Spiritual Warfare: The Armor of God: Breastplate of Righteousness Ephesians 6:10-17
Orlando.
Istanbul. Baghdad. Paris. We are in the
midst of war. Dallas. Baton Rouge. Falcon Heights. Fresno. Baldwin. Again, we are in the midst of war. The thing is, the war is not between ISIS and
the world. The war is not between police
and civilians. The war is not between
liberals and conservatives. The war is
not between democrats and republicans. The
war is one that has been going on since the Garden of Eden…a war that was won
on a hill called Calvary…a war, though, in which the enemy, not accepting
defeat, refuses to go out quietly and volleys attacks not only in Dallas, Falcon
Heights, Istanbul, and Orlando, but also in Washington, Raleigh, Burlington…in
lawmaking sessions, in courtrooms, in shopping centers, in libraries, in
hospitals, in nursing homes, in family homes, individual lives, and even the
church…wherever the breath of life flows through one of those that God has
given life to the battles rage on. God
has brought us into the midst of this series at a time in our world where we
are obviously at war…a war in which “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…a war against the spiritual forces of
evil in the heavenly places.” We, are,
my brothers and sisters, as we have been discussing for a couple of weeks so
far, in the midst of Spiritual Warfare…and right now the enemy appears to
emptying out its arsenal on the world…and that arsenal is not made up of Colts,
Berettas, Glocks, Sigs, a sniper’s rifle, a suicide vest, or any other mad-made
weapon. The weapons the enemy has pulled
out and firing with Gatling gun rapidity are hate, fear, deception, distrust, bitterness,
vengeance, animosity, and arrogance.
My
brothers and sisters, as I mentioned the last two weeks, those weapons of the
enemy are not weapon that the people of God should take up and use. When we do, we are no longer fighting for
God, we are fighting alongside the enemy we are trying to overcome, we have
switched sides. Paul, in writing to the
Ephesians, makes it very clear what weapons are suitable for the people of God
to take up—they are the weapons that make up the whole armor of God.
We
began our examination of the God-designed war arsenal two weeks ago as we
considered the belt of truth. With the Belt
of Truth we came to understand that we are called to wrap ourselves in
truth. What truth? The One who is Truth. Jesus.
We are to ensure before anything else that as we prepare for battle that
we have surrounded ourselves with Christ.
Wrapping ourselves in Christ means that how we act, how we talk, how we
even think is governed by nothing other than Christ. It means that when we interact with anyone,
we will ensure that they know they have encountered someone who has committed
to becoming Christlike. It means that
when we come upon a situation where we are unsure how to respond, that we stop
and ask how Jesus would respond, and then act in that way.
So
today, we come to the Breastplate of Righteousness. Just as in a suit of armor the belt plays a
vital role in preventing the soldier from being gutted, the breastplate plays a
key and vital role. It is the piece of
armor that is worn to protect the essential organs the keep life going—the
heart and the lungs, which supply the rest of our body with both blood and
oxygen. Moving from the physical world
to that of our Spiritual Warfare, we recognize that this connects to the
life-redeeming blood of Jesus which has cleansed us and protects us from the
power of sin and the life-giving and sustaining breath of God—God’s very spirit
dwelling within us.
What
does it mean that it is the Breastplate of Righteousness? For years the word, “righteousness” only had
one meaning for me. I pretty much
equated it with the act of being right in the eyes of God and that because of
our sin, we could never be seen as righteous before God on our own. The only way to be seen as righteous in the
eyes of God, because we are sinners, is through the blood of Christ. Christ died in our place for our sins so that
when God looks upon us, he sees not our sin, not our filth, but He sees the
blood of Christ covering us. Through
Christ’s sacrifice we are seen as righteous in the eyes of God.
Yet
because of God’s great love for us that accepts us in the midst of our sin, and
sees us as righteous because of His own actions, he refuses to leave us as
“righteous covered-sin filled creatures.”
God pours his life-giving Spirit out upon us and breathes new life into
us. God begins recreating us and making
us holy…so that we are not only seen as righteous, but that God is actually making
us into righteous His truly righteous children—the Breastplate of
Righteousness— heart and lungs, blood and breath—God’s working restoring us
into a right relationship with Him.
Like
I said, for years, this is where my understanding of righteousness ended. God’s work on each of us individually—making
us right in His eyes. Yet, not too many
years ago, reading some of the works of British scholar, theologian, and a
retired priest and bishop of the Anglican Church (one of the predecessors of
the Methodist movement). He opened my
eyes to the fact that biblical word for righteousness means much more than
simply God’s saving and transforming works of God in our lives. The root word for righteousness in Greek is
the same root word for the Greek word for justice[i]—so
that when we think of justice, we are led to think of righteousness and when we
think of righteousness, we are called to think in terms of God’s justice. Righteousness then becomes God’s work of
justice in the world—it becomes God’s work of taking a broken, fallen,
sin-filled world and making it right again.
It is God working to restore Creation to where He intended it to go from
the very beginning—it is the transformation of this world as we know it—where
the old dissolves away and the new springs forth as we move closer to that day
when God’s acts of restoration are complete with heaven and earth coming
together into the new Jerusalem and God fully dwelling amongst us. It is about God building His Kingdom here.
What
does this understanding of righteousness and justice have to do with our
discussion of Spiritual Warfare and the Armor of God? It has everything to do with it. One of the things that I noticed as I was
looking for a “breastplate image” to use for our slides are the insignia on the
breastplate—the insignia often being the coat of arms or other symbol representative
of the king under which the soldier operated.
That way if someone saw the soldier coming, they would know that
whatever he was doing, he was about the work of the king.
As
we put on the Breastplate of Righteousness, we are to remember that we are to
be about the righteous justice of God in the world. We are to be looking at where there are
places of injustice and working as agents of our King to make things right. We are to be agents of hope in the world as
we are the builders of God’s Kingdom here on earth.
It
is important, though, as those wearing the Breastplate of Righteousness, as
those who have been redeemed through the blood of Christ and recreated into a
new life with His very breath, that we remember our bears the crest of our King
and that we are to be about that work in the way that He would, not in the ways
of the world.
The
world’s idea of justice is about payback, about getting even, it is often about
vigilante justice. The world’s idea of
justice is you attack my people, I attack your people…you bomb me, I bomb
you…you shoot me, I shoot you. It is
about taking “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” as a commandment,
rather than understanding it as a limit.
As
we put on this Breastplate, we have to remember our King said forget about “eye
for an eye” thinking and be determined to “turn the other cheek.” It is remembering that our King, the One’s whose
insignia we are to bear told Peter that those who live by the sword will die by
the sword—because violence, whether it be that of swords, guns, or bombs, only
brings more violence and the only way to bring it to a stop is to refuse to
pick up the weapons of the world and put on the Armor of God.
God’s
righteous, Kingdom-Building justice is marked by mercy and grace. It Jesus telling the rich young ruler to sell
all that he had and give it to those who had nothing. It is Jesus touching and befriending those
who had been cast of their community because of illness or sin. It is about Jesus freeing those controlled by
demons. It is about Jesus feeding those
who were hungry. It is about Jesus
gathering around him friends across the educational and socio-economic
spectrum. It is about Jesus refusing to
favor Jew over Samaritan. It is about
Jesus acknowledging the gift of the widow was of more value that the
wealthy. It is about Jesus sending women
out as evangelists. It is about Jesus
gathering children to him. It is about
Jesus forgiving sins. It is about Jesus
stopping the stoning of the adulterous woman.
It is about Jesus turning to the violent thief on the cross and rather
than saying, “you deserve this,” responds by telling the thief that today he
will be received into the Kingdom.
That
is the kind of breastplate wearing-Kingdom building-Christ bearing-righteous
justice that we are to take into this war.
It means that true righteousness in the midst of the racial tension in
our nation is not found with raised fists or raised flags, but clasping the
hands of our neighbors across ethnic lines, stand beside or even in front of
any who are being oppressed or attacked, and refusing to label anyone as
“those” people as “them”. It means that
true righteousness is about refusing to condemn even those whose behavior we
find unacceptable, but instead call them to the redeemed and new life that
Christ offered us in the midst of our sins.
It means seeing those who are without—whether it be without resources,
without food, without healthcare, without opportunities, without love—and doing
everything within our ability to ensure that they have or gain access to them
on an equal field with everyone else.
Wearing the Breastplate of Righteousness, being not only seen as
righteous, but being made righteous, being recipients of underserved love,
mercy, and grace, means that we bear that same love, mercy, and grace to all in
the world as those God is using to build His Kingdom here.
In
the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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