27 August 2006
Carolyn L Roberts
Ephesians 6.10-20

            I thought twice, three times about using today’s scripture from the letter to the Christian church in Ephesus. After all, the use of military imagery is rampant throughout the reading, and whether we acknowledge it or not, Onward Christian Soldiers echoes in the background. Onward Christian soldiers–an image indelibly linked with the misbegotten Crusades–a bad idea whose legacy still colors Christian relationships in the Middle East and the land we call holy. But ours is an era in which all three of the great religious traditions birthed in that land are shamed by zealots who call the sword the word of God, and have the audacity and the poverty of spirit to call bombs “peacemakers.” So I say again, I thought twice, three times about using today’s scripture.

            But the writer’s image is just that–an image. With it, he conveys a life-and-death seriousness of purpose that is striking for its insistence that Christian living is not so much a matter of personal habits, but a way of being that has cosmic importance. He conveys a resolve that insists that faithful living requires our full and undivided attention. And the writer identifies resources that often are rated as wimp factors rather than as strengths upon which we can rely: truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, faith, salvation.

            Our son, Jeffry, spends a good deal of time in scuba gear as part of his research work in Australia. Australia is noted not only for its stunning Great Barrier Reef, but also for the fact that it has more poisonous plants and critters than any other continent–and when you consider the Amazon rain forest alone as a serious contender in that category, that’s saying something. So when Jeffry goes out even just to wade in the shallow coral waters, he wears a special kind of boot that protects his feet. When he dives, he wears a wetsuit; he sees through a face mask; he breathes through a regulator and air tank. He equips himself for a dive. Obviously, he can’t stay equipped....even if he were to be totally ridiculous and wear his wetsuit and boots and fins everywhere he went. His air tank needs replenishing on a regular basis. He can’t do that while he’s under water. At some point, he needs to return to the source and have the air tanks refilled before he is equipped to dive again. No matter how many times he does it, Jeffry cannot remain equipped for deep sea diving.

            This is Rally Sunday, the day that is our official kick-off for UCCSV’s Christian education programs for this academic year. The day that we highlight specific possibilities for taking seriously our own on-going needs to be equipped in our faith. The church is a place where people are actively equipped to live as Christians. We are equipped in worship, in our fellowship with one another, in our times of prayer, in our classes. And as Aaron and Beth and Charles are sharing with us today, even in our service to others, we find that we become better equipped to serve.

            Something else the three share with us is more subtle, but every bit as important: the context within which we live, and the context within which we are called to serve as Christians, is changing all the time. Even the word ‘rapidly’ doesn’t do it justice. It’s continual, ongoing. And so a large part of our equipping is to be grounded in our scriptures and in the essential practices of our faith, so that we have the resources at hand to be able to be effective disciples wherever we are.

            This is not as easy as it sounds. During our vacation, John and I were in Spokane to visit my parents. While we were there, we went with some friends Idaho’s oldest remaining building–the Cataldo Mission near Coeur d’Alene. This mission is sited on the St. Joe River,  and the location also served as a terminus for one of the many railroads that served the mining communities that saturate the area. Although they no longer enjoy the heady days of the silver rush, Silver Valley still produces silver, lead, zinc, gold, and copper. A small sign to that effect was part of a mine exhibit on the mission grounds. But what really caught my attention was a single line in that exhibit: “In order to maintain our current standard of living, 40,000 pounds of minerals must be mined annually for each person in the United States!”

            That statement is simply staggering. We know first-hand the tremendous effort it took to equip Aaron and Beth and Charles and Dan with the most basic elements for their mission trips–the cost of their airfare, along with the resources for food and shelter during their time in South Africa and in Guatemala. In turn, each of them in specific ways to proclaimed the gospel of peace in their work of establishing a orphanage or building a school.

            What they were doing – and what those working at Habitat, or those who work at the soup kitchen, or at the Community Based Shelter do – is consciously at odds with a culture bent on maintaining a 40,000 pound-per-year habit while millions of the world’s men, women, and children do not have access to clean water, healthy food, universal education, and safe shelter. Close to home, the news is filled with the appalling state of reconstruction in the areas devastated by Katrina/Rita as we acknowledge the one-year anniversary of those disasters.

            The writer of the epistle sized it up accurately–spiritual issues have a moral component and are of universal importance. Think of our stories from the Bible: Moses, Ruth, David, Mary, Jesus–even the story of Jesus and the little children, which we will re-visit in a few weeks. They’re all stories which speak to issues of power and powerlessness, stories which always take sides, stories which at times are intensely political. Much as we have trouble admitting it, they are stories which are not objective. They lift up those who are not at the center of power, those who are not citizens of a powerful nation. They are stories which bring comfort and hope to the last, the lost, the least, and at the same time, plant a vision that things are not the way they could be, things are not the way they should be. And therefore, the stories that nurture us and equip us for alternative living in the majority culture, our faith stories, not only seek to change our perceptions, but fundamentally seek to change the way things are.

            I don’t need to tell any of you that we live in an often dangerous and sometimes frightening world. We need to be equipped spiritually and morally to live faithfully in this world. As we begin this new season of the spirit, I ask you to consider prayerfully to do as they teach us every time we prepare to fly. Equip yourself first, then turn to the child, or the neighbor next to you, and help them be equally equipped.