Our Unseen Battle; The Shield of Faith

We're again picking up in our series on

the armor of God found in Ephesians

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

chapter 6. The text that we'll read

today reads like an ancient paration

which is like the last words that a

general would give to the army before

they go into battle.

Paul calls the believers in Ephesus to

stand multiple times throughout the

passage to stand against the ws of the

devil to stand against all the powers of

darkness in our world. And as today's

scripture reads, we'll stand against the

fiery arrows of the evil one.

In this series, we've heard about the

belt of truth, the breastplate of

righteousness. Most recently, we've been

encouraged to put on the boots of the

gospel of peace, uh, which we look to,

you know, our stewardist in in the plane

for peace. I, uh, listen back to that

passage. If you guys were, uh, in here

last week, uh, Pastor Jamie made this

um, analogy of looking to steward as a

sign of peace. and I had just gotten off

a plane that was had rough air and I too

was looking at this uh flight attendant.

So, we put on the boots of the gospel of

peace.

Today, we're going to focus on the

shield of faith with which we quench the

fiery darts of the evil one.

I think it's important to call this out

once again, but our series centers

around battle imagery and a war

metaphor. And for many of us, myself

included, I get a little hesitant when

we're drawing on ideas of war and battle

because I we we've seen in our 21st

century is that violence cannot produce

lasting peace.

Yet, it appears today that we face

rumors of war and very real genocide.

And it seems as though humanity,

we never quite remember the result of

violence.

But I think what's important about our

text today is that we understand the

irony that's in there. We understand the

irony of the text. Because as Paul is

writing to the Ephesians,

where is he writing from?

Jail. From prison. Paul is incarcerated

in Rome while writing to the Ephesians.

And as the soldiers stand guard around

him, Paul is searching for a metaphor in

which to call the Ephesians to stand

against all the evil schemes of the

devil.

So the very instruments

that keep Paul in the prison cell, the

very instruments that give Rome its

conquering power over vast reaches of

the world, Paul is now repurposing

as an illustration for the Christian to

conquer the dark powers of the world.

And I'll reiterate again, Paul says that

we do not take up physical arms against

a physical enemy. No,

Paul is asking the Ephesians to take a

stand not against a physical battle

against Rome or any other enemy force.

Paul maintains that the battle for us

Christians is to stand against the

powers of the darkness of this world.

Not against flesh and blood. Not against

our fellow humans.

We are to stand against the powers and

authorities that seek to oppress,

devalue, and disintegrate

humankind, that detach us from the love

of God that is in Christ Jesus.

So for those of us, myself included, who

squirm at the battle imagery in this

passage, let us see the irony in the

text. Let us see Paul repurposing these

tools of destruction

against humankind as tools of

destruction against evil.

Let us read again our text from Romans,

excuse me, Ephesians chapter 6 10.

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

Paul writes, "Finally, be strong in the

Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the

full armor of God so that you can take

your stand against the devil's schemes.

For our struggles are not against flesh

and blood, but against the rulers,

against the authorities, against the

powers of this dark world, and against

the spiritual forces of evil in the

heavenly places.

Therefore, put on the full armor of God,

so that when the day of evil comes, you

may be able to stand your ground. And

after you have done everything to stand,

stand firm then with the belt of truth

buckled around your waist, with the

breastplate of righteousness in place,

and with your feet fitted with readiness

that comes from the gospel of peace.

In addition to all this, take up the

shield of faith with which you can

extinguish all the flaming arrows of the

evil one.

Take the helmet of salvation and the

sword of the spirit which is the word of

God and pray in the spirit in all

occasions all kinds of prayers and

requests. With this in mind, be alert

and always keep on praying for all the

saints.

Pray also for me that whenever I open my

mouth, words may be given to me so that

I will fearlessly make known the mystery

of the gospel for which I am an

ambassador in chains.

Pray that I may declare it fearlessly as

I should. The word of our Lord.

>> Pray with me.

God, in all of this,

would you pierce our hearts the reading

of your word that we may stand against

evil? We pray this asking Holy Spirit

that you would take root in our heart

and bring goodness to this world.

Amen.

So what are the fiery arrows that Paul

writes about? What are they exactly?

Paul actually never tells his audience

what they are. He leaves his audience to

figure out what exactly these attacks

are on our own.

There are some that believe that these

fiery arrows are a specific illusion to

the fiery arrows that the god of

passion, Aeros, used, whom we better

know as Cupid. And these fiery arrows

were sexual temptation against the

Ephesian Christians who were now

beginning to take on a new sexual ethic

as followers of of Jesus Christ.

It was in the town of Ephesus that the

temple of Aremis, the goddess of

fertility was was placed. And there

they were thought to stand against these

sexual temptations. But many people

believe that it is not just sexual

temptation that Paul is saying are fiery

arrows against the believers in Ephesus.

Their idea of these fiery arrows is is

much broader, a much broader assault on

the Christians there. See, practicing

Christianity in the Roman Empire up

until about 315 common era was illegal.

So for those early Christians,

persecution was a real and tangible

threat. Those Christians were seen as a

threat to the empire for many reasons.

One of which is that Christians did not

observe. They did not respect the

pantheon of Roman gods. They were

considered atheists in this respect.

They did not pay homage to the divine

emperor.

Because of this, they were seen as

treasonous.

Also as Christians and more and more

Christians came to be in the Roman

Empire, they stopped uh they stopped

participating in the Roman cultic

worship in which people would buy and

sell amulets and idols and and different

items in which to uh enact this worship.

So they devalued

they undercut the local economy of all

of these places. You could see this in

Acts chapter 19. Paul a few years

Acts 19 · chapter mention

earlier was in Ephesus himself and

because of the growth of the Christian

church in Ephesus, the silver smith

Demetrius rallies the other uh smiths

around him and kind of wages a riot

against the Christians there because

what they were doing was undercutting

their their trade, their craft,

undercutting the local economy. So on

various fronts, practicing Christianity

became an opposition to the Roman

Empire.

Many of these threats ended in public

execution in the arena. We might be

familiar with the martyrdom of Felicity

and Perpeta. These are two brave heroine

in the early Christian church.

They when faced with death because of

their faith they refused to denounce

their religious convictions.

They were thrown into the arena filled

with wild beasts. And when the beasts

had marred them and they had not yet

died, they were given a second chance to

denounce their faith.

They refused again and they died at the

sword of Roman soldiers.

These are some of the fiery arrows that

Paul has in mind for the Christians in

Ephesus.

Yet, this is when Christianity was a

fringe movement and a minority in the

empire.

But as time went on, this state co-opted

the Christian faith.

The new religion of the empire is the

one it used to persecute.

After that time, the banner in which

Rome conquered was the cross.

The very cross that our Messiah died on

as an act of resistance against that

very empire.

So what today? What today are these

fiery arrows that Paul warns us about?

And broader than that, what are these

principalities and powers that Paul is

so intent on warning us about?

Now that Christianity to some degree

is the religion of the empire, what

fiery arrows are flying at us?

And bigger yet, what is this evil that

we're talking about over and over?

I think we're pressed to answer this

often and and especially philosophically

like what is this evil that we talk

about and we fabricate these answers

that I think philosophically or maybe

good or not. I'm not sure but we're like

evil is the absence of good

or evil is a good thing used for the

wrong purposes.

I think these answers are simple but yet

far too broad. I don't think they speak

to what evil truly is.

And like Pastor Jamie mentioned, she's

pointed out many times,

evil has a face and a name. Evil has a

face and a name.

Not in a human sense, but in a way of

specificity.

specifically what is evil? I mean, call

me radical or call me maybe naive,

but I think that radical uh excuse me, I

think that evil is weapons that are

designed with the sole purpose of

killing other human beings. Evil is

consumerism so out of hand that it fuels

the unregulated sweat shops and

factories powered by child labor.

Evil is predatory lending practices that

thrive in poor neighborhoods.

Evil is systemic racism that redline

neighborhoods, disenfranchising the

financial security of generations of

people of color.

Evil is demonizing the outsider, those

that are different than ourselves,

scapegoating them, treating them as less

than.

Evil has a face and a name.

As we've as we've mentioned before in

this series, Paul is writing to the

Christians in Ephesus and often using

the word you. But we've said before that

this U is not like a you as an

individual. This U is a corporate you

like kind of like y'all.

Paul is saying y'all very often in this

passage. Specifically, he says, "Put on

the full armor of God so y'all can

withstand the devil's schemes." I think

it's important to recognize the

corporate nature of this letter that

Paul is writing.

He wants the whole church corporately

to be prepared to stand up against evil.

to stand against the evil that comes

against the church, yes, but also our

whole world, all of humanity.

Paul wants the whole church to put on

the belt of truth. Paul wants the whole

church to put on the breastplate of

righteousness. Paul wants the whole

church to put on the the boots of the

gospel of peace and of the shield of

faith.

The church stands together against the

fiery arrows of the evil one.

To its original audience, this text

taking up the shield of faith uh would

have had a particular image in mind. As

Paul writes to them about this shield,

they are able and familiar to notice the

battle equipment of the Roman soldiers

around them. This battle equipment, the

shield, when used in the Roman Legion,

was not an instrument for mere

individual defense. It was not just for

the individual,

but rather, as Campbell writes,

Roman soldiers carried a large wooden

shield shaped like a door that could

cover the entire body. Standing in

formation with others, soldiers could

lock their shields together to form a

protective wall in front and a roof

overhead to achieve virtually complete

protection from arrow attack.

A maneuver known as the tudo or in

English the turtis the tortoise

formation. It's a funny uh one, but we

like it. Moreover, these shields were

covered in leather which could be

dowsted in water to defend against the

fiery arrows. The arrows were then stuck

into the shield and they would be

counteracted rather than set the wooden

shield al light.

So when used properly,

the shield would not only make a legion

of Roman soldiers defensive defensively

impervious to en enemy attacks, but it

would also turn them into a roving

impenetrable fortress to break enemy

lines.

The shield was not an example of passive

defense or individual defense, but a

form of corporate active resistance

against their foe.

And in the same measure, standing

against evil in this world is not a call

to hole up behind the walls of our

churches or in a tight-knit community

to safely conduct our quaint Bible

studies or to host our potlucks.

The shield of faith is not designed so

we could merely defend ourselves against

the evil in the world, but rather defend

against evil for the sake of the entire

world.

And that's not to belittle the church

community. That's not to belittle what

we do here. I think what we do here as

church when we meet here in worship is

desperately important. In the Christian

life, we are called into community. We

are formed in community. We flourish in

community.

In my religious studies program in my

undergraduate studies, uh we discussed I

think one fascinating feature of

religion. This feature is called latent

benefit. Latent benefit. Latent benefits

are the hidden or underlying benefits of

religion and religious communities.

So for one example, this is kind of out

there, but track with me. So when a

tribe would get together for a rain

dance ceremony

in one aspect they are calling upon the

divine to bring down water from heaven

you know to bring fertility to their

lands. But the hidden underlying benefit

to what they are doing as a community

when they are dancing together is that

they are bonding in deep and powerful

ways. So that then when they leave this

ceremony, the individual is encouraged.

The tribe corporately is bonded tighter

together.

When we commune together, when we

worship together, when we gather

together, when we participate in mission

together, we are providing

immense fortification

for our mental and spiritual health.

In this way, we are standing against the

fiery arrows of the evil one.

In what way are we equipping ourselves

with the shield of faith, church? In

what way are we doing this?

In what way are we doing this? Not only

for the preservation of ourselves,

but for the protection of the most

vulnerable, the outcast, the

marginalized.

I think the protection we provide

against evil is a form of active

resistance. And this active resistance

uh is called by Walter Wink and other

folks third way nonviolence.

Third way nonviolence. This concept

points out that there is a way to resist

evil that does not answer violence with

violence or to resist evil with violence

with silence but rather to resist

violence with nonviolent resistance.

This is what Jesus commanded his

disciples when he said, "Go the extra

mile."

Roman soldiers by law could ask Jews and

other civilians to carry their military

equipment for one mile by law.

Yet, as you pressed on beyond that one

mile that was required of you, it was a

nonviolent affront to an oppressive

empire.

Jesus wasn't preaching that we should

lie down and let the empire run us over,

but rather when we go that extra mile.

When we go that extra mile, we expose

the injustice of the empire.

Third way, nonviolence.

It's active resistance.

Here's just one short closing story.

Um, just one day after France

surrendered to Nazi Germany, a pastor

preached to a small village congregation

with a prophetic vision

that the responsibility of Christians is

to resist the violence that will be

brought to bear on their consciences

through the weapons of the spirit.

These were the the hugenats. They were

French Protestants, reformed Protestants

in the countryside of France. And they

would go on, inspired by this

proclamation, to provide sanctuary for

over 5,000 Jews

during the World War II and the

Holocaust.

So this crowd of believers,

these people in France at this

particular moment in time did not use

the shield of faith

to safeguard their own community.

They understood that their faith moved

them to protect the vulnerable

even at times

of risking their own safety and

security.

I believe that is the shield of faith.

That is the act of faith.

Pray with me.

God, we thank you for this space here

today, warm and in each other's company.

God, would you be with us this week,

surveying our community, everybody

around us, understanding how it is we

can provide protection for those in

need.

We pray all of this in your name, Jesus.

Amen.