“Be strong in the Lord,” writes Paul, “and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”
That’s from our rousing reading from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. I can’t say it’s one of my favorite Scripture readings from Paul, but it is one of his best known. It’s also one of the earliest Scripture passages I remember from childhood. I can still see Mr. Pendleton our Sunday School teacher pointing to the poster of a Roman soldier in all his gear and explaining to us how each item--the breastplate, shoes, helmet and sword--would have served the soldier in war, and how these same things, spiritually speaking, can help us through the many trials of life. The helmet of truth. The shield of faith. The breastplate of righteousness. The shoes of peace. Wear these, and they’ll defend you against anything.
I’m certain Most of that was lost on our third and fourth grade minds--not least Paul’s subversion of the language of war for spiritual purposes. But I also know that much of early learning is coming back later in life to what we didn’t quite grasp in the moment but that our impressionable and capacious young minds Remember. (That’s why I tell parents not to worry if your child doesn’t understand something or if church seems too grown up for them. They get more from this than you realize, both now, and will down the road.)
First, for those put off by Paul’s use of war images, and I count myself among those—it helps to remember That Paul and the earliest Christians were pacifists. This was centuries before Christians themselves took up armor and the thought that they ever could Would have been so incomprehensible to Paul and his early band of defenseless Christians that I do think he never would have written this passage could he have known. Paul writing of armor, battles, enemies—it would have been heard entirely differently in his time, and the Christian militarism that came later (and is sadly still with us today) had no place in the Christian life in the beginning and has nothing to do with this reading as first written.
Recently I came across a sermon on this passage by Frederick Buechner, late Presbyterian minister, writer, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award--an incredible man whose work (I know) some of you here have read and recommended.
He called it "The Two Battles.” The recollection of it is what motivated me to preach on this passage this morning. Buechner begins: "St. Paul … was not the first to speak of life as a battle, nor was he the [latest]; but familiar and hackneyed as the metaphor has become, it is also true. To grow, to move, to become, is to wage war against many adversaries."
He goes on to describe the first of the two battles he builds his sermon around: the battle to get ahead, to make our place in the world, to assert ourselves above others, the battle waged under the banners of “me,” “myself,” and “my”--my family, my home, my children.
The armor we wear for that battle is whatever helps in this fight: perhaps we wear the breastplate of self-righteousness, we carry (and I’m expanding here) the sword of wit, or verbal eloquence, whatever we find helps us get out in front of others. Our shield might be security, or wealth, education, our looks, all of the above.
Buechner calls this battle the “war of conquest,” and the armor that goes with it the “armor of man.”
Many spend most of their life waging this first battle, some to a greater degree than others, some much longer than others (and some with more luck than others). But we all Fight this battle. But there’s a second battle. As Buechner describes it: “the war not to conquer, but the war to become whole and at peace inside our skins.”
In this battle we seek to free ourselves from this achieving, judging, selfish and self-centered way that after a certain point and as our sense of life’s finitude grows more real, begins to look hollow and not what we expected it to be.
In This second battle, to become more vulnerable, open, honest, loving, compassionate, It isn’t man’s armor that helps us win, but God’s armor, as Paul describes it--the armor of peace, faith, truth, righteousness (not self-righteousness, but righteousness as in the pursuit of what we believe is just, and fair). We could add to the list all that Paul describes elsewhere in his tribute to love in his first letter to the Corinthians: patience, kindness, forbearance, humility, hope, and love.
People in the peace movement often talk about how the fight for peace is no less active and aggressive, exhausting and important, than fighting a war. It’s also no less brave--it’s more brave. And longer-sighted. To use the language of war but turn it on its head is one way of making sure we understand that this second battle of our lives is every bit as challenging as the first, and more noble.
Of the top reasons adults come to church, I’m certain one of them for everyone here is that we want to wage this second war to become more human, and alive. We’re tired of the battle in the world, even as we still fight it. We come here to think and learn about another way. Maybe for years that’s all we do--fight that battle in the world, but think about it here, all the while making small changes where we can--in our mindset, our words, our daily interactions.
Then maybe something happens that forces us out of one into the other fight, for greater purpose and meaning. Or we’re just tired of it and it’s time to make that shift. Age, and weakness, can force that even against our will … though I’ve seen some people fight the first battle to the end.
Where do you find yourself on this path? Are you just trying to get ahead, or are you trying to make and have peace? We have people among us at all stages of this journey. To those further along, Help those who aren’t. To those Fighting still the first battle, look for those who’ve moved to the second, and find out how they did it. Not just in these walls, the world is full of people who (even from early on) chose to stop fighting for Me and My Interests, and to strive for peace, unity with our Neighbors, with Self, and with God.
Find them, and be like them. That’s my prayer for all of us this morning. Amen.