The Armor of God

August 26, 2018 Ephesians 6:10-20 The Armor of God 14th Sunday after Pentecost Year B Children’s Sermon Lesson: Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Key verse: 17. Object: A baseball cap Good morning, boys and girls. I brought a baseball cap of my favorite team with me this morning. (Show the cap.) How many of you like this team? (Let them answer.) What are your favorite baseball teams? (Let them answer.) I want to tell you a story about some friends who loved to play baseball. Are any of you in (the name may vary from community to community) T-ball/Pee Wee/Little League this summer? These friends weren't in a league. They just played often in their backyard. Each of the friends had a baseball cap of his favorite team. Each friend had a glove. Each friend had a bat. Each friend had a ball. Each friend had shoes. Each friend had a shirt of his favorite team. You can see that the friends were ready to play baseball. Before they played, each of the friends put on the clothes I just mentioned and had the proper equipment to play the game. When they had the proper clothes to play the game each felt ready to play. Each felt good about playing. Getting ready to play a game like this makes me think of this morning's lesson. The lesson tells us that as Christians we should put on the armor of God. (As you tell the next part go through the motions of putting the specific garment on your body as you talk.) Here's what this morning's lesson says: Fasten the belt of truth around your waist ... put on the breastplate of righteousness ... put on whatever (shoes) will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace ... take the shield of faith ... take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Now you know why this lesson makes me think of getting ready to play baseball. Here's what I want you to remember this week. Christians wear the same clothes as all other people. We don't put on helmets or carry swords. But we should be ready to help make our world a safe and peaceful place to live. We want to be good neighbors. We want to be honest with our friends. We want to share God's love with others. To do that we must be ready. The children playing baseball were ready to play after they put on their caps. Christians must be ready to share God's love by being ready to share it when it is needed. CSS Publishing Co., Ephesians 6:10-20 Common English Bible (CEB) Put on the armor of God 10 Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and his powerful strength. 11 Put on God’s armor so that you can make a stand against the tricks of the devil. 12 We aren’t fighting against human enemies but against rulers, authorities, forces of cosmic darkness, and spiritual powers of evil in the heavens. 13 Therefore, pick up the full armor of God so that you can stand your ground on the evil day and after you have done everything possible to still stand. 14 So stand with the belt of truth around your waist, justice as your breastplate, 15 and put shoes on your feet so that you are ready to spread the good news of peace. 16 Above all, carry the shield of faith so that you can extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is God’s word. 18 Offer prayers and petitions in the Spirit all the time. Stay alert by hanging in there and praying for all believers. 19 As for me, pray that when I open my mouth, I’ll get a message that confidently makes this secret plan[a] of the gospel known.20 I’m an ambassador in chains for the sake of the gospel. Pray so that the Lord will give me the confidence to say what I have to say. Footnotes: a. Ephesians 6:19 Or mystery Common English Bible (CEB) Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible I think that all of us were shocked a few weeks ago when the news reported that 76 people had been shot in one weekend in Chicago. As I read the reports this weekend it appears that 7 people had been shot. When I was in Englewood, I used to light a candle on the altar for everyone that had been shot that weekend. It got to the point when I would have to light a candle every week, because the violence was so prevalent. And as we continue to hear of these statistics, we struggle to explain what it going on. We struggle to find solutions to the problems. I saw on the news last night that there was a violence conference, were they have said that violence is a disease. The violence has been attributed to poverty and lack of jobs. We are all praying that the day will come when we will be able to address and stop violence not only in Chicago, but throughout the whole world. There are indeed explanations for many of the wounds of our world. There are many social ills in our world that need to be addressed and stopped. There is selfishness, greed, and cruelty everywhere. There are many explanations that we have for all of the things going on in the world. But we don’t talk about very much in church or anywhere else, is the underlying reason for violence. Ephesians tells us that we have to realize that there is evil in the world. We don’t like to dwell on the fact that the devil is real, and that the are real effects of the presence of evil in our world. People are getting hurt. People are making poor decisions that affect other people. I am not going to dwell on that point this morning, but there is a point in all of our lives when we realize that what we are fighting in life is beyond our understanding and explanation. but our experience will tell us that there is an active power of evil in the world. Robert Louis Stevenson once said: “You know the Caledonian Railway Station in Edinburgh? One cold, east windy morning, I met Satan there.” We do not know what actually befell Stevenson but we recognize the experience; we have all felt the force of that evil influence which seeks to make us sin. Ephesians says that what we are fighting in life is not people, but forces of darkness and spiritual evil in the heavens. But We are encouraged to fight and to stand up to those things. There is no way that we can totally eliminate the bad things that happen in the world. But we are told that as the faithful followers of Christ, that we can protect ourselves from the effects of these evil things. We are encouraged to put on the armor of God. The armor is not a physical helmet, breastplate, shoes or even a sword. It is the spiritual armor of truth, faith, peace,salvation and the word of God. If we rely on those things in our lives, then we are less likely to be affected by evil. Join the Winning Side! Jim Wallis writes that when the South African government canceled a political rally against apartheid, Desmond Tutu led a worship service in St. George’s Cathedral. The walls were lined with soldiers and riot police carrying guns and bayonets, ready to close it down. Bishop Tutu began to speak of the evils of the apartheid system -- how the rulers and authorities that propped it up were doomed to fall. He pointed a finger at the police who were there to record his words: "You maybe powerful -- very powerful -- but you are not God. God cannot be mocked. You have already lost." Then, in a moment of unbearable tension, the bishop seemed to soften. Coming out from behind the pulpit, he flashed that radiant Tutu smile and began to bounce up and down with glee. "Therefore, since you have already lost, we are inviting you to join the winning side." The crowd roared, the police melted away and the people began to dance. Don’t go away, Paul says. Put on your armor and dance. I am inviting you to join the winning side. John Ortberg, "Roll Call," article in The Christian Century, August 9, 2003, p.16. We are encouraged to be a part of the winning side – Christ’s side. It is interesting that the writer of Ephesians calls evil a ruler and authority. Usually when violence is used, it is used as a form of power over a person. There are 4 kinds of power talked about in the new testament. There is dunamis, like our word dynamite – which is a form of strength. There is kratos – like our word democratic – or ruling power, there is ischus – which is the power to influence others with your actions, The last form of power is energia – energy – which is the power of God. When we put on the armor of God, we are using the 4th type of power – God’s power. Ephesians tells us that the power behind the armor of God – faith, truth, righteousness, and peace – is prayer. We should take everything to God in prayer – waiting for an answer and a solution. I try to have a morning routine to start my day off. I try to exercise for 30 minutes, 30 minutes of devotion, 30 minutes of journaling and 15 minutes of prayer. I don’t do so well with the exercise everyday. But I try to be intentional about the prayer. The prayer makes a difference. I remember when I was at Our Saviour’s - I talked about needing to pray everyday, and the Christian educator said – I can tell the days that you have not done your prayer – you get pretty mean. I don’t know about that, but I know that it does make a difference in how I face the day. Prayer William Barclay, in his commentary, points out that the sign of the Christian is when he or she is eager to be on their way to tell the story of Jesus: his death, his resurrection and his ascension. This is the commitment of being a servant for the Lord. Barclay emphasizes that for servant ministry there are three conditions people must have in their prayer life: (1) Prayer must be constant. It is from daily prayer that we find daily strength and holy guidance. (2) Prayer must be intense. No beating around the bush. When you have a clear message from the Lord about a particular concern, be bold about your prayer life. Be the prayer warrior he has called you to be. (3) Prayer must be unselfish. We must learn to pray as much for others as for ourselves. We must seek a community of believers to pray with us and for us. Together we will know the wisdom of the Holy Spirit as it uses us to be a vehicle of servant ministry. Harry Denman, adapting William Barclay’s Commentary Pray to Gather Strength One time, some time ago, some army troops were participating in a military training exercise in the Mojave Desert. Jim Bolton was on a crew that became separated from the rest of the troops. One of the vehicles in their convoy had lost its traction and had come to rest at the edge of a sand cliff above a fifty-foot drop. The vehicle was hopelessly mired in the sand, and the soldiers in the unit tried to free it several times unsuccessfully. Meanwhile the rest of the company was getting farther away. After another fruitless attempt, when the troops were hot, tired and discouraged, the commander gathered the men together to pray. It seemed kind of out of place for a group of soldiers, and some of the group were uncomfortable with the idea. But after spending a few minutes in prayer, Jim remembers that everyone seemed refreshed. One last time they tried to free the vehicle from the sand, and this time they were successful. Jim doesn't know whether their prayer actually dislodged the vehicle from the cliff's edge or not. But when they took the time to pray, they had a chance to focus their attention on God, relax, and gather their strength. The greatest spiritual weapon we possess is prayer. We can turn to God in prayer at any time. And we can be assured that our prayers will be heard. King Duncan, www.Sermons.com So what is going on in your life? What is it that you need to pray about? We all face evil on some form or another each and every day. Ephesians teaches us that the armor of God is more than protecting us from death, it is what leads us to life. As we live, we can face everyday and everything with prayer. Lets pray. Other illustrations….. When Queen Victoria ruled in England, she had several daughters. And her daughters were just like girls are today. They went to school, and saw the latest fashions, and they wanted to wear their dresses just like the girls down the street. And so they'd come shouting to their mom, who just happened to be the queen of the British Empire. And they'd tell her they wanted to wear their clothes like this and their hair like that. And she stopped them short one day. She said to them: "You are the daughters of the Queen, And the Queen's daughters do not follow fads. They establish fashion!" You know you’ve crossed into some new station in your life when you visit the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art and realize as you are leaving that you completely skipped all the paintings. That’s right, the entire Renaissance wing just was not on the agenda. Suddenly it hits you: You are no longer a student, or a tourist, or an art lover. No, you are a parent of small, squirming children who need to see something big, and strong, and hard-hitting. So your museum tour was through the pyramids. Your museum circuit consisted of huge tombs and temples, the mummies and the caskets of ancient Egypt. But perhaps most importantly, you meandered through the mists of the medieval ages. This means rooms and rooms of ancient, awful-looking weaponry, and the Met’s huge collection of all types of “awesome” armor. There are over 15,000 pieces of ancient armor and weapons in the Metropolitan’s collection — dating from 400 BCE, through the heavily weighted years of medieval Europe, and including a huge collection of Japanese implements and armories, from the fifth through the nineteenth centuries. As you wander around the Museum complete coats of heavy iron armor stand at attention all over the place… God’s Armor There is a big difference between striving just not to die, and doing all you can to live a life of purpose and meaning. There are freeways, and factories, and families full of people who are just trying not to die. These people keep going to work, keep going on. But they don’t know why. Weekends and vacations become blurry, frantic “festivals” — parties devoted to trying to celebrate something other than the mere survival of another week, another season, another year. For Christians who feel the (enlightening) protective weight of “God’s armor,” there is a different goal: to “stand firm” and to “keep alert.” Christians recognize there are evil forces and genuine enemies. But Christians know that there is a protective layer of divine love that always offers the safety net of salvation. God’s armor does not so much keep us from dying as God’s armor keeps us alive — alive in Christ, alive to love, alive to hope, alive to peace. Leonard Sweet Don't Take It! Once I was standing in line at a Catholic mass for Holy Communion. The woman in front of me was holding her daughter. In that solemn and silent moment, as the priest recited the words, "receive the body and blood of Christ," her three-year-old screeched, "Yuck! Don't take it mom!" Laurie Manning

The Bread of Life

13th Sunday of Pentecost August 19, 2018 John 6: 51-58 Year B Children’s Time….. Exegetical Aim: Conveying the difference between natural bread and wine and the Bread and Wine used in communion. Props: A McDonald’s Happy Meal with a soft drink and the elements of Bread and Wine as your tradition uses them. Lesson: Good Morning. (response) Place the Happy Meal before the kids. Hide the elements of Communion, if you can.Guess what we are going to have today. (a happy meal) No, we are going to have Communion. Use your traditions common term for the Eucharist. What do you mean a happy meal? (response) This is not a Happy Meal this is Communion. Look, here is the bread right here and here is the drink. It even has a straw so everyone can get a drink. (response) I like my Communion with pickles, lettuce, tomato, and mustard. How do you like yours? (response) You mean this is not communion? (response) Why not? (response) Spend some time here exploring the children’s knowledge of the physical differences. If some are able to identify the spiritual differences acknowledge the comment in just a moment within the next discussion. Bring out the Elements. Is this what you mean? (response) Happy Meal: Who serves this meal? (McDonalds) And how much do we have to pay for it? (response) Holy Meal: And who serves this meal? (response) And how much do we have to pay for it? (nothing) Happy Meal: How many times do we have to eat this kind of food? (everyday) Holy Meal: How many times do we have to eat this kind of food? (once a week, month, etc) Actually, we only have to eat this food once. And when we do, we will live forever. Here at the church we eat this meal once a month to remind us of the Bread and Wine that Jesus gave us. You have eaten it and I have eaten it. So have your mom and dad, and brothers and sisters. We all will live forever because of it. Application: The difference between this food and this food is: This is a Happy Meal and this is a Holy Meal. This one comes from the earth but this one comes from Heaven. This is the food that God gives us. Without it we would all die. Let’s Pray: Father, you have sent us Bread from heaven. Help us hunger not after Happy Meals but after your meal which is holy. Amen. ChristianGlobe Network, Inc, Children's Sermons, by Brett Blair John 6:51-58 Common English Bible (CEB) 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” 52 Then the Jews debated among themselves, asking, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53 Jesus said to them, “I assure you, unless you eat the flesh of the Human One[a]and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 My flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in them. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me lives because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. It isn’t like the bread your ancestors ate, and then they died. Whoever eats this bread will live forever.” Footnotes: a. John 6:53 Or Son of Man Common English Bible (CEB) Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible There are some things in the bible, that just don’t make any sense. No matter how many sermons you hear about them, no matter how much you study them, no matter how many explanations you hear, it just doesn’t make any sense. This scripture is just one of those things that just doesn’t make any sense. Basically, Jesus is telling us to eat him and drink his blood. What does that mean? Why would he say something so strange. And more importantly, what is the explanation for this. It is sort of like the old prophet who lay on his sick bed surrounded by his closest followers. Those who followed, but couldn’t get close enough stood in the next room, and those who were not important, had to stand outside waiting for some wisdom. As he lay dying, those closest to him asked for a dying word. The man said – life is like a river. His closest followers held onto the important phrase, and passed it on to those in the other room. Those who were outside immediately asked what the prophet had just said. Life is like a river. One of the outsiders heard this and said this does not make any sense- maybe he could explain a little more. So the outsiders asked those in the other room, and those in the other room asked the insiders, and the insiders asked the prophet to explain this profound statement. The prophet thought about it for a minute – and said then again, life is not like a river. And then he died. Obviously John 6 is an important lesson, or else we would spend 6 weeks looking at it. But the more I study, the more I realize that no one really knows what Jesus is talking about. Many say that Jesus is inviting us to communion, where we eat the bread and body of Jesus, and argue that this is actually the bread and blood of Jesus. But as I have prepared for this text and read, I am not convinced of that. We get our words for communion from the Corinthian text, and every gospel has a story of Jesus eating his last meals with the disciples. Every gospel besides this one – John. As a matter of fact, many scholars wonder if this was not Jesus words, but the words of the church as they were trying to get members to understand communion. These words of eat my body sounds really gross to us, but to the original audience, this would have made a lot of sense. There were a lot of religions that practiced animal sacrifice. You would have bought your animal to the temple, some of the meat would have been burnt, but most of it would have been eaten. You would have eaten the meat sacrificed to the God, and felt God’s presence and felt that God was in the meat, thus God was in you. And felt more powerful and engaged in life because you had eaten a part of God. I also suspect that Jesus said a lot of things to intentionally make his own culture mad at him. When we says drink my blood the jews would have been grossed out – you don’t drink blood because it contains the life force of God. First of all they did not touch blood at all, and second of all you don’t put yourself equal to God. Another explanation of this text is that Jesus realized how important it is for us to eat a meal. In getting close to God, we pray, we sing, we serve, we give – but we also eat. Some of the most important parts of our life revolve around a meal – weddings, funerals, church fundraisers, family gatherings – you know that you are going to get something to eat. If you want people to come to your function what do you do – you feed them. Eating is an important part of life. Jesus is saying if we want to get a glimpse of heaven – we have to eat him as bread and blood. Bread from Home I'm reminded of a true story of a soldier who was severely wounded. When he was out of surgery, the doctors said that there was a good chance for recovery, except that the soldier wouldn't eat anything. The nurses and nuns tried everything, but he refused all food-drinking only water and juice. One of his buddies knew why the soldier wouldn't eat-he was homesick. So, his friend, since the hospital wasn't too far from the soldier's home, offered to bring the young man's father to visit him. The commanding officer approved and the friend went to the parents' home. As the father was about to leave for the hospital, the mother wrapped up a loaf of fresh bread for her son. Well, the patient was very happy to see his father but he still wouldn't eat-that is, until the father said; "Son, this bread was made by your mother, especially for you". The boy brightened and began to eat. I think that you can guess where I'm going with that story. You and I are that boy. We are the ones who have been wounded in the battle of life. We are the ones who've been wounded by sin, by trials and pains, by loss and by our forgetfulness of God. We lose our taste for the food that will strengthen our souls. Holy Communion gives us life, spiritual life, God's life. It gives us spiritual healing and spiritual strength. There was nothing 'magic' about the mother's bread unless, that is, one feels that 'love' is magic--which, of course, it is. Author unknown Bread from heaven is a gift – a gift given to us to help us to get through life. To give us strength and encouragement. I have read John 6 over and over, and given a lot of thought to this gift of bread from heaven. But this week, as I was studying this verse, I noticed another very important gift. Jesus says that whomever eats and drinks the bread of heaven will receive eternal life. Wow, that is a very rich gift these days. The jewish religion is a religion of remembrance, remembering the past, cherishing the ancestors, holding on to the lessons they taught us. That is important. The buddist religion tells us that only thing that matters in life is the present moment. All that you have according to them is the present moment – live solely in it. Christianity is the only religion that encourages us to live in the future. To look forward to what will come. To plan for better days. To see people as God sees them, not as they are today. That is a wonderful gift. God’s name is not I am who I am, God’s name is I will be who I will be. Jesus encourages us to live in eternity, to put our faith in what is to come. To be citizens of the future. As a matter of fact, eternity takes into consideration, the past, the present, and the future all at the same time. You may ask why is that a gift – it is a gift because it means that we have permission to plan. We can create a calendar for next year, we can plan and we can anticipate what is to come. We may ask how can we plan if we don’t know if we will be here or not. How can we move forward, if we don’t know if we will be here or not, when we have no idea of what will happen in the future. Well – here’s the thing. We are all here because we are in search of God in our lives. If we are following Jesus, we know that Jesus is the only way to get to God. If we know that God never changes, that God is the same today as he was yesterday and will be tomorrow, if we know that God will be here forever. So if we are planning to live with God, and God will be around forever, and God will never disappear. If God lives in eternity, and we are planning on living with God – then guess what – we will live in eternity also. That is the amazing gift that we get, when we take the spirit of God into our souls – eternal life. The strength and power to move forward and to serve a God who bought us through the past, who is with us in the present, and who will lead us to a future. We will be here next week, we will be here next year, 10 years from now. Even if we are not here physically – God’s plan that we put in place will be. An amazing gift indeed. There is a story called Wes’ Amerigo’s greatest fear. Wes is a chef and he worries everyday about making enough money to feed his growing family. He gets a little relief as he is chosen as the caterer for one of the most important weddings of the year. He is excited that he will make enough money, but of course he worries everyday that something will go wrong. He has nightmares everynight. But his youngest daughter prays every night, she prays about everything. One night as he woke up from his nightmare, he woke up to her in the kitchen covered in flour. He asked her what she was doing, she said don’t worry about it, go back to bed. He did, but had to get up early to cook 200 swordfish for the wedding. His daughter has prepared 80 pans of dough. When it came time to cook the swordfish, he discovered that the daughter had covered the swordfish in cherry juice, as a matter of fact he discovered that she had covered his whole meal in cherry juice. He was sure that he had been destroyed, that he had lost the money on this catering job. But the daughter told him to cook the 80 pans of dough. The guest were disappointed when they were anticipating swordfish, but all that was on the plate was these very unshapen dough patties. But when they ate it, it was the greatest thing that they had ever tasted. They all asked the chef what he had put in these mystery cakes to make them taste so good. The chef had no idea – it was a mystery. And his daughter said that she would never tell – she just said that the recipe was revealed to her from God – it came to her from the place in her that floats – that place that floats is the spirit the soul. The bread of heaven is a gift from that place in each of us that floats – it remains a mystery intended to feed our mind, body and soul. Someone said feeding on Jesus is the eternal prayer for life, for the presence of God – for God to live our life, to dwell in our hearts – to come afresh each day to give us strength, power, and confidence in every situation. Let us pray….. Other illustrations….. The Communion of Empty Hands There's a beautiful incident recorded by Thomas Pettepiece, a Methodist pastor, who was a political prisoner, a prisoner of conscience. Pettepiece writes of his first Easter Sunday spent in prison. He was among 10,000 prisoners. Most of the men had lost everything: their homes, their jobs, their furniture, their contact with their families. It was Easter Sunday, and they wanted to celebrate Communion. But, they had no cup for Communion. They had no wine for Communion. They didn't even have water for Communion. Nor did they have any bread for the Sacrament. So, they practiced the Communion of Empty Hands. "This meal in which we take part," Pettepeice said, "reminds us of the imprisonment, the torture, the death and final victory of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The bread is the body which he gave for humanity. The fact that we have none represents very well the lack of bread in the hunger of so many millions of human beings. The wine, which we don't have today, is his blood, and represents our dream of a united humanity, of a just society, without difference of race or class." Then Pettepiece, the pastor, held out his empty hand to the next person on his right, and passed on the imaginary loaf. Each one took a piece and passed it on. Then he said, "Take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me." And together they ate the imaginary bread, trying to imagine tasting it. After a moment they passed around the non-existent chalice, each imagining he was drinking from it. "Take, drink, this is the blood of Christ which was shed for you ... Let us give thanks, sure that Christ is here with us, strengthening us." They gave thanks to God and then stood up and embraced each other. And a while later, one of the non-Christian prisoners came up to them and said, "You people have something special, which I would like to have." And the father of a girl who had died came up to Pettepiece and said, "Pastor, this was a real experience. I believe that today I discovered what faith is ..." (from Visions of a World Hungry, quoted in A Guide To Prayer, Rueben P. Job and Norman Shawchuck, editors, The Upper Room, p. 143). Alex Gondola, Jr., Come As You Are, CSS Publishing Company. Christ in Me and I in Him There is an story about minister walking along the ocean with his small son. The boy questioned his father about Sunday's sermon. The boy said, "Dad, I cannot understand how Christ can live in us and we live in him at the same time." Further down the beach, the father noticed an empty bottle with a cork in it. Taking the bottle, he half filled it with water, re-corked it and flung it out into the ocean. As they watched the bottle bob up and down he said, "Son, the sea is in the bottle and the bottle is in the sea. It is a picture of life in Christ. You live under the Lordship of Christ and He lives in you." Traditional