Rev. Tom Sorenson, Pastor
September 7, 2008

Scripture:

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight O God, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

One of my favorite words is “oxymoron.” It means a word or phrase that contains a contradiction, that seems to contradict itself. Like “jumbo shrimp.” Oxymorons are fun because they sound like nonsense, yet they sometimes draw our attention to a truth that we might otherwise miss. We’ve got an oxymoron in this morning’s reading from Romans. In that reading St. Paul tells us to “put on the armor of light.” The phrase “armor of light” is an oxymoron. It contradicts itself. It says light is armor. But what is armor? It is a protective covering, in Paul’s day probably of bronze or wood and leather, in our day probably of Kevlar or some other penetration-resistant synthetic material. They key to something being armor is that phrase “penetration-resistant.” Armor is there to prevent penetration by a weapon, in Paul’s day a spear or an arrow, in our day a bullet. And what is light? Nothing, really, True, modern science has discovered that light has mass, that it has weight. But Paul didn’t know that, and even if he had it wouldn’t have mattered. Light doesn’t have enough substance to deflect anything, not even a feather, much less a spear or a bullet. Light simply will not work as armor. The phrase “armor of light” is an oxymoron. It contradicts itself. It is nonsense.

Or is it? Might it be one of those oxymorons that point us to a truth we might otherwise miss? Since it’s St. Paul saying it, perhaps we should give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that it is. Maybe we should look to see if there is a lesson in that oxymoron “the armor of light” for us. And I suppose it won’t surprise you if I say that I think that there is. Let’s take a closer look and see if we can discover what that lesson might be.

Our verses from Romans this morning are part of a relatively long discourse that Paul gives on the nature of the Christian life. In that discourse Paul stresses that the Christian life is the life of love. In the part of it we heard this morning he says, basically, that all of God’s law can be boiled down to love. Those who love fulfill the law, he says. The Christian’s call is to love. Period. Love everyone. Love always. Love in all things. Love is the law. Everything else is commentary. Everything else is mere details. Everything else is negotiable. Love is what matters.

Then Paul says: “Put on the armor of light.” Taken in its context of Paul’s discourse on the Christian life as the life of love, I understand this oxymoron to be saying the same thing as love is God’s law. To put on the armor of light is to live in love. And indeed the armor of light is a very good metaphor for living in love. After all, light makes us vulnerable. It makes us visible both to friends and to those who would do us harm. It takes away the protection that darkness can provide. We can’t hide in the light. In the light we can be targets of those with evil in their hearts.

It’s the same with love. Love makes us vulnerable. When we love we can be hurt, as many of us have learned from painful experience. When we love as Christ loved we love even those who seek to do us harm. It’s not that we aren’t to resist evil. That’s not what Jesus’ statement at Matthew 5:38 that is usually translated “Do not resist an evildoer” means. It means do not resist violently. If you have questions about that, ask one of the people who have been coming to the Monday evening book group. We are to resist evil, but we are always to resist it the way Jesus did—assertively, creatively, nonviolently. When we love as Christ loved we speak truth to power as he did, and that can make us targets of the powers who are threatened by God’s word of peace and justice for all people, just as he was. Just as light provides no physical protection, neither does love.

Yet Paul calls light and the love that it symbolizes armor. Indeed, love is armor—God’s armor. It was the only armor Jesus used, and it protected him even as he died on the cross because in love he was at one with God. That’s how the light that is love is our armor. When we live in love we are at one with God. God is always with us as we live in love, holding us firm and safe in the arms of grace. Though we die, we are safe in God’s love.

So put on the armor of light. Put on the armor of love. You will be safe in God’s hands. Not safe the way the world understands safe perhaps, but safer than the world with all of its physical armor could ever make you. You will be safe with God. Put on the armor of light. Put on the armor of love. It is Christ’s way. It is God’s way. As Christians it is our way too. Amen.