Looking Forward to August 26, 2018 -- The Armor of God

The Scripture Reading this week is Ephesians 6:10-20

The Sermon title is Suit Up

Early Thoughts: What on earth is Paul talking about here?  I think it is largely about faith and trust, those things that give us power and wings as we fly about in the world as followers of God.

It appears that Paul understands that there are forces in the world that work against the Kingdom of God. And Paul calls those of us who follow Christ to stand against those forces. But when those forces seem so plentiful and strong how can we do that?

For Paul, the answer is to put on the armor of faith.  We stand in God, we trust in God, we have faith that God is with us. And therefore we can stand firm as agents of the Kingdom.

Obviously there is no store where you can order the breastplate and the belt and the shoes of which Paul speaks. No armorer on the planet can forge for you the shield and helmet and sword. It is a metaphor, it is a way of calling us to think differently about how we are clad (and in my experience how we are clad can make a change in how we present ourselves to the world). If we think we are defenseless against the powers an principalities then it is harder to resist them. When we believe that we are armored and defended then resistance gets easier.

Despite the very martial imagery of these words this is not necessarily a call to warfare. I do believe it is a call to resistance. I believe it is a call to arms. But I don't think we suit up and sing "marching as to war". Paul is writing to a minority group who do not have the ability to march to war against the Empire. How do we resist?

Just this morning on the Edmonton news was a story about a racist tirade sparked by a parking dispute. When we suit up in the armor of God how do we resist racism?

We live in a world where there are clear haves and have nots. Suiting up, how do we resist the idea that this is how it always must be?

In a world where "truth" seems to becoming a very fuzzy concept, how do we suit up in Kingdom clothes and proclaim truths (the ones we like to hear and the ones that are hard to hear)?

As followers of Christ we are called to be agents of God's Kingdom which is here among us and also yet to come in fullness. Suit up and live as citizens of the Kingdom.
--Gord