Remembrance Day / Veteran’s Day
Scripture: Psalm 149 Luke 6:20-31
What does it mean to say we follow the Prince of Peace, and the Lord of Hosts or Armies? They seem to contradict one another.
Prince of Peace is from Isaiah 9: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end.” And in Corinthians and Philippians we’re told of the God of Peace, and the peace of God.
Lord of Hosts is a translation of God’s name and the title ‘tza-va-ot.’ צבאות This title is used 235 times in the Bible. Very frequently!
Host in English has many meanings. We know it to mean someone who hosts a party, welcomes in others. A bit more rarely used, we know a host is something that carries or supports another. So a host-cell. A host species. Even more rarely used, we know a host is a large number. I have a host of problems! Even rarer is host to mean stars, planets, and the moon. The “heavenly hosts.”
Almost never used is host as a word for an army. And yet – here it is – in scripture.
I wonder if it is because “Lord of Armies” doesn’t sound very Christian to our ears. It feels uncomfortable. We surely didn’t used to feel like this. Our hymns – think – “Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war…!” Or, “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He hath loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword…” We have battle hymns.
And yet… we also proclaim our Lord comes riding on a young donkey, a colt, meek and mild, not a horse of war.
It’s a quandary. A puzzle.
One answer to this problem is to look at the word tzavaot. Although most of our scripture translates this as hosts, armies, or heavenly armies, it can also be translated as an assembly. So yes, a military force is an assembly of nurses and infantry and soldiers and accountants and more. But a school can also have an assembly. There still may be a nurse there, but not soldiers. Instead, a principle might address the students. And we are in an assembly right now – a group gathered together.
I think this is why we use the archaic word ‘host’ for tzavaot. Host can mean an army, or a large gathering. A gathering of stars. A gathering of angels. A gathering of people.
Sort of like we have begun to use army ourselves to mean “a whole lot.” An army of hungry kids descended on the birthday cake. An army of raccoons ate all my birdfeed. Neither of these do I mean an armed group of kids or raccoons. I mean – many.
Another answer to this problem is to admit we dream of peace, but humans choose war as often as we choose peace. And when we are in war, we want to know God is still with us just as God is with us in peaceful times.
Such as the song Battle Hymn of the Republic, which I mentioned above. The tune was a common tune among USA Civil War soldiers. People would riff on it, making up new verses, such as “We’re done with hoeing cotton, we’re done with hoeing corn / We’re colored Yankee soldiers just as sure as you were born.” Or lines about taking people home from war in bags. Julia Ward Howe, a fairly famous poet, came to Washington, D.C. during the war with her minister to visit Union troops. She witnessed a battle. Her minister encouraged her to take the soldiers’ song and make it a rousing hymn for the cause. Something to inspire the troops to fight the good fight and stand strong against slavery.
The good fight. God’s holy war. The defense of the weak. The liberation of the oppressed.
And simultaneously, we have the beatitudes – blessed are the peacemakers. And we’re told those who live by the sword, die by the sword. And we have whole denominations of Christians who are conciseness objectors – Christians who refuse to serve in the armed forces.
How do we navigate this?!
I don’t know other than to say this is the reality of being human. We dream of peace. We work for peace. We try to learn and teach peace. We try to be peaceful. And we also have known war for as long as we’ve been human.
Maybe that is why it is so important to have days like Remembrance Day. We have to remember the people who have faced this problem. We have to learn from them. How did they keep the goal and dream of peace when war and conflict raged? How did they navigate faith to God? How did they navigate scripture? We must see the cost of war. And treat our current peace like the pricy, precious gift it is. These lessons we learn from the past will then help us in the future. Help us keep dreaming of peace, keep working for it, and help us keep our tzavaot to mean peaceful assemblies.
Amen.
Pastor Whitney Bruno Sermons 