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Ephesians 6:10-20
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of God’s 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.
I was surprised to discover this week that in spite of preaching for nearly 20 years, I have never preached on this text. It’s in the lectionary, so it has come up quite a few times, but evidently I have avoided it all these years. Actually, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised I’ve never preached on it because I’m not fond of military images in religion. My skin crawls when I remember singing as a child “Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war, with the cross of Jesus going on before.” The song, of course, was supposed to be about spiritual warfare, fighting the forces of evil, particularly the devil. But once you think of yourself as going to war for Jesus, it becomes so easy to go to war against others. And eventually your war against the evil one becomes a war against anyone who disagrees with you.
This scripture appears to be talking about the same thing, but only in part. The author begins with the earthly world and then moves to the heavenly realm. But why the military language? Because it was familiar. Remember, the Jews were in occupied territory, so they would have been accustomed to seeing soldiers with their armor, their shields, their swords. So the author uses these familiar images but with what one scholar calls “a nose-tweaking twist.” “He reinvents the image in a most non-militaristic way. He appropriates the common parts of armor—belt, breastplate, shield—but he assigns them uncommon values: truth, righteousness, faith.”[1] The author is saying that they will not defeat the empire by copying the empire. Or as Audre Lorde said back in 1984, “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change.”
And we want to bring about genuine change, don’t we? Like good UCC-ers, we want to change the world for the better, but we will not do it by copying the techniques of the world. We will not change a hateful world with our own strident voices. We will not change a greedy world with our own thirst for power. AND we will not change anything by going alone. In this passage, “The armor, usually a symbol of self-reliance, is transformed into a symbol of utter dependence on God.”[2]
And that’s part of what I want to talk to you about today. Over the past nearly eight years, you have relied on me as your senior pastor. You have counted on me to sit with you before surgery, to stand beside you at the funeral home. Some of you have relied on me to walk with you through the most difficult and painful times of your life. And it has been my greatest honor to do so. You also have counted on me to lead you in worship, to put my best into sermon and worship preparation. You have counted on me to lead. Sometimes your faith was well-placed, and other times I did not live up to your hopes or expectations. Sometimes I failed you and sometimes we failed one another. That is the nature of leadership. That is the nature of relationship. Your next pastors—both the interim and your next settled pastor—will do their best and you will learn to rely on them, just as you learned to rely on me when I became your pastor.
But do not confuse “relying on” with “trusting in.” You rely on your pastor, but you trust in God. It is in God that you find that belt of truth. It is in God that you find the breastplate of righteousness and the shield of faith. You long-timers know this. You’ve seen pastors come and go. To those who have joined during my tenure— it was never about me. Even if you thought it was, it wasn’t. It was God’s pull into this community of belonging, that I was just blessed enough to lead.
The second part of this scripture that I think is most applicable to us today is in verse 15: “As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace.” Now, you know I love shoes. In fact, my boot collection was actually mentioned in my service of installation! And if I hadn’t already packed them all, I would have brought some for this occasion! But my question to you is this: What kind of shoes do you need to make you ready for the next thing to which God calls this church? Right now some of you are needing your running shoes, because you are rushing around to interview potential interim pastors and make sure the church gets the leadership it needs. Right now some of you are needing your sensible shoes—the ones that may not look the nicest but get the job done. Some of you may be called to put on your butt-kicking boots and shake things up a little bit. (Word of warning: if you think you’re the one to do this, you’re probably not. This kind of prophet is usually reluctant!) Some of you are needing your slippers, for you are going through hard things and you need to put up your feet and do some self-care, or let others care for you for a change.
“As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace.” What do you need to make you ready for whatever God has next, for you as an individual, and for you as part of this community of faith?
Put on the garments of faith, truth, righteousness, justice. Trust in God. And the God of peace will be with you. Amen.
[1] Cameron, David. “Gleanings from the Text,” July 15, 2009. Joint the Feast.
[2] Ibid.