The Armor of God Ephesians 6;10-20 August 26, 2018 Please pray with me. Abide with us, O God, do not leave us empty within or unprotected without.

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1 The Armor of God Ephesians 6;10-20 August 26, 2018 Please pray with me. Abide with us, O God, do not leave us empty within or unprotected without. May our practices nurture a strong defense against all that would diminish your peace and love in the world and in ourselves. Our passage today tells us to Put on the whole armor of God so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Did you ever wonder just what that meant? And what might we consider to be the whole armor of God? As part of our faith journey, many of us seek an answer to a very old theological question: Where does evil come from? And I must tell you some folks are very adamant about what they feel is the correct answer. I can remember one of my seminary classmates at her Ecclesiastical Council, which is one step on the road to ordination and which we all referred to as the Spanish Inquisition because it could be so intense and some difficult questions were thrown at us. One of the questions she was asked was do you believe in original sin? She did not, but the clergy person who posed the question kept coming back with more questions because he did believe in original sin. He believed all sin originated with Adam. Our reading today says, our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Evil existed before Adam and Eve. In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve do not make the decision to eat the prohibited fruit by themselves the serpent influences Eve, and Eve then influences Adam. Human beings are vulnerable to the influence of others and so before judging individuals for their sinful behavior, we should try to 1

2 understand the spiritual forces of evil that might be influencing them and we will get back to that in a bit. This puts a whole new spin on the phrase, armor of God, a way of thinking about it that I had never thought of before and I am sure some of you have not either. 2,000 years ago people would have recognized the metaphor of armor because they lived under the shadow of the soldiers in the Roman Empire. Today we are not as familiar with armor as a general rule, but we do see pictures of the armed forces and certainly understand the protection they wear as well as the armor worn by police and swat teams. The writer of Ephesians gives several pieces of advice on how to live the new Christian life, as distinct from the old pagan life advice on Christian spiritual warfare. In its original context, the community of Christians, called Ephesians, may have lived somewhere in Asia Minor during the first two centuries after Christ. They were religious minorities in the Roman Empire and Christianity was illegal until 313. These Christians faced daily harassment and discrimination from their neighbors and possible suppression by the authorities. I think it is important for us to remember as we sit here comfortable and undisturbed in our beautiful, old historic church, that there are still Christians who are harassed, either openly as in some third world countries or covertly even here in the United States. Everyone is not as blessed as we are with freedom to worship as we wish. Another way of thinking about this passage and its meaning is what we might wear as we proclaim the gospel to others, both in church and in our daily lives. What might be the breast plate or shield that we wear? It seems to me that 2

3 the breastplate of righteousness designed to guard the heart would work just as well for us today as it did for the Ephesians. The belt of truth always tell the truth. The helmet of salvation belief in our salvation through Jesus Christ. My friend and I had a hard time coming up with substitutes for the actual physical armor as we discussed this passage and possible sermon seeds, but we chuckled as we came to the shoes. 2,000 years ago there was one choice sandals and of course the soldiers wore sandals with spikes on the bottom which helped them stand firm. Today there are many, many choices. Perhaps if you are a young missionary lad from the Seventh Day Adventist faith, or the Mormon faith, you want very comfortable walking shoes because you are going to walk many miles during the time you are sent out to preach the gospel as a young man. Propriety pretty much dictates what footwear to wear in the pulpit, although we do have choices and our choice of footwear really doesn t determine how well we will do our job of preaching the gospel. It really seems that the protection we need both to lead a Christian life and to live the gospel for others, preach the gospel to others, is simply our faith in God. We should not worry about protection that is God s job. We just have to discern what he has given us just do our best and be alert. Back to the spiritual forces of evil that cause people to make bad choices. Today s world is so different just as I talked about in my substitute for children s time. Not only is there so much need in the world with regard to poor housing, expensive daycare, jobs that are evaporating as everything becomes mechanized, an economy that is truly scary, but there are other offshoots of these challenges 3

4 that lead to folks making bad decisions. These are the spiritual forces of evil, but they have perfectly innocent beginnings. Mom and Dad really can t afford day care and once a child is reasonably old enough to care for itself, it likely becomes a latchkey child, that is the child has a key, comes home from school on the bus, or walks home, and is alone until the parents get home from work. Now, this can be fine in many circumstances, but there is no parental guidance and heaven knows, children can think of oh so many ways to get in trouble. An influential child leads another astray. Peer pressure is so tough for children to fight. Oftentimes they really welcome their parents telling them no, they are not allowed to possess pot for instance. They really welcome it, but if Mom and Dad or perhaps there is only one parent, is too tired to worry about what the child is doing that seems to me to be spiritual forces of evil that will influence the child to do wrong. How can we counter act these happenings? When I was growing up and even as I raised my children, everyone in town knew who everyone s children were and it wasn t easy to get away with anything. Today there are far too many drug dealers out there getting young people hooked on various drugs rather than judging the people dying from drug overdoses we need to step into the fray and help set them straight not judge them for what an evil force has influenced them to do. I realize it is hard work, it never seems to end and there is no good solution, but judging the addicts just doesn t seem quite fair. Can the armor of God help here? One would hope so. The late, beloved theologian, Fred Craddock calls this passage a classic text with the power of the familiar because many Christians fondly recognize the 4

5 passage and have internalized its vital imagery already. Perhaps we need to do more than internalize the vital imagery of this text and set it to work among us. Amen. 5