Sermons for the Month
Karate Klergy
DATE: August 27, 2000
SERVICE: Pentecost XI
TEXT: Ephesians 6:10-20“To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN
[NOTE: Arrange some boards on cinder blocks. Make sure you can break them with your hand.]
Kung Fu Clergy. Martial Arts Ministry. If you think these are cute oxymorons, think again. In an attempt to reach an ever more reclusive majority to hear the message of Jesus Christ, clergy are trying ever more diverse avenues to do so. Among them now in their 40s, are karate clergy who in their youth got hooked on the early 1970s television series, Kung Fu, starring David Carradine as Kwai Chan Caine, a half-American Sholin priest, hiding out in the American Wild West, righting wrongs by defending the weak - only after showing considerable self-restraint. Martial-arts ministries, many associated with the Gospel Martial Arts Union (www.gmau.org), are spreading the Good News across the country. At tiny Emmanuel Baptist Church in Montana, the Rev. Kent Haralson, who started teaching karate kicks on the lawn two years ago, has since baptized 24 of his karate students, and attendance at Sunday services has doubled to 130. Some people just take clergy more seriously if the clergy aren't in the "Jesus meek and Jesus mild" category. No more sniveling, pantywaist, milquetoast, momma's-boy clergyguys or petticoat clergygals who get sand kicked up into their faces. We're talking martial - arts - MINISTRY! (Get ready to break the boards but don't!) Is this what the apostle had in mind when he listed the weapons at a Christian's disposal in today's text? "Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." Probably not. Paul was writing from prison when the Roman military industrial complex was at the peak of its glory and to a people who understood the technological superiority of Roman soldiering, tools and training. He used examples of Roman war weapons because these military tools were familiar to the Ephesians who lived at the time of Paul in the Roman Empire's 4th largest city. And Paul was probably shackled to a Roman guard whose responsibility alone was to prevent Paul, a Roman citizen, from escaping. Yet, ironically, Paul was not directing his anger toward the guard or his circumstances. He saw a much bigger picture here, one that involved spiritual forces and their moral equivalents. His point is clear: Christians are in a war, a spiritual war, but not one against a flesh and blood enemy. And so the weapons of choice are not material but spiritual. Figurative swords, helmets, shields and the like are needed in order to do nothing more than to stand firm (mentioned three times). The imagery is appealing to many onward Christian soldiers today who either see themselves as a besieged minority or sense the need to outline a biblical agenda for a godless postmodern world. I was once with a group of Christians one afternoon that were afraid to buy a tourist souvenir of a giraffe mask because they were afraid it would bring evil spirits into their home. The same group leader later complained that a devil's minion had purposely misdirected our bus driver when it was obvious to the rest of us that our driver simply didn't know where he was going and didn't know how to read a map. This hunker-in-the-bunker mentality or the slash-and-dash tactics of certain Christian activists draws heavily on militaristic metaphors to make their case. But we don't live in first-century Rome, and the political culture today is not receptive to military images as appropriate for Christian sloganeering or evangelism. That's why it is easy for us to miss the apostle's central message: The Christian lifestyle is all about staying alert, standing firm and "proclaim[ing] the gospel of peace" (v. 15). We might wish he had used a different metaphor, perhaps drawn upon the agrarian culture of his day: "Pick up the hoe of the Spirit, don the straw hat of salvation, hold up your trousers with the suspenders of truth, and pull on the barn coat of righteousness." But he didn't. My guess is Paul picked this metaphor because it was literally staring him in the face as it were, from a prison cell. Enter the martial arts, an approach to defense designed to defuse the enemy's attack and turn his own power against him. The art of karate, or judo, or other marital arts is not to attack but defend, to turn the power of the aggressor against itself. To clergy such as Rev. Haralson in Montana, karate is no different from bowling leagues, card groups, book clubs or diet workshops - just another secular appeal for people who might otherwise skip church and never be exposed to the "gospel of peace." Many churches play in basketball leagues or sponsor softball teams - why not karate clubs? Doesn't Paul encourage us to "be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power" (v. 10)? "But the martial arts are too secular," say many Christians. They wonder whatever happened to the words of Jesus in Matthew: "Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also" (5:39). Churches that teach karate "are compromising a lot with the world in order to have an impact on the world," warns Albert Dager, editor of Media Spotlight - a newsletter that deals with religious issues. Karate clergy insist that their Martial Arts System is designed to provide sound biblical foundations for living a peaceful, non-aggressive life, while equipping participants to vigilantly raise the standard of Jesus Christ in their daily lives. They train to be vigilant not to attack, to stand firm not to give in to injustice, immorality or unbelief. Karate clergy are preaching and teaching in a time when Jackie Chan, Chuck Norris, Ho Young Fat and martial arts action figures have penetrated minds both young and old with a flurry of flying fists, quick kicks and good guy righteousness. Like Paul, using the tools of the time, karate clergy are using the tools available to them to reach children and adults with the message of Jesus Christ. If you think we're making a case for some kind of Jesus judo, you're wrong. I'm suggesting that we follow the apostle's lead and reconsider what weapons - let's say "tools" - are at our disposal to both "stand firm" and "spread the gospel of peace." It won't be easy. Paul identifies the foes against us as the "devil," "rulers," "authorities," "cosmic powers," "spiritual forces of evil," and the spiritual tools he suggests will "quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one." Who can argue that there can be no greater protection in this conflict than "the whole armor of God," "the belt of truth, "the breastplate of righteousness," "the shield of faith," "the helmet of salvation" and "the sword of the Spirit?" Yet, how does all of this play out in the hardscrabble frontier of a godless culture where children kill children, women suffer ongoing abuse, families are neglected, and a full time minimum wage job only earns a below poverty wage of $10,600 a year. Where education needs and moral values, not to speak of the gospel of Jesus Christ, seldom get a hearing? The church must do more than inertly stand "firm," encumbered by what is to the world meaningless theological armor. It is no longer enough for us to be holy; we must be examples, presenting to the world a living, three-dimensional vision of Christ. After all, it's not about Kung Fu but Christ-in-you. That is why I am proud of what we do here at Faith through the Busy Fingers, the Soup for Hospice, the schools supplies we sent down to Children Services, our covenant relationship with OPEN M. But are the martial arts such a bad idea? How about the fine arts? Why not a watercolor course? Why not a drama class? Dance? Or bread-baking? Or origami? Or a Sculpture Group for God? Put on the apron of righteousness. Wear the dance shoes of peace. Wield the pointer of faith. Wear the clown wig of salvation. Tighten your waist belts by helping people trim their waists. It's time to get a kick out of Jesus. (Smash the boards) AMEN