4 Sep 2005

The Armor of Light-Echoes from the early Christian Church

Romans 13:8-14

by Joy Kreider

Last year I had the opportunity to study at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in the Midwest. The course that I took focused on life in the early church between approximately 100-300 AD (before Christianity was made a state religion, and when believers were on the margins of society, and often in danger of losing their lives for the gospel). Writings from church fathers, archeological evidence found in the last 300 years, and writings from Roman dignitaries who found Christian practices to be unusual, if not confounding, provide a rich data set from which to explore how the first believers interpreted the texts of the New Testament, and how they lived out their love for God.

My goal today is to use this passage in Romans as a theological backdrop to consider life in the early Church. Like life in America today, our early spiritual ancestors lived in a culture that was self satisfied, self important, full of greed and pride and addicted to violence and war. Like our lives today, these early Christians found themselves on the margins of a society that did not reflect their values or beliefs. While it would be unfair to say that all early Christian communities thrived for this was not the case, some believers clearly understood the radicality of Jesus' teachings, and the critical importance of facing aworld full of darkness robed in armor made of light. I pray that these reflections will help you as they have helped me to continue to ask-what does it mean to put on Jesus Christ, to wake up and embrace the reality that our salvation is nearer than ever before. Before I turn more specifically to the early church-let me make several brief comments on this passage. In verse 12 Paul tells us that we can put on armor made of light. In a Roman culture that glorified war and deified its heroes, here is a call to Christians to put on armor that is radically different from that worn by the soldiers of that day. I suspect that the first readers of this text, would have attended to this contrast (that is armor of light versus armor made of iron), and would have recognized that the notion of armor made of light was a statement about the fact that we serve a Lord who comes to us without weapons of war, or soldiers, but as a humble servant wrapped in the very presence of God. Paul also urges us to wake up, to put aside our own darkness, and to see that our salvation is at hand in a new way, and that from this place of wakefulness or new alertness that we can put on armor made of light.

Why does Paul speak so urgently? What does he mean? Is he suggesting that the world is coming to an end-or is he suggesting that our salvation is closer than before because coming to know God is a process, and as we mature, as we are changed into God's likeness, as we awake to abiding presence of God in our lives, we see with clarity that salvation is already on the way, that conversion is a daily process, that when we live with hope that God is moving closer to us all the time, and, that we also move closer to God. Such wakefulness, such willingness to wait with hope, helps us to know that even when faced with the darkness of sin and death, God's light can and still will break through.

Paul calls us to wait and watch for a God who comes to meet us on the road, Paul calls us to live in hope, and be clothed in Light, to be wrapped in the likeness of our Lord Jesus Christ. These are powerful words, powerful teachings that equip the believer to move into a world full of darkness and despair, as messengers of God's light and God's hope that all might be drawn to God, that all might be saved. Let us travel now back in time to the early church when Rome ruled much of the world, this dominant culture was quite satisfied with itself, and was willing to persecute or kill those who did not conform to the status quo. Remember that in the first 300 hundred years of the Church, it was not legal to be a Christian, There was no God above Caesar. Christians met quietly in their own homes late at night or early in the morningbefore they left for work, they did not speak the name of Jesus on the street because they could die, they could not publically witness for the Lord except in the arena as they faced their deaths as martyrs. And yet the Church grew by leaps and bounds, one historian suggests that from 100-300 A.D. the numbers of Christians increased from 100,000 to more than 6 million! How did those Early Christians put on the armor of light, what did their neighbors notice about them?

Example Number One: In those days, aristocratic (very wealthy) Roman families deeply desired sons to carry on the name, to govern, and to go to war, but too many daughters was a financial burden. It was not uncommon for Aristocratic families to leave their infant daughters at Roman city dumps to die. Christians would slip into the dumps, rescue those girls and raise them as their own. The Roman aristocracy was so scandalized by this behavior, that rumors were spread all throughout Rome, about these subversive Christians who met in secret, and collected these abandoned children in order to use them as human sacrifices in their barbarous religious practice! Isn't it ironic that this was the best defense that these Romans could mount-well they must sacrifice those children, what else would baby girls be good for!!??!!

Here were Christian believers were paying attention, staying awake, looking for those who needed to be rescued from certain death. In a time when women were definitely second class citizens, and infant girls were fully expendable, Christians moved out into a dangerous world, willing to do something had not been done before in God's name, they put on the Lord Jesus Christ, went into those dumps and brought salvation near to the daughters of Rome.

Example Number Two: We travel this time to Egypt where local thugs were given free rein to abduct peasants from their homes and ship them down the Nile to become slaves for the Roman legions. Christians in this area, learned of this practice, and went into action, bringing food and drink to those peasants who were now in shackles and waiting for deportment. We know from the writings of at least one of those confined peasants, a man called Pachomius, that this behavior was shocking and deeply attractive, and when he was able, he joined the church and became an important leader in the early monastic movement-which helped Egyptian Christians move out of the cities into the deserts to seek a simpler life full of prayer (the desert fathers).

Here were Christians who could not speak the name of Jesus in public without potentially severe consequences, and yet they had a powerful witness, they were listening for God's call to action and were willing to bring compassion, food and drink to those in the darkness of captivity.

Example Number 3: Let us return to Rome. Rome was culture that feared death. Elaborate, expensive private burial societies sprang up around Rome, people paid monthly dues to know that their bodies would be properly buried, and their names would be inscribed in public places so they would not be forgotten. If you couldn't pay, you would not be cared for in death, you would not be remembered by future generations, and this was a terrible disgrace. Being remembered by others was the best that Romans could hope for, the afterlife was a fearful and dark place that held little light or hope. In contrast, Christians did not support or start their own burial societies, rather they promised that all who part of the church would be offered careful and equal burial rights. More importantly, on the 1 year anniversary of a Christian's death, believers gathered, for a party, in the catacombs by the grave, they would eat and drink, they would remember their Lord's sacrifice them, and they would celebrate the dead Christian's release into the next life-that date upon which that Christian had died, became that person's new birth date-because it represented the final birth into new life, into the light, into the salvation of the Lord. In the midst of a society terrified by death, Christians lived and died with hope. In the midst of a national religion that offered the darkness of Hades, Christian celebrated the resurrection light of Jesus Christ our Lord.

These are only a few of many stories that demonstrate that many Christians in the early church were radically different from their Roman neighbors. These Christians lived on the very margins of their society and yet their quiet witness was so loud that writings remain today from Roman dignitaries, confused, perplexed, confounded by this radical minority group. These were believers that lived out their faith, who were awake, alert, watching for opportunities to live out God's light and God's salvation to the world around them. These were believers who saw death as a release to that final salvation, and so we should not be surprised that such believers often faced a martyr's death with peace in their hearts and songs on their lips. How should we engage with these examples?

What have I learned from first century Christians?

This first generation of Christians, are companions on the way, in my own journey towards God, they remind me that we the church are not alone, that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses that down through the ages, have been transformed by the resurrection light of our Lord Jesus Christ. They remind me that when I feel most discouraged about whether or not the church is living out the hope, and light and grace of God, that it is indeed possible to do so even in the face of suppression and persecution.

I also see socio-cultural similarities between the first church and the church of the 21st century. Like our first spiritual ancestors we live in a society filled with self satisfaction, greed and one that is addicted to violence and war. We also live in a world that places its hope in money and power, and prestige, and not in the love, service, compassion and the resurrection power of a servant king. Just as Paul called them, Paul also calls us to wake up, to wait in hope, to be garbed in the very resurrection light of our Lord, and to be a voice and instrument of peace for God. These stories also leave me with challenging questions to wrestle with.

If it were illegal for us to speak the name of Jesus in the streets of Houston, would any one know that we are followers of God? Do we have the courage to act on God's behalf, to undo others dark deeds to bring salvation near to those who still sit in darkness? Do we, name, and live out the hope we have in our Lord in a palpable way?

Do we wait and watch expectantly for our God to do a new thing in this world?

I confess I have much to learn from my spiritual ancestors.

Finally, these stories flesh out for me central and critical texts of the gospels.

We serve a risen Lord, who demonstrates that resurection light and power is greater that all the darkness that Satan could summon on that dark day at Golgatha and all other days. We serve a Savior, who comes to us not with weapons of war and soldiers, but with instruments of peace and armor made of light We serve a loving gracious Lord who bids us to put on his likeness, to have the mind of Christ, to proclaim the love of God, to set the captive free, and to be light to a world that is in darkness still. May we, like the early church, rise up and be willing to put on the armor light.

May we, like the early church be willing to live and to proclaim that our God and his salvation is closer than ever been before.

Amen.