(From
the Epistle…)
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. Amen.
The world is a mess. Well,
let’s be more specific.
The human community is a mess.
Environmental
scientists might tell us
that
if humans were to disappear from the planet
the
earth would get along just fine without us
and
in many ways improve and heal itself.
So what is the problem?
It’s the way we humans live with each other.
We
don’t do that at all well.
We have invented governments and laws
to
regulate and safeguard ourselves from each other.
But millennia of history indicates
that
those who are the strongest, who have the most power,
the
most wealth and the most weapons and resources,
are
those who make the rules.
Despite lofty and well meaning ideals
about
inalienable rights and well being for all,
the
prime motivating factor for how we do things is self-interest.
This self-interest, propelled by fear and belief in
scarcity, drives greed.
Put 7 billion people together on one island planet
and
we see conflict, war and violence
fueled
by fractionalization along
ethnic,
religious, ideological, political and economic lines.
Fear becomes palpable all around us.
Who know where violence will erupt –
in
a coffee shop, a school campus, a movie theater or on a city street.
And lines are drawn between the entitled and the alien,
the stranger,
the
other who is different,
to
whom it is easy to attribute our problems,
whom
we can demonize.
The madness of the culture we live in ! –
We intensify the problems using instantaneous
communication technology,
whether
it is a YouTube video of the violent suppression
of
a demonstration half way around the world,
or
a Facebook or Twitter posting of a volatile political statement here
that
goes viral,
we are impacted, bombarded by, overwhelmed with
massive
numbers of messages
that
diminish, demean, devalue, squelch and kill life.
The effects of this is seen currently
in
how we are carrying out the election process.
Daily, even hourly, we are barraged with political
messages without end.
With a certain amount of creeping cynicism
I
observe the claims of truth,
claims
of truth that conflict with each other,
rendering
of little value statements of authentic truth
when
they do show up.
Authentic truth – now there’s a tautology that is a
commentary on our culture!
We are engulfed in a political process characterized by struggle
for power,
for legitimized control,
fueled
by huge amounts of money
that
drown out the voices crying for campaign finance reform.
The values and priorities of this are revealed as
no
compromise, win at all costs,
take
care of self interests first,
take
what power you can,
exploitation,
xenophobia,
deception,
especially
mastery of lifting words out of context and applying spin,
greed,
and the shiny idol that promises security and happiness - money.
It’s nasty out there right now. This
culture is a present darkness.
It’s
not that there is a specific enemy to be fought.
Rather it’s more like that famous line from the old Pogo
comic strip:
“We
have met the enemy and he is us.”
I don’t know how we are able to
walk around upright under the weight of it all.
This is the culture we live in,
the
emotional, mental and spiritual inheritance of our human community
that
we are raising our children in.
If it sounds like I am speaking on the cosmic level,
you’re
right. As it says in today’s
epistle reading,
“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 high places.”
It was essentially a very similar cultural climate
that Paul, or the writer of the letter to the Ephesians,
saw
his present culture, the culture the people of Ephesus lived in,
in
the same way –
a
spiritually dangerous environment
ready
to gobble up the fairly new community of faith
trying
to live in this new way of being in Christ
and
finding themselves totally out of step with their culture,
their
old way of life.
He writes to the Christians in Ephesus: What
is at stake is YOU!
“Put
on the armor of God.”
Putting on the armor is the calling forth of power.
Strength
is needed, and
that strength has to come from God.
But get this:
The
armor of God is not yours, but God’s. It
is a spiritual gifting.
AND you no longer belong to or are in the world.
You now belong to Jesus, and are not slaves of the world
culture.
The world is a helpless wreck,
but Paul tells the Ephesians,
You’ve
got it all,
but
you don’t fully realize what you’ve got.
If you are clear in the fullness of the Spirit,
then
you will see the death that this culture,
this
way of being a human community is.
“Put on the whole armor of God” is a way of saying
realize
that you have been given the whole armor of God,
so
apply it, make use of it.
“Take up the whole armor of God,
so
that you may be able to withstand on the evil day,
and
having done everything, to stand firm.
Stand therefore, and
fasten the belt of truth around your waist,
-
truth, reality, your core grounding, integration and coherence -
and put on the breastplate of righteousness
-
the breastplate to protect the heart, the center of
being, the seat of motivation and commitment
-
of righteousness, right relationship with God
through the Spirit,
the
source of the strength of God given through the Holy Spirit –
having the feet shod with readiness of the gospel of peace
-
to work in peace, as harmless, non-violent,
-
with freedom from self-hatred and hatred of the
other –
-
and that peace, the utterly untroubled fullness of
the presence of God where everything is profoundly all right
With all of these, take the shield of faith,
the
faith of Jesus that he has implanted in us,
the shield of faith
with which you will be able to quench all the flaming
arrows of the evil one.
-
faith is a reality claim
-
so that there will be strength to face without fear
the flaming arrows that are particularly deadly.
The helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit,
which is the word of God.
All the pieces of armor are protective in their functions,
but
there is only one weapon:
the
sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,
not our words, but the voice of the Spirit of God
that
guides and directs us into the way of life.
The advice to the faith community here,
the
spiritual counsel, the words of hope and words of life,
are “Put on,” clothe yourselves, take upon yourselves
what
has been given you.
You don’t have to make the armor, just pick it up
and put it on.
You don’t have to conjure up for yourself
truth,
righteousness, peace, faith and salvation.
It is God’s armor, God-generated and God-gifted.
If this doesn’t compute with you about putting on,
then
take the approach from the Gospel lesson.
Jesus said, “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood
abide
in me, and I in them.”
Jesus said, “Eat me!” Take
me into yourselves.
This
life is my life, and you have come from me.
Internalize this!
External putting on or internal eating – take your pick.
Either
way, what will connect with you.
The point is here, at the heart of our faith, is what it
takes
to
stand in the face of spiritual evil engulfing human culture
and
to quench all the flaming arrows.
Consider this: the armor of God is the same as the Fruit
of the Spirit
listed
in Galatians 5.
Notice the parallels.
The
characteristics or the attributes of the Fruit of the Holy Spirit
being cultivated in us are these:
love,
joy, peace, endurance, kindness,
goodness,
faith, non-violence, and self-control.
To live out of this as our reality claim
is
to be counter-cultural in the most profound and life-giving way.
If we live this out with each other and
among our neighbors,
we
will be a bright light
burning
a hole in the cosmic powers of this present darkness.
The world is a mess.
We are all at stake,
but
we have been given everything needed to stand.
Realize
it!
