Sunday, August 23, 2009

Sermon: "Put on the Gospel Armor"

Scripture: Ephesians 6:10-20

Reverend Larry Gerber

A new kind of body armor will soon be protecting soldiers and law enforcement officers. How might we update our own spiritual armor?

Next Sunday I will have the opportunity to bring the message to Grace United Methodist Church in Mesa, where I was the Youth Pastor for 3 ½ years.

One aspect of that ministry with the youth was the development of "The Greenhouse". The Greenhouse was a safe place for the youth to grow. We explained to them that the greenhouse was a place where one kept the environment at a constant temperature, measured the amount of water each plant needed, and kept the soil fertile. The Greenhouse was a place that our children and youth could come every Wednesday night for safety, comfort, security, fun and laughter, and a Bible based study to strengthen them for the time they would face the elements on the outside. It was a weekly endeavor to strengthen them against the elements outside the Greenhouse. We were attempting to help them put on the Gospel Armor against the worldly elements. We felt it was our job as a church to offer the Bible as their shield, and to train them how to use that shield against the enemy of peace and grace when they were transplanted to the real world. We hoped that they would have a sense of transformation that would allow them to survive when attacked by those on the outside.

For thousands of years, military planners and engineers have tried to come up with a solution to protect soldiers from injury and death through the use of body armor. From those clunky knights to the steel vests designed for (and quickly abandoned by) soldiers in the American Civil War to the iconic "flak" vest of the Vietnam era, soldiers have contended with the uncomfortable, and often ineffective, weight and bulk of armor, which only adds to the misery of war.

Take the current ballistic vest worn by soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, for example. It weighs about 20 pounds and consists of layers of tightly woven ballistic fibers such as Kevlar, which dissipates the impact of many conventional bullets and bomb fragments -- but not all of them. Armor-piercing bullets, for example, will easily punch through standard-issue body armor as will puncture weapons such as knives because they're harder, thinner and more able to separate the weave of the ballistic fibers than is conventional ball ammunition.
 
The search for a better solution for protecting soldiers and law-enforcement officers led researchers at the University of Delaware and the Army Research Laboratory to begin work on a new kind of body armor that would be strong enough to blunt the impact of nearly all hostile projectiles and flexible enough to cover the whole body. They based their idea on fluid rather than fiber, developing something called "shear thickening fluid" -- a mixture of polyethylene glycol imbued with bits of purified silica.

 The flexibility of a liquid rather than a heavy, fiber-based material means this armor can be worn like a wet suit over the whole body, including the arms and legs. For the first time in history, soldiers and police will be able to truly "put on the whole armor" in every sense of the word.

Let's look at the importance of community in "warfare"

For a Roman soldier, "putting on the whole armor" meant more than just strapping on his own kit. It meant being part of a unit and counting on the comrades on his right and left.

When the apostle Paul was searching for an apt metaphor to convey preparation and protection for a kind of spiritual warfare, it's little wonder he dialed up this image of "the whole armor." The Roman "panoply" of weapons consisted of all the items listed in this passage, most of which were worn only on campaign and not every day. When a Roman legionnaire buckled on his armor it meant the enemy was close at hand.

For Paul, the enemy wasn't one of "blood and flesh," like so many of Rome's enemies. Rather, it was the "cosmic powers" and "spiritual forces" of evil that the context suggests are somehow commanded by "the devil" (Ephesians 6:11-12). The omission of the Roman javelin, an offensive weapon, from Paul's list of armaments and his repeated exhortation to "stand" suggest the image of a phalanx deployed in defensive posture to receive an assault, rather than massing for an attack.

Having given instructions to the Ephesians on some practical aspects of living, reminding them that they were "members of one another" in community (4:25), Paul now encourages them to withstand the piercing attack of sin and temptation that threatened to separate and destroy them all individually. If they didn't hang together, they would, as Benjamin Franklin noted some 1,700 years later, hang separately.

Giving functional names to each component of body armor gives us a clue of the kind of assault Paul expected to come crashing into the ranks of these new Christian recruits.

The belt of truth (6:14): This belt for Roman soldiers was so wide and thick that it protected the stomach and lower abdomen and prevented them from being disemboweled. For the church, such a device prevents the community from being eviscerated by untruths, and allows people to be strengthened by truth, including the truth of the faith.

The "breastplate of righteousness" (v. 14) and the "helmet of salvation" (v. 17): These two items protected the heart and the head -- emblematic of the seat of the emotions and the center of reason, both of which need constant monitoring and protection. Paul reminds us that the community's eternal safety is bound up in God's mighty act of grace in Christ. Knowledge of this protects the heart and enables the believer to think and do the right things.

The Roman caliga or half boot: This standard military footwear enabled not only solid footing on the battlefield but also enabled the legions to move quickly over Roman roads so they could keep the peace. Paul's image of feet made "ready to proclaim the gospel of peace" indicates that the community of faith, too, must be able to move quickly and broadly in order to deliver the good news of Christ. The more we are moving about and sharing Christ, the less idleness and doubt can creep into the community.

The shield of faith: The shield is critical to the Christian individual and community, just as it was to the Roman legions. One of the standard battle tactics of the ancient world was to fire flaming arrows into the ranks of the enemy, a move designed to get individual soldiers to drop their shields long enough to put out the fire, thus exposing them to attack. Roman shields were made of heavy wood with a leather covering that could be soaked in water before battle to extinguish these flaming projectiles. Paul's image of faith being such a shield conveys again the idea of cohesion between members of the community in the face of spiritual attack. When the flaming arrows of the enemy hit the shield soaked in faith, the arrows sputter out and the Christian "soldier" is saved.

The sword: The last image is of Scripture as a "sword" (v. 17), a familiar New Testament metaphor (see also Hebrews 4:12). The Roman gladius was 20 to 24 inches long and used for close-in fighting once the javelin had been deployed. After the battle was joined, a soldier had to know how to best use this weapon to good effect. The same is true when it comes to an assault by sin and temptation. Scripture and the revelation of God's Spirit within its words and within our own spirits are vital weapons of defense.

Any soldier will tell you that he or she is only as good as the rest of the unit. Whether the armor is liquid, Kevlar or old-fashioned leather and iron, an individual is never more effective on the battlefield than a cohesive unit.

Jane and I spent this past week, along with other adults, working with 55 elementary age kids, mostly from foster homes. It was to be an archaeology camp where I would explain my "dig experience" in the Holy Land and then help them to learn how to dig for artifacts. The bottom line of this camp was to teach them how we uncover the past and then to help them to deal with the present situation in their own lives.

When it came to teaching the Bible, many of them had never seen or used a Bible. How does one teach the use of, and the meaning of, the Bible is such a short time?

Using a booklet that Jane put together for the camp I tried to focus on the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, and the 23 Psalm, all of which are the armor of God for ones own spiritual growth.

They, like the Ephesians, were eager to learn the better life, but a week by itself could not suffice. We hope that we planted a seed of love and kindness that will sprout and grow.

There were many occasions that led us to wonder why we ever said yes to such a venture, but each day we could see where we had touched a young heart, gave a comforting hug, a reassuring expression of love, or a lesson in the love of Christ. We planted seeds where we could. They were in a greenhouse atmosphere, but soon would return to the real world of split families, confusion, and some tough environments.

On one occasion I had just talked about loving one another and using the tools of life for the right thing when two boys started a pillow fight. I stopped the fight and took the pillows. After a few moments  I asked them if they knew what pillows were to be used for and they both acknowledged that they were to be used for a place to rest their heads. Then one boy asked if he could hit me with the pillow just once. I asked him why. He replied that I was mean and had taken his pillow away and he should have the right to hit me with it?of course I said a resounding no, and then put my arm around his shoulders and asked if he knew what pillows were used for. He smiled and laid down with the comfort of the pillow between his head and the floor.

Ephesians 6:10-20 is often preached as exhortation for an individual, but I want you to think more about our community of faith. What issues and temptations are attacking our particular community and our church? How can we better equip our people to meet those threats? What are the opportunities to "proclaim the gospel of peace" in our community? Will you help me to put on the gospel armor and do our part in transforming the world into a world of peace and harmony, of peace and love?