Sunday, August 26, 2018

Standing our Ground


Scripture Ephesians 6:10-20     (CEB)


10 Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and his powerful strength. 11 Put on God’s armor so that you can make a stand against the tricks of the devil. 12 We aren’t fighting against human enemies but against rulers, authorities, forces of cosmic darkness, and spiritual powers of evil in the heavens. 13 Therefore, pick up the full armor of God so that you can stand your ground on the evil day and after you have done everything possible to still stand. 14 So stand with the belt of truth around your waist, justice as your breastplate, 15 and put shoes on your feet so that you are ready to spread the good news of peace. 16 Above all, carry the shield of faith so that you can extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is God’s word.
18 Offer prayers and petitions in the Spirit all the time. Stay alert by hanging in there and praying for all believers. 19 As for me, pray that when I open my mouth, I’ll get a message that confidently makes this secret plan of the gospel known. 20 I’m an ambassador in chains for the sake of the gospel. Pray so that the Lord will give me the confidence to say what I have to say.
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I don’t know about you, but when I think of armor I tend to think of the knights of the middle ages - that whole full body suit made of iron that required a Percheron to carry into battle, the kind they wore for jousting and such.  But that wasn’t invented until about the 14th century.  It is not what the Roman soldiers of the first century would have worn.  Their armor was pretty much what Paul describes - a belt, a breastplate, shoes, a helmet, and a shield.  They carried a short sword and a javelin.  Their armor was to protect them from the enemies of the Empire - who was pretty much everyone they had conquered or hoped to conquer.  They were most likely to come up against people who used similar arms, or other distance weapons such as bows and arrows,  and slingshots.  Their method of fighting is still renowned - they would gather in square, shields forming a wall of protection against those slingshots, arrows and spears, working as a team.  This was greatly successful against armies who focused more on individual battle than team work - obviously, as they conquered most of the known world.  

But God’s empire is not like the Roman Empire.  And a different kind of empire requires a different kind of armor.  Paul used imagery the people of his churches, in the Roman Empire, would understand, but named the parts in such a way that it was clear this armor was different.  It wasn’t intended to repel physical weapons, but spiritual ones.  It wasn’t intended to be used by soldiers to conquer the world for an earthly emperor, but to conquer evil on behalf of our heavenly Lord.  The sword wasn’t intended to be used to defeat and enslave humans, but to defeat sin and liberate humanity.   We can be pretty sure that Paul was not talking about a literal sword, because we remember from Matthew 26, that when Jesus was arrested, “one of those with him put his hand on his sword, drew it, and struck the slave of the high priest, cutting off his ear.  And Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.  Rather, Paul was telling the people of Ephesus that they needed to stand their ground, to be faithful to the truth they had been taught about Jesus and about God, and resist the temptation to just be like everyone else they knew.  It was a hard time to be a Christian.  They were persecuted.  They were harassed and tormented by their neighbors and suppressed by the authorities.  There were no equal rights in the first century Roman Empire.  There were no protections for religious minorities as we have today - and Christians were definitely a religious minority in that time and place.  It would have been so much easier for them to just go back to the way they used to be.  And Paul knew that.

Yesterday, at the Bringing Broken Neighborhoods Back to Life Block Party, while talking to a young woman about preaching I said something like, “We use the same scriptures over and over that have always been used, but each time I use any given passage I have a different message because the world has changed since last time I preached it.”   And I imagined that the preacher in the next booth was thinking,  “What is she saying?  The message never changes!”   And I say to you, my brothers and sisters, he is right.   The message is always the same - but the way we preach that message has to change with the situation in which we are living.   It’s been said that every preacher really only has one sermon.  And I believe that is probably true.  My message is the love commandment - that the greatest commandment is to love God with all of our being, and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.  But each time I preach, even though I am pretty much preaching this one thing every single Sunday, it is important to acknowledge what is going on in the world around us.  It is important to see the changes that affect our lives.  It is important to look at where evil is attacking from - because while evil never changes, it’s weapons do.

But you know,  the message does change a bit from time to time.  As the centuries pass, the understanding of what is and is not love, and who is and isn’t acceptable in God’s eyes, changes.  And so the message changes. There was a time when ministers  preached that slavery was perfectly acceptable because Paul spoke of how owners should treat their slaves.  There was a time when preachers would rail against the idea of a woman standing in a pulpit because Paul said women should not teach men.  (OK, that one still gets preached, but not as much as it used to be.)  There are still topics that are hotly contested - who can be saved, who can be in leadership in the churches, whether the Bible needs to be taken literally (and if so, which translation must be used) - and I pray that if we ever come to a point of agreement on any of those things, that our agreement will all on the side of love, the side of acceptance, the side of inclusion.  There is a reason this congregation believes that All means ALL  . . . 

Today we know that, as sad as it may be, we cannot always trust the people standing in these pulpits.  It is not just a Catholic problem.  It is universal.  It exists in every denomination and every religion.  Too often, when people are given authority and trust just because they happen to have a certain title, the temptation to abuse that trust and that authority will be overwhelming.  And so we, too, who are the leaders, must put on our armor, and stand our ground and resist the evil that tempts us.

And so our armor changes. Instead of looking like a Roman soldier, we may look more like Iron Man.   Iron Man is actually a pretty good example - an arms manufacturer who decided to change his life and fight for justice instead of striving for more power and wealth.  His armor had to stand up against those who opposed him, even within his own company, who wanted him to return to the way he had been before - before he had his change of heart.  They wanted him to stop standing firm for the right, so what did he do?  He joined with others like him, to defend the defenseless and to fight evil in every form.  He could not stand alone - but neither could the Roman soldier - neither could the Christians in Ephesus.  They had to lock shields with one another and stand their ground in community against the temptations of their world.

So do we.  That’s why we come together here, in community.  Because even though we can be Christian alone, we cannot stand our ground alone as well as we can in community.  Without others to lock shields with, without others to watch our back, and hold us up when we are weak, we will fall back into the way we used to be.  Like - I lost 30 pounds and stopped being careful about diet and exercise and gained it all back.  And now I don’t want to face my doctor.   The same thing happens with any change we make for the good.  Without others to help us stand our ground, we will give in to evil, we will give in to the temptations that surround us daily - on TV and in the movies and on the internet and Messenger and Snapchat and Instagram and Tumblr and all the others - the temptation to be perfect (even though we know we can’t be), the temptation to somehow acquire all things we think everyone else has, the temptation to judge others because so many others are talking trash about them, the temptation to give in to anger and hate - all of these things are right there, right outside the door. . .

But with a community to support and love us,  we can become the people that God wants us to be.  When we put on the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness,  when we take up the shield of faith and lock shields with our sisters and brothers, when we are wearing the helmet of salvation, then we can put on our shoes and carry the sword of the Good News of our Lord and God.  
When we go from this place, let us go fully armored, as part of this community of faith, as  part of the whole body of Christ.  When we find temptation, and we will, let us stand our ground, with the strength of God surrounding us, with his holy name protecting us.  For there is strength in the name of the Lord.

My brothers and sisters, please stand and sing with me “There is Strength in the Name of the Lord.”

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