Getting dressed up We arrived in Cambodia on the morning of July 1, after a long flight across the Pacific Ocean, and with only minimal sleep. That very afternoon our son Elijah and our soon to be daughter-in-law Sina whisked us to a little garment shop somewhere in the maze of Phnom Penh. We had in hand the material Sina had found for Glena's dress, the dress she was to wear the wedding.
Sina, Glena and the shop owner thumbed through a few catalogues looking for the dress design that would be just right. They chose one, and then the seamstress went to work measuring Glena. It didn't take very long and when we were done she said, come back in a couple of days to try on the dress.
I think it was late on Thursday afternoon (the 3rd) that we made it back to the shop. Out came the dress and Glena carried it into the little dressing room. She came out and looked great except that the top needed to be zipped up in the back. The seamstress turned her around, grabbed hold of the zipper, and quickly zipped her up. In that moment I think all the air escaped from Glena's lungs.
She was standing there in a panic. "I can't breathe," she cried out. I probably said something eminently unhelpful about trying to relax and see if you can breathe. Again Glena said, "I can't breathe." Marilyn, Glena's sister, kept insisting, "she needs a good inch more!" "Take this off of me," Glena cried. Well, finally it came off and Glena could breathe again.
The next day I found a Cambodian shirt for five dollars in the market, and Glena went back to the dress shop. Now it fit just right. And so it was that we were all dressed up and ready for the wedding on Saturday.
It's rather what we were doing. We were getting ready, and finding the appropriate clothing, for the wedding. We had a special role to play, as parents of the groom, so we put on clothes deemed just right for the occasion.
Ephesians This morning's passage from Ephesians also has to do with getting dressed. In these climatic verses to the book Paul (or his protégé) summons the followers of Christ to stand triumphantly and defeat the forces of evil and death which surround them. It's stirring language. It seems to paint and either-or world. It's troublesome language. You can practically here the bugles sounding, the rolling drum beat, and the sound of canons in the distance.
The book of Ephesians appears to be a general letter to any number of Gentile churches. Unlike some of Paul's letters, it does not appear to be written in response to a particular problem. The writer seems to be past the Jew/Gentile dispute of former times. There's a call to unity and a forceful reminder that it is Christ who is our peace, and that Jesus came proclaiming peace to those who were far away, and to those who were near.
There is practical advice on living, to put to the side fornication, loose and vulgar talk, and greed. There's counsel on how to act within the home. And then, just before the final salutations, there is this final word: Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the wholearmor of God….
The writer goes on to describe this cosmic struggle we are engaged in. This is a struggle with rulers, authorities, the cosmic powers of this present darkness, and the spiritual dimensions of evil. And the tools for this struggle, this battle, are the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness (or justice, the Greek word can be translated either way), the shoes of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation (liberation), and the sword of the Spirit or word of God.
All this imagery straight from the battlefield probably owes more to the ``divine warrior'' image of the Older Testament, than it does to the writer glancing up and seeing a Roman soldier walk by. This passage particularly reminds of Isaiah 59. In this passage the Lord God is angry, upset by the injustice, the blood on the hands, the iniquity, the lies, the evil-doing, the lack of peace that characterizes the people. In this passage the ``divine warrior'' is described possessing the breastplate of righteousness (justice) and the helmet of salvation. The warrior is to exact vengeance though those who are repentant will be spared.
In the Old Testament the divine warrior fights on behalf of the people. But here in Ephesians the image as been reshaped, reformed. Now the people are called into action, called into ``battle,'' but emphatically NOT the kind of battle we are tempted and too often trained to expect.
This ironic ``battle'' For a long, long time, probably since the time when I was young and embraced the truth that Christians don't go to war, that we don't shed another's bloodthat passage has always been awkward to read. Why does Ephesians have to use such militaristic language? Couldn't another way be found? Obviously this is metaphorical language, but still, why?
A few things help me. We tend to read this, or see it read, out of a Western context where too often the church seems wedded to institutions of power and dominance. And so it seems all too easy to slip into what is, at its worst, a ``crusader'' mentality. But this passage reads differently if we understand its readers to be in the minority, likely oppressed and feeling themselves to be without any influence or power.
Tom Yoder Neufeld, in his fine commentary, says that we just must see the fundamental irony in this passage. The imagery of warfare is used, that is clear, and this warfare is against the cosmic "powers,'' the spiritual dimensions of evil, of which militarism itself is certainly one. Warfare imagery is used to illustrate the great struggle against militarism and other forces and powers that do exist.
As Christians we are called here to this cosmic battle but we remember, and the writer is very clear on this in verse 12, that our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh. The enemy is no less real, but it is not of blood and flesh. Our warfare is not against actually physical enemies.
Yoder Neufeld says that in the "armor of God,'' "divine warrior'' tradition (look at Isaiah 59 and the apocryphal Wisdom of Solomon 5) made clear that ``blood and flesh'' is the real enemy. But here that tradition is turned on its head. Blood and flesh are not the enemy though blood and flesh are under the control of the enemy. (Yoder Neufeld, p. 296)
The church is called to rise up and to stand against the real enemy, those who control "blood and flesh.'' These are the principalities and the powers, the spiritual dimensions, the authorities. To engage in this struggle (and again we feel this irony) we employ the tools of truth, justice, peace, salvation, faith and the Spirit. These are our, quote unquote, weapons.
Standing up to the powers, and dressing up for the occasion Let's state the obvious. We live in the world where bad, evil stuff goes on. Ephesians reminds us that we are engaged in a spiritual battle. (remember in verse 12: "the rulers, the authorities, the cosmic powers of this present darkness, the spiritual dimensions of evil'') This can be intensely personal as the individual wrestles against long entrenched patterns and habits.
But the struggle we are engaged in stretches far beyond the intensely personal. The words we use to describe these powers are systemic and structural. We give them names like economic disparities, militarism, sexism, and racism.
Think about it. Some people in our country and beyond have lived for generation upon generation under the weight of grinding poverty. At the same time others live blissfully well, even opulently well, and with seeming indifference. This isn't a result of just individual demons, this is structural evil.
We can't talk about this text without mentioning militarism, because this very text can be twisted and used by the state as a call to arms, to go out and do literal battle, knowing we are wearing the breastplate of God's truth.
How blind and inconsistent we can be. Our nation is understandably concerned by the potential proliferation of nuclear weapons in our world. I agree, I don't want any nation anywhere to acquire a nuclear weapon. But doesn't it seem remarkably arrogant, not to mention inconsistent, for any nation, including our own, to tell others not to have a nuclear weapon, when we have them ourselves? Wouldn't the advice of Jesus, to check out the beam in your own eye before you extract the speck in the other person's eye, apply here? But the system of militarism can do that to you, and its easy to just kind of assume that's the way it is, like it is normal, and let it go, but its not.
Maybe some systems can be rather mundane, rather ordinary. God wants us to be caring people, folks ready to go the extra mile. I think about it in practical terms. Maybe you are thinking, I ought to just volunteer down at the Nearly New store, or visit someone at Sierra View, or take someone some jam, or volunteer to tutor someone, or volunteer for the teen mom's program, or become a VORP volunteer, or commit myself to writing a card a week to someone. But then we think, wait, I have cook dinner, or I have to work and I'm tired, or I just need some down time. In other words, just the structures of life itself, our heavily schedule selves; can conspire to keep us from doing the good we know we ought to be doing.
Our struggle is against these systems, both big and small, and Ephesians reminds us that it is a spiritual struggle. This writer would tell us that we need divine strength and empowerment in this struggle for peace, justice, and salvation. And I deeply believe that we need to do exactly what we are doing right now, or whenever we get together, in gatherings big or small. It's critical to get together and sing in one voice "I will call upon the Lord'' and, O God, "guide my feet while I run this race cause I don't want to run this race in vain!'' O no I don't! We need the empowerment that comes through worship and prayer. This sustains us for the "battle'' we are in.
We are called to get up and go out. It's good to be in church, and I believe it is essential, but we can't stay here too long. We remember that we go out like Jesus, to teach, to touch, to heal, to save, to love enemies, and to be ready to suffer, and even die.
And we go out equipped, equipped with truthtelling around our waist and with justice across our chest. On our feet we wear the sandals of peace. Salvation is written across our caps and we live and speak the living Word.
And we do this in the name of our risen Lord, who loves us, and who will always be at our side.
