Choose Your Weapon

“Scrimgeour scratched his badly shaven cheek, scrutinising Harry. ‘Why do you think-?’

‘-Dumbledore wanted to give me the sword?’ said Harry, struggling to keep his temper. ‘Maybe he thought it would look nice on my wall.’

‘This is not a joke, Potter!’ growled Scrimgeour. ‘Was it because Dumbledore believed that only the sword of Godric Gryffindor could defeat the Heir of Slytherin? Did he wish to give you that sword, Potter, because he believed, as do many, that you are the one destined to destroy He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?’

‘Interesting theory,’ said Harry. ‘Has anyone ever tried sticking a sword in Voldemort? Maybe the Ministry should put some people onto that.’”

J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007)

 

Swords. I don’t really have anything else clever to say here.

Consider the following:

In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. – Ephesians 6:16-18

Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hideen from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. – Hebrews 4:11-13

I saw … one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash round his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.¹ – Revelation 1:12-16

So we can say that what God says – his word – is spiritually represented by a sword, yeah? Which being so, to take up your Bible is to take up your weapon for battle. When you pray through the scriptures and meditate on them, you are waging war against your flesh and all that is worldly in you. When you hear teaching and apply your discernment to it, you are drilling and training yourself for future action. And when you teach others – whether you’re addressing a crowd from a platform or just going off on one about the gospel over hot chocolate and cake with an old pal² – you are fighting alongside them and on their behalf. You are looking to the defence of your fellow-soldiers as you pursue with them one common goal. You are yourself fighting, and through that you are enabling them to press on in the fight too.

And that was the image I had in my head when I wrote the following poem, which, in case it wasn’t obvious, is about leading a Bible study.

I took my weapon in my hand and stood out front before my comrades –

All good soldiers in their own right, but today the turn was mine

To spend myself in their defence and counter darkness to do combat.

We’ve one Captain trains our hands for war³ and steels our brittle spines.

So I struck my blows decisive, taking heed of former lessons:

Some sank deeper in than other, and I couldn’t always tell.

I’ve a gift not yet much practised, though I learn with every session;

Still, I clean forgot that battle tends to deal me wounds as well.

You’re not helping here, my adversary taunts me in my striving.

You’re just failing. Lay your blade down and retreat behind your line.

How presumptuous of you to even dare to join the fighting,

Weak and useless thing you are! You’ve naught to offer. Yield. Resign.

And I’ll grant, there’s something in that, that I’m kind of good for nothing,

But the logic doesn’t follow that I ought to leave the fray.

If completely ineffectual’s the default cloth I’m cut in,

Any strike that finds its mark’s not to my credit anyway.

I took my weapon in my hand and stood out front before my brethren;

They’ve been given me to right me should I stumble, should I fall.

The point of fighting’s not to prove myself to eyes of earth or heaven;

It’s to fill the role bequeathed me so that all might build up all.

The point of fighting’s not to prove myself: there’s no proof worth alleging.

It’s to cry my Captain’s glory in obedience to his call.

Footnotes

¹ On this point, check out also the letter to the church in Pergamum, where the way Jesus is going to deal with the false doctrine of the Nicolaitans is by waging war with the sword of his mouth – i.e. scripture corrects false teaching: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+2&version=ESVUK.

² You know a great place to get cake if you happen to be in Peterborough on a Saturday morning? St. John’s church, just across the green and the square from the Cathedral: https://peterboroughparishchurch.wordpress.com/home/groups-and-activities/cafe/. Absolute staple of my childhood, that place.

³ A phrase you may recognise from Psalm 18; the same text is recorded in 2 Samuel 22: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Samuel+22&version=ESVUK.