We now come to the end of this summer series that has featured readings from
John, chapter 6, the Bread of Life chapter,
and the Epistle to the Ephesians.
I hope that this series has been helpful for you during these few weeks
in the midst of everything going on around us right now.
The reading from Ephesians this week can be, I think, particularly helpful.
It is sort of a summing up of the previous chapters of Ephesians
in some imagery that can help us address
a lot of those current stressors in our lives
for us as individuals
for us as a community of faith
and for us as the human race.
What is offered is a word-picture of being clothed,
clothed in armor,
for those feeling spiritual oppression and attacks
in order to be strong in the Lord.
This is a militaristic example that the Apostle Paul is using,
but look what he has done with it.
He is saying here’s what is at stake – YOU.
You are under threat.
This calls for power in the face of threat,
and strength is needed,
but that strength has to come from God. It is God who keeps you strong.
So put on this armor, which is given you by God.
It’s not your own armor, but armor which is a spiritual gifting.
First there’s the belt around the waist – bad translation.
It actually says gird your loins with truth,
Truth around the most personal and private parts of our bodies.
This truth is our grounding reality;
truth is what brings integration and coherence to our sense of identity.
Then the breastplate of Righteousness is placed over the heart.
It protects the center of our being
where our motivation and commitment comes from.
It is the breastplate of righteousness, which is right relationship with God.
The importance of this is that to be strong
the strength must come from the power of God working in us,
the Holy Spirit working righteousness in us.
The breastplate of Righteousness based on right relationship with God.
Then you need a shield for defense. Faith is the shield.
Faith is trusting in God,
faith that is a gift of the Spirit
as well as a fruit of the Spirit growing within us.
The imagery describes this shield as having the ability to quench,
to douse water on flaming arrows.
What superhero would love to have that!
Undoubtedly Paul was recalling the Psalms, specifically Psalm 91.
“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High,
…shall find refuge under [God’s] wings;
his faithfulness shall be a shield and buckler.
You shall not be afraid of any terror by night,
nor of the arrow that flies by day.”
The faith of this shield is a relationship with the reality
of the unbreakable dependability of the faith of Jesus to sustain us.
Next is the helmet of salvation.
Put your head into that, into the context of salvation,
know with your mind that salvation is God's work,
not what your own mind can contrive or figure out.
Salvation is liberation, being set free from oppression
that attacks our reality as beloved children of God.
Now, I left out one item that we need to come back to.
Verse 15: As shoes for your feet put on
whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace.
Peace – Wait a minute! Isn’t the armor for doing battle?
Get all this armor on and then DON’T march off to battle!
Look at those marching shoes –
whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace.
peace, they’re not for warfare.
What is peace here?
It is the utterly untroubled fullness of the Presence of God.
To walk in peace is to walk in the freedom from both
hatred of the other who is seen as an enemy
and hatred of self, from being at war with one’s self. That is peace.
The world around you may be a helpless wreck
but that peace will help you walk right through it all.
Verse 13 at the beginning of this armor imagery says,
"… take up the whole armor of God, so that … having done everything,
[you may] stand firm."
Once you get that armor on, there is no need for further action on our part.
Just stand there equipped with what God has given you.
That will be sufficient.
The whole armor is composed entirely of gifts given us,
so it is not our strength being described here.
And we get this armor on, but we don’t fight; we stand.
The armor is defensive.
Any fighting to be done, leave that to God.
The only offensive part of this armor is the sword,
the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God.
That’s not our words, but the word of God
that we can access through the Spirit
and speak when we face a situation of need.
Our words are to pray.
Verse 15: “Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication.”
Praying at all times in the Spirit –
and, yes, this is possible, clothed in this symbolic armor
that reminds us of how much we have been given,
that reminds us of our baptismal identity in Christ.
The Apostle Paul learned all of this while under great duress and stress.
His was not an easy missionary calling, you know.
Beaten, shipwrecked, stoned, imprisoned –
For him this armor of God was a lived reality.
He knew what it was to abide in Christ, to live in him,
to live by the faith of Jesus.
Jesus said,
“Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.
…whoever eats me will live because of me.”
We have been sitting with these shocking words
these last few Sundays
daring to look at them and not avert our eyes, hopefully.
For some of the disciples this was just too much.
Jesus said,
“But the one who eats this bread will live forever.”
They said,
“This teaching is difficult (literally, hard);
This bread is as hard as a rock. Who can eat that? Who can accept it?”
They were murmuring and complaining
about this whole long Bread of Life teaching.
But Jesus doesn’t soften the message for them.
Here’s the heart of it, Jesus tells them.
“It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless.
The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”
The words of Jesus are the words of creation within us.
The Word in the beginning calling all things into being
The Word made flesh, bringing the spiritual into the material world,
where life can be such a mess.
The words that Jesus speaks are words of intervention into this whole mess.
They don’t necessarily make things easier.
They may not straighten out the mess of life to our satisfaction.
But they are words of spirit and life
and assurance for faith in the utter reliability of God’s love and mercy
and the trustworthiness of our Lord Jesus
based on his love and self sacrifice for us.
And to eat him, to take Jesus into us,
releases within us this tremendous spiritual process of eternal life.
There are two modalities of life:
the life of this world, which is fragmented and full of strife
with moments of excruciating beauty and goodness,
and then there is eternal life,
life when those moments are recognized as
tastes of the fullness of life that is realized in the Presence of God.
So my last words on this summer series are ones that would echo Peter.
Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?”
Simon Peter answered him,
“Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
The essential words, Bread of Life is there for us
to sink our teeth into spiritually,
living bread that conveys life to the eater.
Now, would you want to walk away from that?
For me, it is clear – where else can I go?
Jesus has the words of Eternal Life.
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