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A Congregation Of The "Never place a period where God has placed a comma." - Gracie Allen |
From August 27, 2006 Put on the whole armor of God, the church in Ephesus hears. Put on the whole armor of God. Thumbing through a Christian catalogue, I once came across a play set for budding believers. Clearly it was inspired by today's passage. Staring back at me from the catalogue's glossy page was a handsome little boy. He proudly sported a Roman soldier's helmet, a battle-ready breastplate, and a thick belt. In his hand (and pointed at the world) was a sword with a long, steady blade. Just imagine: for $29.95 your child or grandchild could have his or her very own belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, sword of the Spirit, and helmet of salvation. You would think, though, that for that sum you'd get the whole ensemble, the entire outfit. Read Ephesians carefully and you will see what I mean. The most essential part of this "whole armor of God" ensemble isn't there: footwear. As shoes, Paul wrote, put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. What would those be, I wonder? What do shoes like this look like? Converse high tops? Birkenstocks, maybe? Now discovering this omission once, that I can understand. But twice? This week I happened upon a set of children's pajamas whose inspiration also came from today's reading. Someone thought it would give youngsters a special kind of comfort when they bedded down for the night to know that they were protected, that they had God-given armoring that would see them safely through to morning. But here, too, the outfit was incomplete; there were no peace slippers for sale with the sleep set. As shoes put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. Accuse me of making too much of this, but I think it's no coincidence that both outfits stop at the ankles. The battle garb we get. But those gospel of peace shoes? What the heck are they? Earlier this summer I read an editorial in a Christian publication that rattled me and still does. As the United States rounds out its third year in Iraq, the editor couldn't help but ask why the church has been so silent. Certainly it was not silent during the war in Vietnam. Certainly its voice was heard during the Civil Rights movement. Why the resounding silence from our pulpits now? Why have congregations in every state of the Union--the red states, the blue, and even the almost purple ones--not spoken out, called out, cried out for peace? Do we not know Christ as the Prince of Peace? Does our silence mean that he, too, is silent? Surely not. The editor's questions have weighed heavily on my mind. More than that, they have been the Spirit's finger in my spiritual chest. With you, I remember the church's non-responsiveness in other times. With you, I recall the painful history that surrounded Hitler's rise to power and with that actions that were increasingly evil. Even as God's heart broke open during those long and painful years, by and large the church remained silent. Only a slim minority spoke out and acted out. Will the same be said of us as armed conflict every day claims fresh lives in the Middle East? Even with no Hitler to point to, is what is taking place in Iraq and southern Lebanon not unacceptable? When the next generation sits down to write its history books, will our silence be as appalling to them as Christian Europe's is to us? We humans relate so readily to the fashion of war, we understand things like helmets and breastplates, we understand things like battle-girded loins and the heft of a sword in the hand. Paul does not call us to war on evil, our own kind of jihad. He calls us to stand for peace. He calls us to take steps toward proclaiming peace. A proclamation that is bold and daring because it brings light to bear on the darkness of our time. What do we have at our disposal to do this? Truth, righteousness, and God's word, God's life saving word. Paul asks us to look down at our feet and be sure we have the necessary footwear. He says nothing about lacing up boots so that we can race off into hand-to-hand combat with the enemy. Nor does he propose that we wear spit and polished shoes, the kind generals and cabinet members wear when they gather to discuss and adopt military strategies. Paul leaves the choice open. Any footwear will do as long as it enables us to take a stand for peace, as long as that footwear can carry us and our proclamation out into the world. What to wear on these disciple feet of ours? What will bear us forward in proclaiming peace in the face of this present darkness? This present darkness we are at least partly responsible for. Even as our nation prepares for the fifth anniversary of 9/11, we have to remember that even before these attacks the United States was spending on defense as much as the next 15 countries combined and had troops stationed in 75 countries around the world. Jesus' gospel of peace is one that has largely gone misunderstood. In scripture we hear him say "turn the other cheek" or "go the extra mile" and think he is speaking in platitudes at best or offering foolhardy advice at worst. Walter Wink has devoted his life to enabling Christians see that Jesus' way was not one of submission to violence or evil. It was not a misguided, masochistic formula. Wink calls what Jesus proclaimed and lived the "third way," an approach that requires as much courage and ferocity as any military action but which involves no endorsement or demonstration of violence. In our "either/or" world, we believe there to be just two ways of responding to what threatens. We see two choices: either violently oppose evil or submit to it. Wink says this: "the question was not resistance or surrender but the kind of resistance: violent or nonviolent. Jesus equally abhors passivity and violence as responses to evil. He simply wants to break the vicious cycle of acquiescence and revolt by offering a third option, one that would recover the human dignity of the oppressed, seize the initiative from the oppressors, overcome fear, and reclaim the power of choice, all the while maintaining the humanity of the oppressor." (Sojourners Magazine, November 1986) That's some mighty fancy footwork there, I would say. Creative, inventive, unexpected, even counter-intuitive footwork. The kind that comes from putting on "gospel of peace" shoes and letting that gospel take us places that the forced choice of violence or submission never can. Students of the Civil Rights movement know that Martin Luther King, Jr., was enormously committed to responding to the evils of racism by using Jesus' example of nonviolent resistance. Many other fine examples of Jesus' third way come from Third World countries. For example, when the South African government cancelled a political rally against apartheid, Bishop Desmond Tutu led a worship service at St. George's Cathedral. Soldiers and riot police were quickly deployed, and as the service began they lined the walls of the sanctuary bearing their guns and bayonets, just waiting for word from their superiors so that they could close it all down. Bishop Tutu began to speak of the ills and evils of the apartheid system--how the rulers and authorities that propped it up were doomed to fail. He pointed a finger at the police who were there to record his words: "You may be powerful--very powerful--but you are not God. God cannot be mocked. You have already lost." Then, in a moment of unbearable tension, the bishop seemed to soften. Coming out from behind the pulpit, he flashed his trademark radiant smile and began to bounce up and down with glee. "Therefore, since you have already lost, we are inviting you to join the winning side." The crowd roared, the police melted away, and the people began to dance. (Living By the Word, p. 121). And the people still dance. The injustice and violence that was apartheid is no more. South Africa lives no longer in that darkness but instead has cast it out and is living a life of ever-increasing light. God's desire for all of us. In an age of terrorist attacks and increasingly ingenious ways to do violence to one another, in this time when Iranian and North Korean and Pakistani eyes are on the "prize" of nuclear weaponry, in a country where each year our cars look less like cars and more like armored vehicles, Christ is calling us to follow in his footsteps. That great genius of the third way, Mohatma Gandhi once remarked, "Everyone in the world knows that Jesus and his teaching is nonviolent, except Christians." As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. Heaven knows, the world is waiting. Amen. ©
Rev. Karen Winkel |
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