Spiritual Warfare: Armor of God: Footwear - Ephesians 6:10-17
It just seems to
be continuing to grow. It seems like we
have gone from being able to hope for a month to where there was not a report
of a questionable police shooting or police being targeted as victims of
shootings or a terrorist attack somewhere in the world…to being able to hope
for a week without one of those reports…to now, I just hope for a day where one
doesn’t happen—yet almost every day this week the news has been filled with the
reports of continued violence from the driver plowing into the crowd in Nice
killing 84 to the officers shot and killed in Baton Rouge to the stabbings on a
German train to the shooting of an unarmed social worker in Miami…the war
continues to escalate…the weapons of fear, mistrust, hate, and bitterness
raining down on the world like the bullets of an automatic weapon or a barrage
of bombs dropped from a plane.
And we are
called by God’s Word to fully enter into this battle. Yet, we are not called to take up the weapons
of our enemy…we are not to employ fear, hate, vengeance, or violence in our
arsenal…those are our enemy’s tools. If
we fight him with his own weapons, we end up fighting on his behalf. The Kingdom we fight on behalf us does not
employ the weapons of the world, but rather employs the divine tools of war. Jesus makes that clear in his conversation
with Pilate when he says, “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my
followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over….”[i].
This conversation with Pilate follows only verses after Jesus’ command for
Peter to put his sword away as Peter tried to defend Jesus with worldly weapons
when they came to arrest Jesus. The
weapons of the world are not the weapons of God’s Kingdom…and are not the
weapons that those who follow Christ are called to employ in this Spiritual
Showdown that we find ourselves in the midst of.
We are to equip
ourselves for battle from the Divine armory.
Each week in this series we are considering another component of how we are
to make ourselves ready as we put on the whole Armor of God.
We began with
the Belt of Truth—the Belt of Truth being that piece of armor that prevents us
from being gutted…in wrapping the Belt of Truth about us, we are wrapping
Jesus, the one who is The Way, The Truth, and The Life, around us. It means that as we engage in this Spiritual
Warfare that all we encounter will know that they have encountered one who
follows Christ for with Christ wrapped about us, we are seeking to ensure that
our actions, our words, and, even, our thoughts, are guided by and reflect
Jesus.
As we considered
putting on the Breastplate of Righteousness we were met with so much. We realized that just as the breastplate
covers our heart and our lungs, so too does the Breastplate of Righteousness
remind us that the Righteousness we are covered in does not come from us…we are
first seen as righteous through the outpouring of the blood of Christ upon us
and we become righteous through the breath of God, the Holy Spirit filling
us. We also recognized that in wearing
the breastplate, we are bearing the crest of our King to the world. When folks see us coming, they should know
that a servant of Jesus, our King, is arriving, and that we will be about the
work of the King—the work of restoring creation to God’s original intent—all of creation and God in
perfect harmony and all finding they have all they need to consider where they
are living as paradise.
Today…well today
we are not only under the ocean in preparation for Vacation Bible School, but
we are also surrounded by shoes—we are not at Imelda Marcos levels—but we have
a lot of shoes on hand! What’s with all
the shoes and the request I sent out by phone this past week for y’all to bring
them? It is because after the Belt of Truth
and after the Breastplate of Righteousness, Paul addresses footwear: “As shoes
for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of
peace.” And, my brothers and sisters, Paul packs as much into those few words
that it rivals the number of shoes here in our chancel area this morning.
When Davey was
running cross country at Williams High School, I learned something about
running shoes (and as he continues to work selling running shoes, I am learning
even more). There are plenty of great
brands of running shoes out there. When
Davey was in high school the most common brands were Asics, Brooks, Mizuno, and
New Balance. I was buying shoes for
Davey one time to replace a pair Asics he had been using. I thought I would step up to the next level
and purchase him some Brooks (having noticed that one of the top runners on the
team wore Brooks). Running in those
Brooks Davey soon developed shin-splints.
He stopped running in those and went back to Asics and the shin-splints
quickly healed. Lesson learned…just
because they are great, does not mean that they will work for everyone.
Paul didn’t know
about Asics and Brooks, but he did know that not everything works well for
everybody. He said put on your feet
whatever you need to proclaim the gospel of peace. What we need to put on will differ as much as
these shoes. Some of us will proclaim it
through the spoken word—sharing with others the stories of what a difference
Christ has made in our lives and can make in theirs, and how he can bring peace
into their lives. Some of us will
proclaim it through song—as we do when we sing as a congregation, or when the
choir sings, or when guests like Jana share their gifts with us. Last week we saw sisters in Christ share it
through dance. Some may share it through
visual arts, others through writing, still others through acts of compassion
and service. Paul says put one whatever
works to help you proclaim the gospel of peace…look at these shoes…different
styles…different brands…different colors…all of which fit our different feet
which carry us forward with our different gifts to proclaim the gospel of
peace.
Which brings us
to the next part of this loaded verse…just what is this gospel of peace? Well, that’s probably why Paul said put on whatever will make you ready to
proclaim the Gospel of Peace…and why I suggested you bring your favorite or most comfortable shoes…because
like the races of the early Greeks, what makes up the Gospel of Peace is a
marathon of an answer…I’ll offer you up four parts of it.
First, the
Gospel of Peace is that through Christ, and the work He completed on through
the manger, cross, and empty tomb, we have peace with God. Before Jesus there was a huge gulf between us
and God. We were filled with our
sin. Because of our sin, God’s holiness
demanded justice, and, as Paul notes, the wages of sin is death. We were unable to make peace with God
ourselves…yet Jesus brings us that peace as He, as the sinless Son of God, died
in our place for our sins, so that, as Paul tells the Romans, “since we are
justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”[ii] That, my brothers and sisters, means that we
can live, not in cowering fear that God is going to strike us down with a
lightning bolt because of our sin, or that God is sitting up there wanting to
send us to hell because of our sin, but that we can live in the confidence that
God, in love, has come in Jesus, and made peace with us and desires nothing
other than to continue to love us.
Earlier in
Ephesians, Paul points out that the peace that Jesus brought was not just
between us and God, but between us and those around us, particularly those who
are not like us. Paul points out that
through Christ, we Gentiles (anyone here not of Jewish descent) and the Jews who
were not just separate from one another, but often hated and despised one
another were now to be considered no longer enemies, but one, and at peace with
one another. Paul says, “For he is our
peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and broken down the
dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.”[iii] What does that mean for us, my brothers and
sisters? That means we have to stop
letting things divide us from one another.
We have to stop hating on one another because our skin color is
different or our language is different or our political views are different or
our economic or educational or anything else is different. As I’ve said through this series repeatedly,
we are not each other’s enemy…no one made of flesh and blood is our enemy. Jesus died to end the hostility between us
that we might live as one people at peace with one another.
That brings us
to the third part of the Gospel of Peace…and that is that as far as we are
concerned, we are to make an effort to live in peace…to avoid violence and to
work to end violence. Paul told the
church in Corinth, “It is to peace that God has called you”[iv]
and “…agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will
be with you.”[v] He told the church in Rome, “Let us then pursue
what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.”[vi] Paul told the Thessalonians, “Be at peace
among yourselves.”[vii] We, my brothers and sisters, are called to be
peacemakers…that we might be called the children of God.[viii]
Finally, my
brothers and sisters, is the ability for us to have peace in the midst of the
storm. The Gospel of peace is that we
don’t have anything to fear. As Paul
told the Romans,
What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us,
who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all
of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any
charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is
Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God,
who indeed intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ?
Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril,
or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all day long; we
are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who
loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor
depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the
love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.[ix]
It is living with this
assurance that we can live with a sense of calmness and confidence no matter
what is going on around…it means that we can live free of worry, free of fear,
free of anxiety—despite storms raging around us—despite the loss of loved ones,
despite unexpected or bad news, despite race riots and police shootings and
political shouting and terrorist attacks. It means while the media and everyone
else are running around in a panic, like Jesus who slept in the stern of the
ship while the disciples feared for their lives[x],
we proclaim the Gospel of Peace by offering a non-anxious presence because we
know Who is in control…and Who has already claimed victory in this war.
So, my brothers
and sisters…get those shoes on…whatever ones you’re comfortable with…and be
ready to proclaim the gospel of peace we have been given. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
And, my brothers
and sisters, as we prepare to sing our closing hymn…if you brought one of your
shoes this morning, I encourage you to come during the singing, pick it up, ask
God to make you ready to go into the world to proclaim His peace, and then
return to your place as we sing together…
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