Draw Strength from Christ

 When I was in Ipswich, SD, there was an American Baptist pastor whom I met regularly with who preached through whole books of the Bible rather than just following the Revised Common Lectionary. He was preaching on Ephesians over months and we talked about this passage. I wondered what the modern day equivalent of putting on the whole armor of God would be today. He was a Marine before becoming a pastor so he contacted the American Legion and borrowed some of their stuff. The whole package was a mannequin dressed in camouflage, sitting behind a sandbag wall with an M-60 pointed at the congregation as the modern day sword of truth. A mutual friend did pulpit supply there and when he saw this, he threw out his prepared sermon and preached against violence and the glorification of weapons. 

Paul preached that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah, the Christ, in Ephesus, modern day (Turkey), where they were a very (diverse) group of people. They came from many different backgrounds and spoke different (languages) and had different (gods). So, in this letter, Paul takes a common icon, the Roman soldier, which everyone in the Roman Empire knows and has seen and uses it as a way to explain the Christian faith. Paul doesn't glorify the Roman soldier, but flips it on its head or transforms these objects into ways of explaining the parts of religion that Paul holds to be the best part of the Jewish faith culminating in Jesus as the crucified Messiah. He is not saying that the early followers should arm themselves with weapons and prepare for battle, because in other letters he writes we battle powers and principalities, not flesh and blood. In fact, early followers of the Way and Christians refused to be in any armed service because that means they couldn't love their neighbor it if meant taking their life. 

It is necessary that we take a symbol of Christianity today that once was a way of assuring the people back then that Jesus and those who followed were here to liberate us from earthly powers like prisons, from societal powers like patriarchy, and from self-doubts and inner voices that deny we are the children of God, loved, and created in God's image. After Paul's death sometime around 65 CE, the gospels were starting to be written because those who witnessed and shared the story of Jesus were becoming fewer and fewer. Life spans were very much shorter back then. When the Gospel of John was written about about 25 years after Paul's martyrdom, the community that wrote started with the word, Logos, which means (Word) in our church today, Jesus was the (Word) of God. It has come to mean the Final Word and has been used, especially since the Reformation, as a sword to condemn and destroy those who don't believe. Rather, when the writers, their community, and those around in that time wouldn't have heard Logos as a finality, but an invitation. For Logos, in much of the literature in that time, meant conversation or dialogue. 

"In the beginning was the Conversation, and the Conversation was with God, and the Conversation was God. All things that were created were created through the Conversation and nothing that was created wasn't part of the Conversation." Jesus is being portrayed not as a sword, not as a debate, not as judge and king, but as an ongoing relationship in which there is discussion that doesn't stop. Christ is the Greek word for and Messiah is the Hebrew word for (Anointed). In the Hebrew Bible, it was used for kings, prophets, priests, and those called by God. 

Today, we anoint each other once again in the ongoing relationship with God through Jesus of Nazareth, who came here to teach and show us what following God means. Today, we are part of the body of Christ that proclaims, "God is Still Speaking" so that our siblings in the LGBTQIA community, our siblings who are immigrants, our siblings part of any minority or persecuted group, and even our siblings who are part of different religions are seen as our neighbors whom we are to love. Today, we re-affirm the relationship we have with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, that heals, set us free, builds us up, and sends us out into the world. Let us love, with strength from Christ which combines truth, righteousness, peace, faith, liberation, and the conversation with God. Amen?  Amen? Alleluia!  Amen!