memorizing of Holy Scripture, and not just as an exercise that will equip us with facts and knowledge and precepts.  Instead, we should so immerse ourselves in it that we take on its very nature, its way of thinking, and come to know intimately and intensely the will and the mind of its author, who is God.  And then, to expose ourselves, to submit ourselves, to the centuries long understanding of the whole church, ‘the faith of our fathers’, as a kind of fail-safe mechanism, as a kind of check upon the sometimes spurious and erroneous wisdom of our age.  This is crucial as ‘the lies of the enemy’, the enemy of our souls, is still very much with us, and seeking our downfall.  And so we need to be careful, ever vigilant and watchful, to ensure that we don’t get ‘sucked in’ by them.  Thank God that He is there to help us through all of it.  Amen.

Forward notes: “Bow your heavens, O LORD, and come down; touch the mountains, and they shall smoke” (verse 5).

“On a trip to the Big Island of Hawaii, our chaperone, a Native Hawaiian named Mike, took us to see the lava beds, both in the day and nighttime hours.  We visited the active volcano Kīlauea and the Halema‘uma‘u Crater at night. 

“The traditional Native Hawaiians believe that the Halema‘uma‘u Crater is home to the goddess of fire, Pelehonuamea (She who shapes the sacred land).  She destroys with lava but creates new land in the process.  We met Native Hawaiians who accepted this belief and those who didn’t.  And we heard from those who contextualized the stories with their Christian beliefs.

“As I watched the lava flow into the sea, I could only think that to live on an island, at the base of an active volcano, in the middle of the ocean, is to live at the mercy of God’s created order.  I witnessed firsthand God creating something new by giving birth to new land.”

MOVING FORWARD: “Today, research and read the stories of the Native Hawaiians, as we honor and remember Kamehameha and Emma of Hawaii, who founded the Anglican Church of Hawaii.”