Images flood together for me on this Feast of St. Michael the Archangel. There is that wonderful lesson from Bishop NT Wright in "Jesus : The New Way" (Christian History Institute, Distributed by Vision Video 610/584-3500) where he talks about how radically different the message of Jesus was and is from the other more violent liberation movements of first century Judea. He makes it abundantly clear that love, not war, is the way. There is my conversation with wife Rebecca after she joined Orthodox friends in Columbus to hear an Indonesian Bishop talk about persecution and the realities of living as a minority Christian in the world's most populous Islamic nation. (I omit his name because to publicize it could put him at risk when he goes home.) I think of my comrades in the military who often wore a medal of St. Michael as a regular part of their combat gear. I think of what goes on today in so many parts of the world where Islamic Militants use extreme force and violence to accomplish their goals of re-establishing the Caliphate and Sharia law.
These images on such a day as this tempt this old soldier to call for many things, including the use of force against force to a greater degree than has been employed to this point. But something restrains me. I believe down to my toes that God gives to government the sword to maintain peace, and no one who knows me would ever say that I am a pacifist. I also take very seriously Jesus' admonition that we should carry the Good News to all people, and the clear teaching of the Bible that all members of our species are created in God's image. And so I come to sort of a moving conviction that while governments ought to do what they must do to protect their citizens and interests and the property of their citizens and allies- and to restrain or destroy unspeakable evil, we as Christians probably need to pray a lot more that people who do not know Jesus, be they Muslim or some other faith, or none at all, might come to know Jesus as Lord and Saviour, and ultimately as Brother and Friend. Sometimes I'm not real sure how to do this. I can tell folks who think like me and share some of my cultural presuppositions how to know God, but it is harder to reach those from other cultures, because there are so many assumptions we make about how others feel and what they believe. I pray God will help me to live a life that is winsome to those who are not in Christ, that through my life and the Spirit of God upon me, they might be drawn to Jesus even when my understanding proves inadequate to the task.
Back to St. Michael... It is so easy given my background to imagine myself as the strong arm of God, but that is Michael's calling, not mine. I am called to be a priest and to dispense the love of God in Word and Sacrament, and in other ways as I may find opportunity. I dare say there is a time when force is necessary if evil is to be restrained. There may even be times when I will be called on to be an agent of that force. But I, we, should all be very careful about assuming that we are called to be the dispensers of God's justice as is St. Michael the Archangel. Terrible things can ensue when we assume the calling of God to do such things without prayerful deliberation as a community of God's faithful people, or in a body politic.
I give thanks today for St. Michael and for the certain knowledge that ultimately God will deliver and vindicate all of his people. I give thanks for our military personnel deployed in defense of those things we hold true and dear, and for a government that much more often than not makes good decisions about the use of force (In my humble opinion.) And I pray that I might be as faithful in my calling as Blessed Michael is in his.
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