13 Pentecost, Proper 16B
22 Aug 2021
Kings
I find it very easy these days to lose myself in everything from weeding the garden to scrolling mindlessly through online content, avoiding the news headlines and sticking to cute pet picture.
It seems like popular news services, from the sources I remember in childhood like Walter Cronkite (who was incidentally an Episcopalian) on CBS and the Des Moines register (when it was a real newspaper) to the upstarts like FOX and the multiple online sources, are all vying to get your attention and your dollar. All width and no depth.
The latest major news stories leave me feeling pretty down. There will be no good outcome in Afghanistan. Change the country to Myanmar and the future looks bleak. Or how about Guatemala or Sudan? How about the United States?
Heat and drought; hurricanes and wildfires; unsettling patterns everywhere, driving more people to refugee status.
Lest we forget: there is Covid, which has devastated the entire planet, leaving waves of not only death and disease, but economic and political devolution in its wake. And it is only a microscopic virus!!
So those have been some of my cheery thoughts these past days and months and weeks.
That brings me to the good news, the really good news. This is why I come to church services as often as I can. I come for pardon and renewal, for hearing that good news in the same way early Christians came. They faced poverty, disease, wars, threats from nature and other people, but they gathered and had faith in the living God who had come amongst them. We can and should do no less.
I was thinking about Solomon and the dedication of the Temple. This as a big deal; a very big deal for him, for Israel, and for the writers of Kings. God comes here to meet the people. Imagine if that much smoke filled our churches every time we met to worship!! Some folks think incense is bad enough.
I think the smoke is hyperbole, as is so many things. God is so great and so awesome that he could fill the place with smoke, but the really awesome thing is that God could move into the neighborhood. That is what God does. God is here; with us. But go a step further! Solomon says that people will be attracted to Israel because of how wonderful is God.
People are going to be attracted here by your great reputation, your wonder-working power, who come to pray at this Temple.
What is the lesson for us, in this place and in this time? If Solomon asks that God answer the prayers of people all over the world so that they will know what God is like, what should we do? My faith tells me that God is the God of all people and that we are all one people. For me personally that starts with reminding myself I do not have a corner on the truth and that I tend to the needs of those with whom I may profoundly disagree. It is sometimes easier to feel in solidarity and to support someone thousands of miles away rather than someone down the block who holds opinions you do not care for.
Don’t get me wrong; Solomon did not go on to practice what he preached and prayed that day. But it does set the standard.
Ephesians
Paul may have created the ultimate metaphor with the armor of God. I suppose, living in the Roman empire and writing to or about a church in a cosmopolitan and very pagan city, where there was a large temple to the goddess Artemis, such a comparison made sense. Roman soldiers wear armor, but really what does the armor do? You, my Christian friends, have truly invincible armor. I suspect Paul was using a comparison the folks in Ephesus would have found easy to understand. They would also perhaps have found the irony in the comparison. After all, well armored soldiers died all the time in battle. They still do. Real life, real survival, depends upon another kind of armor. Solomon realized the importance to worship, in particular public worship and prayer, in respecting and living a holy life; Paul realized the needs of the individual believer. His or her life was in danger and real protection was needed. But that protection was not in iron or copper or bronze; it was in the Gospel.
Therefore, pick up the full armor of God so that you can stand your ground on the evil day and after you have done everything possible to still stand. So stand with the belt of truth around your waist, justice as your breastplate, and put shoes on your feet so that you are ready to spread the good news of peace. Above all, carry the shield of faith so that you can extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is God's word.
What a vision! Imagine yourself armed with truth, justice, peace, faith, salvation, and God’s word! Who could possibly defeat you, or us? These are the weapons we need every day. Weapons that are not really weapons. These are the swords that have become ploughshares. The problem is often we mistake our idea of truth, faith, justice, and salvation for God’s. It is not always easy, is it? I would say that if we hold up the lens of love and look through it, the rest becomes easier. Love my next-door neighbor who won’t take down his political signs. Love the person who won’t wear a mask. Love those who think and act in ways that I find appalling. But they need to do the same for me.
Peter says that Jesus has the words of eternal life. Do we want to interpret that narrowly and say that only if you believe what is on a certain check list (which will vary greatly from Christian denomination to denomination) will you be saved? And just what does it mean to be saved? Big questions.
I believe that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. But what I have come to believe that means is that salvation is not related to a particular check list or even a particular faith, but rather in accepting Jesus as Love incarnate. If you believe in Love, then salvation comes and you practice love, justice and mercy.
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