Swordsmanship

The only sport I have ever been good at was fencing.  Not that good, mind you, but better than the rest.  Not being much of a sportsman, I didn't really get playing team sports, didn't enjoy the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat, with everything except fencing. Fencing is the sport in which you fight with swords, you duel with weapons, and the winner is the one who hits the other guy first, and does so more often.  That's the only real way forward in the sport, and it leads to dueling that doesn't look pretty, doesn't look fancy, and doesn't take long. The average point in a fencing bout takes a few seconds to be scored.  That's it.  It's not a big long rally of swordsmanship, it's over pretty quickly.

But one of the things you learn when you're fighting with swords is that you are holding in your hand the tool both for your attack and for your defense.  Although you are in a kevlar vest, and have a sieve on your head, you're holding your tool for both attack and defense.

I bring this up because of the prevalence of swords in the scriptures.  No, not those swords, not the ones used in the conqest of the holy land that made bodies pile up.  I mean the sword of the spirit that was the word of God. The sword of the spirit that is the word of God, as we are counseled to use in Ephesians.  Now, lest we forget that the scriptures don't just mention the sword of the spirit as the word of God once.  They mention it several times, including in our Old testament reading from Sunday.  The Old Testament reading is from the book of Isaiah, which tells us that the messenger of God's mouth is like a sharp sword.  And right there, even in the Old Testament, we see the presence of the word of God being a sharp sword.  This is a theme that is going to run right the way through the scriptures, you understand, and it is really worth us remembering that the sword that we are issued as christian people isn't one that is there to kill, maim, or mutilate.

We have a very strange interaction with the sword we are given, the sharp two edged sword seen in Isaiah, in Hebrews, in Revelation, in Ephesians, in that we are expected to use this sword as our only tool to attack with.  This is in keeping with Christ our Lord, who only used his words (and a whip one time)as a weapon.  When he encountered people, when he ran up against opposition, when he ran into the devil himself, he used his words, the word of God.  And that's us as well.  We as Christians aren't supposed to be pushovers, we aren't supposed to be quitters, and we aren't supposed to give up.  Christ told us that if we don't have a sword, we are supposed to sell our cloaks and go and buy one.  Is it a real physical sword?  I'll wager that Christ's priorities are the same as they always have been, that we are supposed to engage with the devil, with the world, with words, and with His word.

The reason for this should be clear, in that the vision of Christ that appears at the end of the New Testament, the vision of Christ in the midst of the lampstands, he has a sharp two edged sword coming out of his mouth.  This is the word of God that still gets stuff done, that is still powerful and effective.  It didn't stop doing what it was supposed to do, it didn't become less effective, but it stopped being used by us, and then we became surprised when those changes that we wanted to see stopped happening.

There's an old handyman joke out there that has a puzzled carpenter holding a hammer in one hand , and not having the best time of it. And he says, scratching his head 'I must be using the wrong kind of hammer for this screw.'  Laughter and applause follow.  but that's the case with most of our problem solving, most of our evangelism, most of our programs, most of our family problems and we're trying to solve them by attacking the problem with anything but what is shown to have worked.  I know I know, when the only tool you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail, but hold on a tic here, because the word of God is lively and active, as Hebrews says, sharper than any two edged sword, able to cut between joints and marrow, and so on.  We know that the word of God is lively and active, and yet we are less and less likely to use it.

If you're going to have a fire extinguisher in your house to protect against an unexpected and unwanted blaze, you'd better know where it is and how to use it. If you're going to have a life jacket in your canoe in case it tips, you'd better be wearing it before the eventuality happens.  The thing that people forget is that the scriptures aren't just a one size fits all, though they are only one book. In this book are words of law, and of Gospel, of anger and of comfort. In the books of the Bible you will find advice, guidance, history, poetry, love stories, comfort, agony and everything in between.  Essentially, in the scriptures, you have a philips head, a robertson head, a slot head, a torx, a tamper-proof, all the screwdrivers.  Without the scriptures, all you have is a hammer.  All you have is blunt force.  Will it work?  Maybe.  But using the right tool for the job will get you there a lot faster.

We have been given that tool.  We have been given the word of God, and there's a good chance that you have a Bible within line of sight to you right now.  When was the last time you consulted it when you had a problem that needed to be solved, or when you had something you wanted to accomplish.  When was the last time that you looked into the scriptures to see if they had what you needed for what you were trying to do?  We forget very quickly that it was the word of Christ that accomplished what he wanted, not force of arms.  When he spoke, things happened.  Follow me, Come out, be opened, be still, your sins are forgiven.  When Christ speaks, things happen, and they get done.

And when he spoke from the cross, he said 'It is finished.' And when he did so, the curtain in the temple was torn in half, and the dead were raised.  The earth shook, and the rocks broke open.  And at that moment, at those words, sin was beaten, death was trumped, and the kingdom of Heaven was opened.  Those are some powerful words.  And lucky for you, they're still accessible to you.

These are the words, the tools you've been given.  This is the sword that you have to go out into the world with. But unlike a physical sword, this one isn't designed to kill. It's not designed to make a pile of bodies.  That would be possible with a physical blade, but this one is better. Properly wielded, it doesn't change your enemy into a corpse, it changes your enemy into a friend.  Properly used, it doesn't change your adversary into a body, but your adversary into a fellow-combattant, a brother in arms.  That's why Jesus gave you this sword to use.

It's because we, as Christians have the strangest situation of all.  We want our enemies to live.  And we want them to live forever.

The Baptism of Christ

A long long time ago, I saw a movie called 'the order.'  You can tell it was a decent length of time ago, because it was starring Heath Ledger (too soon?)  Anyhow, the plot of 'The Order' was that there was a rogue group of priests who were known as sin-eaters.  And what they would do, is they would wait until someone was about to die, and then they themselves would eat that person's sin, and take it into themselves, leaving that person to die with a clear conscience, while that priest just accumulated vast amounts of sin on himself.  I bring this up, of course, because the film seemed to suggest that the whole point of the Christian faith was to go to Heaven, even if you had to find loopholes and plot holes to get there.  Even for the most mean and covetous sinner, there would be a loophole to get you there somehow.    Now the movie wasn't great, you understand, it was lacking in a few key areas, but that plot is at least semi-notable for dealing with the endgame more than anything else.
And that leads us quite happily to baptism.  It leads us to baptism, and to the modern idea that baptism can consist of just getting the kids done.  They can get baptized, and then they're all good for life.  It's a thing you do, and it functions as sufficient 'fire insurance' to get you out of all sorts of trouble.  Essentially, it functions as hedging your bets, being sure that you can get away with something if you need to.

But if the entire benefit of baptism is going to heaven, which is certainly part of it, the question comes up, does it offer any other benefits?  Martin Luther certainly thought so.  if you wouldn't mind dusting off your catechism from the seven inches of dust that it's lying under, and turn to the section in the small catechism on holy baptism, you will see this:
  'Baptism works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare.'

Okay, fantastic, and Luther goes on, stating 'the Old Adam in us should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sinsand evil desires, and that a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in richteousness and purity forever.'

So this movement of baptism isn't just a terminus movement.  It isn't something that gets you to heaven only, though that is part of it.  Rather, it is a matter of equipping you for life as well as for death.

The book 'Jesus Mean and Wild' talked about this in one of its chapters.  The chapter in question dealt with not just the baptism of Christ, but also what happened immediately after.  For Christ our Lord stood at his baptism, the heavens were opened, and the Spirit of God descended on him like a dove, and a voice from heaven said 'This is my son, in whom I am well pleased.'  It's a great moment, to be sure, a great moment where you see the entirety of the trinity together, and you see them all , arrayed and bedecked before you, like we're living in a stained glass window.  But what happens after Christ has been baptized?  What's the next step?

The Gospels tell us.  And this is one of those situations in which all the Gospels agree.  From Matthew: 'Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.'  From Mark: 'The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.'  From Luke: 'And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned fro the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil.' The only Gospel that doesn't talk about that immediate transition is John's Gospel, obviously, and that Gospel is the one where John is recounting the events of the baptism to us.

Of all those Gospels, I like Mark's the best, because Mark's Gospel carries with it a sense of immediacy, carries with it the idea that as soon as Christ was baptized in the Jordan, he went to work to do battle with the devil.  Right after his baptism, right after he went down into that sweet water, then he went out to be tempted, harangued, and beset by Satan.  So, for Jesus, we know that his need for baptism didn't cover his sin, because he didn't have any.  He was conceived without sin, born without sin, and lived without sin as well.  He was just fine, and didn't need that forgiveness of sins.  But did he get the other benefits of baptism?  Sure he did.  He was equiped to do battle with the devil through his baptism.  It was the start of his ministry, the beginning of what he would do in the world, and it was the start of his war with the devil, who would assail him either directly or indirectly for the duration of his ministry.

Your baptism functions in the same way, you know.  Your baptism functions in the same way, giving you a passport to heaven, clearly, but more than that.  Just as Christ was equipped to do war with Satan through his baptism, so you are too.  Your baptism equips you to, as Mark's Gospel says, immediately go out into the wilderness to be tempted, and to overcome.

Your baptism is the means through which your Old Adam is drowned, and the new man emerges.  Paul describes it in our Epistle reading from Sunday as being dead to sin, and alive to Christ.  It describes us as being dead from sin, no longer subject to its whims, no longer responding to it, no longer being moved in any real direction on it, being pulled by it into doing what it wants you to do.  The idea is to resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  To be dead to sin, and alive to Christ. And that happens in your baptism.  And it's not a one-time thing, though you do only need to be baptized once. Rather, like a vaccine, you get it one time, but it continues to work throughout your life, daily protecting you, daily strenghtening you, daily equipping you for the war that you have to engage in with the devil and the powers and dominions of this world.
People forget this.  And they forget their baptisms.  They forget what it was that that they received in their baptism, and thought no more about it.  They never considered that their baptism would be vital and useful to their wandering around in the wilderness, not just for 40 days, but for 80 years.  We're going to be out in this wilderness for a long time, with the devil assailing us at every opportunity.  We will be pursued by that prowling lion, who seeks whom he may devour.  We will be plagued by the monsters from our nightmares who seek our failure and destruction.  And what do we rest on?

We rest on our baptism.  We rest on our baptism and the moment where that Old Adam was drowned and put to death.  We rest on that moment where Christ reached into human history, and bound us to him through the same waters of baptism that he and we both descended into.  That's the hope and stay in the wiles of our lives.  That's what we are dependent on, and relying on.  We are counting on that to drown the Old Adam, to destroy him so that he might be dead to sin.  No longer tempted, no longer pulled and pursued, no longer interested in what may be before him, but altogether dead to sin.  And we also place our hopes in being fully alive in Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith, who provided us with that exchange in the waters of baptism, where our sin was washed off of us, and was taken upon him.  Like the sin eaters from 'The Order,' he took our sin on himself, taking it all away so that we could stand before God blameless and secure in our salvation through his merits.

It's funny, that the plot of 'The Order' was less interesting than the plot of the Holy Bible.  The plot that details not an order of rogue priests running around eating sin and taking it on themselves, but the descent of God our Lord in human form, living and dwelling in his creation.  The story of the word of God made flesh, the story of the magnificent force of creation becoming part of creation, and at the moment of baptism, you leave your sins in the water and he takes them away, drowning your fiercest enemy, and restoring you to grace.

It's a good story.  But don't take my word for it.

The book is better.

Benediction

I'm not sure if you're paying attention by the end of the service.

Yes, I know that the services can get awfully long, I am aware that they can drag a little in the middle, especially around sermon time, I'm fully aware that things don't always move along with pep and vitality, so I wouldn't be too terribly surprised if you had tuned out by the end.  And if you did, that would be a shame, because the end of the service contains the benediction, which is a favourite part of the service for a great number of people.

No, not just because it means that church is over.

It's because this is where, in the service, God blesses you.  And he blesses you in the same way that he has blessed countless people before you.  It's nice that this moment comes up around Christmas, because for families, Christmas is a time of great ritual.  There are certain things that just sort of have to be there, or have to be done.  You have to have brussels sprouts, there have to be cabbage rolls.  It's not Christmas without Christmas crackers, or without a glass of sherry.  There are certain aromas that we have heavily connected with Christmas, like pine needles, or like stuffing (dressing), that kind of thing.  And having mentioned all that, a connection with Christmas crackers needs to be made, which is the legacy of the cracker joke.

No, this isn't a joke about pepperidge farms, but rather these are the jokes that are wrapped up with the crowns, that you will find in your Christmas cracker after you have pulled it and popped the crown on your head.  And as you do so, you read out the cracker joke to the delight of almost nobody.  The reason for that is that cracker jokes don't change over the years.  They're sort of dad jokes run wild, where the content of the jokes is the same year after year, and by the time you get to be an adult, you know all the answers to all the questions.

What is the best Christmas present in the world?
A broken drum, you just can't beat it!

Hilarity ensues.  Or does it?  I have been listening to these jokes for as long as I can remember, and they never change.  It's really hard to be overly enthused about jokes that remain exactly the same for generations.  It's tough to get fired up for a laugh about material that just stays the same all the time no matter what.  It doesn't elicit the same laughs that it does over at the kids table.

Now, we have a way of thinking about all things like that.  We have a way of thinking about all aspects of our lives like that, in a quest for the novel, for the new, for the different.  We have in mind to continue, perpetually, looking for what is new, what is different, what has not yet been done.  We want to make sure that our lives are always looking forward, and anything that has been said or done or enjoyed already is no longer worth our time or consideration.  Usually. But at Christmas time, things have to be different, because if things don't mean something, then we're in real trouble. 

Have you ever considered what would happen if you engaged in a massive orgy of buying and selling goods and services, if you bought gifts for everyone you know on August the first, which here is Saskatchewan, is "Civic day."  What would happen if for Civic day, you made a huge meal, got the whole family together, sat everyone down, put up a civic tree, exchanged civic presents, and had a jolly old civic time.  Imagine if all the stores, all the companies, realized this, and made the entire civic day season all about buying and selling and gifts, and all that noise.  Imagine if that was the case.  This upcoming August the first, are you planning on buying gifts for everyone on your list, or are you just planning on sleeping in? 

You Civic grinch.

In order for the mechanism of Christmas to work, we have to have it be about something else, not just buying and selling.  It has to be about the birth of Christ, or family, or togetherness, or something more than just 'commerce day.'  That's not enough.  It's never been enough.  That has never been sufficient.  There are commercials on TV all the time (TV, remember that?), or on the radio, ads playing before YouTube videos, billboards on every conceivable surface, none of the stores have any real interest in stopping this orgy of consumption, so any day could be an excuse to buy and sell.  But we, average Joe consumer, we need a better reason than that.  So it has to be tied to mother love, or to passion, or to the birth of a Baby, or to family, or to any one of a number of things, but never just because.

There are a lot of things that happen around Christmas, and honestly, some of the most repetetive bits are the best bits. It's the novelty that plagues you, that's what makes you miserable. The novelty, the buying and selling, the getting and the giving, the Christmas lists that change year after year, that develp to the point where you have no idea on earth what to get a neice or nephew because their wants and desires change every year. 

But it's the repetition, the grounding, the framework that makes things mean something.  The repetition, the ritual, is the bedrock that props the rest of it up, and if that framework isn't there, then then the whole thing doesn't function, it falls apart because it's built on nothing.  There absolutely has to be some routine, some framework to hang the season on, otherwise you just end up earning time and a half at the movie theatre.

For us in our family, there are three things that always must be read.  Firstly, the nativity account in the Gospel of Luke.  Secondly, we read 'A visit from Saint Nicholas' (AKA 'twas the night before Christmas, if you're a plebe), and the story of Jabez Dawes.  And to this date, none of us have gotten tired of any of them, and in fact would have a hard time getting in the mood of the season without them.  Though we've heard those stories dozens of times, we still want to hear them again. 

It's the same with the Benediction.  The Benediction at the end of the service, the Aaronic Benediction which Aaron, the initial, the original High Priest, was told to bless the people of Israel in God's name, with this Benediction.  And we continue to say this Benediction here at this church, and at all sorts of other churches as well.  We repeat that every week, week in and week out, and it keeps on being something that we need to hear.  That part doesn't change, that part never gets any different.  The moment in time that we hear the blessing of God, where after we have been through the service, we have heard about our sin, we have received absolution, and then we are being equipped for the week ahead, with the blessing of God.  We are blessed every week with God's word, as it was in the Old Testament, the words that have girded human beings for thousands of years, the words that have comforted and strengthened people for the world outside the walls of the congregation.  The words that we hear are a ritual, yes, but they're a vitally important part of the ritual of worship in the church.  No matter what the theme of the service was, no matter who the pastor is and how dreadful his preaching was, no matter if we entered with a heavy heart or a light spirit, no matter if our faith was strengthened or worn down, whatever happened in any of those moments, we have assurance, guarantee of the blessing of God richly poured out on all of us.  His blessing applies to each and every single person in that congregation, so no matter what else you may have gotten out of the service, get this. 

May the Lord Bless you and Keep you.
May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you.
May the Lord lift his countenance upon you, and give you his peace.

Be strengthened and comforted through these words.  Be vitalized, be refreshed, and be blessed through the blessing of God, given as he had commanded.  And if you are flagging, weak in your faith, tired, worn down, be strengthened by the blessing that comes from God, the blessing that is the same yesterday, today and forever.  Grounded, fashioned and built up by our God, who is also the same yesterday, today and forever.

Sometimes, routine is nice.