Sermon Blog

Excalibur…when I think of famous swords, Excalibur is one of three that immediately come to mind.  In fact, when I asked the question of my Facebook friends, “When you think of swords that have are named, what sword (or swords) come to mind first?”, more than half of them named Excallibur first.  How many of you know of the legend of Excalibur?  One of the others I think of is Sting.  Anyone know where to find Sting?  It is an Elven blade found in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings wielded first by Bilbo and then by Frodo. We are engaged in battle with the enemy.  Yet our conflict is not with those who look, speak, think, or even believe differently that we do.  Our enemies are not of flesh and blood, as Paul has told us over these last two months, our enemy is the ruler of the spiritual forces of evil and wickedness.  We are, my friends, engaged in spiritual warfare.  There is no doubt to those that follow Christ that we are constantly in the midst of conflict…

After last week’s illustration featuring the well-known Marvel characters from Avengers, particularly Captain America and his shield in our discussion the Shield of Faith, I figure for the Helmet of Salvation, I would offer fair treatment in the comic world and turn to DC comics, and one of their oldest but lesser known figures… Dr. Fate and the Helmet of Nabu.  The helmet is both a blessing and a curse.  Among other powers, it gives its wearer the power of flight, super-strength, invulnerability, telekinesis, and control of lightning.  However, in putting on the helmet to confront and battle evil, the wearer also surrenders their personality to the spirit within the helmet. Cap and his shield, Fate and his Helmet, equipping themselves for battle against the evil of their fictional worlds.  We have been spending weeks talking about equipping ourselves for the battle with evil within our world…a battle that is not with flesh and blood requiring weapons of this world, but a battle

We are under attack.  We are at war. We’ve been considering this since the middle of June.  Our war is unlike that of Captain America and the Avengers.  While their battles were against the likes of folks we have never seen—aliens, Hydra agents, and brainwashed drones, our battles are not against any creature, or person, of flesh and blood, we are engaged in Spiritual Warfare.  We are in battle with the forces of evil—in a war that has become more and more visible over the last several years.  However, it is not a war with guns, tanks, bombs, or even repulsor beams, mystic hammers, daggers, arrows, or Vibranium shields.  We are fighting against hatred, fear, distrust, bigotry, deception, and lies.  And while we are fighting against those weapons, those are not the tools that we are to use, those weapons belong to the enemy, and the enemy alone.  We are called to fight not with the weapons of the world, not with the weapons of the enemy, but we are to be solely equipped from the armo