“I am an ambassador in chains” [Eph6:20] writes St Paul
“pray for me so that when I speak a message may be given to make known with BOLDNESS the mystery of the Gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains”
Probably many of us- possibly most of us know this glorious passage from Ephesians about putting on the whole armour of God.
If I aksed you to finish the phrase “The breast plate of…” “the belt of ….” “the helmet of….” “the sword of…” many of you can probably finish those.
And if I had begun at the beginning of this passage, you wouldn’t be at all surprised.
“Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power, put on the whole armour of God so that you might be able to stand against the wiles of the devil” [Ephesians 6:10-11]
But I believe that if we are really to get to grips with this passage, if we are really to understand it, we have to start not at the beginning but at the end.
“I am an ambassador in chains” [Eph6:20]
“pray for me so that when I speak a message may be given to make known with boldness the mystery of the Gospel for which I AM AN AMBASSADOR IN CHAINS”
We often have a very macho view of what Spiritual Warfare is all about. We like to picture ourselves as the Spirit-filled equivalent of Bruce Willis or Arnold Schwarzenegger. “Be bold”. “be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power” And I guess on a spiritual level perhaps we are like that - but I think there is a danger in using macho language, because we can forget what true strength in Jesus looks like.
Paul - the macho hero of our faith - is sitting in a prison cell, probably been beaten up, sometimes physically chained [mime it out] each arm to a different Roman Soldier. It is not your usual picture of what it means to be strong.This is not Rambo - this is Nelson Mandela in Robin Island. This is not Iron Man or the Avengers - this is Martin Luther King on a bad day in a Southern Jail cell.
And Paul looks at the Roman Soldiers - possibly sometimes literally chained next to him - he gets a good view - and he looks at their armour with its belt and breastplate and shoes and shield and helmet and sword. That Roman Soldier who thinks he is so mighty powerful … not realising that the man he has got chained up, the man he has probably beaten up …. this weakling, this wretch is a man who through his God is so powerful that 20 centuries later his writings are still changing the world.
Paul looks at the Roman soldier in his armour - perhaps Paul is reminded of a story in the Old Testament - where a seven foot giant Goliath appears on the battle field in the most splendid armour and challenges the Isrealites to send a champion to fight in single combat. The greatest warriors of Israel look at him and… “oh I am sorry, I am busy today, perhaps someone else would like to fight him?” None of these great warriors will fight Golliath. Then up comes a shepherd boy David - far too young, but he offers to fight. King Saul tries to clothe him in his armour, but little David refuses. Trusting only that “the Lord who saved me from the paw of the bear and the paw of the lion will save me from the hand of the philistine” [1 Samuel 17:37] “You {Goliath} come to me with Sword and Spear and Javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts” [1 Samuel 17:35]
Paul looks at the Roman soldier in his armour - and he looks at their armour with its belt and breastplate and shoes and shield and helmet and sword. and he thinks of the very different sort of belt and breast plate and and shoes and shield and helmet and sword that Christians might want.
For their way is violence, but the way of Christians is never violence.
“ our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh” (Ephesians 6:12)
“ our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh”
I don’t know if any of you have been following the Labour leadership contest. In the news and on Facebook people have been saying some quite personally unpleasant things. Whether they are attacking Liz Kendell or Jeremy Corbyn the supporters of the other say some quite horrid things. Of course it is not limited to one party - at the election we heard conservative supporters saying quite abusive things about people who were standing as Labour candidates, and Labour supporters saying quite abusive things about people who were standing as Conservative candidates.
This shall not be so among you.
“ our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh”
As Christians we will have very varied politics - and that’s good and that’s right. But as Christians we fight policies not people. No human being is ever our enemy.
Similarly people who persecute us - those murdering our sisters and brothers in the middle east - they are not our enemy. The hatred and the murderous ideology that motivates them - that is our enemy. But people are never our enemy.
“ our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh”
There is a wonderful story from the year 1219 - when in the middle of the all out war that was the fifth Crusade, St Francis of Assis travelled from Italy to the Holy land, and crossed enemy lines to speak to the Sultan about Jesus. He risked his life to try instead of seeking to defeat Muslims by force of arms, to win them over by force of love. He didn’t succeed in converting Sultan Al-Kamil - but miraculously he was listened to and given safe conduct. While others fought with swords and canons, St Francis realised that “ our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh”
“as shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace”
St Francis put on shoes that would make him proclaim the gospel of peace when all around were taking up weapons. Martin Luther King trained his followers to stand as corrupt police attacked them with batons and dogs and never to hit back because they were to proclaim the gospel of peace.
However - as you can see from St Francis and Martin Luther King - the shoes of the Gospel of Peace - is not about about being nice to everyone
Perhaps you know the Eddie Izzard Sketch about being nice in the church of England -
“But you can't do that in Church of England, you can't say, "You must have tea and cake with the Vicar, or you die!" You can't have extreme points of view, you know. The Spanish Inquisition wouldn't have worked with Church of England.
"Talk! Will you talk!"
"But it hurts!"
"Well, loosen it up a bit, will you? Fine..."
‘Cause that's what it would be. "Tea and cake or death? Tea and cake or death? Tea and cake or death!" Students with beards, ( mimes demonstrating with picket signs ) "Tea and cake or death! Tea and cake or death! Little Red Cookbook! Little Red Cookbook!" ‘Cause, "Cake or death?" That's a pretty easy question. Anyone could answer that.
"Cake or death?"
"Eh, cake please."
"Very well! Give him cake!"
"Oh, thanks very much. It's very nice."
"You! Cake or death?"
“Uh, cake for me, too, please."
"Very well! Give him cake, too! We're gonna run out of cake at this rate. You! Cake or death?"
"Uh, death, please. No, cake! Cake! Cake, sorry. Sorry..."
"You said death first, uh-uh, death first!"
"Well, I meant cake!"
"Oh, all right. You're lucky I'm Church of England!" Cake or death?"
"Uh, cake please."
"Well, we're out of cake! We only had three bits and we didn't expect such a rush. So what do you want?"
"Well, so my choice is 'or death’? I’ll have the chicken then, please.
“Taste of human, sir. Would you like a white wine? There you go, thank you very much.”
“ Thank you for flying Church of England, cake or death?"”
In the Church of England - we can get so worried about being “nice” that we won’t say anything out loud that is “nasty” and if we are not careful that can lead to us being “passive aggressive”. Lot’s of nasty hints - but we never quite say it - and of course because we are nice - we never challenge anyone.
Jesus was never passive aggressive - He’s happy to tip the flaming tables over in the temple! He is not afraid of a blazing row.
After a blazing row, once things are out in the open, you can forgiveness, you can reconciliation, you can make up and move forwards, But if we keep our anger beneath the surface and the devil lets it fester and become poisonous and it is anything but “the gospel of peace”. Don’t think St Francis of Assisi or St Paul or Martin Luther King were “nice people”[do refined accent] but they were people who wore the shoes that “made them ready to proclaim the Gospel of Peace”
They were able to do so, because they weren’t anxious, because they had “the shield of faith” “the shield of trust” - That’s what’s faith means - trusting God. I have talked on being non-anxious before. These heroes of faith weren’t anxious because they trusted God. What’s the worst that can happen? They kill you. Well we’ve all got to die sometime, and there’s a lot worse that can happen than dying for something worthwhile.
The shield of trust - What’s the worst that can happen in our case? Much less than that? So we can trust God and keep going. God is not going to abandon us. The devil doesn’t want us to die, he wants us to despair, and with the shield of trust, the flaming arrows of the evil one can’t get to us. God will never abandon us, we will never despair.
“take the helmet of Salvation” “the helmet of rescue” - we are safe because we know where we are going. Like a motor bike helmet that you put on because you are on a journey, we put on the helmet of salvation, the helmet of rescue - because in this life we are not at the destination, and our helmet of rescue, our helmet of salvation will get us there.
“the sword of the spirit which is the word of God”
I talked earlier of how Paul in prison cell looking at the heavily armed Roman Guards might have recalled the story of little David overcoming Golliath and taken strength from that story. Having the word of God, the bible, flow through us, helps us through difficult times.
Do you remember the Christmas story with Mary when Gabriel has just told her that she is going to be the Mother of God, she rushes to see her cousin Elizabeth - and when John leaps in the womb, what does Our Lady do? she bursts into spontaneous song “My Soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord”
That spontaneous song, the Magnificat [Luke 1:46-55] is full of Old Testament references. There are at least 38 Old Testament allusions or quotations in this song. why - because from childhood Our Lady had learnt the bible on her mothers lap. And when people mocked and scorned her for having a child out of wedlock - that sense that God lifts up the lowly and that God remembers his promise just as he did to Abraham - that sense will have kept her going in her darkest hour. That’s why it’s so important to have the scriptures flow through us - “the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God”. If it’s good enough for Mary, it’s good enough for me
And finally - pray in the spirit at all times.
If you have got armour, you have got to polish it or it will rust up.
If you have got a phone you have got to plug it in or it will run out of charge.
People like Our Lady and St Francis and St Paul and Martin Luther King were people of prayer - and if we want to be ready not for a physical fight but for a spiritual struggle, we need to keep our armour polished through praying in the Spirit at all times.
