Standing with the Armor of God - Ephesians 6: 10-20

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The text is the Epistle lesson, Ephesians 6.

I remember many years ago, being at a mission festival where the church had asked a military chaplain to preach the morning sermon. I was excited. It was around the time of the first Gulf War and the American military was again being lauded and praised for their service. At the time, I wanted to be a Marine or an Army soldier, so getting to see a real, live military chaplain was akin to meeting Nolan Ryan, Rodney Crowell, and the General Lee (the car, not the soldier) all at the same time. This chaplain used this morning’s reading about the armor of God. I remember sitting and being enthralled as he told stories about serving “over there.” Then he used those images, so well explained that we could see them in our mind, and connected them to the Christian’s armor, and, just as his division had taken the fight to the enemy, our Christian duty to go on the offense against our Enemy – capitol E – the devil and take no prisoners.

It was a powerful sermon. It was a motivating sermon. If he were part of the church’s recruitment office, he had the congregation worked up in a frenzy. He was enlisting prayer warriors, and Bible infantry, and Confirmation artillery and altar guild snipers and trustee engineers. No drill instructor could have called a cadence as boldly as we sang the hymn “Onward Christian Soldiers.” As the bell rang (we rang the bell at the end of the service), we heard it as a call to battle and were ready to charge hell with a bucket of baptismal water.

And the preacher, the chaplain, was totally backwards. Oh, he had us motivated alright, and he filled us to the brim with a go get ‘em attitude. But that was exactly the issue. He had turned us in on ourselves, finding our strength from within. It was a law-based message, as if he were the infamous Uncle Sam poster, finger pointing right at each one of us, and demanding, “I want you to strap up and go.”

Read through Ephesians. Paul makes it clear, it is the devil who is attacking Christians. And, it is Christ, then, who counter attacks the devil, taking the offensive against satan himself. The church is never left alone to fight the battle herself, standing alone against the devil’s tirades. We aren’t waiting for Christ to win a future battle – the battle was won at the cross. We aren’t cowering, waiting for Christ to step into the frey – He defeated the enemy time and time again. We are not waiting to see how things turn out. Christ has died and He has been raised; He blew open the very gates of hell himself and stood in the devil’s own hellish home to declare victory. It is Christ who is the warrior, winning the battle. God has raised Him to an eternal, heavenly throne putting all enemies under His feet. And we, having been baptized into Christ’s death and Christ’s resurrection have already been elevated to the eternity of heaven with Him.

Christ’s victory wasn’t partial, as if He now needs the church to go out and either gain more ground for Him or hold onto what He has won at great price. Remember, you have been saved by grace through faith, not of yourselves, it is a gift of God.

So, when St. Paul speaks of the armor of God, He is not recruiting the First Cross Division, or the Third Baptismal Battalion. He is calling us to life under the cross of Jesus, leaning on nothing but Christ and His might, while we await our Lord’s return to claim all that which is His. Paul’s encouragement is passive: to be strengthened in the Lord in His mighty strength. It’s not our strength that counts. It is His.

Paul speaks of the armor of God. Just that name should give you a clue: the armor of God. It’s His armor. He is the one who wears it into battle. He is the great warrior who does battle on our behalf. It is His personal armor.  He is the one who supplies it. Our translation says, “Put on the armor of God.” It gives us the idea like we go to the closet, select the clothes we want, and get dressed. It’s a poor understanding of the verb. It’s better understood with a passive, permissive kind of verb, “Let yourself be clothed in the armor of God.” Christ gives us His armor “so that we may be able to stand.

Stand. Not attack. Stand firm. The church is not being called to storm the devil’s castle. Paul is picturing the devil’s final attacks against the church. Satan knows he has been defeated, but he is making a last-ditch effort to take as many people of God as possible with him. Paul calls us to stand in the Lord’s territory, in the Church. We need not attack. Christ has won the battle. We simply stand firm in His strength, in His promises, in His mercy, in His love, in His forgiveness while Christ protects and defends His people against the mortally wounded enemy and his feeble attempts. Stand. It’s not our battle. Stand. There are no great military tactics that we need, no twelve point plans. Simply, stand and watch Christ win the victory again and again for us. Stand firm!

And, Jesus does not leave us empty handed. He gives us His armor, remember. Paul explains each piece:  the belt of truth, that is Christ Himself, who is the way, the truth and the life; the breastplate of righteousness, a gift given by God Himself through Christ Jesus to protect against all enemies; feet shod with the Gospel of peace that has been given through Christ’s messengers who, themselves, have beautiful feet because of the Good News they carry of victory already won; a shield of faith, both what is believed in the Word of God, and the Spirit-given ability to believe the Word of God; a helmet of salvation that has been already won and delivered to us in our baptisms; and, finally, the sword of the spirit, the very Word of God, which we use in close combat when satan tempts us individually and personally, so we can read the promises of God in Christ that we are forgiven. There are no offensive weapons, not even the sword. These are all defensive to use while standing firm in Christ. Know why none are offensive? So that the old adam can’t turn and use them against a brother or sister in Christ.

Make no mistake: the enemy is the devil who surrounds himself with his minions.  It is this simple: satan seeks to destroy the Church, a Christian congregation, and even those within. He knows he is defeated, but he continues to throw himself against Jesus for one reason: he wants to distract the church by scheming against the truth of Jesus. He attacks the church from outside with false accusations that Jesus is just one path to heaven, or if God loves everyone, why is there hatred, or if God is so strong, why can’t he stop this hurricane, or the wildfires, or the drought, or even this virus. Must not be much of a God you Christians worship. He sneaks into the church. He fills the church with false teachings so that the Word of God gets nuanced and spun to fit itching ears, the sacraments become mere reminders of past events, and the ego gets built up so we think it’s all about us.

He tempts the old adam to make Christians think the enemy is someone with whom we disagree. He fuels frustration and hurt into sinful, self-righteous anger, stripping compassion and mercy from our hearts so that we see things as “us” and “them.” He makes us see forgiveness as something we get to merit and measure out to those whom we feel are worthy. This is most dangerous, because he wants us to make ourselves to be like God, that we get to determine good and evil. ,

 or he fills the Christian’s ears with lies about the truth of God’s Word, His grace, His victory over satan. The devil makes a personal attack against us, elevating our shame, our guilt, so that all we can see is our failings to stand in Christ, to stand for one another in Christ.  Are you sure Jesus forgives you after what you did? 

In the military, bad things happen to personnel who fail to do their duty, regardless how sorry they may be. In some instances, the penalty is death. When we realize that the old adam has failed to stand and has, instead, surrendered to the devil’s temptations, it is a humbling thing and a frightening thing. After all, God demands death as well for those who fail His commands and we realize we have fallen fall short of standing perfectly faithful. There is only one option: to throw ourselves, in repentance, at the mercy of God, confessing how we have failed to stand firm, to stand faithful, to stand together. We confess that we have listened to the siren song of the enemy and we have accused others of being the enemy instead; with remorse, admit that we have made ourselves out to be our own commander and did what we wanted to do to fit our own desires and thoughts. Filled with repentance, confessing our sins, and sorrow for what we have done, we still turn to Jesus.

Remember: the battle is the Lord’s. He fought the fight against the devil not for perfect four-star soldiers but for ragtag misfits. The cross, the grave, the open tomb – it’s all for sinners like you and me who believe that Christ conquered satan, the world, and even our own sinful flesh. He won the victory for the dirty dozens of us who sin greatly but believe Christ forgives even more greatly. The battle has been won, delivered to us now and into eternity.

Live as one whose battles have been fought for you, not by you. If you have sinned against your brother or sister in Christ, go to them today and confess your sin. Today, not tomorrow. You may not have tomorrow. You have today. It is one of the hardest things you will do. It is humbling, to admit that we wronged someone else. Confess, without excuse, without exception, without condition, what you have done. The response is, “I forgive you,” without excuse, without exception, without condition. I’ll tell you, forgiveness may need to be repeated often, in your own mind, as hurt feelings rise up again and satan tries to battle that gift of forgiveness from you. Ask God’s strength against such temptation, and forgive in the name of Christ again.

Do you know where the handshake comes from? In the ancient world, the sword was worn on the left side and drawn with the right hand. When the battle was over, when the fighting was done, warriors would greet each other by putting the sword away and extending the empty, right hand. It was a symbol of peace. In the church, we practice this with a handshake as we share the peace of Christ. When you greet one another and say, “Peace with you,” you are saying the enmity between us is put away. There is restoration in Christ and through Christ. It’s not a holy howdy; it’s a declaration of oneness through the death and resurrection of Jesus. It’s setting aside one’s own thoughts and ideals for the wellbeing of the other; it’s saying I’m the lesser, you’re the greater; it’s saying the peace of Christ, given to me, is also for you.

And, then stand. But, you never stand alone. Paul encourages us to keep alert with all perseverance and make supplication for all the saints. Here’s the neat thing about all of those pieces of the armor of God. They are meant to be used not individually but collectively, by the church. Together, not as individuals, the church is able to support each other against the devil’s attacks; together, the church encourages one another; together, the church supports each other; together, the church embodies Christ towards one another; together, the church reminds each other of our baptismal identity; together, the church withstands in the evil day, knowing that the enemy has been defeated and Christ already is ruling in triumph.