DEUTERONOMY 4:1-7

PSALM 15

EPHESIANS 6:10-20

MARK 7:1-8,14-15,21-23

Sermon – August 31, 2003

The Christian “Armor”

Several years ago, I was relaxing at home watching a PBS special on TV about Borneo, the biggest island in the East Indies, shared by Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. I had my feet up and I remembered thinking, “This is a totally recreational experience; nothing in this show could possibly become a sermon anecdote.”

Wrong, because here it comes.

One of the inhabitants of the jungle deep in the interior was being interviewed, and his words translated. He was describing traditional tribal beliefs, which included belief in many evil spirits hostile to human beings who would “get you” if you didn’t do everything “right”. So, the people had elaborate rituals – if it was Tuesday, as soon as you came out of your hut you had to turn left, on Thursday you had to turn right, on Saturdays you had to come out walking backwards and so on, or they believed, you would fall victim to the power of one or another evil spirit.

Then the man’s mood changed from somber to animated and joyful, and I leaned forward, waiting for the translation. The man delightedly exclaimed, “But then, when I took the Lord Jesus Christ as my personal savior, I wasn’t afraid of anything anymore, and I could go anywhere I wanted to!”

I almost fell out of my chair. “How can we get this guy to come and talk in New Jersey!” I said to myself, and then I thanked God that his sharing of the liberating power of Christ had gotten by TV’s “Politically Correct” sensors.

Ephesians was written for people in the Roman world who also felt imprisoned by evil spiritual forces more powerful than they were. The writer of Ephesians would have understood this man perfectly. “Our struggle is not against the enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the wickedness, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness...” the author wrote in today’s excerpt. People felt fatalistic, hopeless and helpless; to them the author offered the liberating Gospel of Jesus Christ and “equipment” for the spiritual warfare that the author knew was happening and would continue to happen.

Well, this is all very interesting, but we live in New Jersey, not in Borneo or the Roman Empire, and in the 21^st Century, not the 1^st. All this business about people feeling oppressed, depressed and spiritually assaulted is rather quaint, isn’t it?

Oh, really? Do you know anyone who does not want to leave in the morning without consulting her or his horoscope? Do you know anyone who waits on decisions until some astrologer says it’s a “propitious day”? (Nancy Reagan, for example.) Know anyone who messes around with Tarot cards, ouiji boards, voodoo, crystals, palm reading or other occult practices and feels affected by what the person “learns” from these sources or has a life influenced to any degree by them? Know anyone who feels freaked out when they break a mirror or their path is crossed by a black cat or it’s Friday the 13^th?

There are lots of people affected by these things – and plenty more who have their “lucky numbers” with which to play the lottery, or the horses, or the casinos, which usually are lucky only for the sellers of tickets, the owners of racetracks or OTB or casinos. Hundreds of thousands of people are imprisoned by the spirit of “just one more and I’ll hit it big.” Just one more paycheck down the drain.

Others face spiritual demons like, “Try some – you’ll feel great and besides ‘everybody does it.’” Still more get tempted by “everybody cheats”, or “if it feels good, do it.” And these temptations are not limited to any particular age group or situation in life.

Any of these spiritual opponents or temptations can imprison a person and lock them into behaviors which seem to the detached observer just as bizarre as the villagers in Borneo walking out of their huts and all turning right. And all of these spiritual opponents or temptations can make those under their sway feel just as oppressed, depressed and fatalistic as those villagers were.

So I have good news. Jesus Christ is more powerful than anything which can seek to enslave us. Jesus Christ wants to liberate us, to make us free people, able to see the limitless spiritual potential we and all other people have. All those spiritual forces which want to enslave us either are bogus or working for “the other side” and do not have our best interests at heart.

But we can only be liberated if we want to be. And we can only stay liberated and grow in strength if we adopt the discipline of being disciples of Jesus, which includes gratefully receiving and using the spiritual equipment God offers us.

Dorothy Hamby’s son, Major Joel Hamby, gave thanks in his letter to the parish for the outstanding equipment the American people had equipped him and the rest of our soldiers with for their mission in Afghanistan. Well folks, spiritually, America is just as dangerous as Afghanistan or anywhere else, and we are all on the front lines. So let’s check our equipment:

We are ordered to “Fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. With all these, take on the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

All of this would leave us looking literally like a well-equipped Roman soldier. So how about this: whenever you put on a belt, think of your commitment to the truth – telling the truth generally, and the truth of God’s word. Put on a blouse or shirt, think of righteousness, doing the right thing in accordance with God’s reaching. Whenever you pick up anything in your work, however defined, think of your faith protecting you from temptations to cheat, defame others, steal or commit other sins. When you put on a hat or lift an umbrella, think of your salvation so gloriously won and at such a steep price by Christ’s self-sacrifice.

All these pieces of armor mentioned so far in Ephesians are defensive. The one offensive weapon mentioned is “the Sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” So whenever you pick up your Bible, think how God could guide you to use it to liberate someone else from whatever enslaves them. We are, after all, commissioned to care for others, not just defend ourselves.

Borneo, Ephesus, Central New Jersey – we all have spiritual battles to fight. We should expect them. Why should we be exempt? And we should know that God offers us equipment – and fellow “Christian soldiers” – to join us in these spiritual struggles. “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power.

(The Rev.) Francis A. Hubbard

St. Barnabas Episcopal Church