!1 Our thirsty souls long to be in your dwelling place, O Lord of Hosts: +F, +S, +HS. Amen. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm (Ephesians 6.13). Stand Up and Put on God s Armor or The Real Peacekeeping Force I spent the first 18 years of my life steeped in the Pentecostal tradition. Both of my parents were Assembly of God ministers, so that particular flavor of evangelicalism was part of my everyday life. Before we would eat any meal, we would say grace to give thanks for the gifts God provided. Before we went to school, we would have morning devotions to reflect on God s intent for our lives. Before we went to bed, we would pray for God s protection through the night. And since we were Pentecostal, my parents taught, prayed, and lived every moment from the perspective that the bible was the fully inspired, perfectly errorless, totally literal word of God. Every single word, letter, and punctuation. The King James Version, that is.
!2 This is because our tradition demanded that one has to believe in the inherency of scripture in order to be saved. In other words, if you questioned any part of the bible as factually true, you probably are going to find yourself down the road to sin and everlasting damnation. So, all of our worship, fellowship, and activities at my parents church reflected a biblical fundamentalist theology. But this wasn t all bad. In fact, Sunday school could actually pretty entertaining. I remember one Sunday our teachers brought out the actual Ark of the Covenant. You know, the one from this morning s reading from 1 Kings. We were able to look inside and see the manna and the stone tablets, but we couldn t touch it. One of the teachers accidentally touched the Ark and was struck dead. She had to be carried out of the room. Another Sunday, while one of the teachers was talking about the dangers of temptation from the devil, another teacher in a red devil costume roamed around the pews tempting us kids. Towards the end, he
!3 started pulling some of us out of our seats and dragging us to hell. (It was really the fellowship room, where after the service we all had, you guess it, devil s food cake.) But by far, my most favorite Sunday was when the teachers asked for a volunteer to come up to the front. My younger brother, Keegan, agreed and walked over to the Sunday school teachers. They brought out the actual armor of God to put on, which resembled the uniform of an ancient Roman soldier. One at a time, my brother put on the belt, the breastplate, sandals, and with one hand he picked up the sword, and the other the shield. The teachers described the theology behind each one, and how they protect us from all the evil forces we encounter. And then came my favorite part: we all were handed red foam projectiles representing the devil s flaming arrows, and we took turns throwing them at my brother. Our Sunday school illustration is probably not what the author of Ephesians had in mind. I mentioned a few weeks ago that scholars don t know much about the context of Ephesians.
!4 We can say with certainty that it was written towards the end of the first century C.E. By that time, the apostles had founded churches all over the Roman Empire, mostly around the Mediterranean Sea. These churches were usually small, meeting in houses, and composed of both Jews and gentiles. They met in houses for two reasons. If you recall in Acts, the Jewish leaders pushed the people of the way out of the synagogues, so they were forced to find alternative worship spaces. The Jewish leaders wouldn t end their, either. They would actively seek out Jesus followers and stone them. Saul of Tarsus was one of these leaders. Also, the Romans starting getting a little suspicious of this cult that was worshipping this insurrectionist who was executed for treason. So, the local Roman leaders, who were always looking to maintain political stability, started persecuting these followers of Jesus. The author of Ephesians lived in a world hostile to his faith. At any moment, Christians could be harrassed, persecuted, imprisoned, or even killed. But Ephesians
!5 insists the real cause of this suffering is not of human origin. The real troublemakers are the cosmic powers of this present darkness. They were the real threat, hiding in every corner. This was a cosmic struggle. Us versus them. Good versus evil. Flesh versus Spirit. God versus Satan. So, Ephesians is concerned with this question: how do we live our lives together in our community of faith with all of this impending danger surrounding us? The first three chapters of the letter are an extended theological discourse on the new life Christians share because of the promises of Jesus Christ. Through Christ s life, death, and resurrection, Christians are dead to sin and dead to death. They have a new life in and with Christ. And Christians are united, as equal members, in Christ s flesh in joy, love, and peace. The rest of the letter discusses the expectations and responsibilities of a new life in Christ. In Chapter 4, the author says Christians need to practice what they preach. If they are really united in Christ, they should act like it.
!6 To be a member of the Jesus movement is to participate in a shared, communal life of prayer, service, and love for God and for each other member of the community. And this new life is not easy. The powers of this world--physical and spiritual-will constantly test the limits of the Christian community. Then, in Chapters 5 and 6 we get to the infamous section of Ephesians where it discusses how the Christian community is ordered (The composers of the lectionary, in all their wisdom, skip over it.). Wives should be always subject to their husbands, children should obey their parents no matter what. Slaves should serve their masters with fear, trembling, and singleness of heart. In our time, where stories of abuse, hatred, and violence, seem to be popping up everywhere, these mandates can leave a bad taste in our mouths. Without getting too deep in the weeds, I will say this: the order that is set up in the final chapters of Ephesians is built upon the author s theological claim at the beginning of the letter: every person, no matter their ethnicity, biological sex, or
!7 economic station, is equally loved and valued by God and they must be equally loved and valued by the community. That is the lens in which social order is viewed. For better or for worse, that is what the structure was then, but that does not mean it is how the structure should be now. In fact, let s be clear now: our social structures absolutely should not reflect the social structures of 19th century America, much less the 1st Century Roman Empire. So, the author of Ephesians wants his audience to keep in mind that the new life in Christ is one where the gathered faithful are equally united as one community of joy, love, and peace. And this is the basis of all action. Here is where our epistle for today begins. The author shifts into an extended metaphor for Christians encountering a world hostile to their faith. It s an image all they all would easily recognize: military dress. The author begins: through God s power, we have the strength to make it through the trials of this world. We can access this power by putting on God s armor. But we have to use all of it. This will
!8 protect us against our real danger, viz., the spiritual forces of evil. With this armor, you will persevere so you can stand firm. So, stand up and put on the belt, breastplate, shoes, shield, and sword. Then you will be able to fend off the attacks of the devil, so you can proclaim the good news of God in Christ. There are a few dangers here we must avoid. We can get lost in the metaphor instead of focusing on what Ephesians is teaching us about God and about ourselves as members of God s community. It is absolutely not saying that we are God s soldiers fighting in a spiritual war. This letter was written during what historians call the Pax Romana when the Roman Empire benefited from unprecedented peace and prosperity. For the most part, the average person could travel from one end of the empire to another in relative safety. But most had little contact with the government on a daily basis. Except for the centurion. They were stationed everywhere in order to maintain social stability. The Roman soldier was a constant symbol of peace and
!9 prosperity. The first readers of Ephesians would not have seen the image of God s armor as a call to war, but as a symbol of God s protection. And it would be a mistake to compare the Roman military image to the modern military because their respective contexts and dress are completely different. There really isn t a suitable replacement in our modern world for Ephesians armor metaphor. And we shouldn t think that this is a comprehensive list of distinct spiritual attributes. They are all connected to the gift God has given us in Christ and our call to respond to that gift. First, Ephesians tells us to stand firm. There are several times in our common prayer when we have the opportunity to stand. Our posture indicates what type of spiritual exercise we are doing. On Sundays, we sit to reflect on God s word in the readings and the sermon. We kneel when we ask God s forgiveness or meet Christ in the Eucharist. But we stand when we affirm what we believe. So, we stand when we sing, invoke
!10 the Trinity, say the Creed, and we always stand when we pray. This signifies that we face the hostility of the world, our day-to-day struggles, head on with the conviction Jesus Christ is present in our lives. But we don t stand under our own power, thanks be to God. We stand under the power of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who gives us the strength in baptism, in communion, and any other time we ask for it. And for this reason, we stand firm. But if we want to have all of the benefits of a life in Christ, we have to invest our whole selves in the responsibilities of a life in Christ. We must fasten the belt of truth. For Roman soldiers, the balteus was worn as a sort of fanny pack, where they would store all of the things they would need for their daily activities: food, weapons, personal items. According to Ephesians, we need to carry the truth with us everywhere and at all times. This truth is that the life, death, and resurrection of God in Jesus Christ has transformed us, and has the potential to transform everyone and
!11 everything. In our culture of fake news, where everything is a matter of opinion and subject to suspicion, people are desperate for the truth, a truth they can depend on, a truth that makes a difference. We have it. And it s our task to speak it, show it, be it, everywhere we go. We must also put on breastplate of righteousness. Lorica was the linked body armor Roman soldiers put over their torso, similar to the mail worn by medieval knights. For the Mediterranean people of the 1st century, the torso, most specifically the gut, was the part of the body that symbolized the whole person. In the Hebrew Bible, where it is often translated as the heart, the real meaning is the belly. It is the source of all feelings and emotions. God covers this in righteousness. We often confuse righteousness with self-righteousness. It is not our job to call out other people for what we believe is sinful behavior while believing we are more holy than they are. When scripture speaks of righteousness, it means proper ethical conduct. Jesus
!12 says we do this by following the new commandment to love God and all others. And this should be part of who we are as people baptized into Christ s Body, the Church. But we should never forget that this righteousness is a gift, and it is only by the grace of the Holy Spirit that we can live a righteous life. We get to pick our shoes as long as they will help us proclaim the gospel of peace. Wherever we go, into our homes with families, into our offices with co-workers, into the world with strangers, we must share the good news of our faith in word and deed. And Ephesians makes a point to say it is the gospel of peace. Peace doesn t mean an absence of conflict. Peace doesn t mean a passive submission to any conflict. The gospel of peace is a proactive love of the world that is nonviolent, gentle, and kind. It is an engaged desire for justice, where each person, each creature, each part of creation is treated with dignity and care. And, as Ephesians 5 says, we put on this peaceful gospel
!13 in order to walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself for us, and offering and sacrifice to God. Wherever we go, we love. Along with peace, righteousness, and truth wears, we should carry the shield of faith. The shield is the first layer of protection against a world hostile to religious belief. And faith itself is a grace. God gives us faith through the seal of the Spirit in baptism, and sustains our faith through Jesus in the Eucharist. No matter what happens, this faith will protect us from the flaming arrows of the evil one. But what does that mean? Is there an actual guy in a red suit trying to attack us with sinful temptations? Whether or not there is an actual person named Satan out to get us is a matter of debate. What we can say for certain is that there are powers greater than us, outside of us, that influence us to hurt ourselves and others both as individuals and members of society. And the only thing that saves us is our faith in Jesus Christ. The helmet in the Roman army served two functions. First, it identified them as soldiers of the Empire. Second, it protected
!14 soldiers most vital organ: the brain. According to Ephesians, salvation is what we put on our heads. In our baptism, our sins are washed away and the finality of our death is destroyed. There the presider signs us with the cross on our heads, where we are marked as Christ s own forever. This act begins our new life as we grow and grow and grow in God s love. And we will continue to grow in love until we are united with Christ in our death and resurrection. This is salvation: the process of our minds being transformed by God. Perhaps the most important accessory is the sword, viz., God s word. For the Roman soldier, the sword was both the symbol of the Empire s authority, and the actual means to exercise that authority. Does that mean that in times of peril we should crack skulls with our copy of the bible? Of course not. The word of God is not a book. The word of God is our lord and savior Jesus Christ. He is the source of all authority. We can only have a conviction that he has the final authority over this
!15 world. And we know that Christ will always be present with us in our daily lives. No matter how much pain we endure, Christ is with us in our pain. And we take the word of God, not as a weapon to attack others, but as gift to hand over to others, so that they may experience God s presence in their lives, too. So, how are we to practice our faith wearing God s armor? We respond to this gift through prayer in the Spirit. As followers of Jesus, we pray constantly. But it is not because of our own desire or ability. Prayer is only possible through the Holy Spirit. It s not a process in which we try to get God to produce our desired outcome. It s when we enter into a conversation with God where God s Spirit helps us discern God s will for our lives. And this whole new existence in Christ, wearing God s armor, praying in the Spirit, is not a solo project. The you Ephesians uses is a plural form of you. Or to put it in modern parlance, the Christian life is a y all life. We here at Grace are in this journey together. And I, for one, am thankful for that.
!16 After we were done smacking my brother with foam projectiles, our Sunday school teachers led us in a hymn called Stand up! Stand up for Jesus! Most of its theology leaves something to be desired. Verses 1, 2 & 4 are largely fear-based, where the purpose of the Christian life is to join God s army to go to battle against the enemy until each one is destroyed. But verse 3 is a good assessment of Ephesians: Stand up! stand up for Jesus! Stand in His strength alone; The arm of flesh will fail you; Ye dare not trust your own. Put on the Gospel armor, And, watching unto prayer, Where duty calls, or danger, Be never wanting there. You and me. In this moment, at about 10AM on Sunday, August 25, 2018 in Pike Road, AL. We are Grace Episcopal Church, a deliberate family bonded in God s wondrous love. Right here, right now, we find truth, righteousness, peace, and faith in the Word, made flesh just for us. This gift is right here. All
!17 we have to do is stand up. Take him. Share him. Together. In here. Out there. So, are you ready? Ok. Let s go. Nathaniel K. M. Darville 14 Pentecost 2018