I’ve been reflecting this past week on what seems to me like an erosion of civility in our country.
Have you noticed that? Courtesy and ‘niceness’ seem to be getting in shorter supply. And I’ve also
noticed that, when a person can be reasonably anonymous, or at least can express oneself without
the restraining influence of direct eye contact, that ‘not niceness’ can escalate.
As you might guess as a priest I’m a bit sensitized to people’s reactions to the Christian faith. And I
occasionally check people’s responses to online news articles involving religion. Lately I’ve
noticed more putdowns and profanities directed at Christian leaders and at Christians in general,
along with some pretty offensive and uninformed stereotypes. The same kind of thing happens on
social networks such as FB. Some folks, including one very famous British pop star, have even
called for the destruction of the Christian faith.
Don’t get me wrong, there are certainly no lack of wrongs committed by high profile Christians
against which it’s natural for people to react. And unfortunately a good many people have been
injured in the very church environments where wholeness and healing should be taking place. This
is tragic, and I’d guess it brings tears to the eyes of our Lord. We do need to be very careful how we
live as Christians, as the world really is watching. And believe me, I’m preaching this to myself every
bit as much as anyone else. Yet the cauldron of hate into which some are willing to generally throw
anything and anyone smacking of religious faith at times seems to take on a life of its own. In fact I
think this is the very nature of hate. You nurture a resentment, direct it at a whole group of people,
and then take off the gloves.
This past Tuesday evening James and I watched, for probably the umpteenth or so time, Star Wars:
Return of the Jedi. Toward the culmination of the story the good Jedi knight Luke Skywalker is
taunted by the evil Emperor Palpatine to do battle with Luke’s own father, Darth Vader, who
apparently has completely given himself over to evil.
The Emperor even tries to taunt young Luke into attacking the Emperor himself. He says things like
“Let your anger flow through you. Your hate will make you strong. Strike me down with all of your
hatred and your journey to the dark side will be complete… Give in to your anger. With each
passing moment you make yourself more my servant.”
I think one needn’t search overly strenuously to see the image of a familiar Bible figure in Emperor
Palpatine. While the message of the Star Wars series may at points seem less than awe-inspiring,
this scene has a lot to say to us that’s congruent with the pastoral teachings of St. Paul. In today’s
brief passage written to the believers in Corinth Paul leads with these words: “Even if our Gospel is
veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the
minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who
is the image of God.”
Once again, there’s a lot condensed into two Pauline sentences. It starts with the rather ominous
warning that the gospel message, the message of Christ’s sacrificial love on the Cross and his
triumph over death in his resurrection on our behalf, is hidden from ‘some’, and that ‘some’ to whom
he refers are perishing. Implicit in Paul’s words is the reality that the gospel message contains the
food and drink of salvation, without which we will perish in the long run. If this causes you to squirm a
bit in your pew, you’re not alone. I think that most of us, like God, want that none should perish.
But both Paul and Jesus are quite clear that grace is something that can be received or rejected,
and the latter has some pretty uncomfortable consequences. And today Paul says something
striking at the outset. He says that there’s an interface with the spirit world going on that affects how
we respond to the gospel. Jesus said something like that as well. He said, “No one can come to me
unless drawn by the Father who sent me.” And Paul tells us, “…the god of this world has blinded the
minds of unbelievers…”
When he speaks of ‘the god of this world’ there can be little doubt that here Paul’s talking about
Satan, the fallen archangel, the nemesis of all that’s good, the deceiver, the tempter, the Father of
Lies. And please let me say something here that needs saying: Satan is not some kind of
anthropomorphism of impersonal, unpleasant stuff going on around us. It’s not like we’ve
superstitiously assigned a personality to a concept. Satan is a living spiritual being who somehow
interfaces with the dimension in which we live, and is bent upon thwarting God’s purposes and
bringing God’s beloved human race down to destruction. I once had some terrifying dealings with
one of Satan’s henchmen in real time, and I can assure you he wasn’t some abstract, impersonal,
humanly manufactured symbol of evil. One more thing about Satan: When Paul calls him ‘the God of
this world’, he of course isn’t implying that he’s really a ‘god’, but in the hearts of some he’s
essentially been elevated to that position.
So we have forces in the spiritual realm drawing us one way or the other. Now, there’s more to this
spiritual interface than our decision whether or not to accept grace. Because when we accept grace,
we open ourselves to the light, the good, the positive powers that bring us further in and higher up
in the kingdom of God. But when we reject grace, or exercise willful disobedience against God, we
open the doors through which even bigger spiritual problems make their way into our lives. The
cauldron takes on a life of its own.
I was chilled by the degree to which I observed this when I was a therapist, especially working with
young people entangled in the criminal justice system. Young, emotionally injured persons
eventually find themselves at a crossroads, either to embrace healing, numb their feelings with
drugs, or to commit to nurturing the deep resentments that feed hatred. When people take the latter
path, they can become capable of very intentional and even murderous cruelties. They may cross
the line into actual evil. Some even proclaim outright their allegiance to Satan, and live their lives
accordingly. They tragically come to embody Paul’s words, “the god of this world has blinded the
minds of unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.”
There’s some kind of interaction between free will and the spiritual forces of good and evil that I for
one don’t completely understand. But this reality still demands that we as believers know how to
respond to it. Too much is at stake not to. Again, this is where Paul’s teachings are helpful. The first
step in being a help rather than a hindrance is to recognize a truth from Paul’s Letter to the
Ephesians. And that is that the real battle is in the spiritual realm. The real enemy is not our fellow
human being, but the Prince of Darkness and his minions who’ve sunk their spiritual claws into our
wills. Paul writes, “For our struggle is not against enemies of flesh and blood, 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.”
My friends, for better or for worse, in this battle of the heavenlies we believers are the shock troops.
The Lord chooses to work in partnership with us to establish the kingdom of God on earth, then to
steadily vanquish the evil powers in preparation for the final consummation of God’s kingdom at
Christ’s return. If the battle is being fought in the heavenlies, we need to do our part to appeal
to the forces of light in that realm.
And the greatest weapon God’s given us is prayer. Paul says we put on the belt of truth, the
breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of gospel proclamation, the shield of faith, the helmet of
salvation, and the sword of the Spirit (which is the Word of God). Then when armed in this way we
“pray in the Spirit at all times.” We pray for salvation, for healing, and for protection. We pray
against sin, suffering and death. And these prayers arouse the powers of light on behalf of God’s
kingdom.
The second thing we do is to practice forgiveness and encourage others to do the same. Jesus
considered this important enough to include in his brief prayer prescribed for all believers: Forgive
us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” This practice not only keeps us in
touch with the reality that the real battle is in the spiritual realm and not against our brothers and
sisters, but it also keeps us from adding more ingredients to the cauldron of hate. When a
resentment is released to God instead of being trapped in the lidded cauldron, it loses its power
over us. The pull toward the dark side is thwarted and we’re no longer in danger of surrendering
ourselves to the will of the Evil One. Dare I suggest that this is how one becomes a true Christian
Jedi like St. Luke Skywalker.
And finally, at the base of all this is the reality that the darkness of evil is dispelled by the light of the
gospel of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, who we are commanded to proclaim. Paul says, “We do not
proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake.”
Hearkening all the way back to the day of creation, Paul writes, “For it is the God who said, ‘Let light
shine out of darkness,’ who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
The God who in the beginning brought light to His good creation once again brings forth light in new
creation, through us, as soldiers in the war against suffering and death. “If anyone is in Christ, he is
a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” Our job is to
bring others to Christ, into the kingdom of God, into the new creation. And this generally isn’t done
through human conflict, but through love. When Luke Skywalker drew his father, Darth Vader, aka
Anakin Skywalker, away from the Evil Emperor and into the realm of light, love was the attracting
force. And when Anakin saves Luke’s life from the Emperor’s final attack and lies mortally wounded,
Luke says desperately to his dying father, “I’ve got to save you.” And his father smiles and replies,
“You already have, Luke.” It’s the light of the gospel of Christ that saves our loved ones.
May we never forget that our real enemies are the evil rebels in the spiritual realm, and not our own
human sisters and brothers, who are themselves our loved ones. May we remember that God chose
us to be indispensible agents of his kingdom by being prayer warriors, by exercising love and
forgiveness, and by being proclaimers of the love and the victory of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Have you noticed that? Courtesy and ‘niceness’ seem to be getting in shorter supply. And I’ve also
noticed that, when a person can be reasonably anonymous, or at least can express oneself without
the restraining influence of direct eye contact, that ‘not niceness’ can escalate.
As you might guess as a priest I’m a bit sensitized to people’s reactions to the Christian faith. And I
occasionally check people’s responses to online news articles involving religion. Lately I’ve
noticed more putdowns and profanities directed at Christian leaders and at Christians in general,
along with some pretty offensive and uninformed stereotypes. The same kind of thing happens on
social networks such as FB. Some folks, including one very famous British pop star, have even
called for the destruction of the Christian faith.
Don’t get me wrong, there are certainly no lack of wrongs committed by high profile Christians
against which it’s natural for people to react. And unfortunately a good many people have been
injured in the very church environments where wholeness and healing should be taking place. This
is tragic, and I’d guess it brings tears to the eyes of our Lord. We do need to be very careful how we
live as Christians, as the world really is watching. And believe me, I’m preaching this to myself every
bit as much as anyone else. Yet the cauldron of hate into which some are willing to generally throw
anything and anyone smacking of religious faith at times seems to take on a life of its own. In fact I
think this is the very nature of hate. You nurture a resentment, direct it at a whole group of people,
and then take off the gloves.
This past Tuesday evening James and I watched, for probably the umpteenth or so time, Star Wars:
Return of the Jedi. Toward the culmination of the story the good Jedi knight Luke Skywalker is
taunted by the evil Emperor Palpatine to do battle with Luke’s own father, Darth Vader, who
apparently has completely given himself over to evil.
The Emperor even tries to taunt young Luke into attacking the Emperor himself. He says things like
“Let your anger flow through you. Your hate will make you strong. Strike me down with all of your
hatred and your journey to the dark side will be complete… Give in to your anger. With each
passing moment you make yourself more my servant.”
I think one needn’t search overly strenuously to see the image of a familiar Bible figure in Emperor
Palpatine. While the message of the Star Wars series may at points seem less than awe-inspiring,
this scene has a lot to say to us that’s congruent with the pastoral teachings of St. Paul. In today’s
brief passage written to the believers in Corinth Paul leads with these words: “Even if our Gospel is
veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the
minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who
is the image of God.”
Once again, there’s a lot condensed into two Pauline sentences. It starts with the rather ominous
warning that the gospel message, the message of Christ’s sacrificial love on the Cross and his
triumph over death in his resurrection on our behalf, is hidden from ‘some’, and that ‘some’ to whom
he refers are perishing. Implicit in Paul’s words is the reality that the gospel message contains the
food and drink of salvation, without which we will perish in the long run. If this causes you to squirm a
bit in your pew, you’re not alone. I think that most of us, like God, want that none should perish.
But both Paul and Jesus are quite clear that grace is something that can be received or rejected,
and the latter has some pretty uncomfortable consequences. And today Paul says something
striking at the outset. He says that there’s an interface with the spirit world going on that affects how
we respond to the gospel. Jesus said something like that as well. He said, “No one can come to me
unless drawn by the Father who sent me.” And Paul tells us, “…the god of this world has blinded the
minds of unbelievers…”
When he speaks of ‘the god of this world’ there can be little doubt that here Paul’s talking about
Satan, the fallen archangel, the nemesis of all that’s good, the deceiver, the tempter, the Father of
Lies. And please let me say something here that needs saying: Satan is not some kind of
anthropomorphism of impersonal, unpleasant stuff going on around us. It’s not like we’ve
superstitiously assigned a personality to a concept. Satan is a living spiritual being who somehow
interfaces with the dimension in which we live, and is bent upon thwarting God’s purposes and
bringing God’s beloved human race down to destruction. I once had some terrifying dealings with
one of Satan’s henchmen in real time, and I can assure you he wasn’t some abstract, impersonal,
humanly manufactured symbol of evil. One more thing about Satan: When Paul calls him ‘the God of
this world’, he of course isn’t implying that he’s really a ‘god’, but in the hearts of some he’s
essentially been elevated to that position.
So we have forces in the spiritual realm drawing us one way or the other. Now, there’s more to this
spiritual interface than our decision whether or not to accept grace. Because when we accept grace,
we open ourselves to the light, the good, the positive powers that bring us further in and higher up
in the kingdom of God. But when we reject grace, or exercise willful disobedience against God, we
open the doors through which even bigger spiritual problems make their way into our lives. The
cauldron takes on a life of its own.
I was chilled by the degree to which I observed this when I was a therapist, especially working with
young people entangled in the criminal justice system. Young, emotionally injured persons
eventually find themselves at a crossroads, either to embrace healing, numb their feelings with
drugs, or to commit to nurturing the deep resentments that feed hatred. When people take the latter
path, they can become capable of very intentional and even murderous cruelties. They may cross
the line into actual evil. Some even proclaim outright their allegiance to Satan, and live their lives
accordingly. They tragically come to embody Paul’s words, “the god of this world has blinded the
minds of unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.”
There’s some kind of interaction between free will and the spiritual forces of good and evil that I for
one don’t completely understand. But this reality still demands that we as believers know how to
respond to it. Too much is at stake not to. Again, this is where Paul’s teachings are helpful. The first
step in being a help rather than a hindrance is to recognize a truth from Paul’s Letter to the
Ephesians. And that is that the real battle is in the spiritual realm. The real enemy is not our fellow
human being, but the Prince of Darkness and his minions who’ve sunk their spiritual claws into our
wills. Paul writes, “For our struggle is not against enemies of flesh and blood, 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.”
My friends, for better or for worse, in this battle of the heavenlies we believers are the shock troops.
The Lord chooses to work in partnership with us to establish the kingdom of God on earth, then to
steadily vanquish the evil powers in preparation for the final consummation of God’s kingdom at
Christ’s return. If the battle is being fought in the heavenlies, we need to do our part to appeal
to the forces of light in that realm.
And the greatest weapon God’s given us is prayer. Paul says we put on the belt of truth, the
breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of gospel proclamation, the shield of faith, the helmet of
salvation, and the sword of the Spirit (which is the Word of God). Then when armed in this way we
“pray in the Spirit at all times.” We pray for salvation, for healing, and for protection. We pray
against sin, suffering and death. And these prayers arouse the powers of light on behalf of God’s
kingdom.
The second thing we do is to practice forgiveness and encourage others to do the same. Jesus
considered this important enough to include in his brief prayer prescribed for all believers: Forgive
us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” This practice not only keeps us in
touch with the reality that the real battle is in the spiritual realm and not against our brothers and
sisters, but it also keeps us from adding more ingredients to the cauldron of hate. When a
resentment is released to God instead of being trapped in the lidded cauldron, it loses its power
over us. The pull toward the dark side is thwarted and we’re no longer in danger of surrendering
ourselves to the will of the Evil One. Dare I suggest that this is how one becomes a true Christian
Jedi like St. Luke Skywalker.
And finally, at the base of all this is the reality that the darkness of evil is dispelled by the light of the
gospel of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, who we are commanded to proclaim. Paul says, “We do not
proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake.”
Hearkening all the way back to the day of creation, Paul writes, “For it is the God who said, ‘Let light
shine out of darkness,’ who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
The God who in the beginning brought light to His good creation once again brings forth light in new
creation, through us, as soldiers in the war against suffering and death. “If anyone is in Christ, he is
a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” Our job is to
bring others to Christ, into the kingdom of God, into the new creation. And this generally isn’t done
through human conflict, but through love. When Luke Skywalker drew his father, Darth Vader, aka
Anakin Skywalker, away from the Evil Emperor and into the realm of light, love was the attracting
force. And when Anakin saves Luke’s life from the Emperor’s final attack and lies mortally wounded,
Luke says desperately to his dying father, “I’ve got to save you.” And his father smiles and replies,
“You already have, Luke.” It’s the light of the gospel of Christ that saves our loved ones.
May we never forget that our real enemies are the evil rebels in the spiritual realm, and not our own
human sisters and brothers, who are themselves our loved ones. May we remember that God chose
us to be indispensible agents of his kingdom by being prayer warriors, by exercising love and
forgiveness, and by being proclaimers of the love and the victory of Jesus Christ. Amen.
February 19, 2012
Fr. Dan Tuton
Fr. Dan Tuton
Lessons from Paul and Luke (Skywalker)
(2 Corinthians 4:3-6)
(2 Corinthians 4:3-6)
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