We return to Ephesians, chapter 6, for our sermon text this morning. Now hear the word of God, from the Apostle Paul
"Finally, be strong in the Lord 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. For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand therefore, and 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 of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench 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."
This morning we are looking at the third piece of armor which God gives us to enable us to stand firm in the crazy world we live in. It is the readiness to proclaim the gospel of peace. When we are ready ‘to proclaim the gospel of peace,’ it’s like when a soldier can wear good foot protection for a battle. Their footing is solid. They don’t have to worry about stepping on the sharp wooden spikes that some armies dug into the ground in places where they figured their opponents would step on. Scholars differ one whether these are boots or more like shin guards, but either one makes the point. Good foot protection is essential. Any serious athlete knows how important your shoes are. If you aren’t working on a solid foundation, you’re in trouble.
And just what does it mean to be ready to proclaim the gospel of peace? The battleground in which we live is a veritable minefield, seeded with resentments, selfishness, outright lies, bitterness, prejudice and false accusations. You never know when you’ll step in the wrong place and BOOM, you’re in trouble. This is a world where an awful lot of people are hurt very badly. Look at the way that Lebanon and northern Israel, parts of Iraq and Afghanistan are being devasted today. It can be awful intimidating. It can make you want to lock the door and never come out. It can make us feel as if the world is hopeless and nothing can change.
When we are faithful to proclaim the gospel of peace, we are like those crews that clean out all those terrible mines. The gospel of peace brings reconciliation in the place of hostility. It replaces selfishness with servanthood. It replaces bitterness with forgiveness. It replaces lies and deception with the truth. The more faithfully we proclaim this gospel, the less ammunition the devil will have to cause harm.
The gospel of peace can change our world. The prophet Isaiah described Jesus as “the Prince of Peace.” And that he is! The Bible talks about the good news of Jesus Christ as not just some words written on a page, but as living words, alive, able to cut like a two-edged sword through the lies and mixed motives around us, bringing the truth out into the light. The gospel is like seed that a farmer plants and will some day produce a crop . The prophet Isaiah said that once it has been sent out it will not return without having accomplished its purpose . It's a living word. It changes things.
So many people have no vision of any other world except the way it is now with all its foolishness. It's the only life they can see so it's the only life they will live. And if we sit on the good news of Jesus Christ, keep it to ourselves, nothing will change. As Edmond Burke said, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." When that happens we just abandon the battlefield for the devil to do with it whatever he wants.
But God offers us the readiness to proclaim the gospel of Christ. Mohammed rode into Mecca on a war horse, with a sword in his hands. Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a colt, with tears in his eyes. Our world needs to meet this Jesus. We are to present to the world a new vision, a new hope. This part of the armor goes on our feet so that it gets us going, moving forward, carrying his light into the darkest places. And when the light of the gospel shines in the darkness, the lies and accusations and tricks of the devil lose their power. Light conquers darkness every time. Do we believe that? Light conquers darkness every time.
Some of us can be fairly articulate our faith. We have wrestled with the basic issues. We can explain why we have chosen to live for God and rejected other ways. We have opened our hearts for God's light to shine inside of us and we have experienced personally the healing and renewing that it brings about. And some of us can talk about those things openly and clearly. And when you do, those who hear you may well start seeing the world in a different light. You can plant seeds of truth in their hearts that will some day sprout and bear fruit.
Several years ago I started getting e-mail messages from an old friend who had become a Christian through our ministry when Kathy and I lived in Nepal. We had lost touch with each other and then she found my e-mail address on the internet. And several times she has mentioned things that I told her, 20 years before, that have stood with her and guided her through her Christian life. She even went home to Nova Scotia and started her own Christian fellowship group. God's word is a living word. It's powerful.
Jesus talked about the kingdom of God as being like yeast. Rub it in and it spreads and changes the whole lump of dough. It happens quietly. It happens gradually. But the yeast can really do it.
The United Methodist Church, our denomination, has been in decline for 40 years. In 1968, when the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethern Churches merged to form the United Methodist Church, we had a total membership of over 12 million in the United States. While the overall population of the country has grown, our membership has declined, from 12 million to 9.7 million. That’s a decline of 2.3 million members. That hurts! For close to a century, Methodists held steady at comprising about 1 out of every 18 Americans. Today it’s about 1 out of 30. We’re going backwards. And I’ve read enough articles and books on this that I could probably put together quite a long list of reasons that have contributed to the problem. It isn’t simple. But I think the number 1 problem is that we are in a battlefield in bare feet. We have failed to proclaim the gospel to our world. We have gotten so confused that we often don’t even know what the gospel is, who Jesus Christ is, or what we are on this earth to do. And without those solid foundations, we’re losing a battle that we used to win.
I once had one of my own members tell me that United Methodists preach the gospel by their works and not their words. John Wesley might turn over in his grave if he heard one of his Methodists say that. He always insisted on having two wings on the airplane, works and words, personal holiness with social involvement, the whole gospel.
Most people wouldn’t say it as openly as that one member said it to me, but it’s often the way Methodists operate.
Sometimes the simplest things will set a tone around you. Leave a Bible visible in your workplace. Mention something about what your church means to you. Tell someone you will pray for them when they are going through a rough time. Hang a calendar on the wall with Bible verses on it. It will set a tone. It's like gangland graffiti. Gangs use graffiti to stake out their territory, to tell their enemies to back off. We're not trying to get rid of anyone or threaten anyone. But when we stake out God's territory people see it. They may cleanup their language a bit. They may clean up the way they treat other people. They may turn their hearts towards God a little more. It may make it a little harder for the devil to keep operate in their lives.
The good news of Jesus Christ is powerful. We can live differently. Our sins can be forgiven. The barriers that divide us can be broken down. There is a new kind of life, of love and respect, in the presence of God. It's a living word, its good seed. All we have to do is get it out into the world. And so Paul tells us to put on our feet whatever will make us ready to proclaim this gospel of peace.
Why did Paul pick the shoes to represent this readiness? Because the gospel doesn't go out unless we have our feet moving. It doesn't go out while we sit at home watching TV. It doesn't go out when we keep our thoughts to ourselves. It doesn't go out when we give in to fears of those who are different from us.
So God calls us to be ready. We may feel like we have to wait until we have all the answers, until our lives are perfect, until the kids are older, until we feel more confident, until we are more financially secure, until we feel like we have more to offer to God. But God doesn't really need so much from us.
God doesn't need great ability from us. The only ability he needs from us is availability, that we'll just be ready to go when he tells us.
You can't steer a ship until its moving forward. When our heals are dug in and we refuse to move, even God can't change the world through us. So he calls us to get ready, to put on our feet the readiness to proclaim the gospel of peace.
As we come to the front in a few minutes to receive communion, please ask God if there is a situation where he wants you to plant seeds of his word or to shine some of the light of God's ways. Tell him that if he sends you you'll go. And you he can use even you to make a difference. AMEN
