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Maybe I’ve been in Texas just too long, with the Spanish language influence so pervasive that it is beginning to effect my thinking, because when I walked passed the church’s sign out front, on Thurs., at first I thought it read, “The Whole Amor of God,” and my mind quickly and easily translated the mixed English – Spanish sentence to: the whole Love of God.

And actually, that may make more sense to us than our Ephesians reading at first does. What does all this warring imagery have to do with the peaceable Christian faith? And if can point us to an even larger question “How do we best communicate the Gospel message?”

I remember in the 1980's there was a huge bruha in the United Methodist Church as the committee in charge of determining what would be included in their new hymnal decided to leave out the hymn “Onward, Christian Soldiers.” The reason that they had left the hymn out was because they judged that even though the hymn was loved in the churches, the words were just too militaristic and didn't express well the Christian yearning for peace. After their announcement that the hymn wouldn’t be included, more than 4000 letters and phone calls were received by the hymnal committee, many of them vociferously condemning the decision. Hostile articles were written in newspapers across the country.

And “Onward Christian Soldiers” is by no means the only hymn that creates this kind of tension:

These violence filled metaphors cause many 21^st century Christians to cringe, and many Christian educators and Christian musicians, especially, to raise the warning message that we should more careful what images we use to (1.) feed to our Christian souls and

Now, even following what these images mean is not easy. Today when we read about the "armor of God" we find it hard to envision all those ancient means of military protection, much less actually climbing into all that gear ourselves. But it was not that author of Ephesians intention to make God's protective nature appear foreign or exotic to the community of faith. The soldier's apparel he describes was something familiar and easily understandable to his audience in those days. And that was his purpose, to help us understand spiritual truths by relating them to their culture, their times, their experience.

But do not be misled by the imagery. These earliest Christians were in no sense militaristic. Following their lead, in our era, during the Vietnam War, some young men who had to register for the military draft, did so, but took the extra step of pursuing through their local draft boards Conscientious Objector status, because their Christian religious beliefs prohibited them from killing others, even in military situations. And COs in the 1960s and 1970s endured taunting from peers and parents, the word “pacifist,” being just about as admiring as “freeloading coward”.

But these young men had this in common with the early Christians, who were also consistently pacifist. Without any variation that we know of, there was no “Just War Theory” that warranted war. They wouldn’t pick up a sword simply because Jesus had said to a disciple trying to defend him, "Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.” There was no place for violent action in the early Christian Church.

Jesus had said, “But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.” There was no place for even actively resisting the evil with force in the early Christian Church.

So we will find that the images in this passage are certainly NOT chosen to reinforce some basic militaristic Christian attitude in those days. No. The soldier's apparel he describes was something familiar and easily understandable to his audience. Just as when Paul would later compare the Christian’s spiritual training to athletic training, or as Jesus compared Christian spiritual searching to a merchant hunting pearls.

What I personally find most challenging in this situation is that I can understand and sympathize with both sides of the hymn selecting arguments. Christian living is oftentimes like being in a huge struggle, comparable to war. Truly Christian living is not often just a gentle walk through “the garden alone , while the dew is still on the roses.” Following Jesus Christ is absolutely countercultural. The Christian that has a clear sense of God’s desired future for us all will only occasionally find that God’s desired future is in sync with our culture, our national self-interests, our conventional economic thinking, or even, my friends, common sense.

More often, following the Spirit of Jesus and following the teachings of Jesus lead the Christian into a never-ending series of struggles against unjust situations, unhealthy temptations, and unlikable human tendencies. Following Jesus leads the Christian into a never-ending series of struggles against: racism, classism, sexism, imperialism, and innumerable other isms. Following Jesus is no garden walk. That’s why Jesus compared it to taking up our crosses….and following.

God’s desired future for us is so comprehensively different than what the world at large wants, that very frankly, most folks, even most Christians, just don’t get it. Ever. God’s future would be such an imaginative leap, that many remain stuck, convention bound, running in a day to day rut, totally without the vision Jesus tried to cast. Without this vision, these are in name only “Christians.” They will be little help in moving us all forward towards that godly future.

The enlightened Christian, the visionary Christian, who has been grasped by a deeper understanding of the Gospel, needs to be dedicated to resist general opinion in the same way the soldier is prepared to resist the advance of her or his enemy. So in some ways I can see how the struggle that takes place in the military mode is an almost perfect description of what it is to live out a call to devout Christian living. Put on the whole armor of God!

Noticed that almost all of these: the belt, the breastplates, issues, the shield, the helmet, all defensive safeguards, are all protection against for the “wiles of the devil”. The sword alone is even potentially offensive. The sword alone could possibly be used to strike back. And Jesus’ admonition, “put your sword away.” rings loud against any one who would attempt to offensively inflict their Christian perspective on others.

But on the other hand, I firmly believe that using all these military metaphors to powerfully communicate what it means to live as a Christian, comes at a terrible cost. For example:

Who wants to indicate a Christian blessing of hating of other people because of their political views,

What is absolutely evident to us today is that when the 12th century Crusaders marched off as “Christian soldiers” to obliterate the Muslim children of God they called “infidels”, literally with the cross of Jesus marching on before them, they were expressing the worst, not the best of the Christian spirit.

And in the 15^th,16th and 17th centuries as various bands of Christians in Europe fought bitter and terribly bloody wars against one another, everybody in each camp utterly convinced that Christ was on their side, that God was going to bless them, they were expressing the worst in Christian militancy.

When Hitler convinced much of the German population that it was a Christian thing to do to eliminate gypsies, Poles and Jews, the true Spirit of Jesus Christ was not being honored, it was being eclipsed by something very ugly.

You see, Jesus’ Way is all about being compassionate. Military images can not convey that well. And even if it is by misunderstanding our real meaning, when our children hear our singing the hymns that use this kind of language in a positive way, what in the world do we think we are teaching? Again, Jesus’ words: "If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea.”

Oh, I know that we sometimes counter balance the militant images with others,
Gonna’ lay down by sword and shield, Down by the Riverside….

Or one of the young hymns in our own hymnal… it turns 20 yrs.young this year … #675 When Will People Cease Their Fighting?

The Christian vision looks forward to a day when all warring will cease, when the human race will be civilized enough that such a barbaric way of resolving power struggles is outgrown like a butterfly outgrows its chrysalis.

In the meantime, we might be especially careful what we teach our children. Friday, Sat. and today our congregation’s children, their families, many of us oldersters are participating in their vacation bible school called Fiesta, with a Spanish theme and spirit. With the children, we’re really learning what I thought I saw on the sign: the “Whole Amor of God”: singing wonderful songs of God’s love, of the friendship of Jesus, of the positive power of God and of loving human community to keep us growing like God wants. There won’t be any mention of war…. Troubles, yes; struggles, yes; but we’re not “studying war no more”…. And with no need. There are better ways.

I sometimes wonder what the world would be like today if our Muslim sisters and brothers made clearer to all their children what their tradition teachers, that GREAT JIHAD is the inward struggle within the self of the Spirit and the lower human tendencies, striving to become what God desires for us all.

My prayer for us in this congregation and in other congregations around God’s United States of America and all God’s earth… is that in our lifetime we will be able to find and exclusively use metaphors of the spiritual struggle- that every godly person faces- that do not shirk from the struggle, but do not even hint to glorify a military form of struggle… so that our children… and our children’s children might grow up clear about how a Christian loves peace… and committed always to maintaining that peace..

And if we make progress on that score we’ve a whole host of more subtle and difficult to tackle matters. But this would be beginning…. A good beginning.

“For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness”…

University Christian Church

2007 University Avenue

Austin, TX 78705

512-477-6104

The Whole Armor of God