Sunday 2nd September 2018
Ephesians 6: 10-23
Imagine that “Paul” was a footy coach and he’s got his team around him and they are keen to win, despite the fact that the score is against them. It’s not yet finals, but a lot hangs on this game. What’s he going to challenge them to do?
He’s going to urge practicing all they have learnt over the years, play their part in the game and take all the chances they can. The outcome of the game is unknown but each team member is essential.
Well, back in the early years of Christianity no one played footy, but there were the Roman Games where slaves, criminals and sometimes Christians were pitted against one another or animals in a fight to the death. The Roman Empire was a violent, life-is-cheap culture, and the excitement of going to the game, all that death and glory is mirrored in sporting contests today.
In his final exhortation in this letter to the young churches , “Paul” turns from unity and growing up in Christ , and his radical rules for family life to the daily reality of being a Christ-follower.
The soldiers of Rome were a familiar sight. Conflicts seethed and bubbled up throughout the Empire. Soldiers were everywhere, seeking to keep the Roman peace with the sword. Opposition risked death.
“Paul” draws on the metaphor of armour to stress the reality of a spiritual struggle for Christians. I typed Ephesians 6 images into google and all I found were pictures of armour, breastplate, helmets and swords. They pointed to violent conflict, and totally missed the radical vision of “Paul” and the non-violence of the young churches.
For centuries, the early christians chose not to be members of the army. Soldiers were not allowed to be baptised unless they foreswore the military. It was against the young Christian’s conscience and committment.
It really was not until Christianity was adopted the religion of the Empire by the emperor, Constantine, that Christians began fighting for King and country. In the days of the emerging churches a form of pacifism, an awareness of a spiritual struggle dominated their imagination, in which every disciple of Christ was an active participant.
The world “Paul” lived in was thought to be influenced by invisible forces: major and minor gods, demons, malign spirits, the devil ( who’s status was slowly elevated in the Christian centuries). Gentiles and Jews shared a worldview that has been largely forgotten in our scientific, secularised times. Certainly there are still many people who “believe in” such a world, but it is no longer the norm.
As he urged the young churches to fight the good fight “Paul” told the early Christian communities dotted around the Roman Empire that living the Christian life is not a walk around the park, a daily doddle. It calls us to be prepared! Participation, wearing appropriate clothing, witnessing and serving together for the common good.
The clothing we need involves speaking truthfully, seeking righteous ( not self-righteous) justice, being a peacemaker, growing in faith, praying profusely and learning from the word of God ( this letter was written long before the compilation of the New Testament).
This team were not a group who had won the Grand Final for several years in a row, they were an underdog community with a new vision of God’s reconciling, peace-making work in Christ. This was a new kind of “fight” involving the whole person, all those born anew in Christ. It wasn’t going to be easy. They had to develop the ways they witnessed and served together as a contrast community.
A contrast community … that’s our calling as Christians. However, the church is almost invisible except when the stench of child abuse arises, or the clergy are shown to be corrupt through power abuse, or the churches acquiesce to the pressures of secularising culture. It’s not easy to be a church which resists the status quo in the name of speaking truthfully, peace-making, justice and building up a community which is many and one in Christ.
I spent two and half days on a training course this week. One of the presenters told of his experience seeking to help a group of churches concerned about their future in Tasmania. The congregations had become fixated on the survival of their old buildings ( which were largely in disrepair).
Some fought vigorously to keep their church open, even to the extent to calling in the non-participatory troops to wave the flag we are a vital church… but they had long given up on the task of forming intentional, generous, hospitable, faith-sharing communities.
Over the next few weeks as my time as minister and coach of Koonung Heights begins to draw to a close I want to use the sermon times, and if there are those who wishes to meet with me in discussion, in thinking once again as if for the first time about some of the important convictions in living and sharing a generous faith in the present, for the future.
“Paul” would urge us to play as best as we can, by all the means we can, with all the energy we can … and take our chances in the game which has many challenges and blessings.
In his words: Peace be with the whole community, and love with faith, from God and the Lord Jesus Christ.