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.
