The Toolbelt of God

A sermon preached by Rev. Deana Dudley

at Christos Metropolitan Community Church, Toronto, Ontario and

Holy Fellowship Metropolitan Community Church, London, Ontario

24 August 2003

Today’s scripture from Ephesians tells us to "put on the whole armour of God." Now, this was most likely written by the apostle Paul when he was in a Roman prison. And what was on his mind, as he sat there, oppressed and likely depressed, was, "how do I find my salvation, how will I be saved from this? And how do I continue to do the work of God, as I sit here in prison?" And day in, day out, he sat in a cell and saw the prison guards in their armour. And after a while, I guess he just thought, "They have their armour to save them. What have I got to save myself with? If I were to put on armour what would it be? Well, I’d put on the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness." And there we have it. Can you picture the Roman soldier?

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that this isn’t really language that calls out to us today. I’m guessing that reading may not have gripped you in the deepest place where you live. I didn’t see anybody falling out over it, anyway. And yet, I know that there are deep, personal truths embedded in that letter to the Ephesians, and the truth is, what Paul was saying is that God gives us what we need to deal with what life throws at us. What life threw at him was Roman centurions, with all their weapons and armour. And what God gave Paul, and gives us, are truth, and righteousness, and faith, and salvation, and the Spirit of God, and the word of God, the gospel, the good news of God’s peace. These were the tools that God gave Paul to contend with the spiritual forces that beset him. Notice, that God didn’t send Paul off to engage in swordplay with the Romans. We’re not fighting human beings, Paul writes, but against the cosmic powers of an evil age. Rather, God gave Paul the spiritual strength and tools to deal with spiritual forces, which I suspect, in his situation, must have included despair and depression and fear, the evil tricks of the devil. And in that situation, God called Paul to preach the gospel of peace.

We, too, are called to preach that same gospel of peace. And we too are equipped by God to do so. And NOT being imprisoned by the Romans, there’s a lot we can do, with God’s help. Even though we may be engaged in battles of our own with the powers that oppress our lives. Because what God did for Paul, God will do for us.... God gives us what we for our salvation. So what I want to do today is take those deep truths about God’s help, and contemporize them a little, maybe "queer them up" a bit. So I want to talk about radical tools for radical change and to do so I’m not going to put on armour. Armour’s just not my style, so I thought, what can I put on. And good dyke that I am..... [take out toolbelt].... I thought, I have a few tools that I think will help us look at how God equips us to do the work God has called us to do.

See, God knows we need tools to live in the world. In Paul’s time, he needed tools, too. He needed armour to save himself from persecution. We need tools to do the work that God has called us to do. And to do that, we need our tools accessible, so a toolbelt’s handy. When God gives us tools, we need to bring them to everything we do. And God has given us the tools to change our lives, and change the world.

What have we got here? I guess some of our tools might be obvious. A bible. Some Holy Water? Garlic and a wooden cross?.... who knows... they might be handy sometime. What else have we got here? Ah.... here we go....

Tool Number One: A Ticket. Trust in God, AND take action. As Paul writes, DO all this IN prayer, asking God’s help. Keep alert. Never give up.

You want to change the world? Radical tool #1, is DO Something! Trust God, and take action. You now, sometimes we need to do more than pray. Don’t stop praying, but start doing, too. Sometimes people will say, "I’m praying about it," and that’s wonderful. Prayer does get results. But so does action. So do something.

Why a ticket? Well there’s this great story about an old Priest who was standing in line in Italy years ago waiting for the train. It was a sweltering hot day and he was standing in line and every once in a while he’d take off his hat and wipe his brow. He was standing there about an hour, it was a long line, and he was trying to catch the train to Rome and a young man came along and said, "Father, I’d like to stand in line for you, so you don’t have to stand in the sun all day. Go sit over there in the shade, and I’ll take your place in line." So the priest went and sat down and the young man stood in line for him. After about an hour, the young man finally got to the ticket counter and got the ticket and came back to the priest and said, "Here you go, here’s your ticket."

And just as he handed it to him he heard the train coming. So the priest said, "Thank you so much, my son," and took the ticket and started to walk off. And the young man said, "Um, Father, I bought the ticket for you." And the priest said, "Yes, thank you very much my son." The train pulls up to the station and the priest starts to get on and, thinking perhaps the he didn’t understand, the young man says, "Excuse me Father, that was my money that I paid for the ticket." And the priest said, "Yes, thank you my son." And the young man said, "But I need to get to Rome, too, and I don’t have any money." And the priest said, "Well, neither do I." "Then what were you doing in line?" cried the young man. And the priest said, "I knew I needed to go to Rome. So I prayed, but I also took action. I stood in line." The young man said, "But I don’t have any money left now!" And the priest said, "Then I suggest you get in line."

So my friends, the first radical tool is Action. Take action. Get in line and somehow the ticket may be provided. Sometimes you just have to pray and then take action and trust –– in the recovery movement they say: "Act as if." Act as if it’s going to happen and just maybe it will.

Radical Tool Number 2: Recruit Co-Conspirators. [Tool = duct tape] Pray always for ALL of the saints.

Another radical tool is to recruit co-conspirators in the change you want to make. To create community. People who share the same values as you do – gather them together and make change however you can make it happen in your environment, in your church, in your neighborhood, in your lives. You and I do not exist alone. By ourselves we cannot resist the oppressive powers that Paul writes of. When you contend against powers and principalities with so much to protect, don’t try to do it yourself. That can make you crazy. And one of the ways that we work together, create community, is by working out of common values.

A good bit of what I’m telling you today is from a book called "The Soul in the Computer" by Barbara Waugh. She’s a self proclaimed revolutionary in the corporate world. Waugh’s greatest gift may be her compulsion to ask, "What could make a difference here?" She says all change starts with questions. And she’s written this book about radical tools for radical change and one of the things that she says under this recruit co-conspirators section is it may not be the people you expect. And she says one thing that absolutely stuck out to me, that I need to hear over and over, and that is turn your enemies into allies. Turn your enemies into allies. A little earlier in this letter, Paul reminds the folks in Ephesus that God judges everyone by the same standard.

And at times, I find myself confronting the same supposed enemy that Paul confronted. Rome. I’ve been thinking for several weeks now, ever since they came out with their most recent Papal Bull on same sex marriage, how do I turn Rome, the Vatican, into an ally around gay marriage? And I have to tell you that I still have no idea. It’s far more tempting to react and push back. To just give up on them and push them away. To break the ties that really do bind us together as sisters and brothers in Christ.

But then, how can we actually somehow engage what we call the middle? Because, remember, God didn’t send Paul out to destroy Rome. He sent Paul to take salvation to Rome. To engage the Romans with the Good news. And that, alas, is what I have to do, too. To move in from the outer edge, and engage brothers and sisters. The middle is bigger than we might think. How do we do this around the issue of gay marriage? There are many people out there who in the last few years have changed their mind about gay marriage. You can see it in the polls. You can see it in the legal changes. Why? Because people like us have engaged the middle and found common ground, common values, created dialogue and people have changed their minds. That’s how it works. If we insist on making people all good and all bad, we will never find a way to come together in the middle. And you know what, no one is all good, and no one is all bad. When we put people into categories like that, we don’t get to appreciate the complex paradoxes that make up all of us. Because there are things in all of us – both as individuals and as institutions – that are very positive, and things in all of us that need to be changed. That’s what Paul was saying to the Ephesians. So turn enemies into allies. Create community. And that community may be even queer-er than we think. So stick together.

Radical Tool Number 3. Change Perspective. Scale Up. Scale Down. [Tool = tape measure]

And then if you hit a tough space, the radical tool is – scale up. Change perspective. Scale up. You get up in the morning, and the problems you had the day before are still there, and they’re still not solved, and you still don’t know how to solve them. What would be scaling up at that moment? It might be, instead of stressing about all those problems, it might be to scale up and see the bigger picture which is that God has called me to do work in the universe today that I alone can do. And so what I’m going to do before anything else is put on some music or just get quiet, take fifteen minutes, center myself, breathe and remember who I am before I start this work. And who has called me to that work, and who has given me the tools for it. That’s scaling up.

Or you scale down. You think this is way too big for me so you scale down and you say, I can’t do all this but I can take one small step today to make a difference. And lots of small steps, taken by committed people, change the world. Scale up or scale down.

Radical Tool number 4. Amplify Positive Deviance. Shine a Light on the Positive. [Tool = flashlight]

Another tool Barbara Waugh talks about is amplifying positive deviance. Now in this place that shouldn’t be too difficult. Are there any deviants here? I’m clearly gonna need a bigger spotlight. By that I mean shine the light on things that are positive. Amplify what’s going right. We need to shine a light on what’s going right. Instead of sitting down and saying what’s not working, say who is doing something right and maybe outside the norm. Let’s look at what they’re doing and model that, or amplify it. When we limit our gaze to what’s going wrong in the world, in our lives, we’re amplifying the few, rather than the many. There’s a lot going right. There are a lot of people doing incredible things, day after day, that make a difference in the world. And some of them are sitting right here today! There IS good news in our lives. Shine a light on that. Amplify positive deviance.

Radical tools for radical change.

Now, I realize that this tool belt might not work for everyone. Maybe some of you would prefer a tool belt like this. [Pull out frou-frou little beaded bag.] God’s got tools for all of us. So I hope that, in a light-hearted way, we’ve found some really deep and profound truths about how to live in the world, and about how God equips us to do all that God has called us to do. I invite you, as I invite myself, to think deeply about how to make radical change, in our lives, in our church, and in the world. And so, take your tools with you wherever you go and may God bless you as you do.

References gratefully acknowledged: Dr. Penny Nixon, MCC San Francisco; M. Mahan Siler, Pullen Memorial Baptist Church;"The Soul in the Computer: The Story of a Corporate Revolutionary", by Barbara Waugh.