1 Kings 8:22-30, 41-43 (first published 24 August 2003)
Systematic theology is a logical structure that is designed to describe
God. Theologians want to know who God is, so they look at the Bible,
philosophy, science, history, and earlier Christian writers in an attempt
to get a handle on God. The effort to understand God is certainly
laudable, but if we become too enamored with the system we create, we are
in danger of worshiping the system rather than God. One of the wisest
things ever attributed to Solomon can be found in his prayer of dedication
of the temple: "But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Even heaven and
the highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have
built!" Solomon realized the impossibility of building a structure that
could contain God. If even heaven itself cannot contain God, how could a
structure built with human hands?! Similarly, God cannot be contained
within a logical structure called systematic theology, no matter how
profound. No one has the corner on the market of explaining God. As
Christians, we believe that Jesus Christ has explained God to us and
modeled God for us in life and death, but we are still far from a full
understanding of God. Perhaps the most philosophical statement about God
found in the Bible is Paul's contention in Acts 17:28, "In God we live and move and have our
being." Far from defining God, however, this statement only makes us
realize how big God truly is. Everything we do, we do within the context
of the divine. Our very existence depends on God, and even existence
itself. The modern description of God as the "Ground of Being" is perhaps
as good a single statement as human language is able to create regarding
God. Yet it is only a foundation for our understanding. As thinking
Christians, we must beware of those who claim to have God figured out.
Describing God as omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, or as loving,
holy, and just, is just a first stab at understanding God. These terms do
not even come close to describing the infinite majesty and mystery of God.
As descriptions they're fine, as long as we don't confuse these
descriptions with the reality of God. Christians who have the audacity to
claim that they can define what it means to be a follower of God only
reveal their ignorance. When they badmouth Muhammed, or Buddha, or
important figures in other world religions, they only reveal their
prejudices. Religious wars are almost by definition an affront to God,
because both sides in the conflict make certainty claims that are
undoubtedly wrong. God cannot be contained in a building, in a set of
doctrines, or in a stone monument containing a Protestant version of the
Ten Commandments. To go to war, literally or metaphorically, against
others because they don't share a common concept of God is shameful and
ultimately harmful to the positive potential of religious faith. Symbols
of faith, whether verbal or physical, are valuable, but when we begin to
confuse the symbol with the reality, we must join Solomon in praying, "O
hear in heaven your dwelling place; heed and forgive."
Psalm 84 (first published 24 August 2003)
The church building is an important symbol for the Christian. Some of
the most important events of life occur in the church. Babies are
dedicated, children are confirmed, people are baptized, couples are
married, and mourners gather to remember the lives of those who have died.
Along the way sermons are preached, sacraments are performed, hymns are
sung, prayers are lifted up, and God is worshiped. Yet for too many
people, Christianity begins and ends at church. Bibles sit on the shelf
unopened in many home. Prayers are left unsaid. Attitudes that would be
condemned in a sermon are commonplace on the job. Why is that? The
answer isn't as simple as the word hypocrisy. We're all hypocrites, even
if we try to live Christian lives outside the church building itself.
There's something about the church building that tends to make us think
more about God and about how we should live. The problem is that it's too
easy to think of the church as the exclusive house of God, and modern
building design unfortunately contributes to that feeling in some ways.
The psalmist says, "the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for
herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my
King and my God." I wouldn't advocate doing away with air conditioning or
heating in modern sanctuaries, but the openness of ancient places of
worship, reflected to a large extent still in some medieval cathedrals, is
a reminder that God's dwelling is not in buildings made of stone, brick,
or wood. Whereas modern people might see birds in the sanctuary as
distractions that need to be removed, the psalmist delights in the
blending of the natural world with the spiritual world. He seems to be
saying that God welcomes the worship of creatures that humans consider
lowly. Furthermore, God is concerned about much in the world that doesn't
have anything to do with humans. In the movie Oh, God!, George
Burns portrays God as a kindly old man, slightly rumpled, who has a simple
message: God cares about the world, and everything will be fine if humans
will just be kind to one another and to their fellow creatures. Like the
psalmist, the film suggests that God has an interest in non-human
creatures, and maybe we should, too. This is good advice, and it is
biblical advice. Jesus asked his disciples to consider the birds of the
air and the lilies of the field. When we do so, perhaps we'll remember
that we, too, are simple creatures, dependent upon God for our survival.
Far from being superior to nature, we are part of it, and nature is
subsumed in God. When we realize this, maybe we will be inspired not only
by steeples and church bells and stained glass but also by dragonflies and
prickly pears and armadillos. Maybe we'll remember to worship God outside
the walls of the church, and maybe others will see God in our actions and
attitudes as we go about our daily lives. Maybe, too, we'll adopt God's
concern for creation. I read this week that the American pika, a
mountain-dwelling relative of the rabbit, is in danger of extinction as
global warming reduces its natural habitat atop the high peaks of North
America. Unlike larger animals such as wolves and bears that can simply
move north as the climate changes, the pika cannot descend from the
mountaintop and climb a mountain further north. If God is concerned about
sparrows and lilies and pikas, perhaps it's not too much to ask that, as
God's followers, we be concerned as well.
Ephesians 6:10-20 (first published 24 August 2003, modified for 2012)
Although this hymn speaks of spiritual warfare, all too often in history Christians have taken up arms and gone literally to war against their enemies, and often against one another. Abraham Lincoln noted the paradox of Christians fighting one another during the Civil War: "Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other." Anyone who reads the New Testament in even a cursory manner should be aware that warfare is contrary to the teaching of both Jesus and the early church. Nevertheless, warfare imagery is found frequently in the New Testament, from Jesus' comment, "I have not come to bring peace, but a sword," to the frequent image of violence and warfare in the book of Revelation. Perhaps such imagery was benign in the context of the broader teaching of Jesus and the socially powerless position of Christians for the first three centuries of their existence. However, with the conversion of Constantine to Christianity, everything changed. Suddenly the church was a powerful institution, and warfare was no longer merely spiritual: real enemies--pagan, schismatic, Muslim, and even other orthodox Christians--soon fell victim to the sword of the church. The Crusades forever ingrained the image of the church militant on the Muslim world, and many Christians even today continue to see no conflict between Christianity and the violent repression of one's enemies. In light of this tragic lurch of Christianity from its original mooring onto the path of violence, how we treat passages such as today's reading concerning the armor of God is important, both in what we say and in how we are perceived by those inside and outside our religious tradition. First, we must be clear that all talk of weaponry is strictly metaphorical. And who is our enemy? Not other people, even people who do bad things, but evil itself. Ephesians talks of the devil, cosmic powers of this present darkness, and so forth. For those who believe in a literal devil, that's straightforward enough, but if (like me) you don't take such imagery literally, the enemy is rather evil itself and the influence it wields in our world. Some people find it comforting to think of evil as personified, either in a fallen spiritual being or in people we identify as bad (e.g., Hitler, Stalin, Saddam Hussein), but I think personifying evil is just an excuse to avoid our own sins and to draw false dichotomies between the good (us and people like us) and the evil (them, those who are different from us). If evil is real but is not personal, it is harder to deal with, but it is not impossible. In fact, I would claim that dealing with "realistic evil"--as opposed to "idealized (i.e., personified) evil"--is what Christians and other concerned citizens of the world need to do to address the greatest problems of our world: poverty, war, famine, hatred, overpopulation, destruction of natural resources, climate change, etc. With all this in mind, how can we apply Ephesians' admonition to "put on the whole armor of God"? First, note that our struggle is not against enemies of flesh and blood, but against cosmic powers of this present darkness. Just because evil can't be personified doesn't mean it isn't real. In fact, because it doesn't dwell bodily in Satan, his demons, and the people he infects, but rather in every person, and even in the structures and customs of society, evil is a pervasive, enduring problem that must be addressed directly and courageously. Osama bin Laden committed evil acts, but he was not the personification of evil, nor were his antagonists, whether the Saudi royal family or presidents Clinton or Bush I and II. When people characterize their enemies as evil, discussion necessarily comes to a halt. How can you negotiate with Satan? Instead, we should begin by recognizing that there is plenty of evil that can be associated with both the West (e.g., the overthrow of the democratically elected president of Iran in 1953 and the installation of the ruthless Shah) and Islamic militants (the events of September 11, 2001). Hatred, poverty, racial prejudice, and religious intolerance are all evils that lead to terrorism, both by individuals and by states. How can we deal with an evil that is so entrenched and so intractable? The first weapon at our disposal is the belt of truth. We need to shine the light of truth on all the problems of the world, regardless of the embarrassment or shame it might cause for anyone. Evil loves the darkness and lives in a world of lies and disinformation. The truth is sometimes painful, but without it, evil cannot be fought, and healing cannot begin. This lesson is evident in the work of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, led for many years by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The second weapon we have is the gospel (good news) of peace. Isn't that interesting: using peace as a "weapon" against evil! The Colt .45 was known as the "peacemaker" in the Old West, but it only brought about peace through violence. The good news that God loves everyone and that God wants people to repent and love one another as well may not seem as effective as a gun, but in the long run, it's the only way to overcome hatred and prejudice. The sword did not bring about reconciliation between the houses of Capulet and Montague in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet; only love, and the tragic deaths of the lovers, could do that. The third weapon is the shield of faith, faith that God will prevail over evil, and faith in the efficacy of joint human efforts in the name of peace. Just as Germans and Americans and Japanese were reconciled to one another after World War II, so should we have faith that humans in conflict today can be reconciled to one another. Forty-nine years ago this month Martin Luther King delivered a speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in which he described his vision of an America in which people were judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. The world he lived in was far from that ideal, but he had faith in God and in the power of God to change human hearts. The fourth weapon we have at our disposal is the helmet of salvation. This tool is not to be wielded in such a way that people are divided--I'm saved, you're not--but so that people are united. The term salvation has acquired too many theological overtones today; it originally meant deliverance. Because we have been delivered from our sins by our encounter with Jesus Christ, we are free to help others achieve a similar deliverance. Their deliverance might not look exactly like ours; in fact, it might be radically different. However, all of us who have experienced God's deliverance have been humbled by the recognition of our own failures, and at the same time we've been energized by the realization that no one is beyond the reach of God's mercy and love. Finally, we are charged to carry the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Contrary to a common misinterpretation, the word of God in this context is not the Bible, which after all didn't exist in its present form in the first century, but probably the prophetic proclamation of God's will, inspired by the spirit of God. The Old Testament prophets often claimed to speak by the power of the spirit. For example, in Micah 3:8, the prophet says: "But as for me, I am filled with power, with the spirit of the Lord, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin." As Christians who see ourselves as standing firmly in the prophetic tradition, we too must have the courage to speak out against injustice and evil. We have powerful, effective weapons that we can wield in our continuing fight against evil. Onward Christian soldiers!Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war, with the cross of Jesus going on before. Christ the royal master leads against the foe; forward into battle see his banner go.
John 6:56-69 (first published 24 August 2003)
Many movies, from Full Metal Jacket to G.I. Jane to Starship Troopers, depict the rigors of training to be in the military. Many begin the process, but not all complete it. Many turn away because the challenges seem too great. Following Jesus is likewise difficult. Claiming the name of Christ is easy; following in his steps is difficult. There is always a temptation to substitute our personal prejudices, the teachings of popular religious figures, or the morés of the dominant culture for the message of Christ. Because of Jesus' tough, difficult words about being the bread of life, as well as his radical claims of a special connection with God, many turned away from following him. Jesus was saying things that troubled them. The path of least resistance for many was to return to their former way of life, with comfortable doctrines accepted by family and friends. Jesus called his disciples to a more demanding life, one fraught with challenges and the potential of rejection by family and friends. Jesus gave people a simple choice: follow me wherever I lead, or stay right where you are. While many turned away, others continued to follow. When Jesus asked them why they didn't leave as well, Peter answered, "Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life." How seriously do we take Peter's words? Are the words of Jesus really worth staking our life on? Is it worth it to follow Jesus if our neighbors ridicule us? Will we continue to follow him if our family rejects us? Can we hold fast to the words of Jesus if our co-workers oppose us? Can we stand against government policies when we're labeled unpatriotic for doing so? Can we take a stand for peace, forgiveness, and reconciliation when the crowd around us calls for war, retaliation, and slaughter of our enemies? Jesus calls us away from the crowd. The life to which he calls us will not always be easy, and it will rarely be popular, but it will be honest, authentic living, empowered by the Spirit.