The Bread of life for the 5th Sunday running But I want to go gain Off gospel And talk practical Everyday spirituality In fact I want To speak directly to To those instances when We find ourselves Feeling short On faith Those times when We are might be feeling Unworthy or Less THAN Ill-equipped To deal with life On life’s terms You may or may not Be feeling 1
Inadequate This morning. But wherever you are I direct you to the Set of instructions Paul’ gives to His friends in Ephesus. The ones about Putting on The whole Armor of God If you are feeling Under a siege of Some sort or another It might be Worth a listen Paul says If your power Isn’t getting it done Against whatever You are up against 2
Try this: Put on God Why don’t you, He says. Here’s the list: First fasten the Belt of truth Around your waist. Next Put on the Breastplate of Righteousness And that would be God’s righteousness Not ours While we are it Grab the Shield of Faith, And the Helmet of Salvation,
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If you are Now imagining Yourself as a Warrior dressing For battle All fired up to Go kill your enemies You might be Disappointed the The only armament Paul prescribes is: The sword of The Spirit, Which is Nothing less than The WORD of God. You see This war This battle that Paul is Preparing us for It’s not for 4
Traditional warfare That is: Humans battling Other humans To the death The goal is not that the Good guys end up Victorious Standing atop A pile of bodies No When Paul Speaks about “The wiles of the devil” And the “Cosmic power of Darkness” He’s taking aim at A spiritual enemy Our struggle is Against an 5
Invisible force Human bodies are mostly Cells, bones and blood With no mind of their own Our impulses are Driven by what Lurks in our hearts It’s inside of us That our demons Pull the strings That has been The truth for Me anyway: Most of my life’s struggles Have not been Against anyone A particular person or group My greatest battles Have been 6
In here (head and heart) Who is our worst enemy? We are It is in our own Minds and hearts Where the powers of darkness Has its way with us That’s why the Only armament Paul mentions is of The Spiritual variety And against this Spiritual enemy Paul encourages us To dress ourselves in God’s armor To put on Christ But this putting on The Armor of God This admonition to 7
Get “dressed up” In Christ It sounds so Superficial? It sounds like saying “If you want to Be a policeman, Go out get A police uniform, Put it on, And you will Be one.” Surely, being a Christian is More than simply Putting on “Christ clothes.” The negative connotation of “Putting on” is Rooted in the idea
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It’s wrong To be something We are not. But when Paul speaks of “Putting on,” He’s not talking About being Disingenuous or Pulling a fast one. I say that Because…? Who are we? We are people Who’s basic and Unchangeable identity is Found In God At the center of Our being 9
There is a spark Which belongs Entirely to God, Each of us are made In God’s image In Baptism we’ve Been anointed As God’s own But despite this We have trouble Living into Our identity as An example: At my ordination To the priesthood When the Bishop’s hands Were laid on my head, I officially Became a priest;
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But, truth be told, from That one moment To the next, I did not feel like I was a priest. It wasn’t that I was an imposter It just took time To live into my role For a time I had to Follow in the Other’s footsteps I had to keep “Putting on” the role Until I owned it. And so it is With faith Another Example: Some Sundays 11
We come to church Not feeling it, In those instances We are helped into Our Christ clothes By? By doing what We do every Sunday. That is: Saying the Assigned words Singing the hymns; Listening to the sermon. We do these things Acting as if‌ And often By service’s end We feel like a Christian once again.
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Earlier I referred to This sermon as Practical spirituality The truth is Some days we Wake up And all we’ve got Clanging around Inside of us is A lot judgment Or fear or anger On those days when It is appropriate and Even necessary to Using Paul’s words: To intentionally “Put on” Our Christ clothes. It might sound superficial But it’s a good metaphor 13
Because clothes They don’t Put themselves on By themselves Do they? No we have To put them on Here’s where Paul’s instructions might Really make us better If we are fearful We might Very intentionally Dress ourselves In the courage of Christ Put on some Garden of Gethsemane Courtage If we are feeling superior 14
We might cloak ourselves In the humility of Jesus The Jesus who washed His friends feet When feeling Inadequate, ill-equipped Put on the strength of The Almighty Put on those Christ clothes And then Act as if Act better than We might feel And gradually Bit by bit, In putting on The qualities of Christ We become a Semblance of 15
Him Sometimes it is in Dressing up In putting on A role That we become Who we are Sometimes it is In making believe That we Come to believe. Amen.
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