Sunday, August 26, 2018

What do we need armor for?


A Sermon preached on Sunday, August 26, at St. Augustine’s, Wiesbaden

1 Kings 8: 22-30, 41-43, Ephesians 6:10-20; John 6:56-69
When I prepare a sermon, I often look at commentaries and to see what other people have discovered or struggled with. One short online commentary I read on the extract from Ephesians said:
“The imagery of this passage is tricky. Most of us live far from military imagery, and even farther from military imagery of the Roman Empire. With youth groups, I have done an activity where we re-imagine this text using modern and personal metaphors. Cell phones, Facebook, cars, and any number of modern devices – even lucky shoes – have been suggested by these youth. How might you re-imagine this passage to convey Paul’s point?”[1]
Unfortunately, I think that writer is missing the point. I understand and agree that we should sometimes look for modern imagery and examples to be able to understand and apply a Bible passage to today, but in this case, I think the military imagery is essential. And anyway, for many of you, military imagery is not that strange at all!
The image of armor and weaponry is essential because Paul is writing about warfare, spiritual warfare, and this is very real and genuine today. In his introduction to the Screwtape Letters C.S. Lewis wrote: “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.” I want to do neither, but we are under attack. Evil exists and fights the good, because it is threatened by it. How do we defend ourselves? Not by so-called religious freedom or religious liberty legislation. These rules, permitting individuals, companies and even those offering semi-public services like hospitals to discriminate against minorities because of religious objections do not protect us, they harm Christianity and stand in contradiction to Christ’s own teaching and acts in welcoming those the society of his day objected to because of their religion. In fact, in spiritual warfare Christians are often their own worse enemy. In his commentary on this passage, Tom Wright says that while attempts by the authorities to prevent Christians from spreading the Good News are one form of attack, another – and often more effective – is the “more oblique form of persuading Christians to invest time and energy in irrelevant side-issues.”[2] Or to declare other Christians to be “non-Orthodox” and to spend time fighting them, instead of spreading the Good News.
This is not how Paul suggests we defend ourselves. We are to “put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” (Eph. 6:11) What does this armor consist of? Most of it is defensive, not offensive.
The first item is the “belt of truth.” A belt may not seem like a typical item of armor – though if you’re fighting you don’t want your trousers falling around your ankles of course. Here it stands for something that holds everything else together and in place: the truth. The truth for us is that “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son.” (John 3:16)
The next item is the “breastplate of righteousness” or justice. This is core to our defense. We believe in a God who is passionate for justice. Only if we act rightly and justly can we defeat evil. When we start discriminating or even killing in the name of Christ we have lost the battle. Killing in the name of Christ is sadly not just something that belongs to our past.
Another seemingly strange item is the “shoes for your feet” which are to be “whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace.” Paul is recycling a lot of this military imagery from Isaiah. (11:4-5, 49:2, 52:7, 59:17) Isaiah wrote about “righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation” (59:17) or also “righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist.” (11:5) And in in chapter 52:7 he writes: “How beautiful …  are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’” That’s where Paul “borrowed” this image. Paradoxically the shoes are an offensive weapon because we do the most damage to the enemy when we swarm out with a message of peace and the good news of the God of love.
A shield, here of faith, is a more traditional item of armor. Here its defensive purpose is not stop but to “quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” If you think of those arrows as being doubt, despair, temptation, false triumph and – most of all – fear then you can see how faith, belief in God and in God’s Son the risen Messiah, will defend and protect us against those missiles. The helmet of salvation is similar. Knowing that we already belong to Christ, and that by virtue of our Baptism we already share in the resurrection keeps us safe and secure.
A sword can be both defensive and offensive. Paul calls it a “sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Isaiah (49:2) talks of the Messiah having a “mouth like a sharpened sword.” The word of God is dangerous and deadly, but only for the “spiritual forces of evil,” who profit from exploitation and oppression, and use fear as their weapon.
Finally, prayer. This is not an item of armor or a weapon. But communication is essential in warfare. Those on the front need to report on the situation, and perhaps ask for help or reinforcements. The commanding officers need to get their orders out to the units based on the overall picture and strategy. In this sense prayer is how we communicate with God. How we ask for help and aid and understanding and in and through the Spirit try and discern God’s will for us, our church, and the world. Prayer helps us accomplish things that we cannot do on our own, which is why Paul asks the Ephesians to pray for him, that he may declare boldly the mystery of the gospel.
Truth, justice, peace, faith, knowledge of salvation, and the word of God. These are more than armor to make us effective “soldiers of the cross”, to quote our opening hymn. Truth, justice, peace, faith, knowledge of salvation, and the word of God are what we “fight” for and what we proclaim, most of all the Word of God incarnate, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.



[1] http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/stw/2018/07/30/bible-study-pentecost-14-b-august-26-2018/
[2] Paul: The Prison Letters, p. 76