Are you wild about Spiritual warfare?

It is a scene that has been repeated far too often in the history of our world.  Darfur, Pakistan, Kurdistan, 9-11 – are all instances of people putting other nations to the sword.  “Ethnic cleansing” is the euphemism for it – but the reality is still just as brutal.  So it is disconcerting at best when we are confronted by these Old Testament texts that depict the Israelites doing just that.  The last line of the first reading kind of echoes in your ears in a disconcerting way:  And Joshua mowed down Amelek and his people with the edge of the sword. 

The entire Hebrew Testament is riddled with these kinds of stories.  Are we to take them literally?  Origen, perhaps one of the most creative biblical commentators ever, writing in the third century, suggests maybe not.  He read them in a provocative, spiritual kind of way.  “Israel”, he says, “is an Icon of God’s relationship with the human race.  Israel stands for what is good and right in all of us and in our communities.  It stands for the grace and the purpose of God.  The Egyptians, Jebusites, Perrizites, Hittites, and, Amelekites are the enemies of God.  They stand for all the forces that are opposed to God.”  So, it is not surprising, Origen writes, that the bible is a book of battles, of struggles.  Because life is a struggle between these two great forces – what is good and what is evil.  Just when Israel – that’s to say, mercy, compassion, good, peace, forgiveness – holds sway, it is opposed by Amelek – hatred violence, self absorption, resentment.  You can see played out on the grand global scene; its there in our cities and communities. And can feel it in your own hearts.  There is always a struggle going on between Israel and Amelek. 

What must we do?  Here is how Origen reads these images of putting a city to the bann – of ‘mowing down Amelek and his people with the sword.  “In the spiritual warfare we are involved in, we must fight to the end.  You must take no prisoners, make no compromises with the enemy, give no surrender to evil.  For to do so promises that down the line, there will be greater suffering.”  To compromise with what is evil, to make peace with what is destructive of life –that will only result in greater sorrow and suffering later. 

Sounds harsh, doesn’t it.  Yet how many of you would be satisfied if your doctor said to you:  Well, the cancer is 95% gone.  That’s probably good enough, don’t you think?  We’ve gotten rid of the biggest mass, the rest – don’t bother with.  You’d be searching for a new doctor pretty quickly, I’d think. No, we need to put the BANN on the cancer.  Or how many of your spouses would say to you:  I’m faithful to you MOST of the time?  It doesn’t work.  You can’t compromise with infidelity.  Or how credible would be the priest’s witness who says: “I’m celibate, except when I’m on vacation?  No.  There are certain things that are opposed to God’s will that have to be eliminated.  To play with them is to invite trouble down the line.  Amelek has to be fought, in all its incarnations, all its varied guises.  Racism, Abortion, Genocide, Discrimination – all these have to be fought to the end. 

And how do you fight?  Here are the other lessons of the first reading.  You always fight with prayer.  At the heart of the battle is Moses standing on the hillside with the power of God – his staff – in his hands.  Lifted up, lest Israel trusts in their power to be triumphant over evil.  It is only God’s power that wins the battle. That’s what anyone in a 12 step program will tell you.  YOU are powerless over your addiction.  If you try to win the battle over the addiction on your own –you will fail.  But if you acknowledge God’s power over the addiction, you can be free. 

Nor is it individual prayer that wins the battle, but the communities support and prayer that carries the day.  Aaron and Hur hold up Moses’ arms, hold up the staff of God in his tired arms.  We need all kinds of people to support us on the journey.  In each parish, there are those who are actively striving to feed the poor, fight racism, combat oppression.  And there are those who support those fighting with their prayer.  The elderly, the homebound, those who are past their ‘active years of working/fighting – it is their prayer that is still so crucial to the battle. 

Finally, at the end of this passage (not read today) it says that “Yahweh will battle Amelek down the ages.”  All the expressions of hatred, violence, and injustice – that’s the church’s ongoing struggle.  Whether we are on the front lines fighting the battle, or standing on the hill, holding up the arms of Moses/the church – we are to continue that age old struggle, until the victory of the one who’s raised arms were nailed to a cross becomes the victory of the world…