From War to Missions: a personal reflection on Ezekiel 33:1-6

As a twenty year old paratrooper at Ft. North Carolina in 2001 I would often hear about Sgt. Alvin C. York. Alvin York was a Christian who lived a reformed life after living a life of alcohol abuse and violence, and he entered the First world war as a declared pacifist. Despite this however, while serving in the 82nd Infantry Division (This was before the Army introduced airborne infantry!) he received the Congressional Medal of Honor for killing 28 German soldiers and capturing an additional 132 when leading a small group of soldiers under heavy machine gun fire at the battle of Meuse-Argonne in 1918.

The reason that I bring this up on a blog that is dedicated to missions is for the reason that I have to admit that as a soldier I was both mystified and inspired by the scripture verses from Ezekiel 33:1-6 that Sergeant York's battalion commander used to persuade him to fight the Germans. He did this by comparing York to Ezekiel in Chapter 33 where God likened Ezekiel to a sentry who must man his post at all costs when his people are confronted by war ("the sword") in order to save them:

And the word of the LORD came to me saying, 2 "Son of man, speak to the sons of your people, and say to them, 'If I bring a sword upon a land, and the people of the land take one man from among them and make him their watchman; 3 and he sees the sword coming upon the land, and he blows on the trumpet and warns the people, 4 then he who hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, and a sword comes and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head. 5 'He heard the sound of the trumpet, but did not take warning; his blood will be on himself. But had he taken warning, he would have delivered his life. 6 'But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and a sword comes and takes a person from them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require from the watchman's hand.' (Ezekiel 33:1-6)

I would like to make s few observations. 1.) Eight years ago in Afghanistan, as a twenty year old soldier in Twentieth Special Forces Group (Airborne) in assigned to the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force, and then again as a twenty-one year old, I was nowhere near as brave nor as honorable as Sergeant York ever was, nor was I as holy as the Prophet Ezekiel. 2.) In retrospect of the past eight years, I can't help but feel that York's commander was wrong when he applied God's calling of Ezekiel as the sentry of Israel to York's need to take up arms. 3.) I've also misunderstood these verses over the years. God help me!

As an Orthodox Christian who prays for peace and for the salvation of all, it is now very difficult for me not to look at verses such as these without looking at them in the greater context of God's intentions of our own need to cooperate with Him by proclaiming the gospel despite the turmoil that exists in the world. Warlike themes are certainly present in the scriptures to varying degrees, and there is room for discussion as to the various directions that these themes have gone throughout the history of our salvation, but I no longer see this particular message as one of them.

The calling of Ezekiel to stand watch over his people shows how we have a profound responsibility as the people of God to share the good news that we have received - especially when our Lord has commands us to share the news of salvation with such a profound sense of urgency. Our situation of living in a world that has yet to fully realize the love of Christ might not be entirely identical to that of Israel's at the time of Ezekiel's ministry, but it is no less urgent.

What was once my own un-orthodox understanding of God's calling to Ezekiel in comparison to what I now see as a calling for us to engage in the life giving endeavor of the Church's mission, it almost seems as if I have been struggling between whether or not the scriptures in instances such as this and ultimately God justifies the waging of war, or does He desire that we proclaim his Word to those who are in need of it.

We know when look to the history of our Church that includes our warrior saints, and our canonical tradition that has canons that pertain to warfare, we know that the Church has always been aware that the self-defense of society at large, and the preservation of the Church will be a reality until all wars come to an end (Is 2:4; Mic 4:3). With this in mind, I suppose that choosing the former outlook joins us to the momentum of the corruption that brings about the conditions of war. But, perhaps choosing the latter outlook as our goal, and acting upon it as if it is something that can be fulfilled in the present age could be the difference between living by the sword and continuously dying by it (Mt 26:52), or living in the fullness of Christ in order to offer it to the rest of the world for His greater glory. Amen.