Armor up!

Did you know that the average slap shot today whizzes at about 160 kilometers per hour?  That’s enough to cause bruises, concussions and broken bones.  It’s a brave person who will step into the crease and be a goalie for a professional hockey team.  There’s a reason they wear so much padding; it can be a lifesaver.  Goalies are brave!

Christians are also called to be brave.  In Paul’s letter to Ephesians, he talked about the many risks he took as a Christian in a Roman world.  Christians were seen as atheists because the idea of believing in only one God was bizarre and novel to the Roman Empire, and the fact that they were encouraging people outside their faith to join them meant that the number of people worshiping the Emperor was slowly diminishing.  Your average citizen would almost certainly be shocked that Christians and also the Jews of course, did not worship the emperor with the same respect that Jupiter, Venus, Zeus, Athena, Osiris or Isis, or any of the other gods received.  Romans were very clever that way.  When they invaded, they didn’t subtract Gods and Goddesses, they just added to them.  So Christians, by taking away gods and refusing to pray to Caesar, were considered dangerously delusional.

No wonder Paul used such vivid imagery, then to talk about protecting yourself with the daily outfit of people he saw often, who lived dangerous lives of violence.  He used soldiers’ uniforms to teach his listeners how to cope with life’s challenges. When the Ephesians were feeling the pressure conform to the culture of the day, they were to visualize strapping on armor to keep them safe from the pressures that challenged them. 

But what ridiculous armor!  Truth doesn’t really stop arrows, peace is not something that will protect a foot from a hard rock, God’s salvation is not a hard hat, and the only weapon suggested is scripture.  Really?  The armor undermines the idea that we are dressing for war, when it is so, well, woke!  Talking about scripture isn’t going to stab anyone.  Any more than if we glued pages of a bible together to stop a slap shot from a hockey player. Ridiculous!

This isn’t meant for an offensive attack on other people.  It’s meant to remind us, ground us and centre us in what is truly important.

I was listening to an interview of a Canadian who talked about remembering what is truly important in our lives.  He and his brother are well-known fellows in certain circles, and he’s had a very diverse work history.  He graduated in 1969 from Cornell University with a B.A. degree in History.  His first job he wore a lot of protective padding, and interestingly enough, his brother also had the same job but in a different city.  That job took him to Russia in 1972 where he helped make history for Canada.  His next job was as a radio broadcaster, then the manager of a sports team. He became an author who wrote 7 books!  He and his brother went into federal politics and he even ran for the leadership of a National political party.  He served as the Minister of Social Development, cared about youth employment and social justice issues.

On a Sunday morning, he is regularly found in a United Church pew.  Maybe he’s even in church today.  Maybe he’s having communion and thinking about how his faith has strengthened his passion to work for daring justice.  Maybe he’s reflecting on Ephesians and how armor is very similar to hockey equipment.  Maybe he’s remembering the time his helmet protected his head from a stinging slapshot.  Maybe he’s imagining how skates could be like sandals of peace, and if he was 20 years younger, it would be fun to try out figure skates for the Battle of the Blades where burly hockey players team up with figure skaters to compete on CBC for charity.  Maybe he’s remembering when he was on Team Canada and went to Moscow in 1972 full of smug expectations, only to be shocked at how well Russians played.  He said in an interview 50 years later that it changed the way Canadians thought about hockey, and the assumption that there’s only one way to become a great hockey team. The Russians proved that wrong.  And maybe he’s thinking about the 3000 cheering Canadian fans that came to Moscow with them even though going behind the Iron Curtain was a dangerous and unheard of thing, and how those fans showed the power of teamwork, of focusing on the goal of representing Canada and democracy with honor. Maybe Ken Dryden is thinking about his children and grandchildren and how he hopes to build a better world for them, and that may be why he’s sitting in a pew in a United Church in Ontario.

Paul didn’t write about the power of teamwork like Dryden did, but it’s there, between the lines.  A sole Roman soldier was an easy target for an enemy.  The power of the Roman empire was in the discipline, training and focus that enabled soldiers to work and fight together as a team for a common cause.

We are not to be warriors and fighters with actual swords and shields.  We are to be goalies, protecting our team from the pucks and players that swirl around us hoping to score.  What’s in your goal that God calls you to protect?  Children from bullies? The environment from further damage? Towns and buildings from fires?  Civilians from wars that target them unfairly?  Workers and bosses from exploitive or selfish negotiations?  Voters from lies and scams?  Whatever God is calling you to, know that God gives you the team and the equipment you need to build peace and justice for all, and like Dryden and Paul, when you, when we put on the whole equipment of God, we will stand firm and strong against all evil.  Together, we can and do make a difference in this beautiful world. Thanks be to God, Amen!

Power Play

Wow, Jesus was throwing his weight around in the temple that morning!  He got a little hot under the collar, and when the Pharisees tried to blow the whistle and tell Jesus he was icing, he told them in no uncertain terms that what he did fell within the regulations, then skated off and scored a winning goal!  Except that the Pharisees decided to eject him from the league for unsportsmanlike conduct but recognized that they would need to get more people to back their decision.  Everyone to the Penalty Box!

There are three things going on in this gospel story.  First there’s the issue of leadership and who is following whom.  Then there’s the conversation around why the 7^th day is special, the Sabbath.  And lastly, there’s the decision point that is made by the person who the fuss is about.

First, what’s happening with leadership in this story?  Jesus is leading his disciples into the sanctuary where he sees a man with a withered hand.  The Pharisees react to his interest and see it as a threat to their authority.  Now it’s important that we acknowledge that this is not all the Pharisees as there were Pharisees like Nicodemus who are recorded as hosting Jesus for dinner, or having conversations with him.  In light of what is going on in the Middle East, we have to remember that these were some of the leaders, and make sure we do not encourage or imply any kind of antisemitism that could be used to fuel attacks like the one we saw at a Toronto Jewish school this week.  That being said, the leaders are confronting Jesus during a worship service like hockey players getting ready for a face off.  They are determined to control the play and get the puck away from Jesus.  They are calling him out in front of his disciples in a blatant attempt to shift the momentum away from Jesus and back onto themselves where they feel it belongs.  How dare this upstart disrupt worship? How dare he take on the authority that is rightfully theirs?  How dare he defy and defile the Sabbath? 

Then we have the theological debate.  This is the lens through which everyone is looking at the Sabbath.  It’s like if one team has helmets with yellow plexiglass visors, and the other one has helmets with pink visors.  What colors are the referee’s stripes? What color is the ice?  Those visors will shape how the players look at their rink and the other people on it. These particular Pharisees see the Sabbath as something that is honored by abstaining from work.  It is a reminder that no one is to be treated like a slave.  The Sabbath is a gift from God and is kept by following many laws to the letter to show respect to God. That’s something Jesus agrees with, it’s a gift from God to the people of God, but he also sees it as a time to experience God’s presence.  One of the highest principles of the laws protecting the Sabbath as a sacred time, that even these particular Pharisees would agree with, is that the laws can be suspended in order to save a life.  That the sacredness of the Sabbath is not as important as helping someone survive whatever ordeal they are facing. It’s a pragmatic and sensible boundary to the powers of temple regulations.  No high sticking allowed in your attempt to get control of the puck. 

Lastly, we have the person who is at the centre of this debate.  Poor guy must have felt like he was the puck about to be dropped into the face off.  I wouldn’t have envied him for the world.  Can you see it?  The Pharisees staring at him, Jesus looking at him too, and then all the spectators in the stands following the play, wondering where he will end up.

But here’s an interesting thing.  Jesus doesn’t touch the man or pray over him or forgive his sins or tell a parable.  Jesus simply invites the man to stretch out his hand.  The man has to make a choice of how to react to that invitation.  How will he keep the Sabbath?  Will he honor it in the narrow legalistic way that the Pharisees define it?  Or will he see it in the focus Jesus highlights? Not as a tool of oppression but a freedom from oppression, and an invitation to full and generous life.  He chooses life.

There are people who still feel oppressed by prejudice, discrimination, and hatred.  They feel crippled by fear and conspiracies.  They wither under the stated and unstated expectations that the world has of them.  There are people who will hate them in the abstract who might not hate them as long as they live their withered lives.  As long as they stay quiet.  As long as they follow the rules that they may be neither seen nor heard, as long as they hide their differences and pretend to be something they’re not.  But Jesus invites them to stretch out their withered hands to receive the love God has for them.  They are fearfully and wonderfully made.  Who are we to judge?  If we stick to rules for their own sake, we may block people from the healing they need.  If we, like the disciples, can wait to see what happens, we may see the miraculous happen right in front of us.  If we, like the Pharisees, find ourselves challenged, can we let go of what we know should happen to see what God is making happen?  And what is happening is as sweet and simple and beautiful as a team working smoothly to pass the puck and shoot a winning goal, or a rainbow shining in the sky after a storm, a sign that we are to make space for God’s healing love.  That is a great goal to have for our sabbath days together.  May we make space for all to experience God’s healing love!