Homily on Ephesians 6:1-17
24 November 2013
13th Sunday of the Holy Cross, 27th Sunday after Pentecost
In today’s reading from St Paul’s Letter to the Christians in Ephesus, the great Apostle tells us to “put on the armor of God.” He tells us to “stand fast” with our “loins girded in truth, clothed with righteousness as a breastplate, and [our] feet shod in readiness for the gospel of peace.” He says to “hold faith as a shield . . . and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit.”
In plain words, St Paul is telling us to cover every part of our bodies with protection from God against the bad things in the world, which are the Devil’s way of trying to take us away from God.
The armor of God that he describes includes the helmet of salvation to cover our heads; a breastplate of righteousness to cover our chests; a belt of truth around our waists; strong boots of the Good News of Jesus Christ on our feet; and the sword of the Holy Spirit in our hands.
This means that when we believe in God and live the way God wants us to live, we are protected by God’s goodness and righteousness and justice, God’s truth, the guidance of God’s Holy Spirit, and salvation from God’s Son, Jesus Christ.
Why do we need armor, like an ancient knight or gladiator, or a modern soldier in combat gear, or some character in a video game?
St Paul says that we don’t have to fight against other people. Instead we have to fight against the powers of darkness and the tactics and strategies of the Devil. We need protection from the flaming arrows of the Evil One.
He calls the Devil the “ruler of darkness” for a good reason. Darkness is dangerous and scary because in the dark we can’t see where we are going. It’s easy to get lost in the darkness, or to run into something and get hurt, or to wander off the path and fall into a ditch or a lake or a canyon full of rocks. The darkness is dangerous and scary, also, because bad people and bad things can hide in the dark and attack us before we can see them.
The Devil is the ruler of darkness because he wants us to get lost, he wants us to get separated from God, he wants us to fall and get attacked and hurt. He wants to get us to do bad things in the dark because we think nobody can see us—and he wants to convince us that it’s OK to do bad things if nobody can see them.
The opposite of darkness is light. The enemy of darkness is light. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of the world, is the light of the world. In His light we can see the right way to go, as we sing in the Great Doxology: “In your light we shall see light.” We can walk without fear. We can see the traps the Devil sets to catch us, and we can escape them. In the light, we know that everyone can see if we do bad things, and we can see that they are not OK.
The problem is that the Devil is very tricky. He is very deceitful. He can even use people we trust, like our friends, people we might “meet” on the internet, famous people like singers or actors, even sometimes teachers and family members. The Devil can use these people we trust to convince us that living in the light of Christ is boring and stupid and not fun. They can persuade us that the darkness is exciting and cool and fun in a scary kind of way.
But the darkness, where the Devil is the ruler, the prince, the boss, is always dangerous. It is the place where the Evil One is always trying to take us away from God and from our true life.
So we have to put on God’s armor, from our head to our feet, to be protected against the attacks of the Devil. And we have to use the sword of the Spirit, which St Paul says is the Word of God (and not just the written Word in the Bible, but Jesus Christ Himself, the Word of God made flesh), to fight back. And we always have to give thanks and praise and glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, One God, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.
