Be Strong in the Lord

Ephesians 6:10-20

August 25, 2024

 

            When I was a kid, my neighborhood friends and I played all sorts of games. We played the games you expect like Hide and Seek, Mother May I, Red Rover, Red Rover, Kick the Can, Tag, and others. But there were times when if the regular games didn’t appeal to us, we would make up our own. I was the oldest of the girls on my street, so sometimes I could convince the others to play a game that had a storyline to it, probably based on a book that I was reading at the time. I don’t remember most of these made-up games, but I do distinctly remember a time when I convinced all of us to play a game where we pretended we were a family of orphans in a terrible war – probably World War II – but we had information that was important to the allies, and we decided we must get our knowledge to the right people. So, our game followed this storyline which also included elements of Tag and Hide and Seek and just running as fast as we can, and it ranged all over our street. We ran and crawled and raced, creating different aspects of the story as we went along. But in the end we were caught. Yes, even in a game that we created with a storyline that I devised, we were caught. And just before we were called in for dinner and homework and bedtime, we bravely marched with our hands behind our heads toward our fates, heroes even unto death. (looooooooong pause) And then we had to go home.

            I’m sure I got this idea from a book I was reading, and I know that we all believed that the whole idea, especially our decision to end it the way we did, was romantic and dramatic and sadly wonderful. It would be many years before I understood that real war is not romantic. It’s not sadly wonderful. A real war does make orphans and widows and widowers. It destroys lives and demolishes creation. There is nothing romantic about a real war, even wars that are fought for all the right reasons. It is still deadly and destructive and terrible.

            Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34^th President of the United States, and a military man of honor, once said, “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.”

            War, even when it may be necessary, exacts a high price on the people who fight it and the people who do their best just to survive it. I tell you all this because it means that I enter these verses from the letter to the Ephesians carefully and cautiously. It is too easy to read these words with the idea of conquering. My parents were raised in that mindset. They must be soldiers for Christ and conquer all peoples in his name. To my understanding this militant, warlike language has been used as a justification for a mindset that has done incredible harm in our missions, in our relations to other faith groups, and with other Christians. 

But I realize that to see these verses from Ephesians only through my cultural and contextual bias does not do justice to or give the full picture of what Paul wanted them to convey.

Most likely the letter that we read as being addressed to the church in Ephesus was an encyclical. This meant that Paul wrote it to be read at a variety of churches in different places. I assume from this that each church hearing these words was facing the similar struggle of being believers in a world that was hostile to them. 

            I can imagine that being a follower of Jesus in that time and context must have felt like living in a war zone. Your beliefs would be considered anti-government, anti-empire, anti-social norms, anti-everything. Just professing your faith would have set you up for persecution, real persecution as in you will be put to death for your profession. I suspect that being a follower was to both be and feel embattled. So Paul uses this. He uses imagery and ideas that would have meant something to a people being constantly battered for their faith. 

And as Paul often does in his rhetoric, he uses an idea, and then redefines it. He turns it on its head. This is evident in this passage. He redefines the uniform of a Roman soldier which would have been a familiar sight to the common folk at that time. I learned from a history professor friend once that the Roman soldier was as much a police officer, as he was a member of the armed forces. So as we see police officers and police cars on a regular basis, doing their job at keeping order, the people of Ephesus and in other places would have seen Roman soldiers.  The uniform of a Roman soldier was well known.

But instead of a belt that would be used to secure a uniform of war, this belt that believers are encouraged to put on is the belt of truth. The breastplate, that metal piece which would have covered a soldier’s toga protecting the chest, is the breastplate of righteousness. Shoes would have been worn for protection as the soldiers marched, but the shoes Paul encourages should be worn not for marching but to make the followers of Jesus “ready to proclaim the gospel of peace.”  The shield a soldier carried, as I understand it, would have covered not only the soldier carrying it, but about 2/3’s of the soldier next to him. The follower of Jesus must also carry a shield, but this shield will be the shield of faith. The helmet, the head covering, will be the helmet of salvation. All of this describes battle armor not meant for attack but for defense. Paul does describe one item which could be a weapon, the sword. But the sword the disciples and the church should carry is “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

And all this armor is used, not to defeat people, “enemies of blood and flesh,” but to stand firm “against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” The Greek for “stand firm” could also be translated as “stand steadfast.”

If the kingdom is in our midst, right now, right here, then there are also forces of evil working against it. Those of us who believe, who have felt the power of Christ, must fight against those forces that threaten the kingdom. Paul puts it on a cosmic scale. This isn’t about neighbors who don’t like us or governments who want to shut us down. This is about the evil which seeks to infiltrate and destroy God’s goodness. The evil one may be working through the neighbors and the governments, the hate groups, the factions and radical splinter groups, but it is a cosmic battle just the same. 

It is easy to find evidence that this is true. You can’t watch the news or surf the net and not see the prevalence of evil and its desperate consequences. Yet I wonder sometimes if the real battle that is being fought is within. Within me. 

I deplore the violence in the world around me. I am angered by it, outraged by it. I despise the casual cruelty that some people feel is acceptable, whether that cruelty is revealed through actions or through words. And yet, as much as I despise all the above, I also find myself growing numb to it. Or if not numb, hopeless. I turn off the news because I can’t bear to listen. I turn away from headlines, because it is just too much. I feel hopeless, helpless, and tired. I despair and ask, well what can I do? What can any of us do?

It seems to me that’s the real battle that needs to be fought. That attitude of feeling powerless, of feeling useless. What can I do? Nothing? Oh well. That’s the evil one infiltrating my mind and my heart and my soul. Yet that goes against what Paul is encouraging the church in Ephesus and so many other churches to think and believe. In all the pieces of armor that Paul describes there’s no wristlet of apathy, no amulet of indifference. They have no place in the whole armor of God.

If we’re really going to take this passage from Ephesians seriously and put on the whole armor of God, if we’re going to see ourselves as fighting a spiritual battle and being the warriors for the peace of God, then we can’t just throw up our hands at one more shooting, at one more terrible act of violence and say, “This is terrible but what can anyone do? The world is going to hell in a handbasket. But I don’t see how it’s going to change anytime soon.” I’ve heard these words from others. I’ve said them. I’ve claimed defeat before I’ve even gone to battle.

It’s easy, too easy, to stop caring, to become numb to the evil in the world, to believe ourselves immune to the powers and principalities that work to destroy God’s kingdom in our presence. And when I take that easy way, I think that evil wins just a little more ground. The real battle is not letting that happen. Standing strong in the Lord invokes the power of resistance. I think of civil rights activists who faced guns and high powered water hoses and dogs but stood their ground, not fighting back but not giving in. Standing strong in the Lord is not about demonizing those who disagree with us. It’s not about sticking it to others before they can stick it to us. Standing strong in the Lord is not about violence, in our actions or our words. Standing strong in the Lord is about standing up to the forces of evil, about using the power of love – which really is a superpower – to defeat that which seeks to harm and destroy.

And finally it is about doing what Paul describes in these last verses, verses that can get lost amid the imagery of battle. Paul encourages the Ephesians and all who hear and read this letter to pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. Pray in the Spirit. Pray at all times. What does praying in the Spirit mean, what might it look like? It seems to me that praying in the Spirit is not just about listing our hopes and desires, our wants, our needs. Praying in the Spirit means being willing to have our minds and hearts changed. Praying in the Spirit helps us to stand strong in the Lord, to resist the forces of evil, but it also helps us see when we fall away, when we are wrong, when we begin to proclaim not the gospel of peace, but division.

Paul reminds us that praying in the Spirit lies at the heart of our standing strong, our steadfast resistance to evil and its wily ways. Pray and pray and pray some more. Prayer reminds us that the power of love is always stronger than the power of hate. Prayer gives us courage to proclaim the gospel of peace. Prayer opens our minds and hearts to the power of the Holy Spirit. Prayer keeps our hope burning brightly. Pray, pray, pray, because as Paul states, he must speak and so must we.

Let all of God’s children say, “Alleluia.”

Amen.

 

 

 

 

           

Beloved Children

Ephesians 4:25-5:2

August 11, 2024

 

            I am a sucker for a home improvement show. I mean it. Property Brothers, Fixer Upper, Curb Appeal, if it is on, I will probably watch it. I’ve discovered a designer named Sarah Richardson who is based in Toronto, and I will watch her shows for hours. Last summer, I discovered that the only two seasons of the show, Curb Appeal: The Block, were streaming, and ... well you know what’s coming. I got into the show, and I got Brent into it too. We watched every episode. A few of the episodes I’ve watched more than once. The show isn’t even airing anymore, but we still watched it and, I will say, got some really good ideas from it. Like I said, I am a sucker for these shows.

            I think what I love the most about these home improvement shows is the transformation, the before and after, the big reveal. On all these shows, you see the original room or the original home, and then you hear and see the ideas that the designers have for renovation, updating, and improvement. As the designer is talking about what they envision for a room or a house, you’ll see the computer sketches that they would show a client as animation on a screen. For example, if Joanna Gaines is describing a change she wants to make in a room, she’ll narrate that while the sketch of the new room takes shape. So, we’re going to rip out the wall between the old kitchen and dining room, and add an island, new cabinets, reorient the appliances, etc. etc. And you see the drawing on the screen. Then in 30 minutes to an hour, you see the transformation from demolition day to reveal.

            Most of the time, the transformation is stunning, even when the design taste doesn’t match our own. Just to see the difference that can be made is amazing. Sometimes you can’t believe you’re looking at the same house or the same room or the same front yard. It’s incredible and so satisfying. But if you have ever lived through a renovation, you know that it’s not so easy. And it certainly doesn’t happen without a lot of mess in the middle.

            Last winter, we had two small, dated, yucky, slowly deteriorating bathrooms renovated into one large bathroom. If you’re ever interested I can show you before and after pictures. The transformation from what was to now is amazing. But it was the mess in the middle that wore me down. On these home improvement shows that I love to watch, you don’t see the extent of the gigantic amount of dust that happens in a renovation. I would come home every day and just start wiping down furniture and counters so we could survive. And the next day, I would have to do it all over again. On a show you don’t fully appreciate the mess, or the noise of the equipment being used, especially at the beginning. It was overwhelming. Forget those days when we might work from home. I was trying to finish my dissertation through all of this, so I spent quite a few hours in Starbucks with my laptop and a pile of books in front of me, just hoping the employees wouldn’t get tired of seeing me there. And as materials for the project came in, they either took over our front porch or were stacked in the house. We shared living room space with the new vanity for about a month.

            Of course, this is just from my perspective as the homeowner. The work itself is incredibly hard! It must be exhausting, and certainly it takes a physical toll on the people doing it. Our contractors worked hours and hours five days a week to make the project happen. I can’t even imagine trying to do that much work on our own. We know that at some point we’re going to have to do some necessary reno on our kitchen, but right now I just can’t even go there in my imagination, much less in reality.

            What does all this renovation and transformation talk have to do with the point that Paul is trying to make in this part of the letter to the Ephesians? Even though Paul does not use the word transformation in our verses today, throughout the whole letter he is speaking to the change that comes when we live into Christ. In the verses immediately preceding ours, he writes,

            “You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” That speaks to transformation.

            Then we move into the verses before us today. In my study Bible, this part of the chapter has the heading, “Rules for the New Life.” And then we read what those rules are. Putting away falsehood. Speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. Be angry, but don’t sin. Don’t let the sun go down on our anger. If members of the community steal, then they need to stop stealing and work honestly. What we make should be shared with the needy because that helps the whole community. We can’t let evil, slanderous, gossiping talk leave our mouths, because that tears down the community rather than builds it up. We need to put away bitterness and slander and wrangling and malice. We must be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving of one another as we have been forgiven. We must be imitators of God, because we are all God’s beloved children.

            At first glance, Paul makes it seem that if you just follow these simple rules, you will be transformed, You will be imitators of God, Paul makes it sound easy, just as those home renovation shows make the transformation from the old to the new look easy and quick. But just as a home renovation is hard and long and messy, living into this new life to which are called is much harder and more difficult than it looks. There is a whole lot of mess in the middle.

            Much of that mess comes from doing what Paul instructs us not to do. One commentator I read pointed out that we are never told to “Be happy but do not sin.” Or “be joyful but do not sin.” No, we are charged with be angry but do not sin. There is something about anger that tempts us into sin, isn’t there? Anger has its place. There is such a thing as righteous anger. Anger can motivate us to work harder, do better. As protestants we descend from a long line of people who used their anger for the good of all. We descend from people who protested, hence the name protestant, against sacred and secular abuses that harmed and exploited people in the name of God. Protest, righteous anger, is in our DNA.

            But anger can also cause great damage. How many times have I let my anger get the best of me? How many times have I said or thought things in anger that I don’t mean, that I regret with all my heart? Too many times. Way too many times. And even when I’ve tried to sweep my anger under the proverbial rug and forget about it, it has come back to haunt me. Anger can lead to bitterness and wrangling and slander. Anger that stays with us past the sun setting makes it very difficult to be tenderhearted, kind, and forgiving.

            But it’s not just anger. Do we speak the truth in love to one another? Let’s face it, y’all, we are in a contentious election season. And it is only going to get harder. Truth is not something we can count on right now. However, misinformation and disinformation from all sides is.

            And then there are these words about stealing. We may think that since we don’t actively steal to make a living that these words do not apply to us. But where was the blouse I’m wearing this morning made? What country? Who made it? How old or how young were the hands that sewed it? How much were they paid in comparison to how much I spent. That’s not theft per se, but it does remind me that the way I spend my money here affects people in other parts of the world in ways that I cannot fathom.

            So, trying to put on this new self and take off the old is much harder than it looks. This transformation that Paul calls us to engage in is not easily done. There’s a whole lot of mess in the middle. There’s a lot of dust and noise. It’s not easy and it takes more time than we imagine. It really takes a lifetime. It seems to me that what Paul is trying to help the Ephesians and us understand is that to be imitators of God as God’s beloved children, to be transformed, to live into Christ is to live into our baptisms. We are baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection. We are baptized into the grace of God that works in our lives whether we know it or not. We are baptized into the larger story of God and God’s people. We are baptized into the Holy Spirit, that blows where it will and that sends us in directions we would not choose and empowers us to do that which we think we cannot.

            In just a few minutes we will baptize Anna Margaret. We are not baptizing her because we are afraid of God or God’s wrath. We aren’t baptizing her because she is a sinner with no redeeming qualities outside of baptism. We baptize Anna Margaret to bring her into this larger story of God’s love and grace and joy and redemption. We baptize her and make promises to her and to her family to help them in this lifelong work of transformation, of imitating God. We make promises to her and help her just as others have made promises to us, just as others help us. We baptize Anna Margaret because she is a beloved child of God, just as we all are. We baptize her into God’s grace and love and joy and hope and redemption and resurrection.

            But in saying “we” I don’t want to mislead you. Ultimately our transformation is not a DIY project. Our transformation from the old to the new is not something we do ourselves only. We do make these changes in community, leaning on one another for help. But our community is surrounded and embraced and upheld and empowered by God, by the Holy Spirit, by the life and death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. It is ultimately God who transforms us, God who helps us in our anger and in our joy. It is the power of the Holy Spirit who moves and challenges us. It is Jesus calling us to live as he lived, and to be willing to die as he died that is our call as well.

            We are all beloved children of God. We are all part of this larger story of God and creation and life and love. And God is transforming us. And God never leaves us even when we forget these new rules, when we sin, when we fall short and fall away, even when we are covered in the dust and mess of transformation. We are God’s beloved children. We are all God’s beloved children. Thanks be to God.

            Let all of God’s beloved children say, “Alleluia!”

Amen.