If ever there was a line in scripture designed to make people – especially people of our day – sit up and take notice that was it. "
In heaven too?" we might ask as a war weary world looks again to the middle east and sees the same battles being waged among the same people who have been waging them for the last decade.
We look and we do not understand. We do not understand the difference between Shiite and Sunni. We wonder if even they understand.
The capitalists among us, of which I count myself as one, shake our heads and wonder why they don’t work together to build rather than destroy? Their countries have great climates. They have historical sites that would draw tourists by the thousands if not hundreds of thousands. "
"Hey! Hey!" we want to shout, " there is money to be made here people. Lots of money! From oil! From tourism! There is enough for all if you would just put down your guns and stop trying to blow each other to smithereens."
And now we hear, in scripture no less, that a war once broke out in heaven. It is a war of almost mythological proportions between the angels and a dragon. The good news in this story, that most biblical scholars believe is a myth, is that the angels prevail. The dragon was defeated! The angels win and cast the beast out of heaven.
It is the age old struggle of the epic battle between good and evil and in literature, certainly more often than in life, good wins out.
That is the way we want it to be. That is the way we hope it is in our time,
Rick Marshall, was a writer for Disney and an editor at Marvel Comics, who admits that he " spent a lot of time trafficking in the contemporary versions of civilizations’ epic confrontations and traditional fairy tales."
"But, I have to report that I wondered during my Marvel days, why millions of readers were so invested in superheroes, forever asking " what if?" about characters with super powers, invincibility, the ability to defy nature, fighting life-threatening foes and defeating evil, as good as good guys can be … but how so many of those young (and older) readers could be indifferent about Jesus."[2]
That may also be why people are drawn to angels over Jesus -- at least of the Hallmark variety. They are the quintessential winged good guys who protect us when they function as our guardians, and find us good parking spots when they are functioning as our G.P.S. devices. They would never get their hands dirty, much less bloody, in a battle for territory. And, if they did, those would not be the angels we would want to purchase to hang around our neck as costume jewelry or keep in our curio cabinets.
It also may be why people do battle to keep the real Jesus out of their lives.
For some it is just easier and I understand them. I actually understand them better than fiercely fundamentalist Christians. In fact, I gravitate to their kind even though I am somewhat disappointed in them.
For instance, one of my intellectual heros is Pulitzer Prize winning columnist George F. Will who, up until last week, I thought was an Episcopalian. Turns out that even though Will majored in religion in college he describes himself now as an " amiable, low-voltage atheist."[3]
Only George F. Will could come up with the phrase, " amiable, low-voltage atheist" and in so doing also give us a huge clue as to why wars break out if not in heaven, at least on earth.
They break out when people, nations, tribes or cultures become less than amicable, high-voltage groups – holding on to land, political positions, religious affiliations, no matter what the cost.
Take the tenants in today’s parable who certainly were no angels.
They had made a deal with the landowner that seemed at first to be not only fair but friendly. They would work the land for him – not without pay but certainly not for 100 percent of the profits. The problem is that somewhere along the line they got to believing the land and crops belonged to them.
It’s a strange little leap in logic but one we make all the time. We look over our lives, our accomplishments, our treasures, and begin to believe that since we have worked hard for them they belong to us.
In most cases, you have worked very hard for what you have. I know precious few people who were born with silver-spoons in their mouths. And, even those people of means who I do know are not on a beach in Greece somewhere drinking Ouzo but are going to work at something, somewhere, everyday.
We’re the workers in the vineyard and our only requirement is to remember that the vineyard doesn’t belong to us it belongs to God.
That’s what the servants in today’s parable forgot and the Pharisee’s (who are not the bad guys here but rather the voices of truth) tell what happens to people who will go to any lengths to keep what belongs to them – up to and including murder. They end up with nothing.
Think of the lands in which wars have been fought. Think of those pictures we see every evening on the news. One word sums it all up: rubble.
Think of churches where people come to the believe that it belongs to them and their kind. They become social clubs dedicated to people who are only like us no matter what the us might be. Strangers are viewed as people whose strange ideas just might upset our tried and true ways of doing things even if those paths have lead to a desolate landscape barren of new ideas.
Pastors sometimes are put in the position not of leaders but adversaries who are to be opposed at all costs.
Church Council is not seen as a place where people go to think creatively on how to solve problems but a place where people go to create problems.
And what happens to nations and institutions whose deepest desire it is only to do battle with one another. God takes what they have away from them and gives it to others who will use it wisely.
Some of those who have toiled so hard in the church for years only to come to believe it was their own sometimes find themselves in exile wondering what is going in on the inside but still choosing to remain on the outside.
The problem with all of Jesus’ parables is that much as we would wish they are not about those people way back then they are about us. They are not about just the people in his original audience, they are about you and me.
They are warnings to us that war can break out at any time in any place – from heaven to earth – whenever we begin to think that any part of heaven or earth is ours and ours alone.
Pity the angels and the God they serve who have to spend enormous time and effort to keep us from destroying our neighbours and eventually ourselves.
Pity them, but then follow them, God and God’s angels, I mean. For what they are telling us is simple.
Work as hard as you can in this world that God has given you, but work for the causes God cherishes – justice, love and peace – otherwise you shall have none.
Work for your church, your family, your friends, your neighbours, your vocation, yourselves but know that all of them, every single one belongs to God.
Work for the cause of Christ but do so knowing that Christ isn’t just your personal Saviour but the redeemer of the world.
Be amiable to each other but not indifferent to the cause of Christ which is nothing less than bringing all of us under his reign and rule until we gather as one around his throne and feel the touch of angel’s wings bringing us finally what we have longed for all along, God’s great heavenly peace.
Work until the day the promise we sing about every Christmas is realized because " man, at war with man, hears not the love song which they bring. So, hush the noise, ye men of strife, and hear the angels sing."
Thanks for listening for them and to me.
__________
Endnotes:
1. Revelation 12:7. (NRSV) [NRSV=The New Revised Standard Version]
2. Rick Marshall, " Pity the Angels." Www.realclearreligion.com September 22, 2014.
3. Nicholas G. Hann, III, " George F. Will: The RealClearReligion Interview." www.realclearreligion.com. September 22, 2014.
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