Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost Proper 16
August 23, 2009
Text: Ephesians 6:10-20
Today we conclude our sermon series on the letter to the Ephesians. Our text this morning, chapter 6, verses 10-20, has St. Paul exhorting us to lead a life worthy of our calling by engaging in mortal combat with the devil. St. Paul writes, “Put on the whole armor of God so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” Christians in mortal combat with the devil sounds like a plot line for a religious movie depicting the Battle of Armageddon. You can picture it: Jesus on the white horse leading us into battle against the Great Red Dragon and his angels. It is unusual and even uncomfortable for us to hear Paul’s call to arms for Christians to fight against the devil.
Very few of us believe in the devil today. Do you believe in a deceivingly-looking figure, colored red all over, having a tail with an arrowhead point, and a pitchfork in his hand? So what is Paul talking about when he writes, “Put on the whole armor of God so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil?”
Notice the tense in which Paul is speaking. It is present tense. Paul is not talking about some future battle with the devil. He is saying that every day we are in mortal combat with the devil, and everyday we are to be fully armed so that we may hold our position and not make room in our lives for the devil.
Two Sundays ago, in chapter 4, verse 26, Paul begged us, “If we get angry, do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil.” Making room for the devil is allowing ourselves to sin. We make room for the devil when we seek revenge against those who have angered us, when we refuse to forgive those who have hurt us, when we allow the sun to go down on our anger. A red dragon-like figure does not make us do the things we do. We have the power to sin. In each of us, there are devilish powers that are opposed to God.
St. Paul writes, “Our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against rulers, against authorities, against cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (6:12) These powers that are opposed to God work through us to do their evil deeds. Paul begs us not to make room in our lives for them. Instead, we are to be in mortal combat against them. In all honesty, however, we have laid down our arms.
We blame society and the government for taking religion out of our lives. But on any given Sunday, there is only about 20% of the baptized membership of our congregation in church, and that is true for many other congregations as well. We have made room in our lives for the evil forces to come up with all kinds of excuses why not to attend church. We have made a little room in our lives to be baptized and confirmed, but we left the rest of our lives open to evil forces that keep us from fully keeping our baptismal promises and being actively involved in the life of the congregation.
Also we have allowed evil forces to rule our lives. We don’t forgive one another even though as disciples of Jesus we are called to forgive one another. We don’t love one another as Christ has loved us. We don’t offer ourselves as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God as Christ did for us. Why, because we are not fighting against the evil forces within us. Instead, we give in to them, laying down our arms, surrendering our positions and allowing those evil powers to govern us.
We have taken the fight out of our Christians lives. We have made our Christian life to be a picnic, rather than a war. Instead of signing up for ministry in the church, we dodge our call to be the children of God. Letting someone else do what we could, we desert our fellow troops in the congregation. Instead of making the pew on which we sit in church to be one of commitment and service, we make it a comfortable pew. Instead of following the Ten Commandments, we look for loopholes. The sermons are always for others, never for us. I have heard members of the congregation speak about the church saying, “You’re having Bible study on Wednesday evenings.” Someday I’ll respond by saying, “No, you are (pointing to them) having Bible study on Wednesday. You are a member of the congregation.” Much of what we do as individual Christians and as a Christian congregation shows that we have lost that spirit of being in mortal combat against evil.
Paul begs us to change that. “Therefore,” he writes, “take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.” (6:13) None of us could possibly say that we did everything we could to fight the forces of evil. But with the armor God gives us we can do everything. The armor God gives us to wear as the children of God consists of six pieces. The first piece is the belt of truth that is Jesus Christ. Our second piece is a breastplate of righteousness meaning that God predestined us to be the holy and blameless children of God. Our third piece is a pair of shoes that wherever we go we may proclaim the gospel of God’s peace to the entire world. Our fourth piece of armor is a shield of faith that is the power of God against the evils of sin and death. The fifth piece is a helmet of salvation that is our hope of promise of new life to come. Our final piece of armor is the only offensive we are given that of the sword of the Spirit. Not only does God give us the armor that we will not be defeated by the devil and all the evil forces of earth and heaven, but also He gives us the armor to defeat those same forces. As the children of God, we are in a mortal battle against our unbelief, our self-righteousness, our pride, our desire to be our own gods, our ability to do that which is opposed to God. We are in a daily mortal battle against our sinful human natures. But we’re going to win and we’re going to win big.
St. Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, “Is there anything that will separate us from the love of Christ?” “No,” answers Paul, “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” More than conquerors means that not just will we win, but we will inherit more than what we fought for. We will inherit an eternal life.
We Christians must begin to realize that we are in mortal combat with all kinds of evil. We have the armor to win the battle; it is given to us by God. St. Paul is begging us this morning in this final chapter of his letter to the Ephesians that we may be strengthened in the Lord and have the strength of his power to stand against the deception and evil tricks of ourselves. God even gives us battle rations to sustain us in the fight. It is the body and blood of Jesus Christ received in the bread and wine of Holy Communion.
Let us heed the exhortation of Paul and put on the whole armor of God. It is the armor of victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Before you go back out there into battle today, come and receive the body and blood of Christ, for Jesus said, “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood will live because of me.”