First Presbyterian Church
Counter Cultural Armor
Sermon for August 27, 2006
by Pastor Susan Barnes

Our first scripture reading is in unison on page 543 in your pew Bibles. Listen for the word of God as we read it together from Psalm 84.

<To the leader: according to The Gittith. Of the Korahites. A Psalm.> How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts!

2 My soul longs, indeed it faints for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.

3 Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O LORD of hosts, my King and my God.

4 Happy are those who live in your house, ever singing your praise. Selah

5 Happy are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.

6 As they go through the valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools.

7 They go from strength to strength; the God of gods will be seen in Zion.

8 O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah

9 Behold our shield, O God; look on the face of your anointed.

10 For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than live in the tents of wickedness.

11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield; he bestows favor and honor. No good thing does the LORD withhold from those who walk uprightly.

12 O LORD of hosts, happy is everyone who trusts in you.

This ends our reading from the psalm.

Up to chapter six in John's gospel, Jesus has ministered to a Pharisee, a Samaritan woman, and a Roman official, healed a paralyzed man and fed 5,000.

Then he talks to the disciples about the bread of life. Jesus uses the metaphor of flesh a little too graphically for some of his listeners. Jewish leaders complain that he is too ordinary a person to claim a heavenly relationship. He further scandalizes them by speaking of abiding in God, and inviting others to abide in him in the same way. Listen for the word of God as it is found in John 6:56-69.

56 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever."

59 He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum.

60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, "This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?"

61 But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, "Does this offend you? 62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63 It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 But among you there are some who do not believe." For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him. 65 And he said, "For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father."

66 Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him.

67 So Jesus asked the twelve, "Do you also wish to go away?"

68 Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God."

This ends our gospel reading. In the old testament, wisdom is personified as a beautiful woman, calling people to be guests in her house, rather than be customers of folly and evil. She has mixed her wine, set her table, and called “Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed.” To eat the food of wisdom means to become wise.

Jesus draws on this tradition when he says “ Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.” In other words, to eat the food of Jesus is to be like Jesus. It's as if Jesus said, “those who eat the way I do and who have my attitudes exhibit me to the world. I live in them.”

The epistles in the new testament are letters written to churches telling them how to be like Jesus as they go about their lives in the Roman empire. How they should act, what they should eat, how they should take care of one another. The letter to the Ephesians has instructed church members on how to treat one another at home, in church, and in the world. Our reading is the beginning of the conclusion to the letter. We'll be reading from my translation, but you can follow along on page 98. Listen for the word of God as it is found in Ephesians 6:10-20.

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power.

11 Clothe yourself in the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the devil's strategy.

12 For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens.

13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.

14 Stand therefore, having belted your waist in truth and wearing the breastplate of righteousness.

15 As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace.

16 With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

17 Grasp the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

18 Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints.

19 Pray also for me, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with frankness the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak.

This ends our reading from God's word.

The early church needed to be encouraged to recognize their strength in Christ. This letter was circulated after Paul himself had died. Paul, the “ambassador in chains.” The word ambassador was a position of authority and stature; someone in handcuffs hardly qualifies. But Paul's credentials came from Christ. If he can speak the truth, despite his troubles, surely the church in Ephesus can.

The letter speaks of a struggle against the authorities, the world or the cosmic rulers and spiritual forces of evil in the heavens. That refers to the Roman gods, whose temples were all over the Roman empire. Zeus, Apollo, Diana. These pagan temples were part of Roman society. If you lived in the Roman empire, you went to a Roman temple to demonstrate that you were a good citizen. Jews and Christians didn't do that, and that made their life in the world hard.

But Ephesians wasn't just talking about pagan worship; the letter speaks of a way of life, a new way of behaving that involved being faithful to Christ, rather than loyal to the emperor, or to their patron. For us, we aren't in any danger of worshiping in a temple for Zeus. But we do have temptations all the same.

This week I read Susan Nielsen's column about temptation.

She wrote “ The richest girl I knew growing up lived in a house with a swimming pool out back. This was a notable luxury in a small Washington town full of modest homes, with backyards more likely to sport a dog on a chain than a shimmering, tiled pool. This pool opened my mind to the idea of disposable income, of buying things you don't need and your neighbors can't afford. It was like meeting the devil himself, in a swimsuit and a smile.

I've been running from that devil ever since. He's not impressed by swimming pools anymore.

…After college I worked on luxury yachts for a while, and the devil worked beside me as a deckhand. It was a world of white carpets and crystal carafes; of fresh flowers, insured jewelry and gleaming teak rails. Some of the yacht owners flew in private jets. Others merely flew first class. To my surprise, they didn't seem happier than regular people. This oddly comforting idea made working as their servant tolerable.

[Later]… I moved to Oregon, bought a house and spent a solid year gloating about owning a washer and dryer. The ability to do laundry at any hour, without coin-op, was a significant improvement in my quality of life. Then the devil stopped by with a welcome basket and a little gossip. The neighbors have central air, he said. The people down the street have a landscaper. The couple across the way buy gourmet cheese … for $12 a pound. They also use doggie day care, their bathroom is tiled and their wine collection is amazing. I almost cried myself to sleep on the futon couch.

My parents did their best to inoculate me during childhood against feelings of greed and envy. My father explained that many people who live high on the hog are actually swamped in debt. Or they've saved nothing for old age. He was a tax accountant, so he had some authority on this.

…my parents were more interested in what we kids needed than what we might have wanted. So they gave us a college education, a work ethic and all of the love they could spare. Most of the time, this was more than enough.

But still the devil trails behind me, flicking his tail against the neighbor's fence.

He follows me into open houses in fancy neighborhoods, where I stare at the sunken tubs like a child seeing the ocean for the first time. He admires the Audis on the freeway, then sniffs at my car. He asks why I don't at least get cable.

…He loves selling the American dream as a scarce commodity. He loves hinting if I don't try harder to be rich, I'll end up poor.

This is why we have the same conversation now as we did 25 years ago, next to the swimming pool of a girl whose face I barely remember. I tell him I'm blessed with everything I need. He laughs and says, in a voice as old as money, that's not enough.” 1

That's the sort of thing we need shielding from. Church offers us a place to find the armor and gives us directions for putting it on. The word of God contradicts what the world tells us about what matters most.

The devil tells us what we have isn't enough. And commercials, advertisements and peer pressure agree. But we Christians do not need to succumb to that culture of greed and more is better. We get to be counter-cultural. We have a better answer in Christ.

But sometimes that longing for more comes from the inside, not the outside. We don't like who we are, we don't think we are enough, we think we should be more.

Researchers have learned that people who want to be famous often have lingering feelings of rejection or neglect. Sue Erikson Bloland writes about her father, the renowned psychoanalyst Erik Erikson. “‘He had the kind of charisma that made people hungry to know him — to become privy to what he was thinking and feeling and writing about.' His dogged pursuit of recognition, … was partly due to a sense of abandonment: he never knew his biological father, who disappeared before he was born. Decades later, Dr. Erikson still sought comfort and guidance from others, ‘but his pursuit of reassurance was not simply the charming humility it was generally interpreted to be… It expressed a persistent and tormenting self-doubt.'” 2

I think this desire to be famous is what drives contestants for all these reality shows. Big Brother is one such show. This summer series “follows a group of strangers sharing a house -- a house equipped with cameras and microphones to record their every move, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Big Brother is an exciting, fierce, dramatic competition that will require players to use brain, brawn and charm to win. In the end, one houseguest will walk away with the cash grand prize.” 3

One Big Brother finalist had an answer to the question ‘what do people really want?' “To be noticed, to be wanted, to be loved, to walk into a place and have others care about what you're doing, even what you had for lunch that day: that's what people want, in my opinion.” 4He was talking about being famous.

But when I heard that I thought, well, you can get that in church. As people walk in, they are noticed, wanted, loved and cared about. Perhaps we don't care quite so much about what each other has for lunch. But we do something more; we pray for each other.

Ephesians says, “pray in the spirit at all times in supplication, pray for the saints. Saints here means other Christians, other people attempting to live a holy life following Jesus. In that prayer for one another there is much real hope, more hope than there is in temporary celebrity.

The psalmist tells us “ Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself” in God's courts. “Happy are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.” We reflect God's welcome when we welcome and pray for others.

In Ephesians, the sword of the spirit is the word of God. That is, the word of God will vanquish the temptations to greed and despair. The word of God will help us find more lasting defenses against torment of self-doubt.

Jesus said, “ The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” Or you could also translate “The words that I have spoken to you are breath and life.” It is Jesus' words that will defend our lives and keep us breathing. We know how to live according to God's calling, by caring for our neighbor, feeding the hungry, and visiting the sick.

God calls us away from the things of this world that distract us from doing the work we need to do and those things are different for all of us. Church is where we receive food for thought, but more importantly, the bread of life so that Jesus can abide in us, and we in him. Amen.

1 Nielsen, Susan, Oregonian, “Life seems plenty rich to me, but a voice keeps crying poor,” Sunday, August 20, 2006,www.oregonlive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/editorial/1155938125234060.xml?oregonian?yedcsn&coll=7&thispage=3

2 Carey, Benedict, “The Fame Motive,” New York Times, August 22, 2006.

3 www.cbs.com/primetime/bigbrother_application/about.shtml

4 Kaysar Ridha, quoted by Carey, Benedict, “The Fame Motive,” New York Times, August 22, 2006.