Prayer 3885: For Peace and Compassion

Most Holy God,

we turn our eyes to the rising sun,
and our hearts to your commandments.

May we dedicate ourselves to your instruction
to love one another as You love us;
to turn aside from war to be makers of peace;
to seek reconciliation and healing
in our relationships with God and each other.

Strengthen us in compassion and mercy;
give us a delight and awe at your handiwork all around us;
help us to tread gently upon this earth
and as companions in your Way of Love and Justice.

Spread the canopy of your protection, we pray,
over all who turn to you for help, O Most Holy,
especially for those we now name.

Amen.

After the Fireworks: Speaking to the Soul for July 6, 2023

The moon beams aloft, reclaiming her throne
from the waning of rockets’ red glare; 

Dogs army-crawl, dazed, from under our beds,
still in shock from bombs bursting in air; 

The owl and whip-poor-will renew their song,
vesper hymns lifted God-ward once more, 

That true freedom rings out in sounds of peace--
precious after the echoes of war.

This was first published at Episcopal Journal and Cafe's Speaking to the Soul on July 6, 2023.

The Spirit of Service: Speaking to the Soul, November 11, 2021

Isaiah 58:6-12, Matthew 25:31-40

One hundred and three years ago on this day, a terrible war was at last grinding to a halt across much of the world. Those in charge of the perpetrating that war decided to declare an armistice on the feast day of the patron saint of soldiers (as well as conscientious objectors). So, on the Feast of St. Martin the Merciful of Tours, the trenches across Europe and Asia at long last grew silent, and the so-called “Great War” shuddered to a bloody halt. Today, here in America, we call today Veteran’s Day. We must never forget this as a day of peace honoring first that one who had the strength to lay down his weapons and take up the shield of faith, clothing himself in a spirit of service to others.

The assigned readings in today’s lectionary valorize not war, but peace. The reading from Isaiah is a bold proclamation of abundance that leads to the celebration of the dream of God for our lives. The prophetic words insist not that might makes right, but that the greatest strength is demonstrated by standing in solidarity with the vulnerable and the oppressed. The gospel reading insists that the face of Christ is found in every person in need whom we encounter, just as Martin showed mercy on a beggar in Amiens and gave him half his cloak, the first step in his journey from soldier to servant of Christ. And so, may we take a moment to center our hearts in gratitude for those who have laid aside their own desires to embrace a life of service, humility, and compassion, and to seek to follow in that same path.

We praise You,
O Compassionate One,
and lift our hearts
to be filled by your light.

May we embrace your call to sacrifice
that we may seek to serve others
as Blessed Martin did,
seeking not our own will but yours.
May we devote our lives and resources to peace

and the good of others:
setting the oppressed free,
feeding the hungry,
clothing those who are naked,
housing the homeless and the refugee.

Clothe us, O Lord,
in a spirit of compassion and generosity,
draped in a mantle of honor and integrity:
give us the imagination
to see ourselves
in the place of our suffering kindred.

May we see the face of our Savior,
in the one shivering in the cold,
and in the refugee fleeing the ravages of war.

May we put down our swords
in the name of your love, Blessed Jesus,
and work for true peace in the world.

Grant your peace and healing, O Great Physician,
to all in recovery from the shock and horror of war,
that they may lay down their arms in safety and gratitude.

Pour out your spirit upon us,
O God of Grace,
and grant your blessing to all who seek You.

Amen.

This was first published at Episcopal Cafe's Speaking to the Soul on November 11, 2021.

Image: 12th century drawing of St. Martin with the beggar (who was Christ).

The Armor of Vulnerability: Sermon for the 13th Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 16B)

I used to love to watch war movies with my Dad, especially those John Wayne classics like The Sands of Iwo Jima and The Longest Day. We loved The Fighting Seabees, because my Dad WAS a Seabee in World War II. I also loved playing games based on battle: Battleship,Stratego, and Risk.

In all those movies and in all those games, there were a few life lessons scattered in there for anyone, whether destined for the military or not. Think twice about attacking if you are outnumbered. Always try to defend the high ground, not the low ground. An army travels on its stomach. Offense is more costly and risky than defense if you are defending your home turf. Even: Never get a tattoo while drunk.

And of course, I grew up in churches that used war metaphors in their hymns, hymns like “Onward Christian Soldiers,” and “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” (which, while it is a patriotic song written during the Civil War, was also in the hymnals of most churches we attended when I was little). Then there were other hymns that glorified the topic of blood: “Because He Lives,” “Are You Washed in the Blood?” “Nothing But the Blood” “What Can Wash Away My Sin?”-- all drawing on the image in the Book of Revelations about the faithful being washed in the blood of the Lamb of God, and made white as snow.

So many words in that image right there that can be deeply problematic if not handled carefully. When I was really little, and trying to understand that last song particularly, I also used to wonder how my friends who were people of color felt about being turned white by Jesus—until I was old enough to read the verse and see that it was talking about garments, not skin. But still, the privileging of the color “white” and its association with some people can be very much misused in prejudiced persons’ hands.

And so, the readings this week brought back some memories—memories of being taught a pugnacious faith, a faith in which Christians were deemed to be persecuted by society and under assault by Satan in a place where every business still was forced under law to be closed until noon on Sunday, the Christian day of worship, and in which my sixth grade homeroom teacher in a public school forced each one of us to take a turn leading the class in prayer every morning, and in which the study of the Old Testament was in the Tulsa Public Schools’ English curriculum not once but TWICE between grades 9-12. And the kids we had in school who were NOT Christian—in particular, the Jewish kids and the Buddhist kids who were refugees from Vietnam and Cambodia—were left to understand that America was a Christian nation, and if they wanted to fit in, they needed to get with the program. Which isn’t exactly how Jesus would have put it.

And these verses from Ephesians were often a chosen text in urging Christians to be ready to violently respond in defense of their faith in Jesus. This section is sometimes referred to as “The Armor of God.” The voice used her is a voice of command—the imperative. That is admirably suited for a passage so filled with martial language. Christians are ordered to take up our positions, to pray (repeated three times) and be alert.

Let’s catalogue the military terms that are scattered like buckshot through this brief passage: “armor” (twice), “belt,” “breastplate,” “shield,” “arrows,” “helmet,” “sword.” Then notice the verbs: “stand” (as in military formation) is used four times; “take” is used three times; “put on” is used three times. The New Interpreters’ Study Bible notes that the word translated as “take” in v. 13 is used in military context for preparations before battle. The order in which the Christian puts each item on is the order used when putting on actual armor and at the end one puts on one’s helmet and places his sword in the sheath.

But then let’s remember who the Christians at Ephesus were: a tiny minority group who chose to follow Jesus in a huge port city that made its living on trade and pagan worship, especially dominated by a Temple of the Goddess Artemis—that also served as one of the biggest banks in the Mediterranean-- that was so big it was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. That is a VERY different context from ours today, even with fewer people attending church. Even now, for some, claiming the title of Christian is a means to social acceptance and upward mobility, a path to belonging rather than to a life of faithful witness.

The pressure was on these early Christians known as the Ephesians from two directions. First, many of them had converted from Judaism, and Jesus was NOT considered to be the messiah by mainstream Judaism. Second, those who were Gentiles had converted from the civic pagan faith, and their abandonment was feared to possibly bring about the wrath of the gods. They were a tiny, ragtag group of people living in a culture that could turn hostile should some calamity descend and should their neighbors need a convenient scapegoat. They were vulnerable in the worst meaning of that word.

Thus, St. Paul has to urge them to keep the faith. But he does NOT do it by urging them to take up arms against their neighbors. Almost every single piece of the armor mentioned in his metaphorical list is defensive, not offensive. He is also clear that this armor is put on for the gospel of PEACE. The world was already a violent enough place. Jesus spent his public ministry urging people to put down their hatreds, their violent tendencies, and instead to love their enemies and pray for them. Even in this week’s gospel, when people are offended by his blunt words, he doesn’t force them to listen or force them to stay—he lets them depart in peace.

It is even more of a stark contrast to see that the thing Paul is urging those Ephesian Christians to defend in such military terms is “the gospel of peace.” Notice that some of the words used here were also used in our psalm: strength, and then the urging to prayer. Further, the belt Paul urges wearing is truth, the breastplate is righteousness, the shield is faith, the helmet is salvation, and the sword is the Spirit, which is equated with the word of God (not in the sense of Jesus or the scriptures, but in the sense of general revelation). In other words, the tools given to us in the fight against evil are gifts from God, and a sign of God’s loving-kindness toward us.

Nowadays, many of us are rightfully uneasy with concepts of religious warfare, tainted as this imagery is with the evils of the crusades, forced conversion as in Spain in the 15thcentury, jihad throughout the ages, and so on. We continuously see Christians at war against even other Christians. Yet at the same time, the world is in need of people willing to put their entire being behind living out the gospel of peace, grace, and mercy, who ARE willing to stand up for and alongside the cause of the poor, the oppressed, the marginalized.

We see Muslim attacking Muslim in Afghanistan right now, with the Taliban attempting to use brutal, military force to impose their fundamentalist, rigid understanding of Islam on their neighbors who have thus far not been persuaded by their words and deeds. Their willingness to kill fellow Muslims in the name of a religion whose name means “Surrender” shows that Christianity is not alone in its tendency to misplace the peaceful heart of faith with the fist of war.

It is important, therefore, to treat these texts respectfully and also carefully. As we have seen repeatedly over the last many months, sometimes one has to physically put one’s body on the line in the cause of justice and creating a lasting PEACE within society. Our efforts are not in the cause of force and oppression, but must be in the service of the “peace of God,” which surpasses human understanding. Jesus’s gospel is one of vulnerability in the BEST sense: openness, the willingness to lay down one’s privileges for the service of the weakest members of society. Just as Jesus himself did, again and again. It’s a vulnerability that projects strength, not fear,because it is grounded in love and service to others.

Does Paul say this armor is to be used to attack others? NO. He says the armor of God will make Jesus’s disciples who put it on bold—bold in proclaiming the living, loving faith of Jesus, in word and deed—ESPECIALLY against the forces of anger, violence, and destruction. It calls for us to be made WISE, not murderous. The armor of God is the armor of love in the face of hatred.

In the end, we have to remember that armor is just an empty shell. Armor’s importance lies in protecting the one wearing it. God’s armor is not meant to block out the cries those around us, but to enable us to stand alongside them in solidarity. The armor of God is what we put on every day that we choose to not just be fans of Jesus but to be followers of Jesus. This armor acknowledges our vulnerability and our freedom to choose a way of life that is NOT always easy, that does come with some cost and sacrifice.

We hear that kind of vulnerability in Jesus’s question to his closest disciples as some of the crowd drifts off in our gospel, shocked by his unflinching talk about blood and flesh. “Do you also want to go away?” he asked sadly, yet with understanding and compassion. Jesus’s love is a freeing love; Jesus’s path is a path NO ONE can be forced to walk. At the heart of this love is the great mystery: that Jesus doesn’t just come to save us from hell, but to show us the way of life as we are living it. It is a life lived for each other no matter how distant or different we are from each other.

We are called to fight for love over conquest, and to fight using our hearts and our honesty, not our fists. May we all choose the armor of truth, the armor of righteousness, the armor of love and light—the armor of vulnerability.

Preached at the 10:30 in-person and online service at St. Martin's Episcopal Church, Ellisville, MO.

Readings:

1 Kings 8:[1, 6, 10-11], 22-30, 41-43
Psalm 84
Ephesians 6:10-20
John 6:56-69

Prayer 2533: On the Feast of the Epiphany

Come, O Shepherd, 
gather your wayward sheep
and lead us into your light!

Blessed Savior, we turn to you,
for you have humbled yourself and entered time
to guide us into life abundant.

You made the tyrants tremble on their thrones,
O Love Incarnate:
teach us to resist the forces of evil, oppression, and warfare,
and grant us the will
to overturn the systems of desperation
that seek to bind us through fear and division.

Help us to seek peace and restoration
through justice, integrity, and compassion,
protecting the most vulnerable among us
and loving each other in your name.

Grant your protection, O God,
to all who stand in harms's way, 
and give us the wisdom to seek your light for our path 
and to dedicate ourselves to being transformed by your love.

Extend the arms of your mercy, O Holy One,
over all who place their need before You,
especially those we now name.

Amen.

Prayer 2477: The Feast of St. Martin of Tours (Armistice Day/Remembrance Day)

We praise You, 
O Compassionate One, 
and lift our hearts 
to be filled by your light. 

Clothe us, O Lord, 
in a spirit of compassion and generosity:
give us the imagination
to see ourselves
in the place of our suffering kindred.

May we see the face of our Savior, 
in the one shivering in the cold, 
and in the refugee fleeing the ravages of war.

May we put down our swords
in the name of your love, Blessed Jesus, 
and work for true peace in the world.

Pour out your spirit upon us,
O God of Grace,
and grant your blessing to all who seek You.

Amen.

Prayer, day 2476: The Sunday before Veterans' Day

Almighty God, 

we remember before You today

the end of fighting in World War I, 

and we honor before You those who fought 

and who were killed or wounded in that terrible struggle. 

We remember before You 

the millions of civilians killed or made homeless 

in that terrible conflict, 

and the generations of young men 

whose loss still affects their countries.

On this day, 

may we celebrate peace, 

peace that is founded on security for all, 

peace that calls for respecting the dignity 

of all persons and nations, 

peace that seeks to build the world rather than destroy it.

Every life lost is a world destroyed, O God.

We pray for our veterans, 

the men and women who served this country, 

in all the wars and conflicts since, 

that they be honored for their sacrifice and cared for in their needs.

We pray that we honor the fast You have chosen, O Almighty One: 

to care for each other 

with compassion, kindness, and generosity, 

and to protect the vulnerable 

with the same force and determination 

we present in any conflict, 

remembering that we are all knit together by humanity.

Lord, You know our needs and our concerns: 

rest your protecting hand 

upon those for whom we pray, 

and grant them comfort and aid.

Amen.

Prayer 2114: On the Centennial of the Armistice that Ended World War I

Almighty God, we remember before You today the centenary of the end of fighting in World War I, and we honor before You those who fought and who were killed or wounded in that terrible struggle. We remember before You the millions of civilians killed or made homeless in that terrible conflict, and the generations of young men whose loss still affects their countries.

On this day, may we celebrate peace, peace that is founded on security for all, peace that calls for respecting the dignity of all persons and nations, peace that seeks to build the world rather than destroy it.

Every life lost is a world destroyed, O God.

We pray for our veterans, the men and women who served this country, in all the wars and conflicts since, that they be honored for their sacrifice and cared for in their needs.

We pray that we honor the fast You have chosen, O Almighty One: to care for each other with compassion, kindness, and generosity, and to protect the vulnerable with the same force and determination we present in any conflict, remembering that we are all knit together by humanity.

Lord, You know our needs and our concerns: rest your protecting hand upon those for whom we pray, and grant them comfort and aid

Veterans' Day Prayer for Peace

Creator of All Light,
Giver of Wisdom,
Protector of the Helpless:
give to us peace in our time, O God.

We remember today the men and women
who have served in the armed forces of our country,
on this day the guns stilled
ending a terrible war.
May we bring those guns to silence again;
may our lasting tribute to them
be a renewed dedication to peace.

May we consider the human costs
of our decision to battle
that endure long after combat ends.

May we remember the wounds of war
that linger in the memories of all who witness
the red rage of conflict,
and find no refuge from its grip.

May we honor our veterans' offering
of toil, time, and safety
by embracing them in all their needs.

May we never ask more of them
than we are willing to offer of ourselves,
and seek to serve them
as they have served our country.

May the rattle of the saber
be confined to the parade ground;
may those who have slept in tent, billet, or trench
never lack a roof of their own at home.

May we bear any burden
for those who have offered their lives in sacrifice,
and do all in our power
to heal any wounds they have borne.

Give us the wisdom and will
to hunger for peace
that the guns again cease
and red fields of battle
become golden fields of abundant grain.

May we revere our veterans,
and be willing to sacrifice at home
as they have in foreign fields,
dedicating ourselves to equality and fellowship
in whose name they have served.

May we serve the causes of peace and justice
as devotedly
as they have offered their lives in warfare.

Give to us peace in our time, O God.

Amen.

Photos, from the top:
1) Paul Cummins's installation for Remembrance Day, 2014, "Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red," consisting of 889,000 glass popppies installed at the Tower of London, from NPR.
2) Another view of that installation from Reuters.
3) A child in terror from the War in Afghanistan (known as Operation Enduring Freedom from 2001-2014 and Operation Freedom's Sentinel from 2014 onward), our longest-running conflict ever, from archives.
4) Lt. Col., now Senator, Tammy Duckworth, who was wounded while serving as a helicopter pilot in Iraq in 2004, from DailyKos.
5) A tank and burning oil fields from Operation Desert Storm, 1991, from CNN.
6) Marine Cpl. Catherine Broussard in Afghanistan's Helmand Province in 2010, by Paula Bronstein for Getty Images.
7) The 688th Postal Battalion, the first African American unit in the Women's Army Corps, 1945, from military archives.
8) Vietnam Women's Memorial, Washington DC.
9) Korean War Memorial, Washington, DC.
10) Corpsman Richard Barnett holding an Iraqi child, 2003, from Damir Sagol for Reuters.
11) Crossing the dividing line between North and South Korea, Korean Conflict, from military archives.
12) Quote by Admiral Chester Nimitz, World War II Memorial, Washington DC.