26 August 2012

26 August 2012
21st Sunday in Ordinary Time
Ephesians 6:10-20 / John 6:56-69


We haven’t used hymnals regularly in worship at Nativity since 2005, when we started printing the entire liturgy and all the hymns and songs for worship in the worship folder. So when our new Evangelical Lutheran Church in America hymnal came out in 2006 the change we noticed here was that we suddenly had more hymns and songs available to us ... most all of the music from all the ELCA hymnals of the past twenty years is available for download from the Internet.
However ... for those churches who rely on the hymnal each Sunday for their worship, well, they did notice some changes. The book color – from green to red. The print size – smaller, and the paper, thinner. But the loudest complaints I heard from colleagues who use the Evangelical Lutheran Worship hymnal were over the hymns left out of the new hymnal. Those who rushed to find something, anything wrong with the new hymnal didn’t have to go too far.

They left “Onward Christian Soldiers” out!

Yep, “they” did. Look in the red ELW hymnal … it’s not there.
To some, this was a travesty of the highest order. But for others of us … well, we didn’t mind.
I think “Onward, Christian Soldiers” got left out because, frankly, it’s just not that great of a congregational song … there are many, many others which sing our faith far better. Theologically, it’s quite the opposite of Lutheran Christian belief, because it’s full of the theology of glory … telling lies about the church … “we are not divided, all one body we, one in hope in doctrine, one in charity” … ha! What planet are you living on?????
And in 2012, “Onward Christian Solders” does promote a view of the church that sounds, well, like Christian jihad. “Onward Christian Soldiers, marching as to war …” this isn’t the image of the church we want or need to be projecting, in this day and age when the rest of the world … both outside and inside this country … especially people under the age of 40 … largely sees Christians as culture-terrorists who will stop at nothing to cram their view of history and their political, social, moral will for the future … to force down other’s throats.
But then, we come to this morning’s New Testament text.
And this text we have before us this morning, as we conclude our late summer walk through the book of Ephesians with some more advice from the apostle Paul to his friends at Ephesus, this text could, can well sound to us like more “Onward Christian Soldiers.”

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 flesh and blood … but against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

There’s lots to potentially offend and put people off, in these verses.
It sounds combative. It sounds like Paul is saying that, to be a good faithful Christian, you have to be on the offensive, out there beating back evil at every step, calling a spade a spade, a sinner a sinner, “if you haven’t repented of all your sins, trusted in the literal word-for-word truth of God as he wrote it in the Holy Scriptures, and accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior you will BURN IN HELL FOR ALL ETERNITY … so wouldn’t you just rather believe?”
That’s the way many of our brothers and sisters of this tribe called Christian believe and behave. But that kind of offensive talk … is offensive. Offensive and off-putting to people who are on the receiving end. People have gotten bruised and beaten up and driven away from Christians and Christianity over talk like that.
But just a minute. This is not what Paul is saying here either. His advice to the Ephesians is not at all about “how you can be the most offensive.” No, everything Paul describes here … it’s all DEFENSIVE. The wardrobe he lays out for the Ephesians … and for us … is all about protection.
Granted, it doesn’t sound that way at first. Armor, shield, breastplate and helmet sound to me … probably to you, too … a lot like standard issue military gear.
And guess what … they would have sounded that way to the Ephesians as well. For who would have been the one normally wearing such apparel in their place and time? The symbol of military might … the fearsome Imperial Roman Soldier. Sent around the world to fight, and conquer, and add more subjected peoples to the realm of Caesar. One who would – and should – strike fear into the hearts of anyone who saw him.
But what Paul’s doing here is a compare and contrast. Darn right he knew that the Christians in Ephesus would think “conquering, crusading Roman soldier” when they heard these words. But every description Paul uses here is about defending oneself. Not making offensive moves. Paul’s not talking about Christian storm troopers here, crusading their way around in a holy war, bringing the Word about Jesus by force to the heathen, idolatrous Roman world, the same way the crusading Roman army brought the word of Caesar to the world … NO WAY!
What he is doing, is saying “depend on God to protect you in the days and hours … times that have come and will continue to come … when you must stand up for what you believe in the face of evil … enemies not of flesh and blood, but spiritual forces that cause brothers and sisters to make bad choices. Armor you’ll need when you stand up for the truth … stand up for the poorer and weaker of your brothers and sisters … stand up for ‘the weightier matters of the law’ that Jesus spoke of … justice, mercy and faith … in an unjust, merciless, faithless world.”
That more contemporary of commentators on this text, CS Lewis, portrayed this passage well in “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.” When Saint Nicholas happens upon the children and gives them gifts … what does he give them? A shield. Healing medicine. Arrows, sword and dagger, yes … but to be used only in defense … when the time would come that they would need them.
And so here with Paul. The clothing, accessories and yes, weapons are all to be used for protection. The belt of truth. The breastplate of righteousness. Shoes that will make you ready to proclaim the gospel … of peace. The shield of faith, which will quench the flaming arrows of the evil one. The helmet of salvation.
And yes … a sword … but whose sword is it? The sword of the Spirit – which is the Word of God. Not to be used to lash out at others, but which the Ephesians were to use for protection … God’s word, studied, received in Holy Baptism and Holy Communion, meditated and prayed upon, lived into every day, so informing their words and actions that it would act just like a sword, separating out good choices from bad.
And to complete it all … prayer.
Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication.
Pray for your friends.
Pray for your enemies.
Pray for those who bathe you in love.
Pray for those who revile you and utter threats against you.
Pray for boldness, to speak, to live the Gospel good news of forgiveness, life and salvation.
It’s a far different image of the “Christian soldier” than what’s being peddled these days … making the life of faith out to be some kind of hand-to-hand combat that the faithful are to be fighting everyday, our fundamentals and fundamentalists against yours … until we either usher in a Kingdom of God made in our own image by our own force … or, more likely, send everyone to Kingdom Come.
No, Paul’s words here … are all about Believing God. Not just believing in God, but really and truly believing and trusting that God will do what God says God will do.
God will protect us, US … God’s people. God will help us tell and live in the truth … be righteous people … proclaim peace … live in the salvation God gives us, washed in our Baptism – its flowing streams of living water, always for us … fed at his table of Eucharist, Thanksgiving, Christ blessing us with his very presence and we, giving thanks, receiving, eating and drinking … and then, being sent out not to CONDEMN and DESTROY the world but to live in it – faithfully – with our brothers and sisters … praying, keeping alert, speaking boldly … until the day when Jesus comes again.
Believe God … we have all we need to live in this world, enough to proclaim his word of hope and salvation to those hungry to hear it, enough to be faithful in living as children of hope, clothed in his Word, living it every moment of our lives.
Jesus was right on when he asked his disciples, in our Gospel reading … Does this offend you? Yes, indeed, these words will be offensive … to some of us, all the time … to all of us, some of the time … but let it be God’s Word of love that offends, rather than brute force and ignorant speech and actions that do nothing but turn others off to Christ and Christians.
Believe God … in Jesus Christ, we have all we need. For now, and for-ever.
And be bold, be strong in sharing that Word, into the world.
Amen.