Pasadena Presbyterian Church Sermon Text
August 24, 2003

"Putting on the Armor of God"
Preached by The Rev. Dr. Barbara Anderson

Scripture:  Psalm 84; Ephesians 6:10-20

This morning's New Testament lesson is Ephesians 6:10-20.  Many scholars believe this letter was probably written after Paul's death by one of his followers and during a time of great persecution of the church.  The letter begins with joy and praise for what God has already done, is doing now, and will do in the future.  It includes some of the most well-known and affirming words of scripture and important instructions on how to live the Christian life:

- By grace you have been saved through faith, not by your own doing, but as a gift of God. 

- Lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 

- So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors.

- Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger. 

- Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up so that your words may give grace to those who hear.

- Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ has forgiven you. 

- Be imitators of God.

- Live as children of light.

Ephesians also contains  instructions to husbands and wives, children, slave owners and slaves, instructions that may have made sense 2000 years ago but need a great deal of interpretation today. 

Near the end of the letter is today's lesson.  Here, the writer puts the struggle of the Christian life in cosmic terms with military images.  Picture a Roman soldier from the movies, either Gladiator or The Ten Commandments, depending on your generation: robes tucked in around his waist to form a belt, a leather breastplate for defense, short heavy boots for long journeys, one of those long, rectangular leather shields that goes nearly from head to foot and protects the soldier from flaming arrows, a helmet that protects his entire head, and a short sword for close combat. 

Now that you have the picture, here's the passage.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power.  Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.  For 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.  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.  Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness.  As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace.  With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one.  Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. 

 

Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication.  To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints.  Pray also for me, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains.  Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak."

- Ephesians 6:10-20

We are at war. Iraq, Israel-Palestine, Liberia, Columbia, the Philippines: these are merely the most visible disturbing manifestations of the greater war in which we are engaged.  I am speaking of spiritual warfare, a term I use neither often nor lightly.  Warfare doesn't sound very nice, sounds rather fanatic, and usually seems too violent an image to be associated with the Prince of Peace.  Too many crimes against humanity and God have been committed under the triumphantly bloody banner of Christendom for us to speak carelessly of spiritual warfare or arrogantly to claim that we are God's modern warriors battling for righteousness in Jesus' name.  This language must be treated with care for it is far too easy to cross the line between following God and wanting God to follow us.  Nevertheless, as the writer of Ephesians knows, the stakes are so high in the conflict between the powers of good and evil that at times, only the most powerful language is appropriate.

Much as people in parts of Central and South America and the Middle East fear their doors being broken down in the middle of the night and loved ones taken away to face torture and death, so too, for many years, early Christians lived in fear of being tortured and killed for their faith. Being a Christian in the early years of the church was a dangerous act and not one to be taken lightly.

The writer of Ephesians knew the terrible strain upon the Christians of his day. He also knew that following the way of Jesus was worth even death if it came to that, and that God's power and strength are greater than fear and greater than threats.  God could give Jesus' followers the power and strength to stand firm when every bone in their body wanted to turn to water from fear, and their mind wanted to flee to the next province.  The image of the armor of God was meant for hope and strength for those who knew their weakness in the face of a mighty battle.

The writer of Ephesians also knew that much is at stake regarding to whom we give our loyalty and how we live our daily lives.  He knew that our actions have an impact beyond what our limited vision enables us to see, an impact that touches people we do not know and reaches generations we cannot see.  He knew that the stakes are so high he could legitimately use the language of warfare and cast it as a cosmic struggle between God and Evil, saying, "For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against ...the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places."  Don't mince words.  Don't downplay how hard it is to live for God.  Don't underestimate God's power.

"Put on the whole armor of God," he writes, for we're engaged in a spiritual battle.  In a rational, post-Enlightenment culture, such language seems bizarre and fanatical.  Many of us are more comfortable with "prayer partners" than "prayer warriors."

I'm not prone to seeing Satan behind every tree, trying to tempt me into the wiles of the world.  I do speak of demons but I do not mean cartoon creatures with red tails and horns.  When I speak of demons, I mean those forces of evil that pull us into despair or hate, or that keep us captive to destructive behaviors and lead to unnecessary pain and death. 

"Putting on the armor of God" are not just the words of a religious fanatic, nor is their truth limited to settings of great religious persecution. We need not advocate a holy war against anyone to claim the truth and power of these words for ourselves.

There is within each of us a pull toward Good and a pull toward Evil.  There is within each of us a pull toward that which fosters life and that which brings destruction.  There is within each of us a pull toward humble reliance on God and a pull toward prideful self-absorption.  How we respond to these various pulls - these tendencies, these forces of Good and Evil - fosters spiritual health or destroys it, builds community or destroys it, nurtures relationships or destroys them, sustains the environment or destroys it, lead towards justice or perpetuates oppression, engenders peace or wreaks the devastation of war. 

 The daily struggle of Good and Evil within us is personal, it is communal, it is political.  The daily struggle of Good and Evil affects our internal state, it affects those with whom we live, it affects our churches, our workplace, our governments.  How we respond to this struggle affects the people of other countries around the world in terms of hunger and health, economics and war.  It reaches out in the proverbial ripples to people we will never meet in this generation and beyond.  It has cosmic proportions.

We're engaged in a spiritual battle. 

Those who have heard the words of a cancer diagnosis know that fighting cancer isn't merely a struggle, it's a battle that requires the strength and power of the living God to give you hope for each day's fight against the disease.  Put on the whole armor of God so you can stand firm and rejoice in living.

Those who have fought against alcohol or drug addiction in your life know that it is not just a struggle, but an intense battle that needs the armor of God to help you stand and reach out for your buddy instead of the bottle, until the day when you can be a buddy for someone else.  Put on the strength of God that is beyond your own, and know that God fulfills every promise.

Those whose eyes have wandered from your spouse so that you contemplate an affair or,  if single, find yourself tempted to start one with a married person, know that it's a spiritual battle to stay grounded in the covenants you and others have made.  Yes, we need to talk about extramarital affairs in church because they are a part of real people's lives and we need to be reminded that God is with us not only in the easy times but in the difficult ones as well.  In those confusing times, put on the whole armor of God that you may withstand the temptation to subtle and slippery actions that damage relationships and trust for generations.  God will not leave you desolate.

Those of us who find it hard to buy small and live simply and those who find it hard to give away 5-10% of their income know that it's not just a struggle but a battle to fight against the pervasive demons of materialism and greed that fill the air we breathe.  It's a battle to keep from thinking we need all those new shirts and shoes and cars and accouterments that advertising and our peers tell us we need.  When millions of dollars are spent to convince us we need these things, is it surprising that some of those techniques would actually work?  Put on the whole armor of God that you may fight for your soul against the millions of dollars that would try to buy it.  Rest in the assurance that God gives you all that is necessary.  The remainder could be used to help someone else have what is necessary, as well.

Those who have lived under the heavy blanket of depression know that the daily battle to put one foot in front of the other is not just a struggle, but a battle to keep looking for hope.  And those who have come close to the brink of suicide know the ferocity of the battle to stay alive until the moment when the morning dawns and you thank God that you're still here.  The power of your battle may be invisible to others, but God knows it's real.  Put on the whole armor of God and use all the resources God provides that you may fight off the arrows of depression and despair and have hope for a lighter day.  God does not leave you alone, but works on your behalf for you to know joy again.

Those who work for social change, for civil rights and equal access, for accessible health care and decent education, for an end to hatred and bigotry, for preservation of our natural resources and for a justice system that is just know that these are more than a mere struggle, they are a battle against mighty forces. 

Martin Luther King, Jr., who spoke of his dream for this land 40 years ago this weekend at the Washington Monument, was a proponent of non-violent confrontation.  But King still knew he was fighting a battle and that everyone engaged in that battle needed to be clothed from head to toe in the full strength and power of God or they could not withstand the hoses and the dogs and the hardness of the human heart.  They stood firm, and proclaimed the gospel.  America changed and continues to change.

We are engaged in a spiritual war, sometimes in skirmishes and sometimes in fierce battles, when we must decide between truth or falsehood, between staying put in our comfort zone or moving forward into change, between standing up for ourselves or keeping quiet, between doing what is right or doing what is convenient or doesn't trouble the water.  Put on the whole armor of God, that you may stand firm against the wiles of evil, and proclaim God's message of peace.

We are engaged in a spiritual battle, but I cannot preach on this text and step down from this pulpit, however, without first raising an entire bank of cautionary flags.  We must not ever fall prey to the temptation to convert this wonderful word of encouragement in Ephesians into a Bradley Tank for Jesus.  This leather bound, gold-edged Bible in my hand, heavy though it is, is not a sledge hammer to pound people into submission to Jesus, and the sword of the Spirit we are to take up is not intended to lacerate and obliterate people whom God loves as much as God loves us.  The God who died on the cross to bring about reconciliation does not ever call us to engage in a Holy War against any of God's children, be they Muslims or Jews, Catholics in Northern Ireland, gays and lesbians in the United States, liberals or conservatives. 

The same Letter to the Ephesians in which we find this language of the armor of God frames the entire existence and purpose of Christ as one of bringing peace and reconciliation to the world.  Even in verse 15, we are not told to put on boots for trampling down others, but to put on our feet "whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace." 

And the breastplate of righteousness upon which we supposedly hear great pounding of the chest in Alabama this week?  Let me tell you where that image comes from.  It comes from the 59th chapter of Isaiah.  It puts all this armor of God and this breastplate of righteousness in a completely different context than we usually hear it and think of it.

In Isaiah, God puts on "righteousness like a breastplate" and a "helmet of salvation" and comes with fury to redeem God's people.  Why does God put on that breastplate of righteousness and come "like a pent-up stream that the wind drives on"?  Because, in the words of the Prophet Isaiah, the people shed innocent blood, speak lies, do not know the ways of peace, and do not use the courts honestly.  "Justice is turned back and righteousness stands at a distance; truth stumbles in the public square and uprightness cannot enter." 

God wants The Ten Commandments written on our hearts more than in 5,000 pounds of stone, and wants them so evident in the deeds of our lives that they make a solid foundation for our society.  "Write these words on your hearts," says scripture. "Wear them on your forehead, put them on the door of your house," and "pray in private." 

If we say that the values in the 10 Commandments are essential to the life of this country in which people of many different religions now live, let us not fight to keep them written in stone in a courthouse in Alabama. 

- Let us, instead, fight for a court system that does not bear false witness against innocent people.

- Let us fight for health care that honors our fathers and mothers. 

- Let us fight for honesty and integrity in corporate America and in our political system. 

- Let us fight for the poor and the outcast and the refugee on our borders. 

- Let us not covet our neighbors' wealth and land and power and spouse.

Such battles as these are where we will find God's breastplate of righteousness.  Let us not attach the good and holy name of God to a block of stone but give witness to it in our lives instead.  These are the commandments we are to keep and the spiritual battles to which God calls us.

And lastly, as we draw strength from the God who gives us everything we can need from head to toe so that we might stand firm against despair, temptation and evil, remember the words of Psalm 84, which are paired this morning with this text from Ephesians.  The Almighty God who gives us strength and courage is the same God in whose shadow we can rest, in whose temple even the tiny sparrow is safe.

God does not belong to us; we belong to God.  God is our strength, our peace, our safe resting place.  This is the source of our hope and our salvation.  There is nothing more that we want while we await the reign of God in all its glory.  Amen.

(c) Copyright 2003 by Barbara A. Anderson.  All rights reserved.  Permission granted for non-profit use with attribution.