(In which the author greatly decreases the likelihood of being asked to preach again by mixing tragic current events with Star Trek references while name-dropping his own D&D character.)
Sermon delivered at St. Albert United Church, Sunday, August 22, 2021.
Shields Up!
As an amateur sermonologist, it is important for me to interpret the scriptures where they find me. Even though we share in the readings together, drawn from a single translation among a multitude, I can’t help but believe our personal experiences and individual contexts make our own personal interpretations unique to us - what is critical to one person may feel superfluous to another.
I’m mentioning this upfront so you all understand that this is not a sermon that went off the rails - it started off the rails and made its own way through the wilderness of historical arms and armour, role-playing games and Star Trek, before encountering the tracks of scripture once again.
You see, in reading the psalm and the epistle to the Ephesians, I was moved by the joy and gratitude of the former and the conviction of the latter, but when I looked for connective elements between them, I got stuck on the fact that they both prominently mention shields and, well, that was that.
Shields are neat though, aren’t they? I mean, the idea seems kind of natural: to protect yourself from those who wish to do you harm, consider taking a bit of wall with you and strapping it to your arm.
I’ve always liked and appreciated shields. As a D&D playing adolescent, I read about all kinds of shields, from the rectangular scutum of the Roman legionnaires to the round ones on the sides of Viking longships. Good teamwork could make these shields even more protective and useful, as the Vikings would overlap them in a line to create the fearsome shield wall, and the Romans would go one further in a formation called the testudo where not only the front and sides of a formation were protected in this way, but men in the center would hold theirs overhead to protect everyone from arrows.
Better yet, in the current edition of the Dungeons & Dragons game they actually increase your armour class by two whole points! “Why, when I was a lad.” I say as I bore my children, “you got a measly 1 point bonus to AC, and you were darned glad to have it!”
The protective nature of shields give them a special place in our culture and language too. Most police badges are shaped like shields, appropriate for an occupation associated with protecting and serving. And according to the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, Captain America (Steve Rogers) can lift 800 pounds over his head and run at 30 miles per hour, but what makes him stand out is his (mostly) indestructible shield of vibranium.
In science-fiction stories, like Star Trek, the force fields that protect starships from particulate matter while travelling at fantastic speeds can be increased in power and effectiveness to defend against enemy weapons, asteroids or giant glowing hands. No matter who the commander is, the first two things you hear when there is trouble is “red alert!” and “Shields up!”
Funnily enough, in Star Trek there are downsides to having the shields up, just like carrying a physical shield has the detriments of being heavy and awkward. As long as the Enterprise has her shields raised, the transporter beam cannot be used to teleport people on or off the ship - no one is coming or going as long as the ship is protected. In the episode “A Taste of Armageddon” the ship’s crew are helpless to rescue Captain Kirk and the landing party, who are facing imminent death, because they will be attacked the moment they lower the shields. Most of the episode is a standoff in this fashion.
All of this context just to give you the burning insight that “shields are good and useful, but can impose limitations.” It’s a wonder they keep asking me back…
When I saw the word “shield” three times in two readings this week, it made me think about a lot of things, but my thoughts kept returning to the unmarked graves found on the former sites of Indian residential schools. First 215 near Kamloops in May, then 751 at Cowesess First Nation in June. A week later, 182 graves were found at a site near Cranbrook.
That’s just three schools. There are another 136 described in the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement. So buckle up, those numbers are going to continue to rise.
And as the numbers rise, so will the anger and frustration. Even more shoes left on church steps, and probably more churches vandalized with red handprints or the haunting words “WE WERE CHILDREN” in stark capital letters, or even burned to the ground.
It is difficult to know how to respond. Like many of you, I am a settler person, who grew up with limited exposure to indigenous people or culture, beyond what I saw misinterpreted on television and in movies. I know my government and my church played huge roles in the residential schools, even if I didn’t, personally. I know that makes us - settler people, Canadian citizens, United Church members and adherents - collectively, participants in genocide.
And I know that both the government of Canada and the United Church have apologized for their involvement. But I also know that without action, those words of apology are meaningless.
We can point fingers at other denominations or other countries and loudly explain that our church was the first to apologize and look how far ahead we are! Orange Shirt Day is a federal holiday starting this year! Why, we’ve even had a Truth and Reconciliation Commission!
But this commission did not absolve our collective involvement; it was intended as the beginning to a better relationship with our indigenous brothers and sisters. Remember, that same TRC asked for the funds to investigate the graves of these lost children back in 2009, and were denied.
Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to see our church vandalized or burned to the ground any more than you do! But in the face of an anger that can really only be described as righteous, it is critical that we respond in love and not anger; that we answer as Christians should, and not as they have.
Ryan Andersen, a Lutheran pastor from Calgary, recently wrote an opinion piece for CBC News entitled, “I’m a pastor; in the face of genocide, the soul of my church is threatened.” He starts by citing the arson and vandalism as I did, but asserts there is no comparison between this damage and the graves of literally thousands of unknown indigenous children. He then asks if it is even possible for churches that facilitated genocide to save their collective soul.
He believes so, and so do I. But I also agree it will not be easy.
The outline he gives is a sensible and familiar one, beginning with confession and leading to repentance.
Confessing in this context is more than the simple admission of complicity - it is the recognition of wrongs done and an appreciation of anger in those we have wronged. It is not comfortable. It is not pleasant. And it involves something we as Christian settlers and immigrants have never been awesome at: listening.
Andersen says in order to truly listen, we need to leave our places of comfort. To truly listen we cannot be bound up in excuses about what we did not know or did not want to believe. We cannot be burdened by the anger we feel at seeing the places we consider holy being destroyed or defaced. That anger is like a shield, a tool of protection, but misused and out of place here.
We have to lower our shields, to make ourselves vulnerable, to show our understanding and repentance.
Here in North America, we typically shake hands in the European tradition, with our right hand. The significance of this in antiquity was that the open hand was not bearing a weapon and could not harm the other party. In the Zulu tradition, it is the shield hand that is extended, exposing the body and placing trust in the other person. The founder of the Scouting movement found this simple change profound, and the scouts still practice it today.
A shield is, by definition, a barrier - and we need to come out from behind ours. The psychological defenses we erect around ourselves are myriad and profound. Protecting our mind and our spirit is a primary motivation for much of what we do, but it is important to realize that while trapped within the walls of a fortress or a church or an ideology or misplaced emotion, you cannot view the world clearly, and by minimizing your own vulnerability, you are hampering your own participation in the catharsis and healing that is to come.
As a church, it is important to recognize that we have been enablers and purveyors of evil, and then strive to make it right, and in whatever role that may require. The singer of Psalm 84 tells God, and us, that “a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than live in the tents of wickedness.”
It is important to remember that when we lower our shields, God's love and comfort and support, God’s shield, is still in place.
The letter to the Ephesians reminds us that our battle is not against flesh and blood, “but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present Darkness.”
This present darkness feels like a great summation of our current zeitgeist, doesn’t it? A time of horrendous and long-overdue discoveries. A time of both grief and aggrievement for our indigenous brothers and sisters. And a time of confession and repentance for us and our church.
When you encounter the angry bereaved, your first instinct may be to become defensive, to respond in kind, to raise your shields. But even without your own shield, you still enjoy God’s protection. “For the Lord God is a sun and shield; he bestows favour and honour,” sings the psalmist. Paul’s epistle describes all manner of armour and defenses before concluding “put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one.”
Your shield may be laying on the ground, but God’s love and protection abide in you without fail. And why? Because God wants truth. God wants justice. God wants reconciliation between all his children.
And you will know it is working, Pastor Andersen tells us, when you not only understand the anger coming your way, but you begin to feel it.
When your response to the next batch of unmarked graves is not just sadness and guilt, but outrage. When your ire rises at the way indigenous children are still pulled away from their families and culture today. When you become indignant at the way First Nations are simultaneously over-policed and under-protected.
These are the battles worth fighting for, this is what the armour of God was truly made for.
Perhaps the best use of a shield is when it protects someone other than ourselves? I mean, that’s how it has worked out for Sir Gabriel Griffinheart. Don’t look for him in a history book, Sir Gabriel is my current D&D character. Sure, protecting others doesn’t make him a more effective fighter, but as long as he is giving that defensive bonus to people beside him, my paladin of Tyr won’t be fighting alone.
Only when we are all standing on the same side of the shield, with injustice and hatred on the other side of it, will we truly be able to echo the singer of psalm 84 and say “Behold our shield, O God look on the face of your anointed.”
Amen
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Psalm 84: “The Joy of Worship in the Temple”
How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts!
My soul longs, indeed it faints for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.
Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may lay her young at your altars, O Lord of hosts,
my King and my God.
Happy are those who live in your house, ever singing your praise.
Happy are those whose strength is in you,
in whose heart are the highways to Zion.
As they go through the valley of Ba’ca they make it a place of springs;
the early rain also covers it with pools.
They go from strength to strength; the God of gods will be seen in Zion.
O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob!
Behold our shield, O God look on the face of your anointed.
For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
than live in the tents of wickedness.
For the Lord God is a sun and shield; he bestows favor and honor.
No good thing does the Lord withhold from those who walk uprightly.
O Lord of hosts, happy is everyone who trusts in you.
Ephesians 6: 10-20 “The Whole Armor of God”
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power.
Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the
devil.
For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh,
but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present
darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil
day, and having done everything to stand firm.
Stand therefore and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of
righteousness.
As shoes for your feet, put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace.
With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the
flaming arrows of the evil one.
Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication.
To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints.
Pray also for me, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains.
Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak.
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