thoughts on faith, church, and life

I haven’t posted a sermon in a long time, but I have decided to post today’s (11/15/09) sermon on Ephesians 6:10-20 regarding the Armor of God.

Verse 12 says:

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.

This verse mentions ‘Our Struggle, and if I were to re-name today’s sermon that’s what I would call it: “Our Struggle.”

The particular struggle I have in mind and that I want to talk about this morning, is not precisely named in this verse. Even so, it is a struggle that fits most definitely within the context of this passage.

So what is this struggle?

In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” This for me, this call to be a peacemaker, is one of my deepest struggles with the Christian faith.

And it ought to be that way. Because it is not an easy calling. It is such a struggle, in fact, that I am issuing you a warning that this sermon might very well upset some of you here today.

But, I think if we are to take Jesus seriously, then I think we also have to take his call to be peacemakers seriously. And even if we don’t agree with it, we have to struggle with it and let it challenge us.

If I challenge you, today. If I push some of your buttons. I hope you know that I am also challenging myself. Because, I too struggle with Jesus and his call for me to be a peacemaker. I believe it is a “struggle” that is common to us all.

Consider, if you will, that it has been 8 years since the horrific attacks of September 11th.

On that day, we all watched in shock, in fear, and many of us in rage, as our nation was held hostage by those who high-jacked our airplanes and sent them plunging into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.

The year that followed those attacks, saw a build up to a war in Afghanistan, to root out the training grounds of Islamic terrorists hiding in the mountains.

On occasion,you might hear me mention in my sermons that I subscribe to a magazine called Sojourners. Sojourners is a Christian based organization whose mission is to promote the work of justice and peace.

At the time of the buildup to the war in Afganistan, I did not subscribe to the magazine but I was getting regular emails from them.

So, I would get these e-mails from Sojourners. They kept promoting and calling me, as a Christian, to support the pursuit of peaceful means to the problems we were facing as a county.

They were also urging me to not support the war.

I’d read these e-mails and I’d think it was all sort of silly. They had no clue about the reality of the facts on the ground. Didn’t they know that our nation had been attacked and we had to do something about it and we had to do it now?

One day I got so fed up with these messages that I sent off a fiery e-mail telling them to get a grip and to take me off their e-mail list because their anti-war position was not grounded in reality.

And yet, even as I fired off that e-mail, I knew deep down in some significant way, I was struggling to hear and to heed Jesus’ call and his words, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called the children of God.”

I kept asking, as a Christian, was supporting a war in Afghanistan, the right thing to do? And I have got to say to this day, I still don’t know, but my uncertainty increases as our mission there has become muddled and things have dragged on indefinitely.

What I can say, with certainty, is that Jesus call to be a peacemaker has, at times, been a struggle for me. But then at other times it has not.

For me, our war in Iraq has been a different matter, but I’m not going to get into all the reasons this morning. I will say however that during the buildup to that war, I not only re-subscribed to the Sojourners e-mail list, I began to subscribe to their print magazine.

And, while the war in Iraq is something that I have never been in support of, my guess is that some of you – maybe most of you – might very well disagree with me. And of course, I am mindful, that one of our own young men spent time in service there.

While I may never be a supporter of that war, I can somehow still be proud of Adam’s service and thankful for all that he and his family have sacrificed on behalf of our country.

It is our struggle, and no matter what position we may have on that war, or on any other war, it is something we are called to honestly and continually struggle with; if we are to be serious about our faith and to Jesus’ call for us to be peacemakers.

As a kid, today’s passage from Ephesians was one of the most vivid and memorable passages in all the bible.

It paints a picture that any kid can easily grasp. Especially if you are a typical American boy fascinated with arrow shooting Indians, gunslinging cowboys, chivalrous medieval knights, and the tanks and planes of war.

In fact I have even seen, in a variety of Christian catalogs, that you can actually purchase the full armor of God for your kid to wear. So next time you are struggling to figure out what to get that niece, nephew or grandchild for Christmas, you can thank me for such an excellent gift idea.

I never had the benefit of such a gift, but it was pretty easy for me to picture putting on God’s Armor, with the belt, helmet, breastplate, and of course the most important item of all, the sword.

What I don’t recall thinking very much about is the shoes, and that they were there to help me be “ready to proclaim the gospel of peace.”

I also never noticed that this passage is primarily defensive in nature. The only offensive weapon is a sword, and that sword is simply the word of God.

To make matters even more interesting, at the end of the passage, Paul is described as an ambassador in chains. The image of a mighty warrior clothed in God’s armor is juxtaposed with the image of Paul held captive as a prisoner in chains.

As I kid I never saw all that.

I just thought it was cool to be armed and ready for battle. I was ready for war. I was itching for a fight. I didn’t get dressed up in some armor to just stand in place, nor to take a defensive posture. And I most certainly did not wear it to proclaim a gospel of peace.

I wonder if we miss it as adults too?

On Thursday afternoon, as I was studying for my sermon, I tweeted a short message on twitter, as I happen to do on occasion…

I noted my surprise that most commentaries, on this passage about the Armor of God, don’t actually focus much on the little phrase stuck right in the middle of it all, about being ready to proclaim the gospel of peace.

Another Pastor tweeted back, with what I am sure was a hint of sarcasm and said, “Because when I think of peace, I’m thinking of swords, shields, and armor!”

Actually, I think, he hit the nail right on the head. He said something more true than most of us would like to admit. As Americans, we are so quick to equate peace with power.

As a nation, our peaceful nature, or so we think, comes by way of our military might and our strength. Swords, shields, and armor. It’s through our power and might that we are the enforcers of peace.

As Christians in this most powerful of nations, I think we have become too comfortable with power – with swords, shields, and armor. We are so accustomed with power that it might be impossible for us to really hear Christ’s call to proclaim the gospel of peace.

In contrast, consider the reality of what the church in Ephesus faced.

As Christians, they were a religious minority in the Roman Empire. At the time of this letter Christianity wouldn’t become the official religion of the empire for another 200 years or so.

Christianity wasn’t necessarily illegal, but it sure was held suspect. Christians faced daily harassment and discrimination from their neighbors. They faced the constant threat of suppression by the authorities. Their faith was tested by demands to worship the Roman Emperor as God.

And yet, no Christian in the early church took up weapons against his or her persecutors. In fact in the first couple of centuries of the church it was considered impossible to be a Christian and to bear arms or to serve in the military.

Paul himself was an ambassador in chains, a follower of the crucified Christ, the one who himself walked willingly to his cross, never saying a word, and who taught his followers, “Blessed are the Peacemakers, for they will be called Children of God.”

And many of them, including the Apostle Paul, died as Martyrs.

The truth is, they had no power. Which is perhaps why they were instructed:

To be strong in the Lord and in the Lord and in the strength of his power.
To put on the whole armor of God that they might stand against the enemy.
To wear the shield of faith that the flaming arrows might be quenched.
To pray at all times in every prayer and supplication.
And to always be ready to proclaim the gospel of peace.

This way of Christ, this way of peacemaking, is not an easy calling. It is a struggle. And as people of faith it is our struggle. It is a struggle because it requires us to examine all the ways we live in this world. To question both how we use power and how we support the ways that others use power.

It calls us to examine our motives within all areas of our life: in our families, our church, at work, in school, in the community, as well as citizens of this great nation.

It is our struggle because it is our calling: Confident in the great power of God we are to give up our weapons and our means of destruction, and to move forward, in the good shoes God has given us, always being ready to proclaim the gospel of peace.

May God help us, strengthen us, lead us and guide, as we struggle to follow Jesus his Son, the Prince of Peace, now and forever, Amen.