A sword beaten into a plowshare

In the north garden of the United Nations, stands a nine-foot bronze sculpture of a muscular blacksmith beating and reshaping a sword. On the base appear words from the book of Micah: “We shall beat our swords into plowshares.” The piece was the work of Soviet sculptor, Evgeniy Vuchetich, and was presented to the U.N. in 1959.

The words of Scr ipture refer to what we today would call “re-purposing”— re-fashioning an object and using it for an entirely different purpose than that for which it was originally intended. A piece of iron that was once wielded in battle to end life will now dig a furrow in which will grow food to nourish life.

Historians do not always agree, but the fol lowing is from two contemporary sources: The Texas State Historical Association, updated July 2020; and the Gonzales Inquirer, May 6, 2023. In 1831, American immigrants in Mexico (what would later become Texas) were loaned a cannon by the Mexican army to defend against raiding Comanches. In 1835, when it came time for the cannon to be returned, the Texians of Gonzales, now armed, refused to relinquish it.

Two Texian women, Caroline Zumwalt and Eveline DeWitt re-purposed Eveline’s white wedding dress. They fashioned it into a flag, drew the outline of a cannon and a lone star on it, and included the words which became the motto of the battle of Gonzales: “Come and Take It.” It was hoisted above the cannon on Oct. 2, the day of the battle. Now for the rest of the story.

Historians say the Texians at Gonzales actually had two cannons. They already possessed a small, one-pounder, 21-1/2 inches long, called an esmeril. The Mexican cannon was a six-pounder, six feet long. The cannons were soon assigned to the Alamo. On the way there, the smaller cannon was inspected by Stephen F. Austin and our county’s namesake, Ben Milam. The decision was made to discard the small cannon, which was buried, covered by a f lood, later re-discovered and is on display in Gonzales.

Af ter the fall of the Alamo, the Mexican military buried the original six-pounder at the Alamo. It was unearthed by Samuel Maverick in 1852 and sent to New York by his widow Mary Maverick in 1874, where it was recast into a bell.

The love, grace and power of God in Jesus is most wondrous at re-purposing. In Paul’s letter to the Galatians, he writes of his own re-purposing: people in Judea were saying, “The one who formerly was persecuting us is now proclaiming the faith he once tried to destroy.” A sword beaten into a plowshare.

When Paul sent the runaway slave, Onesimus, back to his owner, Philemon, he wrote these words in the letter of that name: “Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful both to you and to me…no longer a slave but a beloved brother.”

Further, Church tradition informs us that the freed Onesimus soon became bishop of the church in Ephesus. A sword beaten into a plowshare.

Most interesting is that the cannon-become-a-bell can today be seen and heard at 317 E. Pecan St. in San Antonio, two blocks from the Alamo Church. It hangs in the belfry of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church and its deep, melodious tones call worshipers to the house of God. A sword beaten into a plowshare. All that is lacking, perhaps, is a brilliant, white flag in front of the St. Mark’s Church that would read, “Come and Ring It.”