PLAY OFFENSE: USING THE WORD


*An old Nazarene preacher by the name of Bud Robinson is reported to have prayed the following prayer each day, “O Lord, give me a back bone as big as a saw log and ribs like the sleepers under the church floor. Put iron shoes on my feet and galvanized breeches on my body. Give me a rhinoceros hide for skin and hang up a wagon load of determination in the gable-end of my soul. Help me to sign the contract to fight the devil as long as I’ve got a tooth – and then gum him until I die.”

*Now, that is playing offense against evil! Are we equally of a mind to battle against evil?

*Paul’s words here at the end of Ephesians are a reminder that the reality of evil in the world is indisputable. The force of evil, whether we think of it as personal, in the sense of the devil, or whether we think if it in more general terms as simply any force or influence that draws us away from God, is tangible and real in our world.

*The battle Paul describes is for our soul. It is a battle over our thoughts and our actions. It is a battle for how we are to live. Will we live with our eyes and ears open and be on guard against the power of evil, or will we live in denial; putting our heads in the sand hoping for the best? Evil wants us to think it isn’t real, to underestimate it, to let down our guard. Yet the reality of evil and its power is overwhelming. For example:
1.    Our cruel inhumanity to each other is evidence enough that evil is real.
2.    Macro terms/ a history of genocides and unspeakable cruelty
3.    Micro terms/ physical and sexual abuse of women, children – even infants.
4.    Some women desire children so badly and do not conceive. Others seem almost oblivious to their children, yet produce child after child.
5.    The married father of three young children dies of an inoperable brain tumor, while an immoral rascal who has never married lives to 95.
6.    One person is honest and hard working, and never earns enough money to breathe easy each month, while another is deceitful and lazy and somehow fortune comes.

*Life is not fair in so many ways. As Rabbi Kushner said over thirty years ago, “Bad things do happen to good people.” There is the presence and power of evil in the world. Let us not be deceived.

*Paul’s exhortation here in chapter 6 is for Christians to confront the reality of evil head on; to live realistically, and not in denial. Let us not be deceived sin is REAL. Moreover, there is our personal sin and then there is the supra-personal sin that transcends us and surrounds us.

*In these verses we Christians are encouraged to battle against evil, in all its various and nefarious forms. We are not accustomed to thinking of our discipleship in terms of violence and war, so Paul’s militaristic images are jarring and startling. Nonetheless, Paul’s images are drawn from an image that his original audience would’ve been quite familiar with: the Roman soldier in full battle dress.
•    Battle dress of the day included the battle girdle, from which body plates would have been attached.
•    Boots to protect the feet and allow soldiers to walk through dangerous areas with their feet protected.
•    A shield to deflect the spears, arrows, and swords of the enemy.
•    A helmet to cover the head from projectiles and blunt trauma
•    And finally, a sword. The only offensive weapon Paul highlights.

*The overall image he wants us to grasp is a warrior outfitted for battle; a warrior ready to confront a real enemy.
1.    Throughout Ephesians Paul has spoken of Christ’s glorious and total victory over sin. In many ways the point of the letter itself is to say that in Christ, God has spoken decisively. God’s victory is won! It is a message of triumph!
2.    Christ’s victory on the cross and the victory of the empty tomb assure us that in an ultimate sense evil is not stronger than God. God will not allow evil to win. Death has been defeated!

*However, Paul also understands that while Christ is risen and his victory is total and complete, we are still here! The war is over, but battles rage on! We are still in the world. And so is evil. So, Paul poses the question:
•    Are we ready for it?
•    Do we know how to battle against evil?
•    What tools, or weapons, are at our disposal?
•     It is in this context that Paul employs the image of the battle dress of a Roman soldier. 
•    His point is clear: Christians are called to face the threat of evil head on. We are called to battle evil!

*Even so, the reality of evil is not something we like to acknowledge. It makes us edgy. In our world, it is our human proclivity to soften the edges of truth.
1.    We prefer to think that if only we could better educate people – our social ills would disappear.
2.    We prefer to think that if only we could eradicate economic injustice in the world, then people would be open, honest, and fair.
3.    We prefer to think that we can social engineer solutions to society’s problems.

*Regardless of whether we consider ourselves politically conservative or liberal, all of us here this morning are the result of a liberal society. Democracy in classical terms is by definition a liberal movement. So, in classical and historical terms we are all liberals. One outgrowth of a liberal society is the temptation to place a lot of trust in progressive humanist; thought that is intended to fix the ills of the world.

* HOWEVER, we have learned in the modern and now postmodern era that classical liberal thinking overlooks something that is critically important: Sin. Because sin is present in the world, and always will be, so is evil. Accordingly:
•    We cannot educate away evil.
•    We cannot eliminate human deceit and venality through a level economic playing field.
•    We cannot build an anthropologically “better mouse trap” if you will, or develop more advanced social engineering and erase the ills of society.
•    All of these things are great goals in and of themselves. Education is good. Economic justice is a worthy, and scripturally based goal for us.
•    More advanced understanding of human relationships is a good thing and benefits everyone.

*But, none of these things actually gets at the real problem. Evil still lurks around. You see, all of these things are defensive actions. They are reactions. They are reactive not proactive! The real problem of evil is sin.
•    The only way to battle sin is by claiming God’s Word.
•    The only way to play offense against evil is to use God’s Holy and enduring Word.
•    Evil may indeed be supra-personal, but at the same time it is certainly not less than personal. Evil is present in you and me. We cannot beat it until we acknowledge it!
•    Paul’s word to us is to battle against that evil in us and around us by using the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God!
•    Verse 17 reads, “Take the helmet of salvation, AND THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT, which is the WORD of God.”

*Classical liberal thinking is essentially defensive and reactive in character. Remedy this ill. Address that problem. Overcome the deficiency. However, God calls us to play offense. To engage evil at its root – God calls us to battle against sin.
1.    The only way to engage and battle sin is to draw the sword of God’s Word.
2.    We are called to allow God’s word to shape us and form us, and define us.

*As we consider the world around us and how we should live out our lives, what forces inform us and ground us?
1.    Human learning and wisdom? They have their place but ultimately are inadequate.
2.    Considering the challenges of today, the breakdown of morality, the decay of family life, the slow ebbing away of traditional values such as humility and modesty, do we turn to the solutions of the world? More education. Changing expectations. Relativism Etc.
3.    Or, do we cling tenaciously and resolutely to God’s word? Do we anchor our thoughts and actions in accord with the 10 commandments and Jesus’ ethics revealed in the Sermon on the Mount?


*Today, we have commissioned our education leaders for 2009-2010. What do we hope they will do as they teach?
•    Teach the content of the faith: names, places, events, etc.
•    But in a deeper sense, we hope they will help shape and nurture our children, youth, and adults worldview so that God is at the center of their lives.
•    We want to nurture and nourish relationships that are grounded in God’s Word

*To do this is to play offense. It is to create and nurture relationships grounded in God’s Word. When we understand ourselves as children of God, claimed by God and redeemed of our sin through the victory of the cross and empty tomb, then, and only then, can we truly battle against the evil of this world.
•    The only truly effective weapon we have against the power of evil is God’s truth revealed in God’s Word!

*May it be God’s Word that informs us, shapes us, defines us, and empowers us to battle against, “…the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

*So may it be for us. Amen.

Reverend Marc V. Mason
Trinity Presbyterian Church
August 23, 2009
Travelers Rest, SC