Sermon 19th November 2017

Today, our preacher is Assistant Minister, Gill Tayleur, and the reading is from Ephesians 6: 10 -18

The Armour of God

An elderly gentleman was invited to some old friends for dinner one evening. He was impressed by the way his host preceded every request to his wife with endearing terms- Honey, My Love, Darling, Sweetheart, etc. The couple had been married almost 70 years, and clearly they were still very much in love. While the wife was in the kitchen, the man leaned over and said to his host, "I think it's wonderful that, after all these years, you still call your wife those loving pet names." The old man hung his head.  "I have to tell you the truth," he said, "I forgot her name about 10 years ago."

That made me laugh because my memory certainly isn’t what it used to be – I’m only 56! And here’s another effect of becoming more mature: time really does seem to speed up! So here we are in mid November already, and we’ve come to the end of this term’s sermon series. Next Sunday is one on which all ages Worship Together & then we’re into Advent! We’ve spent 8 Sundays looking at Paul’s letters to the Colossian & Ephesian Christians, and thinking about how they are relevant to us today. We’ve heard, and thought, about some big important ideas: Salvation, God’s grace, the importance and centrality of Jesus Christ and the vastness of his love. What all that means for how we behave, how we relate to one another, with humility, forgiveness, and LOVE. We’ve thought about prayer, about our calling as Christians & as church, and about unity. Lots of food for thought, and for changed hearts, minds and lives, hopefully!

Well today we get to the last instalment in this series, with the passage from Ephesians we just heard, about “the armour of God”. It’s about equipment to help us to live the Christian life. In it Paul describes the struggle, the battle, that the church and Christians are in, against evil, against what he calls the devil’s schemes.

Now before we go any further, I had better say I do believe what the Bible says about the devil as a real being, a created but rebellious fallen angel who is constantly fighting against God and those who follow him. The existence of the devil is too big a subject to tackle in depth this morning, but I hope that whatever your view on it, you can see the existence of evil in the world. We don’t have to look very far do we, just turn to a news website, turn on the television, open the paper, or indeed see our own anger, pride or selfishness run riot. So I hope you’ll recognise there is such a thing as temptation to do wrong, and a struggle between good and bad, in the world, and within us.

In this and other parts of the Bible, we find teaching of some serious and sobering truths about things that are evil

and even demonic, and of the battle between God’s goodness and that evil. We may not like to talk about it, or even think about it, but it’s real.

As CS Lewis says in the introduction to his famous book Screwtape Letters, most people prefer either to ignore the forces of evil altogether – to pretend they don’t exist, and to use cartoon images of a ‘devil’ with horns and hoofs as an argument to that effect, saying

“You can’t believe in that nonsense, so you can’t believe in a devil at all can you?” Or to take an unhealthy interest in everything evil or demonic, which can be just as bad in the long run.

What we have in today’s chunk of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, and what I believe is required again & again as Christians face the daily and yearly battle to live as a Christian, to live in God’s love, truth and new life, is a sober, realistic assessment both of the struggle we’re engaged in and of the weapons at our disposal. Theologian Tom Wright’s commentary describes the situation well. He says we may not often think of ourselves as being in a ‘struggle’ at all. Yes we find it difficult from time to time to practise our faith. We find it hard to forgive people, to resist temptation, to control our tongue, or temper, to pray regularly, to read our Bibles. But that’s all. We may never think that our small struggles might be part of a larger campaign. We’re like soldiers fighting in a fog; never seeing, and actually not knowing about, the others nearby in the same line of battle, let alone the other faraway places where the war is going on. In war, most front line soldiers don’t know very much about the rest of the war, only generals do. But they know that something is going on, and that their bit is part of a larger whole. And that’s the perspective every Christian needs to maintain as we hold our bit of the line against attack.

And holding out against attack is what this passage is about. The weapons are mostly defensive,

and Paul describes the aim as to withstand attack so that we’re still standing up, on our feet, at the end of the day. So what are these defensive weapons then?

First, truth. The Christian message is true – and if it isn’t, it’s meaningless. It isn’t true  because it works; it works because it’s true. Let us never lose sight of the sheer truth of the gospel. The truth of Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection. The truth of his teaching.

And the new life he can bring! The truth is like a belt that holds everything else together and in place.

I sometimes find it helpful to declare or to remind myself out loud of truths, even or especially when I’m struggling to believe them. Truths like: I am a much loved and forgiven daughter of God. That’s the truth, regardless of how I feel or what has gone wrong or how I’ve messed something up. Yes I’m a sinner but a beloved, forgiven one. Or I declare the truth that I’m called to serve and worship God, and that he equips us for what he wants us to do. (Trevor spoke about these truths last week.)Or perhaps the truth that God can be trusted, he is faithful, his love is never ending, not in depth nor in time. (Ben drew our attention to the truth about God’s love a couple of weeks ago.)The truth that God has given us new life, and we’re to live in new ways, like putting on new clothes, as Adrian spoke about. That nothing can separate us from the love of God, as Simon recently reminded us.

And so on. Recognising and refuting lies, about God, about ourselves, about life, and replacing them with the truth, is something I find really helpful. So hold on to the truth – and let the truth hold on to you! Like a firm belt.

Second, righteousness. This is likened to a breastplate, protecting our vital organs. What does righteousness mean? It’s the fact that the one true God is the one true judge who intends to put the whole world to rights, and us to a right relationship with him. He does this by a process that has begun in Jesus’ death and resurrection. This fundamental righteousness and goodness of God, and the status Christians have of being in the right before him

because of Jesus, is like a breastplate, protecting us from the frontal attack of being incapacitated by condemnation, self hatred or shame.

Third, the gospel of peace. The message of peace between us and God, and peace between hostile people. The enemy will do all he can to knock us off our feet, to sow seeds of discord, disagreement and disunity. But holding fast to this message of peace will make us ready and steady, to stay upright, like good shoes or boots would do. And motivate us to carry on spreading this message, by our words and our lives, even when we are discouraged, weary or hopeless. Let’s keep our boots on and tightly laced up!

Fourth, the shield of faith. A Roman shield was large and covered with leather, which could be soaked in water and used to put out flame tipped arrows. Belief in Jesus as the risen Lord, and utter loyalty to this Jesus, will protect us when the enemy hurls flaming arrows at us. Those arrows may take the form of doubt or despair, or temptation. They may be adverse circumstances or personal tragedy. Or they may be even the kind of triumph that tempts you to arrogance and pride. Believing loyal faith will quench them all.

Fifth, the helmet of salvation. Knowing that we already belong to the family of the risen Saviour, and that we have therefore already been rescued from the ultimate enemy, enables us to face all attacks. We must wear this helmet always, to protect us from the temptation to doubt and waver.

And that leaves one more piece of armour, the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. By the ‘word of God’, Paul couldn’t have meant the whole Bible, as at that point most of the NT hadn’t yet been written. Commentators suggest he meant the same ‘word’ he referred to a few paragraphs earlier in ch 5 v 26: the word of the gospel, the truth about Jesus, through which God accomplishes his powerful, cleansing work in people’s hearts and lives.

So, for us today, what is this battle, and what are we to do about it? Paul clearly supposes that the forces of evil that put Jesus on the cross have been seriously upset by the victory of the resurrection. They are now positively panic- stricken at the thought that this message of Jesus challenged their power & authority, and that Christian individuals & communities are evidence of God’s sovereign power and of their imminent destruction. They’re therefore doing all they can to oppose this Gospel and Gospel people, to distract, depress or throw them off course.

Sometimes the attack will take the form of actual authorities who try to prevent Christians from spreading the message of God’s saving love. Sometimes it will take the more oblique form of persuading Christians to invest time and energy in irrelevant side issues, or to become fascinated by distorted teaching. Sometimes it will be simply the age old temptations of money, sex and power.

So however it opposes us, what we as individual Christians and as church need to do is, is first to recognise that attacks are coming. Second to learn to put on the complete armour which God offers. And so third to stand firm and undismayed.

I’m not saying this is easy. It’s hard. Hard to stay faithful to God and his truth, where we work, where we live, in our everyday lives. But we have one more weapon, the final one, and the only entirely offensive (rather than defensive) one - prayer.

Paul says, “Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” And he goes on to ask them to pray for him, that he’d carry on telling people the good news the gospel about Jesus, and declare it fearlessly. So, having begun his letter to the Ephesians in chapter 1, with an extended prayer, and then an extensive report of his own prayer for the young Christians in the area, he now finishes it with the urgent request that they join him in praying.

At one level prayer is a mystery. Nobody quite knows ‘how it works’, and this not knowing seems to be part of the point. But it remains a genuinely practical thing to do. One of the great Christian leaders of the 20^th century Archbishop William Temple, said that he noticed that when he prayed, “coincidences” happened. And when he stopped praying, “coincidences” stopped happening. Of course, he didn’t really think they were coincidences; he believed prayer worked. He believed it was how God worked. And Paul certainly believed the same thing. He knew that the prayers of the young inexperienced Christians he was writing to, are every bit as powerful as those of a seasoned apostle. So their prayers for him were just as important as his for them.

Hmmm. Prayer - prayer is hard work. First, getting round to it – you wouldn’t believe how many things can seem more urgent or appealing than prayer – your find this too perhaps?!

I quote Tom Wright again: “Prayer can’t be reduced to a few moments of sleepy meditation at the end of a day, or a few snatched moments at the beginning. (We must of course add quickly that that would be better than nothing, but only in the same way that a piece of stale bread is better than no food at all, but nowhere as good as a proper meal.) Paul insists that you’ll need to stay awake and keep alert if you’re to engage properly in prayer.”

You may remember Adjoa’s lovely challenge to pray for foundational guidance, to look for answers to prayer, and sharing her own experience of this? And some people keep a notebook of prayers and their answers.

Well however we go about it, let’s pray pray pray!

On our own, in a small groups – there’s a flyer about the opportunities to meet during the week for friendship, reading the Bible together and prayer, at the back. Pray about the individual stuff going on in our lives, in our homes, our relationships, our work, our community, city and world – there are SO many things to pray about!

And let us pray for one another in church, for our parish. As has been said several times in this series over the past couple of months, and in our all age talks, St Paul’s and St Saviour’s here in the Parish of Herne Hill is in transition. Our last beloved vicar Cameron has moved on, we’re in an in between phase, we’re looking to a new vicar coming to lead us next year. The advert is currently out, so let’s pray about who applies and for wisdom for all those involved in the selection process. The next chance to do so together at a special Parish Prayers is on Thurs 30^th November in the evening.

So, in the middle of the challenges in our parish life, and in all the stuff going on in our own lives, this morning let’s look to God,

and let’s stand firm in the face of attack, let’s be clothed with truth, righteousness, salvation, faith, peace, looking to the Holy Spirit and God’s word the Bible, and let’s pray! So let’s do that now, as we sit...

Remembrance Sunday, 12th November 2017

Today, one of our Lay Readers, Trevor Tayleur, preaches. The reading is from Ephesians 4: v 1-7  

Live up to Your Calling!

There’s a well-known story about Groucho Marx, the famous American comedian. He was persuaded by a friend to join a Hollywood club. But he didn’t like club life, and, after a few months, he dropped out. The club was disappointed to lose him, and wanted to know why he was resigning. Its membership secretary wasn’t satisfied with his original explanation – that he just didn't have time to participate in the club's activities. He must have another, more valid reason, he felt.

"I do have another reason," Groucho wrote back promptly. "I didn't want to tell you, but since you've forced the issue, I just don't want to belong to any club that would have me as a member."

In today’s reading, Paul is encouraging harmony and unity in the church, and the church is a body that should be open to all. Sadly, that’s not always been the case, but if we heed what Paul said to the Ephesians, the church will indeed be a very welcoming place.

Paul gave the Ephesians advice on how to live in harmony and unity, advice that is still relevant to us today in London. Now of course Paul was writing nearly 2,000 years ago to Christians in Ephesus, the capital of the Roman province of Asia, some 1,600 miles away from where we are now. The people of Ephesus, at all levels of society, had a huge obsession with the supernatural. Now, in London today there’s some interest in the supernatural, the occult. A lot of people now mark Halloween, but interest in the supernatural is hardly mainstream; it’s not really part of the establishment the way it was in Ephesus. So separated by 2 millennia, 1,600 miles and a cultural chasm, how can what Paul wrote be relevant to us today?

We do, in fact, have a lot in common with the Christians of Ephesus. We both meet as people who believe that the God of the universe has revealed himself through Jesus who defeated all the forces of evil and death itself. The impact of God breaking into human history means that all these apparent differences fade and pale into insignificance. Ephesus was obsessed with the supernatural; London is obsessed with material things. As Christians our focus is on Jesus, not the current obsessions of society. So there is much that we can learn from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.

This morning’s reading marks the start of the second half of the letter. Some translations of the Bible start Chapter 4 with "therefore", indicating that Paul’s argument here follows logically upon the previous chapters. Paul has spent three chapters spelling out in glorious detail all that God has done for us, freely - by His grace. Now Paul reminds his readers of three basic things:

First, he reminds them of their calling and what it means.

Secondly, he gives them guidance on how to live up to their calling; and

Thirdly, he reminds them of the unity that they already have, and which they must guard with all their might.

Let’s start at the beginning with the Ephesians’ calling. In verse 1 Paul writes; “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” What then, was their calling? And what, indeed, is our calling?

Paul isn’t thinking about the different ‘callings’ or ‘vocations’ that different Christians may have; for example, to be a teacher, a nurse, a lawyer, a homemaker or a priest. Paul is referring to the even more basic calling of the gospel itself, the good news of Jesus.

And as we come to what is probably the midpoint of a vacancy, the time without a vicar, it’s an opportune moment to reflect on our calling. Five weeks ago, at the start of the Ephesians part of our current series, Adjoa reminded us of what we pray in the post-Communion prayer on Communion Sundays. We ask God to fill us with his power, to take us out into the world and by our thoughts and action to praise him and show his glory in the world. We ask God to send us out into the world in the power of Christ’s spirit to live and work to His praise and glory. It’s part of our calling to let other people share in Christ’s light, in his power, in the unimaginable power of God’s eternal fullness.

“Eternal fullness.” A key part of the calling we have is Christian hope. Jesus himself has conquered death through the resurrection, and we too can share in his victory. 

Four weeks ago, we looked at Ephesians 2 and saw that through God’s grace we’re saved from a life of self-centredness to a life based on God’s grace. We can’t save ourselves by our good works. No matter how hard we try, our efforts can never be enough. The faith we have is a gift of God, and another key part of our calling is to rely on God’s grace, the mercy God has shown us even though we don’t deserve it.       

And last week Ben encouraged us, in the words of Ephesians 3 verse 18, “to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know [Christ’s] love that surpasses knowledge…” Allowing Christ’s love to live in us is also a key part of our calling.

And this isn’t all that Paul says in the first three chapters. There’s so much more that it’s hard to summarise. We are going to be part of God’s new community – a community that starts in this life and will continue for all eternity.

Paul is very keen that his readers should live up to their heavenly calling. And one of the reasons for that is that as the disbelieving world sees God’s people, they should see something of the wisdom and love of God and of his plan for the world.

When I was a student in South Africa in the dark days of apartheid, there was a lot of discussion of the church as an alternative community. In contrast to the racial divisions that the apartheid regime forced on the country, the church should be a community embodying true Christian values. Of course, Herne Hill is very different to apartheid South Africa, but let’s not lose sight of the fact that part of our calling is to be distinctive, to show that we live by different values. Paul then goes on to give the Ephesians guidance on how to live up to their calling. So, what does he say?

Well, after the great build-up of the first three chapters, the answer is a bit anti-climactic. “Be nice to each other!” Of course, it’s a lot deeper than that, but Paul drills down on how the Ephesian Christians should relate to each other. In verses 2 and 3 he writes; “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”

The fact that relating well to each other within the church family fits with the amazing plan and amazing purpose of God emphasises the importance of good relationships.  Good relationships within the church express the unity that God has given us in Christ and shows that unity to a fractured world.

Let’s have a closer look at how Paul encourages the Ephesian Christians to build good relationships.  In verse 2, Paul urges them; “Be completely humble.” Negatively this means not being arrogant and not being harsh with other people. Positively we can say that this is the attitude we need to serve other people, to truly serve each other. It means recognising that we all fall short of God’s standards. Philip Yancey, a well-known Christian writer once wrote; “Christians get very angry toward other Christians who sin differently than they do.”  But the truth is that we all equally need forgiveness.

Just because we may have a more prominent role in the church doesn’t mean we’re more important. God loves us all equally. We have all been called by God to the same hope.

“Be…gentle;” Paul continues: “[B]e patient, bearing with one another in love.” This means compassion and self-restraint in how we relate to each other, abstinence from anger, harshness and revenge. If this sounds rather weak-willed, listen to the words of Tom Wright, a well-known biblical commentator: “Have you ever seriously tried to forgive someone who has wronged you? Have you ever seriously tried to be compassionate and patient? Have you ever tried to let Christ’s peace…be the reality around which you order your life? If you have, you’ll know it’s not easy. It takes serious prayer and real moral effort. And people who engage in that effort tend to be people who are also capable of taking difficult decisions and engaging in challenging activities in other spheres as well.”

Let’s be patient and forbearing in our relationships in church. Sometimes things will happen in church that annoy or upset us. At some event we might feel ignored or left out.  Do we make things worse by responding in kind and by storming off in a huff? Or do we act to limit the damage by being patient, as Paul would have us be? Let our aim be to bear with one another in love, persevering in the face of upsets and difficulties.

Paul has reminded the Ephesians, and us, of their calling and what it means. He has also given them, and us, guidance on how to live up to their calling through their relationships; and then he goes on to remind them of the unity that they already have, and which they must guard with all their might. Paul reminds us in verse 4, 5 and 6 that there is one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all. It’s very striking the way Paul puts it - this seven-fold repetition of ONE. It points to the sort of unity we should be displaying to the world. It emphasises what we as Christians have in common; there is much more that unites us than divides us. We’ve perhaps become too used to the divisions that exist in the world-wide church: between Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox, Pentecostals and others.  Paul emphasises the basic beliefs we all share and makes Christians distinctive.

I read an interesting article by Tim Stanley in The Daily Telegraph on 31 October, the 500^th anniversary of the events that started the reformation - and also Halloween. Stanley is a Catholic Christian and he wrote, “Protestants and Catholics were divided by theology. Now we're united by the fact that no one goes to church anymore.”

He also wrote about a visit to the graveyard of St Mary’s Church in Whitby, where Dracula bit Lucy in Bram Stoker’s novel of that name. “When I was at Whitby,” Stanley wrote, “I heard one school child say to another: “Who do you think would win a fight? Dracula or Jesus?” For all their differences, Catholics and Protestants both have a stake in that question.” Yes, indeed, we all have a stake in that question, because as fellow Christians we trust in Jesus as our Lord and Saviour.

I’ll conclude with some more words from Tom Wright again: “[W]e can’t pretend that [unity] isn’t a central and vital issue. Unless we are working to maintain, defend and develop the unity we already enjoy, and to overcome, demolish and put behind us the disunity we still find ourselves in, we can scarcely claim to be following Paul’s teaching.”

Let’s pray: Lord, help us to maintain the unity you have given us – to maintain that bond of peace with each other.  Help us to demonstrate your wisdom and love to a watching world. Help us to love each other, we pray. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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[i] 12 November 2017