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Musings
Put Down Your Shields!!
Rev. Peter Faass | 10/14/2010
Star Trek is one of my all time favorite television programs, especially The Next Generation. I love the sense that the possibilities of striving for a new world presents, as well as the ethos of the Prime Directive of which the forces of good in the program adhere. In many respects, the program models the Church on her better days.
You may recall that whenever the starship Enterprise was about to be attacked by an enemy like the Borg, (no not Marcus!) Captain Jean-Luc Picard would tell his crew to put the ship's shields up. Shields were an invisible protective barrier that the Enterprise could use to surround herself, protecting her from hostile incoming attacks; they were like a futuristic version of the Great Wall of China.
All too often the business of our lives, the distractions of technology and our cynicism towards life become forms of the Enterprise's shields; they insulate us not from hostile fire but rather from being aware of the coming of God's Kingdom as it bursts forth in fruition all around us. Our shields prevent us from seeing God's hand at work around us. This week the Kingdom has made some astoundingly big appearances and bore some serious fruit; have you noticed? Put down your shields friends. God is calling us to see God's hand at work and to rejoice!
All thirty-three of the Chilean miners have been miraculously freed from the mine that has entrapped them for the past two months. Patience, faith, compassion, diligence and prayer have led to this miraculous ending of what could have been a disaster. If anyone wants to know what seeming death in the tomb is like and then seeing the stone rolled away to give new life, just read this story. It brings tears to my eyes to see the realization of this new life the miners have received dawn on their faces and those of their families. It is a wondrous moment.
This week we also had a federal judge order the U.S. military to stop "don't ask, don't tell." This has been an egregious policy of discharging honorable gay and lesbian soldiers from the military if their sexual orientation was revealed. Over 14,000 competent service men and women have been tossed out of the military under this policy. Again, as with the rescue of the Chilean miners, the resurrection parallels are striking. Gay and lesbian soldiers have hope now of emerging from the tombs of their closets to freely and honorably serve their beloved nation in the light of day. It is the dawn of a new life for them as much as for the miners in Chile.
Friends, the Kingdom is always being built up all around us in ways great and small. Resurrection life comes one way or another. In the book of the prophet Isaiah, God says this about his word. "I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it."
God's promises are true and God's Kingdom deos come, despite all that we believe prevents it from doing so. Lower your shields friends, the Kingdom of God is here and now. And it is yours for the receiving.
Thanks be to God!
Peter +
