Covered

Text: Eph. 6:10-20 Title: Covered
8/23/09 Clarksville

Paul’s metaphor works in a military town. For us, war isn’t analogy, it’s reality. Every day we see soldiers on the ground and helicopters in the air. Every Sunday we gather alongside men and women who have spent time in jungles and deserts, heard guns fire and felt the ground shake. We have folks who have been shot down (WW II, Adriatic Sea, Frank Evans), and shot up. People who have held dying soldiers in their arms (Rob Kielly); earned Purple Hearts (Lou Louzensky, Don Kabrich), and had their hearts broken because to them casualty lists are not just numbers, they are names- names they know.

Maybe that puts us in a unique position to appreciate Paul’s image of warfare.

I’m sure the issues surrounding war have always been complex, but in wars past, it was a lot easier to identify the enemy. All you had to do was check the uniform. In the Civil War, Blue vs. Gray. The colors said it all. In WW I& II it was colors and symbols, flags and swastika’s. But in recent wars it’s become much more difficult. The enemy may or may not wear a uniform. He might be a she, or a kid, or someone who looks like your grandmother.
On the other hand the element of surprise has been around for a long time. Jesus told us to watch out for wolves in sheep’s clothing. 500 years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Chinese military leader Sun Tzu wrote "The Art of War." Among his observations - "All warfare is based on deception." (e-mail from Dr. Eddie Estep) Guerilla warfare goes way back.
In Eph 6 the enemies are even harder to identify. They don’t wear uniforms or have colors. They aren’t even human! Yet these powers, authorities and spiritual forces pose a constant threat. In the world of spiritual warfare, the alert color is always red. A life of grace and truth, righteousness and peace - it has enemies. I want Paul to be specific, name them, identify them, but he doesn’t. That may be because the spiritual forces of evil are constantly finding new faces, places, and forms. We wrestle not against flesh and blood.

Our teenagers witnessed some of the handiwork of the rulers and powers on their trip to Chicago. When the powers are at work, they bring things like poverty and despair with them. They leave compassionate people feeling helpless and the impoverished feeling hopeless. We wrestle not against flesh and blood.

What are these spiritual forces? They are corrupted political systems that produce injustice instead of fighting it, which is why citizens starve in the same countries where bureaucrats get fat. They are systems that seem to have a way of corrupting anyone who gets attached to them. We wrestle not against flesh and blood.

Who are these powers? They are greed and lust. They create victims and victimizers who in reality are all victims of these death-dealing forces of evil. While these spiritual forces that cause physical harm may find a home in the flesh of some people, we wrestle not against flesh and blood.

They are demons of addiction that destroy the spirit by way of the body. We wrestle not against flesh and blood.

The powers cause prison populations to swell and the pornography industry to flourish. They take the faces of death and disease and look like cancer wards that are full and funeral homes that stay busy. They are invisible viruses that eat away the human soul like a worm eating a hard drive. We wrestle not against flesh and blood.

These spiritual forces, they are ideologies of evil like racism and terrorism. They attack the mind, twisting, distorting and perverting our perceptions of ourselves and each other. They aren’t tangible but the destruction they bring certainly is. We wrestle not against flesh and blood.

They are systems and structures foreign and domestic. They’re “the bank” in Stienbeck’s depression-era “Grapes of Wrath” that devours homes and families like an animal with an insatiable appetite. There are dozens, hundreds, hundreds of thousands of rulers, authorities, powers and spiritual forces waging war in the heavenly realms. The life of grace and truth, righteousness and peace has enemies. We wrestle not against flesh and blood.

But there’s a lot of Good News in this Scripture too. For starters, Paul’s expectation (God’s expectation) is when it’s all said and done, we won’t be needing a body bag. We will still be standing. Not lying down, standing. Not staggering, standing. Not slouching, standing. “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God… so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.”

There’s a reason for this expectation. All the places we are most likely to take a hit are covered. Our integrity - belt of truth; our hearts - breastplate of righteousness; our minds - helmet of salvation; our feet which have to do with our direction in life - gospel of peace. God has us covered - literally, from head to toe. And here’s the best part … Check this out:

Belt of truth (I am Way, the Truth, and the Life Jn 14:6); helmet of salvation ( give him the name Jesus, for He will save his people from their sin, Matt. 1:21; Ps. 118:13 The Lord is my joy and song, he has become my salvation.”), breastplate of righteousness (Jehovah Tsidkenu, Jer. 23:6 the Lord our Righteousness; hymn we sang earlier “dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne”), shield of faith (the Lord is my shield -Ps. 91; Ps. 28:7; Ps. 3) gospel of peace (Judges 6:24Then Gideon built an altar there unto the LORD, and called it Jehovah shalom -the Lord is Peace.)

We may be in a battle against rulers and authorities, powers and spiritual forces of evil, but God has us covered, from head to toe, with… HIMSELF. [I had never seen this before John Renken gave me a new take on this text.] It’s as if God is saying “Put me on. I’ll cover you. I’ll protect you like a suit of armor.”

If we have in our minds a picture of a solitary soldier it’s not the right picture. Listen to v. 17-18 in “The Message”: God's Word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other's spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out.” Spiritual enemies must be faced with spiritual weapons.

7:00 Monday morning I got a message on Face Book from a sister who was concerned about a friend who lost her husband a week before he was supposed to come home from Afghanistan. We wrestle not against flesh and blood and spiritual enemies have to be met with spiritual weapons. Pray for your brothers and sisters.

Monday night about 9 I got a text from a brother who was under it The powers were working him over. He was getting caught up in the machine and if he was going to keep standing, he needed help. We wrestle not against flesh and blood and spiritual enemies must be met with spiritual weapons. Pray for your brothers and sisters.

Tuesday I talked to a brother who had been getting his tail kicked by the enemy, probably because when the fight was on, he’d been going at it solo. That didn’t work too well. Never does. That’s one thing about what Paul says here. If we’re going to make all kinds of requests, it helps to know what some of them need to be about. That means we have to know each other’s battles well enough to be supportive when the heat is on. We wrestle not against flesh and blood and spiritual enemies have to be met with spiritual weapons. Pray for your brothers and sisters.

Wed. call from sister. Her husband’s cousin in Chicago died, niece in Jacksonville slurred speech and they don’t know why. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, and spiritual enemies have to be met with spiritual weapons. Pray for your brothers and sisters.

Right now you’re sitting near a brother/sister who is in a battle, and it’s not against flesh and blood. Spiritual enemies have to be met with spiritual weapons. As Christ covers us with Himself, He calls us to cover each other in prayer. I’d like you to find a partner (same sex) and spend a couple minutes sharing, and praying for each other
Take time for prayer .

Communion: In Jn 17 Jesus prayed that we would be one. Maybe that’s partly because He knew how much we’d need each other. We’re not an army of one, but we do make up one army. One army covered by one Lord, with one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is in all, through all, and over all.” I Cor 10:16-17 “Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we who are many, are one body (one army), for we all partake of the one loaf.”

Benediction: Eph. 6:10-13