2 Samuel 6: 1-5, 12b - 19
Psalm 24
Ephesians 1: 3-14
Mark 6: 14-29

“Celebrating Faith”

I am told that it is the Bantu people in central and southern Africa who ask, "What do you dance?" Not "What is your name" or "Where are you from?" but rather “What do you dance?' for what a person dances embodies his/her tribe, social customs and religions; all that a person is." (From “Lectionaid” as referred to on the Midrash Preaching List)

In that same vein, we are asked the question by today’s scripture lessons, “What is our faith dance?” What is the dance of our life and are we like David, willing to dance it, despite the danger of making a fool of ourselves and inviting the ridicule of those closest to us?

Dance has sometimes gotten a bad rap in the church but dance, of various kinds, is part of the fabric of almost every culture. Sometimes the dance of one generation is not the dance of another, but we all know that.

We are all familiar with the hymn, “Lord of the Dance”. In this hymn “The Dance” is a metaphor for the life of faith and in the hymn each verse portrays an event in Jesus’ life as if it is a movements in a dance. The hymn is written as if it were Jesus singing and is deeply rooted in both scripture and very biblical and traditional theology. The invitation to follow Jesus is the invitation to join his dance with verse one describing the “dance of creation” and verse two the dance of calling the disciples after being rejected by the religious elites. Verses three and four talk about turning the traditional religion of his day on it’s head and his ministry of healing which eventually led to his crucifixion, a path with which Jesus struggled mightily spending many hours in prayer. Both the temptation in the wilderness which began his ministry and the hours in the garden could be described as “having the devil on your back”. Then in verse five the mystery of the resurrection is proclaimed loud and clear. Jesus is the life that will never did and the dance that goes on forever.

I’m not sure if we have ever had an interpretive dance or liturgical dance as part of a worship service, but it is becoming more common in many churches. If you have never seen it for yourself, close your eyes and imagine a single ballet dancer, simply dressed, performing a dance. As you watch and reflect on the scriptures just read, you ARE able to see and feel new meanings and responses to the message contained in them. Some things can’t be said with words; or at least, can’t be said in words alone.

On one occasion a dancer was asked what she was trying to say with a certain interpretive dance she had just performed. Her reply, "If I could put it in words I would not have had to dance it." (From “Lectionaid” as referred to on the Midrash Preaching List)

In today’s lesson from the book of 2 Samuel we are told of a celebration which took place when the ark of God was moved from one place to another.

We don’t know a great deal about this ‘ark’ because, of course, no pictures exist of it but suffice to say that it was a box (not a boat, as the term ark might imply) with holes, or loops, on the sides through which poles could be run so that it could be carried without it actually being touched. This box was said to contain the actual tablets on which the ten commandments were carved and it was “guarded” by golden angels which sat on the top of it. There was a strict protocol for anything to do with this sacred box. It was thought that this box was somehow connected with the very real presence of the holy God and it was most certainly not to be treated lightly.

So the portion of scripture read today tells part of a very long story about the moving of the ark of God from the place where it had been to the city of David. They did not wrap it in bubble wrap and call Purlolator or Brinks to take care of all the details but rather followed a very strict protocol for transporting this most sacred of objects. There was a cart and specific ritual sacrifices at various steps along the way. This was a very important procedure. It had to be done just so.

On one episode of Grey’s Anatomy, one of those “doctor shows” I like to watch, a patient was brought to the hospital by ambulance and taken to the operating room to repair a gaping chest wound. Everything changed when it was discovered that he had a homemade and very unstable bomb lodged in his chest. Bomb disposal experts worked with the surgeons to try and save the man’s life and prevent an explosion inside the hospital. Apparently though, the bomb disposal expert and lost his life when he made a wrong move when the bomb exploded as he walked down the corridor with it after it had been safely removed from the man’s chest .

If you look at the whole story in this chapter of Second Samuel you will find out that the man named Uzzah, dropped dead because he inadvertently touched the ark itself in a seemingly misguided attempt to keep it from falling off the cart on which it was being carried. It is a very troubling part of the story and the people who make up the lectionary took those verses out, but leaving them in would emphasize the very real message that this “volatility” was part of the mystery and the danger of the very presence of God.

All that being said, the occasion was one of great joy, as should all occasions where the presence of God is recognized and celebrated.

David got himself into some trouble with his wife, or rather one of his wives, because, it seems that the clothing he was wearing was too revealing as he kicked up his heels. We are not sure what an ephod was, but it seems that it was not a dancing costume! Interesting that it was not him who was embarrassed but his wife. It is also interesting that the biblical story never hesitates to tell the less than flattering stories about David as well as the stories about his devotion to the God of his ancestors.

David was not the only one dancing though; everyone was! This celebration also involved the use of musical instruments, tambourines and the like. It was a real party kind of atmosphere because the change that was symbolized by the moving of the ark as a welcome and long anticipated one. It was a significant step in their becoming a nation to be reckoned with. It symbolized that their God was blessing them and making them great and that God was with them . Yet, many churches have lost this sense of celebration when expressing their faith in the presence, power and goodness of God. Over time many mainline protestant churches, in particular, developed an aversion to the linking of religion with such celebration, but as we look at the scriptures we see that it is there as something to guide and challenge us to a fuller expression of faith.

Many, many years ago now, St. Andrew’s made the bold step of acquiring an organ with which to lead the singing, and some people LEFT the congregation because of this. Apparently this happened in more than one church of the ‘free Scottish tradition’. (I don’t know when St Stephen’s acquired its first organ and I don’t know if it was controversial) We may wonder why this was such a problem, but it was. Perhaps guitars, drums or electronic synthesizers caused similar stresses in more recent years. It leads us to ask “what is appropriate in the worship of God”?

I think that what this passage is talking about is genuine joy in the presence of God. We no longer believe that God dwells in a box, but like the little boy in W.O. Mitchell’s Who Has Seen the Wind we tend to think that God is more present in church and particularly at services of worship.

This passages asks us, “Where is our expression of joy in the presence of God”. In the movie Chariots of Fire , Eric Lidell talked about his running as a way of “feeling God’s pleasure”.

How do we experience the joy of our faith when we are doing those things that we do every day? How do we experience joy when we are plowing a field at sunrise? Wishing perhaps that we were still in bed? Or taking pleasure in the glory unfolding before us? How do we experience joy when we tiptoe into the kids rooms on a cold winter night to cover them up once again? Why do kids always want to sleep on top of the bed instead of in it?! How do we experience joy as we teach a bunch of kids who don’t really seem to care about fractions or long division or the scientific method? Or as we remember the children’s parents being just like them, or so very different 20 or more years before! Can we do a dance (at least in our hearts).

AND I believe that the scriptures tell us that we ARE called to live and celebrate our faith (at the formal times of worship) with musical instruments, with voice and yes even with dance. Our celebrations in worship need not be fundamentally different than they are in the other aspects of our lives.

We are largely a Celtic people; we play the fiddle and we tap our toes and we dance in jigs and reels and the like. Why not to celebrate our faith and the goodness of our God as well as the other aspects of our lives such as births and weddings and graduations.

We are called to joyfully celebrate our faith with all of our being: hearts, minds, bodies, souls and even our dancing shoes.

Amen!

2 Samuel 7: 1-14a
Psalm 89: 20-37
Ephesians 2: 11-22
Mark 6: 30-34, 53-56

David must have been the kind of person who makes a “life list”. Some people make lists of the “things they want to do before they die”. Perhaps David’s list of empty check-boxes had dwindled down to one! A temple. Besides, from David’s perspective, it just wasn’t right that he had a fancy palace and God has a tent! It just wasn’t right. His case was so convincing that the prophet Nathan told him right away, “sounds like a “God-approved” plan to me.”

It would be a place of worship for the community. It would be a permanent temple for God’s holy ark. What could be wrong with that? After all, they had won all of their battles with the presence of this ark victory so now it deserved a place of respect and honour! They were on their way to becoming a great nation and this temple would prove it to the world. Yes, all the other nations had grand temples to their gods, why not a temple to the true God of heaven and earth?

Yet, God tells Nathan to go back and inform David that God has another plan; another checkbox on his divine list - something far more important than a building of bricks and mortar. This plan is one of flesh and bone.

The crux of this passage centres on the wordplay around the word house: “House of God” or “House of David.” According to the prophet Nathan, what was needed was a “house” for David; a “royal line”. Traditional theology tells us that this was eventually to be the “house” which was to produce the messiah. Over a number of very difficult centuries, when a child of David was not on the throne of Israel and especially when there was no throne in Israel, the people held onto the belief that this One, this Messiah, would take the people of Israel back to a time of prosperity and holiness; to the glorious time of David.

We sometimes forget the significance of the fact that David was only the second king to have ruled Israel. You see, before that they were ruled by “judges” because of the belief that God was their actual king. They were not to be like “the other nations”. Day to day administration and legal matters were settled by these people called “judges”, but their overall focus was to be on the God of heaven and earth, the only “king” they needed. But, they wanted to be like the other nations. They wanted to “keep up with the Joness” and, of course, God kept saying “no”! But finally after they begged and begged for many years, they were given Saul to be their king. He proved to be a disaster so David was their second chance. There was a great deal riding on this.

In a way, they were now like the other nations in that they had a king, but the prophets made it clear that they were still called to be different; to stand out among those nations as a people dedicated to the ways of this demanding but generous God; the God who led them to freedom and out of this freedom called them to complete service. The prophet Isaiah would later describe their destiny as one of being a ‘light to the nations’. They were to show the ways of this God to the world and live according to his laws and ways.

There was a danger in allowing David to add the temple to his long list of “great accomplishments”. To build a house for God could have been seen, in some way, as a means of setting himself up as a patron and enable him to exercise some kind of control or power over the worship of God in that place. God was having none of that. God was the one who was going to do the building; God was the one going to do the acting. God was goign to remain “in charge”! Despite Nathan’s initial assumption that this was a good thing, he changes his tune after he listens to God and that is what a prophet is supposed to do: communicate the will of God to the people.

Many nations had temples and in those temples a kind of civil religion thrived. The king was often regarded as semi-divine and worshipped in addition to their gods. The people of Israel were to guard against this. Delaying the temple’s construction was one way to cement the place of God as true sovereign of the people.

Prophets were important people during the time that Israel had a king and this passage also show us the beginning of the rise of those prophets and their role in Israel. The next time we see Nathan in the lectionary he will be calling David to account for his sins in regard to Bathsheba and Uriah. The prophet who speaks for God both supports the monarch when that is appropriate and speaks against when that is called for as well. We can see both in this passage, thought the so-called “support” is short-lived.

Many biblical stories look back to the “good old days” and this story is smack dab in the centre of those days; the days of David. This was written down at a time when they needed to remember their history and the greatness promised to the people of Israel and the house of David.

We can look back to it in our days for guidance about the promises given to us and the ministry to which we are called as Jesus’ disciples. It’s not an old and irrelevant story, its message is as fresh and relevant as ever.

I think that this passage is a reminder to us to keep things in perspective: to worship God and not human efforts and achievements and b) to remember that the church is a people and not a building, no matter how grand or how plain. We have to remember who we are and whose we are, not what WE think WE have been able to add to our lists of accomplishments.

We are not likely to be tempted to worship the gods of the other nations, as the people of Israel might have been, but we are tempted to put other things in the place of God just the same.

Some of these things that we can accord a status of “worship” are the things we can create with our own hands: our careers, our homes, our lawns, our boats and ATVs and snowmobiles, our vacations to exotic destinations, our entertainment centres, any of our various possessions - especially if our goal in life is to have more and bigger and better than last year and more and bigger and better than other people. The thing about this kind of worship is that it never satisfies because there is always something missing and we try to fill it with more and more.

We can look at our country itself and we can pat ourselves on the back, saying, “How great we are” but more often than not this can tempt us to exclude all of those who can’t contribute to our further success - rather that prompt us to see our wealth as a blessing carrying a mandate to share with others.

The church building may make a witness or say something to the community but what it says should be about the ministry that is enabled because of what happens in that building, and not the building itself.

This passage makes it clear that God does not need church buildings of wood or stone. God does not need fancy furnishings or stained glass or (even steeples). That’s not to say that those things are not good, but we need to keep them in perspective. What this passage emphasized is not what we can do, but what God does, for us and through us for the world.

What God needs are changed lives; lives lived fully in pursuit of the calling which we have received. God needs people who have come to the building and been nurtured by the community and touched and transformed by the power of Gods in Christ so that they can go our and make a difference in the community and the wider world.

God calls us, in all that we do, to testify to the power which has created the world, the power which has transformed our lives and the grace which sustains us. All that we do is to be for the glory of God and the fulfilling of the ministry to which we are all called.

God promised to make of David a great nation. Christian theology has long taught that Jesus of Nazareth was of the house and line of David and that he is the One who was expected to come and reign forever.

So as heirs of God’s promise to David we are called to continue that ministry of building the house of God with our lives and our witness to the God whose grace surrounds our lives. When people look at us may they think, not how great and faithful we are, bu may they be able to say, in all sincerity, in the words of the Psalmist, “God has done great things for them” and may they know when they meet us that “god is doing great things through us”.

The people came to Jesus for many things: healing, a word of life, to be in his presence, and to experience radical acceptance. May the people who come through these doors have an encounter with the God of heaven and earth and his son Jesus that transforms their lives, heals their deepest hurts and enables them to follow in ways they never thought possible. May people when they come here be able to say, “I have touched the frings of his cloak”.

Amen.

2 Samuel 11: 1-15
Psalm 14
Ephesians 3: 14-21
John 6: 1-21

I wonder. I wonder if I took a survey in this church, or this community or this province and asked one simple question, what the answer would be? How many would answer “yes” and how many would say “no”. The question is: Are we are people of abundance or a people of scarcity?

It’s not just the difference between the glass being half full or half empty; it’s a whole perspective about life and about the God of heaven and earth. It is also the basis of Christian mission.

John Grisham’s, A Painted House is the story of Luke Chandler and his family. It was 1952 and the Chandler family grew cotton in Arkansas. They hired a group of Mexicans and a family of “hill people” named Spruill, to help with the hard, back-breaking and prickly work. Aside from the drudgery of cotton picking and young Luke’s dream of a red St Louis Cardinals jacket at the end of the summer, a major part of the plot revolves around a terrible secret that young Luke is forced to keep in order to ensure the survival of the cotton harvest.

The harvest is doomed anyway because the weather intervenes and the rains and flooding destroy almost everything for which they have worked. A sharecropper’s family living nearby fares much worse and they have to be evacuated from their home. As the flood waters come in their front door the family, including a large number of barefooted and half naked children and an older sister and her illegitimate child are piled into boats and ferried to safety.

What really struck me in this book was that amidst all of the hard work that has gone for naught and the seemingly never ending cycle of poverty, was the generous spirit with which young Luke’s grandmother welcomed this entire family of poor sharecroppers. As the younger Chandlers are in the process of preparing to leave home so that Mr Chandler can work in Detroit assembling automobiles because there is no future for them in farming; the grandmother is welcoming this tattered family with open arms. “Come in, there’s plenty.”

I’ve told the story before about my very young cousin handing out candy at a family gathering and taking great glee in having the privilege and responsibility of doling out, “One for you, and one for you.... “ and so on, and was all smiles UNTIL that is, she realized with horror that there would not be “one for her”.

We have bought into the myth of “scarcity” and are afraid, I think, that we will share too much, and someday there will be none left for us. Yet we aren’t really a culture of savers. We are a culture of hoarders. I recall hearing a CBC program a month or so ago about the amount of space the average Canadian needs, as opposed to the average person in the developing world. The difference is quite staggering.

When asked why we need so much -7- space, one person interviewed thought that we needed so much because we had so much stuff to store. We stored kids hockey gear, skis and snowmobiles in summer and boats and bicycles and soccer balls in winter. We had to have space for lawn care equipment, for snow-blowers, for the car tires in the off season, and the lists could go on. I know from experience that the amount of stuff one has gradually expands to fill the space one has. I was taught to “jeep it in case I need it again” or because “it cost money”, but I was also taught not to replace something till it was totally and completely useless. The you keep it for parts, I guess. The neighbours have one and we want and need our own. We have it, and when we do we need it, and then we need more. Borrowing things is not seen as the thing to do anymore and the emphasis is on the “we” and the “need”.

It often takes a sudden and well-publicized disaster for us to open our hearts and wallets to the needs of others, such as those whose homes were destroyed by the Tsunami a year and a half ago and hurricane Katrina a year ago. Yet, the needs that go on and on, such as the devastating and far-reaching effects of AIDS in sub Saharan Africa, can easily be forgotten, because that’s old news and seems to be chronic.

Today’s gospel begins as just another story about Jesus popularity. You could say that he is so popular, and the crowds so intent on hearing what he has to say, that they forget to go home and eat. I believe that this is the only miracle story told in all four gospels but the author of each gospel tells it differently, and probably for different reasons.

In John’s account we have Jesus surveying the situation and asking his disciples, “Where will we get the food for all of these people”? Notice that Jesus asks the question. There are a great many people there that day and as we all know, having company usually ends up costing extra. Philip’s estimate is 6 months’ wages to give everyone just a snack. Philip sees the impossibility.

Where the food comes from is from is the crowd: or one of them at least. Brought by Andrew, a boy approaches with an offer to share what little he has. It’s not much, but here is this offer of a small lunch. That is enough and the people sit down to eat and after the dust has settled everyone is so full that there are twelve baskets left over.

Was it a true miracle; was it a creation of tons of food out of one small lunch? I’m not sure it’s any more of a miracle to have the food appear out of thin air as it is to appear from amongst themselves, strangers sharing with one another. I think that one is just as much a miracle as the other. I think that Jesus baited them with the question because he wanted to know if they had been listening. He wanted to know if the people had been listening to his sermons about the abundant love of God. He wanted to know if the Spirt had transformed their hearts and lives or not. Maybe, just maybe, the miracle of the feeding of the 5000 was the miracle of unrealized abundance? Maybe it was the miracle of transformed eyes and transformed perspective.

But it’ not the first century anymore. Things are different now! Or are they? The needs of the world around us are great and I don’t think this passage tells us that it’s going to fall out of the sky if we have enough faith. A colleague and long-time friend of mine came into some money from a relative one day and for some reason she felt compelled to give it to a local mission organization. That was back when we were both students then and students are always short of money. When she took them the cheque, the Sister that ran the “home” said to he, “we prayed for some money to pay that unexpected bill .. You are God’s answer to our prayers.”

How does that children’s song about love go?:

“It’s just like a magic penny, 
hold it tight and you won’t have any ; 
lend it, spend it and you’ll have so many 
they roll all over the floor. “

We’ll it isn’t just a children’s song and we have to learn it again and again as adults. We have come to believe in myth of scarcity and it has stymied our otherwise best efforts at living the gospel.

Jesus preached to a people who had also bought into the myth of scarcity. They had good reason in many ways because they were living in a very much hand to mouth economy. For the average Joe most of the available work paid only enough to keep a family for a day and it was work for one day. There were no hours posted on the staff room wall, no unions, no salaries and no benefits. It’s understandable that when they came across a guy that seemed to be able to make bread appear where there was none, they would want to keep him around for themselves. Yet more often than not, just after Jesus performs these miracles, he disappears. He’s not going to be their private miracle worker. His power is not going to be for sale or to be possessed by any one group of people but he has been called by God to release this power into the whole world which God loves.

God call is a transforming one. The people (including the disciples) had to go from listening to Jesus for what they could “get” out of it, to being part of the ministry itself.

Why do we come to church? Are we merely disciples who follow for what we can receive? Or are we apostles who having received ourselves, extend the mission of Jesus to others. Are we looking to be fed for our own sake or so that we can be enabled to feed others (either literally or figuratively). The gospel is not about God blessing us as an end in itself but about we who are blessed being a blessing to others, just as that young boy was blessed to risk sharing what little he had with others.

I was reading about a church in which new ideas for ministry are encouraged using a three step process: a) the idea, b) the people to do it, c) the money to do it. They believe that if the idea is good and the people willing to make it happen, the money will come in. (The steeple chase project here in St Andrews is a good example) In the church of which I speak one-third of their programs are conceived and funded in this way. Brian Stoffergen in Cross Marks Of course, outreach and social action programs can be created and funded in this way too, with education as part of the steps needed to look at issues such as poverty and it’s effects.

(When we look back at the history of this congregation, this Mission Field we can find fine examples of those who stepped forward in this kind of faith. ) We can find individual examples of people who do this in their own lives and in their own families - people who make abundant living a part of life. There are those who share love with people other than their own children and those who are raising their grandchildren when they thought they were done with those sorts of things. Sharing abundance is not giving everything away so that you will then have to depend on others but living out of a sense of overflowing blessing, and the blessing can be time and talent as well as treasures.

The power of God does not absolve us of responsibility to the creation but gives us what we need to respond in faith and love.

May we step forward in faith and give Jesus our small lunch. The power of God working through him will do the rest.

Amen

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

Many of us, when we about putting on armour we think of the heavy metal armour like Sir Lancelot and his companions and enemies may have worn. You have seen this kind of thing in the movies, either during a battle scene or standing in the corner of a medieval castle. We have seen it in cartoon spoofs and sitcoms where our favourite characters visit medieval castles.

We wonder how the soldier could have moved in such armour and we also marvel at how short most of them were. The armour with which the writer of Ephesians would have been familiar would have been much simpler. We’ve all seen those pictures of Roman soldiers in the Bible story books, or on an American Express Credit Card.

We’re more familiar with the armour of modern soldiers: helmets, flack jackets, the vehicles they drive around in and their camouflage gear and other more passive means of protection. RCMP officers now all wear bulletproof vests when they are on duty. Police riot squads carry large shields and wear helmets. Other jobs have their own armour the most obvious being the hard-hat and steel-toed boots which protect those who work with bulldozers and hammers and 2 X 4s. Those who do roofing and replace church steeples and weather vanes are also armed with safety harness attaching them to the cranes which lift them high above the ground. All of us are required to arm ourselves with seatbelts when we drive and strap our children into approved seats designed for their age, weight and height and all new cars have at least one air-bag if not several more.

Of course we know that even the best armour is no guarantee of safety in all situations. We know all too well the death toll of Canadian military personnel serving in Afghanistan, of police officers simply doing their duty and of construction workers in whose work accidents can still happen. And of course seatbelts and air bags can’t save lives in every accident.

In today’s epistle lesson the first readers in Ephesus were enjoined to put on the “armour of God”. The people to whom the letter to the church in Ephesus knew all too well the reality of war. They were an oppressed people in occupied territory. Their oppressor and occupier was Rome, the most powerful force in the world up until that time. The presence of legions of soldiers would have been a common and most unwelcome sight. There was no hope of doing battle with Rome because they knew, from experience that while Rome may lose a battle or two they would always win the war.

I must confess that I have a great deal of trouble with the transferring of images of war into the life of faith. Even the passage itself talks of the “gospel of peace”, and I don’t think it meant just inner peace. They were a people who desperately needed peace and the security that this state of being provided.

Our world needs more peace, not more war, but the images are placed before us, nonetheless.

As I studied and reflected on this passage one of the things I realized was that, with the exception of the sword, these were images of “protective” armour,, and that this protection was the means whereby they could live their lives as a people of faith even in the midst of persecution and oppression.

We are neither persecuted or oppressed in the ways that the people of Ephesus were. We have only to turn on our TV’s and see that there are people living with great persecution. The conflicts in the middle east are a case in point. In the present-day conflict between Lebanon and Israel however, it is unwise for us to take sides because we simply don’t have the information and experience necessary to make an informed statement, and we certainly cannot say whose side is God’s side. But what we can say is that many people are suffering because of what is going on and such suffering is never God’s will.

AIDS on the African sub-continent is devastating the entire continent and the people are at the mercy of the decisions of western nations.

Yet, given those and similar cautions we in the west can know what it is to be in conflict with powers that are, or at least seem to be, much greater than ourselves. We know what it is like to face the powers that would defeat us.

One of the books I began to read at the beginning of this week was: “Just Wait ...There’s More”, a story of surviving cancer by a colleague of mine from Nova Scotia. In the last year of study at Atlantic School of Theology she was diagnosed with breast cancer. After undergoing surgery and chemotherapy she managed to graduate but she delayed ordination for a year so that she could finish her chemotherapy treatments and regain her health. Two years later she was given the devastating news that her cancer had returned and was now incurable. This book is the story of her journey in the two years following that diagnosis. One of the tings that she did was to begin a support group of women who were living with terminal cancer. She was the only one to survive; for two years after that awful news she was told that a mistake had been made and she remains cancer free!

During the time that she believed that she was a person with terminal cancer she developed various coping strategies and reorganized her priorities to make the most of the time she had left. She talked about the grief of saying goodbye to the other members of her support group. It is a fascinating and very moving story of her journey through sickness to wellness and renewed faith.

The scripture lesson for today talks about the “belt of truth”, the “breastplate of righteousness”, the “gospel of peace”, the “shield of faith” and the “helmet of salvation”. Linda, the author of this book talks about the things which helped her and the many people with whom she came in contact and which continue to help her work with her congregations to this day.

One of the things she talked about was “living a life of tenacious gratitude”. We often think of gratitude as something which we feel when things are going well - we feel grateful for health; for peace; for our standard of living; for enough to eat and food to spare; and we should but but the term “tenacious gratitude” has a different ring to it. Despite the many things with which she had to struggle, such as a health system that was not really designed to truly help those with a terminal diagnosis to have a better quality of life, she was able to give thanks for all of those things that did contribute to her well being. For example she practised this gratitude whenever she took her medications, giving thanks for every person involved in the process of bringing the drug from the lab to her medicine cabinet, including the delivery trucks who supplied the pharmacy!

When you make room for gratitude you have less room for raging against the dark, against the ‘forces out to get you’. Of course there is a place for that kind of brutal honesty, but part of this armour of faith is this tenacious gratitude, especially when you really have to work to hold onto it. As I was driving here and there on my study leave and vacation I listened to the book, “Cry the Beloved Country” by Alan Paton. It is set in pre-Apartheid South Africa of the 1940's which was a society divided by racism and customs which kept people apart and ‘in their place’. The main character, the Rev. Stephen Kumalo is an Anglican priest in a poor Zulu village. At the beginning of the book he journeys to Johannesburg in search of his sister, her son and his son, Absalom. They have stopped writing home. He finds all three but ends up returning home with only his nephew and his pregnant daughter-in-law. His son was convicted and eventually executed for killing a white man in a bungled robbery.

Yet this book is a story of hope and healing. The white man killed by Absalom Kumalo was a champion of rights for the native people. The father of the murdered man allows and encourages his young grandson, the son of the dead man, to develop a relationship with the ageing Anglican priest. The day they meet, the boy stops at the priests house and when offered a glass of water asks instead for cold milk. When he finds out that there is no milk at all in the whole village and that the children are dying, the grandfather, supplies the village with enough milk for the children who are suffering and dying because of a drought. As the book closes he promises to build them a new church to replace the one with a roof that leaks like a sieve and is falling down. The Rev Steven Kumalo recognizes this as the work of God.

Sometimes putting on the armour of God involves tearing down the barriers that separate people, one from the other.

The people of Ephesus needed to learn how to preserve their faith in the midst of great adversity. Our culture is quite different but there are many forces which would take our faith away from us and replace it with consumerism and excessive nationalism and racism and the kind of self-centeredness that leaves no room for the spirit to work. And as the Rev Stephen Kumalo found out, when the Spirit is allowed to work, miracles happen.

Yet we must always remember that the garments of faith do not protect us from the world as such, but give us what we need to engage the world in truth and love.

So let us open ourselves to the Spirit as we clothe ourselves with truth, righteousness, an insatiable desire for the gospel of peace”, faith and an assurance of God’s great work of salvation.

Amen!