The Whole Armour of God

I finally worked out what I'd done wrong so that the recording didn't record on the last two sermons!  There were several changes from the text, so do have a listen.....

Last week, Robert and I took our grandsons to visit the museum of Jewish life, up in Camden Town. It is actually quite an interesting museum to visit in its own right, but the main reason we went was that there was a temporary exhibition about the life of René Goscinny, the man who wrote the text of the Astérix books with his colleague, Albert Uderzo.

Now, I expect you all know Astérix the Gaul, who, with his friend Obélix, lived in a little village in Brittany which refused point-blank to accept the Roman rule that covered all the rest of what is now France. And specialised in making the local troops’ lives a misery. But it’s about those Roman soldiers that I want to think this morning, and I’m hoping we can get a picture of a Roman soldier, as drawn by Mr Uderzo, up on the screen.

I’m sure, of course, that you have heard about God’s armour before! The belt of truth – truth is so vital to all our dealings with God, and with God’s people. It’s not just about always telling the truth; that too, although there are times when that is not the kindest option – you wouldn’t tell anybody that their bum looked big in this, even if it did, and you certainly wouldn’t tell a grieving widow that her husband had been the biggest crook going and you had loathed his guts! It’s about telling the truth, but it’s also about being truthful about yourself, especially to God. You see, it’s no good hiding the bits about yourself that you don’t like – God knows them all anyway.

And you know all this stuff, too. You know about the breastplate of righteousness – God’s righteousness, not ours. You know about the shoes of the Gospel of Peace – for although we are called to fight against what St Paul calls “the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”, although we are called to fight against them, we are called, above all else, to be peacemakers.

You know about the shield of faith – how it is used, not just to protect ourselves, but to protect each other, too. The Romans knew about that, and Mr Uderzo drew at least one picture of them in “tortoise” formation. Could we see that picture?

Although in one book I read, it is described thus: “The Company had tried that formation—practiced it often, used it rarely—but the sergeant remembered how it felt, how it hindered the troops, blinded by the shields, crowded together. It was hard to walk without bumping into someone, hard even to breathe when they'd done it in the hot southern climate. She didn't think cold would make it easier.”

Moon, Elizabeth. Deeds of Honor: Paksenarrion World Chronicles (p. 94). Jabberwocky Literary Agency, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

So not easy – but if it protects your friends? Anyway, once again, you know all about this; you will have had sermons on this passage many times. The helmet of salvation, too, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, St Paul tells us.

Our Roman legionary had all these things – well, their earthly equivalents, anyway – and both St Paul and his readers would have been familiar with them, as they would have seen the legionaries out and about in their towns, perhaps garrisoned there, perhaps just marching through. But it was a picture they all knew. This is what a soldier looked like. They knew all about belts and breastplates, shoes and helmets, swords and shields in ways that we can only know from pictures and cartoons. Although we do see our police with riot shields sometimes, and we know they wear bullet-proof vests and helmets on occasion, so perhaps it’s not quite so strange to us, if we can put it in modern terms.

But how do we get this armour? How do we “put on the whole armour of God”? Where do we find it? Are we terrible people when we find we don’t have much faith, or much righteousness?

Um, no! The clue is in the name – the whole armour of God! It is God’s armour, which God gives to us as we need, when we need.

I am sure you’re familiar with the phenomenon where a phrase of Scripture simply jumps out and hits you in the face, even though you have read that passage many, many times before. The other week, I was preaching on the story of Daniel and Bathsheba, and while someone was reading the story to the congregation, this verse jumped out at me. This is God speaking to David through Nathan the Prophet: “I made you king of Israel and rescued you from Saul. I gave you his kingdom and his wives; I made you king over Israel and Judah. If this had not been enough, I would have given you twice as much.”

“If this had not been enough, I would have given you twice as much.” Sometimes we struggle – well, I say “we”, but I know it’s true of me, and thus tend to assume it’s true of everybody – sometimes I struggle to think of God as generous, of God as the one who gives and gives and gives! We only have to ask! It’s not like that awful prosperity theology which says you have to “prime the pump” by giving, usually to the preacher, vast sums of money so that God can bless you. God doesn’t work like that. God gives and gives and gives, because God loves us.

And so it is with the armour that we need to protect us. God gives and gives and gives more than we need. We don’t have to plead and beg with him, but just say “Help!” and the help is there. Jesus has won the victory over the powers of evil; we may struggle to resist temptation, and perhaps we feel we lose more often that we’d like. I know I do….

But the point is, we need to practice all this. I’ve said this before, I think – we choose to be God’s people, we choose to let God love us, but so often we don’t practice it. We don’t spend time with God – and St Paul tells us, in our reading from Ephesians, that prayer is the best weapon there is. We don’t spend time with God because spending time with God very often involves looking at ourselves, and really not liking what we see! So we avoid God, rather like Adam and Eve did in the garden after they had eaten the fruit.

And, of course, that is totally the wrong thing to do. What we ought to do – and I’m speaking to myself every bit as much as to you – what we ought to do is to spend more time with God, look at the bits of ourselves we hate, and give them to God, too! And then spend as much time with God as we can – not necessarily praying in words all the time – we couldn’t, anyway – but being aware of God’s presence with us.

It isn’t always easy. In our Gospel reading, we heard how many people found Jesus’ teaching about eating his Body and drinking his Blood far too difficult to cope with, and went away. We have grown up with eating his Body and drinking his Blood through Holy Communion, so it doesn’t disgust us the way it did his first hearers, but we all have our own sticking-points. But when Jesus asked the Twelve whether they, too, wished to leave, Peter replied on their behalf: “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

“Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life!”

That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it. We have chosen to serve God, we have chosen to put on the whole armour of God. We have chosen to be God’s people. And God himself will give us what we need to enable us to be God’s person in a largely secular society. What we need, and more than what we need – the whole armour of God, in fact.

We didn’t have our Old Testament reading earlier, but I’m going to have it now, to end this sermon, as in it, Joshua asks the people to choose whether they want to serve God or not. And the people choose to serve God. So Nike and I are going to read the beginning of the reading, and then we are all going to join in the verses where the people reply. They’ll be up on the screen. It’s from Joshua chapter 24. And let us use the people’s words as our prayer of recommitment to God.

Narrator: Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem.  They stood before Joshua and before God.  Joshua retold the whole story of their people. He started with Abraham, reminded them of the hardships of slavery in Egypt, and recounted the way God led them out of slavery.  He reminded them that God had been with them while they wandered in the wilderness and had given them their new homes in the Promised Land.  Then Joshua said to all the people,

Joshua:  Now therefore honour the Lord, and serve God sincerely and faithfully.  Put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.  If you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.

Narrator:  Then the people answered,

People: Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight.  The Lord protected us along all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed.  And, the Lord drove out before us all the peoples who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for the Lord is our God.

Therefore, we also will serve the Lord, for the Lord is our God. Amen.