The armor of God.

Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

Back in the day when I was a freshman at Hunter College, which is located on the upper east side of Manhattan, I was required to take a course called “The History of Art”.  The rather quirky professor who was the curator of the Egyptian collection at the Brooklyn Museum had a penchant for cats, from the common tabby on the street to the mummified felines buried with the royal pharaohs of ancient Egypt, and for the ancient sculptures readily available for his students to view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art located ten blocks north of our urban campus. He would often direct us to view various Egyptian, Greek and Roman artifacts that were scattered throughout the first floor of that august artistic institution.

It was there, one late fall afternoon, that I literally stumbled upon the fantastic collection of European armor housed in the wing opposite all those marble and granite pieces my professor so wanted us to fall in love with. I had made a right turn instead of a left and was wandering around when, BAM…. knights in shining armor mounted on equally shiny armor-clad stuffed steeds. Over the years since my first encounter with this fantabulous collection, I have brought lots of children, including classes, nephews, nieces, cousins and my own three children and granddaughter to see this great collection.  It never fails to engage and entrance them. Often I have to pry them away with promises of ice cream and playground time to get them to leave. But I have to admit, I still love visiting the armor room and usually stop by whenever I am in the Museum. This Medieval type armor is probably what you think of when you hear the word armor. If you go to London, you might visit the Tower of London, if so, go to see the display of this type of armor that belonged to Henry VIII. They have several of his sets since armor really does have to fit you to a “T”.  Henry's girth progressed over the years, and he needed to be refitted for new sets as he grew older and wider. You can see how the young, tall, fit young man grew into the rather large, lethargic monarch that we see portrayed as a stout 6 foot 1 middle-aged man with a 53-inch waist…almost as tall as he was around. And, by the way, armor was both expensive and heavy.  Henry’s set added an additional 97 pounds to his already expanded girth by the end of his life.  That is a lot of extra baggage to be toting around.

But this is not the armor that is referenced in today’s second reading. It is a much older type of armor. Armor has been around for over 3,500 years. Originally armor was made from simpler and lighter materials such as hard cloth and leather that was intentionally hardened, mixed with pieces of cloth, animal fur, and horse hair to create a multi-layered covering that could stop small knives. With the technology of bronze metal work in the 2^nd millennia BC, early civilizations started making protective gear for their armies that was able to withstand blows from larger knives, spears and arrows. The Romans started using armor once they saw how successful it worked for the Egyptians and the Greeks. When the Romans controlled the Palestine of Jesus, they clad their army in three different kinds of armor.  Roman mail armor was made of interwoven bronze rings . Segmented armor was created by connecting metal plates of varying sizes across chest, back, and shoulders; it was connected by leather straps. Finally, they had armor that looked like fish scales worn by centurions.  This is the kind we see in those Biblical movie epics of the 1950-60 like "Ben Hur" and “Quo Vadis”.

In today’s Epistle reading we are instructed to “…put on the whole armor of God…” in order to fend off the forces of evil that openly dwell in this world.

I am sure that you, as well as I, can create a laundry list consisting of our personal and communal “forces of evil”: classism, income inequality, institutional racism and misogyny, unfair labor practices, bullying, lying, cheating, moral turpitude (I always wanted to use that word in something I wrote), cover ups, bribery, hush money, slush funds…the list can go on and on. It just seems that this general list is almost too overwhelming for anyone of us to deal with. We need to arm ourselves for something more manageable. One way to put on this Godly armor is to engage in a daily prayer life. The ideal of course, would be to embrace the monastic daily prayer ritual: Matins, Noonday, Evening Prayer and Compline. One can embrace part or all of this daily discipline.  I prefer Compline myself, but this is not the only thing you can be doing. I have added something suggested to me by Deacon Baker.

Deacon Baker was moved by a Facebook posting by a mutual friend that disclosed that many of the women who were seeking asylum at our southern border and were consequently separated from their children had personal items confiscated including rosary beads.  As many of you know, the rosary is a discipline of spirituality often embraced by our Catholic neighbors, but many Episcopalians find solace and comfort in the repetitive flow of praying in this manner that can lead to a personal meditative state. Deacon Baker has begun to pray the rosary as part of his daily prayer life, I have joined him in this was well.  It is something one can do with or without beads, all you need is your ten fingers. And that image of a woman praying on her fingers is what I focus on when I pray the rosary.

 I have also taken the liberty of creating my own personal "Sorrowful Mysteries" scenarios: deciding to leave one's country; biding farewell to one's family; crossing the desert regions to the border; having one's children removed by force and finally, being alone in a foreign land.

Now, I am not saying this is something we should all be doing, but what I am suggesting is that each of us needs to find a way to incorporate a daily prayer system into our lives to assist us in arming ourselves against the ennui that can settle into our lives and we become more and more immune to the vagaries of our society. So find your daily prayer style, embrace it and begin to put on the armor God has waiting for you.

...Equipping the Saint.

Proper 13; 11^th Sunday After Pentecost

Year B; Track 2

5 August 2018

Ephesians 4:1-16 The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ…

In today’s Epistle Reading Paul, bless him, gives a listing of gifts the faithful need in order to equip them for the work of ministry and in the building up of the body of Christ.  Now, that is something, I dare say, all of us in this congregation want to do: build up this branch of the Body of Christ in our small corner of this vast diocese of New York. His a rather precise list: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers.  Seems to me to be a list of rather specific skill sets that make for a somewhat professional cadre of folks with specific skills. Now I spent most of my professional career in the classroom with mostly middle school students…no mean feat, I can tell you that.  My colleagues and myself dealt with budding adolescents during a time in their development when their parents, the very people who felt they knew their children the best, would often, during parent-teacher conferences, bewail the fact that some sort of evil being had emerged and taken possession of their former care-free elementary school student and created this unpredictable changing that often was more like an out of control dirt devil then the youngster they nurtured and loved from infancy. We would try to sooth their trouble minds by assuring them that this was the beginning of a time of growth and maturity for their child…this too would pass, and their child needed their care, love and support during this time…. we also reminded them to keep being involved with their school progress, and by the time the child reached about 15 or 16, things would settle down.  We also had a shared philosophy that we had to laugh at least once a day at something, and there was always something to chuckle about when you deal with seventh graders, believe me. We knew our strengths and we worked together like a fist. Teaching was our gift. And it is easy to see how this gift is important in equipping the saints for ministry, but it certainly is not the only one.

I firmly believe that one of the important gifts for ministry is hospitality.

And that is something I believe this parish does very, very well.  I remember that it was at Ascension that I was first introduced to the concept of ice cream at coffee hour, which for me meant ice cream for breakfast! What a concept! A nice bowl of good vanilla ice cream with some walnuts for fiber, blueberries for antioxidants, and granola for crunch…. what’s not to like…and healthy as well! And the cucumber sandwiches!!! I still wax poetic whenever I expierence the wonderfulness of a well-made cucumber sandwich, the very best ones I ever had, were here. Then there is the Octoberfest and Chinese New Year…I am not sure which celebration I like better! They certainly both have their charms and their fans.

But the one really impressive ministry that is done here at Ascension has got to be the work you have done over twenty years ministering to the residents of Lakside Manor. These are truly the people Jesus was talking about when he said, “…feed my sheep.” Many of them have been abandoned by friends and family due to their mental state and questionable behavior.  But every Sunday, rain or shine, a cadre of the faithful from Ascension are there to offer prayers, listening hearts and cake to bring a bit of God’s love into their lives. 

Now, you may not think this is a big deal, but it is.  Your work at Lakeside has inspired a group at Christ Church to start a similar ministry at Staten Island Cares, a similar facility in New Brighton. This is important work, good work, God’s work that is happening because of you, by you and through you. You are the saints equipped in doing the work of ministry and building up the body of Christ.  Thank you for furthering the Kingdom.