Good Shepherd United Church of Christ

Dress Ups for Grown Ups                     Ephesians 6:10-20
August 23, 2009
Metairie

In our baptism liturgy parents pledge on behalf of their children to "renounce the powers of evil".  This pledge is taken up again for oneself at the time of confirmation and the time of joining a church as an adult member.  These pledges are re-affirmations of the baptismal vows and reflect a serious and lifelong task of any Christian.

Paul's instructions begin with an explanation of WHY we need to be strong in the Lord- we need to be strong because the spiritual hosts of wickedness are cosmic invaders that permeate our planet now, no less than in Paul's time.

And now, here at least in the U.S. for the vast majority of us Christians, we are fat and happy with no visible or obvious opponents, as there were in Paul's days.

Remember his context.  The Roman army is an occupying force in much of the explored world.  Soldiers stride through villages in full uniform to intimidate the populace.  Christians and Jews are despised; they are stoned, imprisoned, crucified, variously tortured.  As the Christian movement spreads, the disciples will be publically burned, sent to sports arenas to do battle with bears, lions and armed criminals for amusement and betting.

Paul says something remarkable when he says that in the face of this brutality we are to put on the "whole armor of God".  Instead of the gear of Roman soldiers, Christian equipment for resisting the powers of evil include- truth, justice, peace, faith, mercy and the word of God.  And one more- piece of military garb- prayer.

Paul's central claim is that human dependency on God's word is more powerful than the armaments of Caesar, Hitler, and whatever evil empires threaten humanity.  This is the stuff of peace churches like Quakers and Mennonites and Amish.  And the proclamation of peacemakers like St. Francis of Assisi and Martin Luther King.


When we come to church and then are so bold as to join a church, we are signing on to combat evil in all its manifestations.  This particular message of Ephesians is so deep and has so much to address that I'd need 10 sermons to excavate the wealth of its treasures.  Today let's address the first piece of equipment in the list- put on a belt of truth.  The Roman soldier put on a thick leather girdle that covered his gut.  Christians protect their gut with truth.

In the 10 commandments truth is referenced in the third commandment when the Israelites are told to take not the name of the Lord in vain; speak truthful about God.  The ninth commandment is a bookend:  speak truthfully about your neighbor, do not bear false witness, do not slander, do not denigrate another by your word.

Later in Ephesians we are reminded that the sword of the Spirit is the word of God.  The sword used by Roman soldiers was not the long tapered sword of the Disney version of King Arthur, rather it was short and meant for close, intimate mano-a-mano fighting.  A two edged sword, it cut both ways.

Other letters in our Bible refer us to the two edged sword of the tongue.  The tendency of the tongue to engage in deceit and manipulation rather than truth.  James in Chapter 3 puts it this way:  If we put bits into the mouths of horses, that they may obey us, we guide their whole bodies...Look at the ships also, though they are great but driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very strong rudder...so the tongue is a little member and boasts of great things.  How great a fire is set ablaze by a small fire.

A story about the power of the tongue- more powerful that the strength of the mighty lined up against the puny.  This is a true story taken from an upcoming memoir about fatherhood by Michael Lewis and published in the New York Times, as well as Oprah's magazine.

The author has taken his daughters, age 6 and 3, on a family vacation.  The scene is set.  We're at a fancy hotel in Bermuda ...the baby pool is vast...connected to the pool for grown ups by a canal.  The two daughters leap from a hot tub into the baby pool and back again.  The pleasure they take in this could not be more innocent or pure.

Then out of nowhere, come four older boys.  Ten, maybe eleven years old.  As anyone who has only girls knows, boys add nothing to any social situation but trouble.  These four are set on proving the point.  Seeing my little girls, they grab the pool noodles- intended to keep the three year olds afloat- and wield them as weapons.  They descend upon Quinn, my six year old, whacking the water on either side of her, until she is almost in tears.

Dad is hovering between the baby pool and adult pool, wondering when to intervene, when Dixie , the three year old beats him to it.  She jumps in front of her sister and thrusts out her (unarmored) chest.

"Teasing boys!", she hollers, so loudly that grown ups around the pool peer over their Danielle Steele novels.  Even the boys are taken aback.  Dixie , now on stage, raises her voice a notch.  What she says scatters the boys, a few little words fell (as the author calls them) these little monsters.

"Teasing boys!", Dixie shouts.  Now she has the attention of the whole Bermuda resort.  "YOU WATCH OUT, teasing boys!  Because I peed in this pool two times!  Once in the hot pool and once in the cold pool!"

The teasing boys flee, grossed out and defeated.  Various grown ups whisper various things to each other, but no one seeks to remove Dixie from the baby pool.  Dixie returns to playing with her sister, who appears to be far less grateful than she should be.  And the observant crocodile, as the father imagines himself, drops below the water line, swivels and vanishes into the depths of the pool.  But he makes a mental note to buy that little girl an ice cream cone.  Even if her mother disapproves.

And, yes, in case you thought otherwise, the tongue is mightier than the sword.

All of which brings me to this point:  our words, truthful or deceitful are tremendously powerful, lest we forget.  And the enemy to truth is evil.  A philosopher and Christian minister wrote a compelling book on the topic called People of the Lie. (Scott Peck).  The temptation to deceit, to slander is ever present , built into humanity, filtered through any community I have ever lived in- how about you?

The juicy bit of gossip about a neighbor's kid or marriage… the perpetuation of a family argument, each side increasingly accusatory and loose with the truth...in churches I have seen prayer chains used for evil purpose along with the words- "of course, this is confidential".  Before long what was "confidential has spread through the prayer chain, the cousins of everyone on the prayer chain, even to former members of the church who moved to Arkansas !  I swear I have heard it happen!

What if, instead of being like the office or like the health club, what if the church were a safe space for speaking the truth?  What if we saw Sunday morning as a time to let down our guard a bit and were willing to share openly about the tender places of our lives?  What if on Sunday morning we could set aside our armor and present ourselves without defenses to one another?  And be present to one another in safety?

Well for one thing we would be pretty vulnerable- vulnerable to the wounds of gossip, the wounds of criticism, the wounds of a confidence broken.

So let's take a step back.  How do we cultivate an alternative space, a space where all are truly safe from that sharp sword of intimate in fighting?

For one- we can practice, just like an athlete repeats the moves over and over, whether a soccer player shooting on goal or a gymnast on the balance beam.  Just like a musician playing scales or setting up the metronome.  Just alike a student practicing the times tables or reciting tenses in Spanish.  Spiritual practices can be "via positiva", positive practices, like flooding ourselves with constructive language of the hymns, of the prayers, of the passing of the peace, all of which build up community and individuals.

There are also "Via Negative" practices- like renounce the powers of evil.  Avoid any behaviors that break down community, destroy individuals, grieve God.

I am preparing a series of workshops for the Kansas Oklahoma annual Conference meetings later in October and will lead churches in discussions on how to develop trusting community.  The format will include conversations about "confidentiality", "gossip" and ...well...let's call it "bullpucky".  These topics are all about creating trust with truth telling so as to build up community.

Confidentiality is probably the most misunderstood and sometimes misused, especially by people in power.  Secret keeping can be a way to keep the faith but when it is used to control or manipulate, then evil pervades.  In one church where I pastored (not here), there was a secret set of financial records to which the congregation at large was not privy.  The account, a large one, was off the books and so when financial discussions were made, the congregation did not know the true financial situation, what monies were actually available to finance the missions of the church.  You can bet that when I objected to this accounting fraud, those who held the account secret were mighty mad at the minister.

One of those people started a slanderous gossip campaign that kept the phone lines hot and the patrons at the beauty salon chattering.  You can imagine that the minister felt undermined and aggrieved when the congregation would not confront the slanderer because..."Oh, that's just how she is, you'll get used to it." I never got used to it and eventually left because the gossip was so undermining to the welfare of the church.

As to "bullpucky"- I think that we ministers are constantly in danger of getting into "bullpucky".  And it all starts with being needy.  We need respect, and admiration and affection, like any human being.  And the temptation is to imagine (especially in a congregation where one is well treated) that one must control respect, admiration, affection and starts to build oneself up as if one can never appear wrong or less than perfect.  So maybe a bit of dissembling here or grandiosity there, just to make sure the good stuff keeps coming.

But thereby are the seeds of mistrust sown.  Abuse of confidential information, gossip, and bullpucky.  I am sure you see these in our church because they are part and parcel of our human condition, which is under attack by the powers and principalities.  One start at resisting evil is to start here.  To practice here the words of truth, to seep ourselves in the word of God.

And I have seen some of that here at Good Shepherd.  I have seen a church council take on some very tough issues without flinching.  I have seen Council be diligent about transparency, even when controversy might result.  Council has not kept information "off the books" in order to manipulate decisions.  Hooray!  For them and for us.

I have seen some individuals take on slander or gossip, not an easy thing to do.  Hurray! For them and for us.

As to "bullpucky"- let's love each other in ways that do not demand perfection.  Let's love each other in ways where confession, and forgiveness and reconciliation get practiced.  Since we are not perfect people, let's not pretend.  Let's make our church safe for imperfection.

Didn't Jesus say that he comes to the ill and injured?  And that those who are perfectly healthy have no need for a doctor?

On September. 6 we will baptize baby Lacey.  We will recite the ancient promise to renounce and resist the powers of evil.  We the congregation will welcome the baby as our own child, as God's own child.  We will remember our past pledges to renounce and resist and we will re enact these again.

So let it be, dear companions, on this journey of faith at Good Shepherd.

And let the people say "Amen."