Joshua
Ephesians
“Embraced
in God’s Love”
In our house, it is always: Safety First. My children know that they are not allowed to
ride their bikes or scooters without the proper equipment, they must wear their
helmet and they must have on sneakers.
No ands, ifs, or buts. The rules
are the rules because for us, it is always, Safety First. In today’s world, our children are used to
wearing a bike helmet, or shin guards, or shoulder pads when playing football,
soccer or lacrosse. Perhaps that would
be a more suitable metaphor for us in today’s world. The whole sports equipment of God. Football, Hockey or Lacrosse probably work
best for this metaphor, since those players tend to wear the most
equipment.
Whether we are donning armor, or a bike helmet, or soccer
shin guards, or football shoulder pads, or a mouth guard, as we put on these
items, they embrace our body, they cover us, they protect us. Sports equipment embraces our bodies in order
to keep us safe. Helmets protect us
against concussions, mouth guards protect our teeth, and so on.
In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, Paul is reaching out
to a fledgling congregation of people that need encouragement. They are living in challenging times and
their faith is being challenged and questioned.
So, Paul uses an everyday image as a metaphor for the people: Armor.
Now, when I think of armor, I immediately think of the Metropolitan
Museum of Art in NYC and the medieval exhibit hall that is filled with armor
including horses in armor. For me, the
image of armor is a bit outdated. Just
as the Ephesians were facing challenges by others, the church of today is also
facing numerous challenges. We too need
the encouragement of Paul in order to stand strong as a people of faith in the
diverse culture of our day. And so it
is, Paul desires this small group of people in Ephesus to know, that in
challenging times, they too have the equipment of God to keep them safe. The full armor of God, to me, embraces what
our faith is all about. As we think
about who we are as a people of faith, do we think about the ways in which God
is embracing us, protecting us, calling us to stand strong in challenging and
questioning times?
Paul is giving them a step by step simplistic way of
defining their faith and understanding who they are as a people of God. First, they must define what the truth is for
them. It is the foundation, it is the
building block of what they believe. Do
they believe in the God’s of the Roman Empire or do they believe in the one
true God of the Jewish faith? Do they
accept the teachings Paul brought to them of Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of
God, or do they believe in other ideologies of their culture? Whatever it is that we believe, we wrap that
truth around our core, around our inner being.
What we name as Truth impacts how we live our lives. If, for me, truth is: an important education
and career, then that is how one seeks to equip themselves as they journey
through life.
Naming one’s truth is the central meaning in the passage
today from the book of Joshua. Joshua is
asking them to name their truth. What is
it that they believe? Will they worship
the God’s of their ancestors or will they move forward into the Promised Land
believing in the one true God? Joshua
asks them to take a solemn vow: Who on
this day will you serve? And he names
for himself: As for me and my family, we
will serve the one true God. The belt of
truth. Stand strong in what you believe
and know that God wraps that truth around the core of your being.
Throughout our faith journey within the life of the
church, we come to these moments where we need to come back to our foundations,
to what we consider the truth, whether it be as individuals or as an entire
congregation. And we have sacraments and
other rituals within our time of worship to name those truths: such as in
baptism and communion, such as in ordination and installation of leadership,
and in the litany of membership. We
engage in these lifelong patterns of faith, reminding ourselves and each other,
that in God we have the belt of truth.
I spent several hours this past week at a meeting at the
presbytery office where we were discerning what faith and discipleship means in
today’s world and what resources the churches in our presbytery might need in
equipping our congregations in faith formation and discipleship growth. In a way, it is the same question Paul has
before him as he reaches out to this fledgling congregation in Ephesus. He wants them to be a people of faith, a
people that believe in God and in Jesus and in salvation and righteousness, not
because they are told to believe it, but because they truly do believe. In order for one to begin a journey of faith
formation, there must be a truth to build upon.
We can see on a daily basis on how people seek to name a
truth, and then convince others to be a part of their truth. Scientists gather data, politicians give
speeches, the media present stories, and sometimes it is all just so cluttered
we can throw up our hands and shout – I just don’t know who or what to believe.
At least in the church, we can begin through Paul’s
metaphor: the belt of truth and then the breastplate of righteousness, or the
shoulder pads of right living within the community. If we believe a truth of being a people of
God involves love for our neighbor, then as we adorn our shoulder pads, we
should find ways in which we express love for our neighbor. We live out the truths we have named. As we grow in our faith formation, we can
learn from our actions or from the actions of others. If you see a person of faith always being
compassionate and caring for others, you may begin to seek to model that
behavior yourself. Again, in the world
in which we live, we have challenges with what right living within our faith
community may be. We have temptations
all around, they may look different from the day and age of Paul, but they are
still there. And since God understands
that they are there and that we stumble and struggle with them, we can stand
strong because God places upon us the breastplate of righteousness. We do not do this one on our own, we seek
right living but we do not believe in works righteousness. This was a hard one for me when I was
younger, and probably the biggest area of growth in my own faith formation when
I truly understand that it is God’s grace that places the shoulder pads upon
each and everyone of us.
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