August 24, 2003
By Jack Price

            I have lived in Kansas City long enough to know that, sooner or later, pretty much anything you're going to see here, you'll see at the Country Club Plaza.  Sure enough, last Sunday afternoon three young men dressed in armor came walking down the street in front of the Hall's department store.  I'm guessing it was a fraternity initiation event, but there they were, dressed kind of like Roman or Trojan soldiers - a little bit like the University of Southern California march band uniforms.  But it definitely looked like armor.

            The author of the New Testament letter to the Ephesians uses the image of armor in reference to the Christian life.  The word "armor" actually combines two Greek words meaning "all" and "weapons."  The "armor of God" then is the totality of what God makes available to people in the struggles of life.  From biblical times to the present, armor has been an important part of military warfare.  During medieval times, knights wore whole suits of armor and rode on armored warhorses.  These knights were almost impossible to injure as long as they stayed on their horses and stayed out of the sun for long periods of time.  When visiting a museum featuring suits of armor, I am always amazed how small they were and yet how heavy they must have been.  And I always think about those poor horses.  What a load to carry!

            Armor was important because it gave protection.  Whether a whole suit or just a helmet and breastplate, soldiers wearing armor had a huge advantage over anyone who was not.  Armor protect the wearer and it also identified him as someone wealthy and powerful enough to afford armor or as a soldier who served one wealthy and powerful enough to provide armor.  Many fights were avoided altogether because of the presence of armor.  This was certainly true in the first century when mainly the Romans had armor.  The was true in the Middle Ages when only the knights had armor, when their power over the peasant class could not be challenged.  This is also true in today's world when armor comes in the form of tanks and attack helicopters as well as personal body armor.

            I spent a few years living at Fort Knox, Kentucky.  Generally, people associate Fort Knox with the gold vault and think of it as the place where all the gold, if there still is any(?), is stored and protected.  In military circles, however, Fort Knox is known as the home of armor, the location of the Armor School.  It is where they teach soldiers all about tanks.  If you have never been there, Fort Knox is huge with hundreds of acres of land, most of which is given over to tank trails - undeveloped woodland through which soldiers learn to drive, maneuver, and fire tanks.  On any given evening, chances were great that the thunder storm you were hearing was not thunder at all, but the thunderous sound of tank fire out on the "back forty" of Fort Knox.  If you go there, be sure to visit the tank museum.  One thing you learn about the history of armored warfare is that the army that had the tanks almost always beat the army that didn't.  Armor makes the difference now as it did 2,000 years ago.     

The metal represented by a suit of armor is a way the author of Ephesians challenges his readers to test their own courage or mettle.  Life was very dangerous during those days, especially if you found yourself on the wrong side of Roman politics.  Early death, or at least significant suffering, was a sure bet.  Armor of some kind could surely have come in very handy, if you and your friends could afford it.  For most of those who called themselves "Followers of the Way," armor was not an option either finally or philosophically.  What most of them seemed to have though was an abundance of courage.  Courage did not cost much money, but it was absolutely necessary, especially during times of persecution.

Christian leaders, including the author of Ephesians, kept encouraging believers to take heart, to be faithful, to be brave.  The apocalyptic vision of Revelation serves to encourage believers facing persecution and to assure them of God's ultimate triumph over the forces of evil personified by the Romans.  But physical danger was far less important than the challenge of evil itself.  The "battle" of life is ultimately a spiritual one and the challenges we face are those of cosmic darkness and spiritual wickedness.

Even in the brutal and hostile world of the first century, the author of Ephesians saw the greater danger in terms of spiritual "warfare."  Courage to remain faithful to "The Way" enabled the apostles and others to face death for the sake of Jesus.  Courage to trust the truth of what God was and is doing in Jesus enabled them to remain faithful, to believe that life's meaning lay other than in friendship and acceptance by the Romans.  This author encourages and challenges our generation as well to trust the truth of what God is doing in Jesus and in the church, trying to enable us to believe that life's meaning lies other than in friendship and acceptance by the economic and military powers of our world.  

Armor can still be a meaningful image for us, especially as it represents personal and systemic boundaries that affect our growth and relationships.  Armor provides protection from physical harm.  It is an image as well that represents clearly defined personal boundaries -- our personal space.   You remember, either as a parent or child, the endless car rides punctuated with, "He's on my side of the seat!" or "Stop touching me!"  Well, personal space and personal boundaries are even more important as we grow up. 

You and I are individuals.  At the same time we are organically part of many emotional and relational systems that play a big role in our self-identity, our personalities, and the ways we tend to relate to people.  All of us are part of emotional systems.  Our families of origin, nuclear family, and work and church systems are some that influence us most.  Boundaries reflect a person's ability to be an individual, to make decisions based on personal values and priorities, especially in times of great stress.  Clear boundaries are what it means to be a self-differentiated person - clear boundaries while at the same time staying connected to others in the systems - not cutting off.  As a young adult, my decision to become a minister began with a desire to please, to be good, and to do something the significant people in my life would think was worthwhile - and something for which I had some aptitude.  Only as I have grown and developed a clearer sense of my own identity and clarified my personal boundaries (at least somewhat) have I been able to recognize and clear sense of my desire to be a minister and God's calling for me as a pastor.

You and I are part of powerful system often called the Body of Christ.  As a "body," we need a clear sense of identity and clear boundaries as we stay connected to the rest of the body.  Crossroads Church is also a body of believers within the mystical Body of Christ.  We consist of individuals with individual identities, strengths, and weaknesses.  Virtually all of us wear armor of some sort that protects us from being known too well by each other.  Our armor is "borrowed self" we project for the world to see:  a "nice guy" image, or being "super smart," or exceptionally loving, easy going, or wise.  For each of us, putting on the "whole armor of God" begins with taking off the "borrowed self."   As God's people, only authentic self can wear divine armor. 

This congregation is a collection of individuals that also has a communal identity.  We also tend to try putting God's armor on a borrowed identity - an identity of what we think a church should be.  If God calls us into being, then God identifies and calls us.  We will discover that call through the sharing of authentic self on the journey of living and, to paraphrase Albert Schweitzer, "We will learn in the crucible of our experience who we are." 

The discovery of authentic self comes through the practice of spiritual discipline:  through prayer, reflection, service, study, and confession.  It is in the practice of corporate worship, however, that we find "the whole armor of God" most readily and powerfully available to us.  In the words of the Psalms, ancient Israel found the courage to be guided by the vision of a God of justice, of peace, and of love.  In the words of our worship, in our songs and prayers, we can enact the reality of God's powerful and ongoing work in the world.  That work, taking place slowly in the world, we celebrate in worship as a reality already accomplished.  During corporate worship, you and I are invited to live in the eschatological reality God is bringing to pass, the new creation of justice and shalom that has long been promised.  In worship, we discover who we are.  We are invited to hear the name "God pronounced when [God] willed us into existence and which is us, as we are it.  This name defines our absolute and unrepeatable uniqueness as far as God is concerned.  No one can know the name, as no one can, in the last analysis, know anyone as God knows him; and yet it is our of this name that everything else comes."   In worship this happens not as a matter of stylistic integrity or theological agreement, but because we stand in the very presence of God.  In worship, we receive the whole armor of God that protects us, that defines our boundaries, and that determines our relationships with each other and the rest of creation because we live in the present of God.  In the liturgy of corporate worship, we enact the reality of God's presence and God's action in the world.  God becomes present and God acts through us.  Worship leads us to discover who we are and what we, as individuals and as a church, will do.  Therefore, "be strong in the Lord and in the strength of [God's] power.  Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand, and having done everything, to stand firm."  Amen.