“Rocky Top Religion: Part Two

Required Equipment”

Ephesians 6:14-18

The startling headline on yesterday’s front page of the Knoxville News Sentinel – in big two-inch bold type – was, “VOL TICKET SALES SLOW”. Evidently, they only sold 104,000 tickets to the opening day game. Now I suppose they could have led with a different headline – something about the tragic car bombing in Iraq, or the strong showing of the U.S. economy in the second quarter, or even the latest news on Arnold Schwarzenegger and the California recall election. But we got “VOL TICKET SALES SLOW”. And that’s appropriate for us because, after all, yesterday was game day here on Rocky Top, and ain’t nothin’ more important to the Volunteer Nation than that!

I’m glad I’m not a newspaper editor, though. It must be so very difficult to make the call each day about what’s going to be the front page lead story. There are a lot of things going on all the time that are important to people, ranging from the future of Social Security to peace in the Middle East to the opening day fate of your beloved sports team. How do you select just one headline in a world where it’s always game day for someone somewhere?

A young married couple brings their newborn baby home from the hospital to begin their life together as a family. There isn’t anything in the world more important and newsworthy than that! Some of our church kids move up from elementary to middle school, and from middle school to high school. What could be more challenging than that? Someone is about to move away, someone else suffers a spinal injury, another person tries to cope with a loss, and another goes off to try to make the world a better place by working with Habitat For Humanity. All of these things are every bit as challenging as opening day of football season at Neyland Stadium, but with one difference. In the scope of life, these game day situations are much more important.

And so into a world like this, where life hits us all between the eyes with joy and sorrow, success and failure, the every day challenges of living as human beings, God steps in and publishes another headline - a headline intended to be read by all who raise kids and grandkids, and try to grow in their marriages, or face the unique complexities of being single again – a headline for all who achieve success and now need to figure out what to do with it, or those who encounter failure and need to pick themselves up from it – a headline for people like you and me as we face the important game days of our lives.

And here’s the headline…GOD LOVES YOU, AND WILL GIVE YOU STRENGTH!

This is why St. Paul, in the 6^th chapter of Ephesians tells the people that they don’t have to go through life anymore relying only on themselves and their own limited human abilities. Paul would say, “It’s great that you’re a strong and smart and capable person. It’s wonderful that you have the help that comes from having good parents and teachers and spouses and friends, and from watching Dr. Phil on TV. God created you with a lot of native ability and there are good things to support you in the world all around, and God expects you to use it all.”

“But…”

And then Paul reveals something that helps us understand why human beings can’t make it successfully through life entirely under their own steam.

Our real struggles, Paul writes, are not just human engagements. No, many of our struggles in life are, he says “…against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

In other words, the real struggle you and I face in life is with the devil.

Someone recently asked me if I believe in the devil. I said, “I have kids. OF COURSE I believe in the devil!” No, actually what I said was this: I am a mature, well-educated, theologically progressive person who believes that faith always has a rational component to it and should never give in to literalistic interpretations of myths, legends, and metaphor. And I have kids. OF COURSE I believe in the devil!”

Don’t you?

When we visited the Nazi concentration camp at Dachau a few years ago, a number of people said that they could sense the presence of evil there. I felt that way too. I’ll always remember standing on a bridge that stands between the main area of the camp where the prisoners were housed in cells, and the building where the gas chambers and ovens still stand. The bridge spanned a fast-flowing stream, and what was odd about it is that the stream, as it rushed under that bridge, made absolutely no noise! Not a sound! It was a surreal place, as if nature itself could not find words or sounds to express its horror there at that gateway to unthinkable evil…as, of course, that bridge had been…for thousands of Jews and others.

How can you stand in a place like Dachau and not believe that there is a power of evil at work in the world? Oh, some people might want to quibble about what name to give it, but we should never doubt the reality and presence of evil in the world.

And not only is the struggle with the powers of darkness evident in places like Dachau, or in the mass graves of Iraq, or the killing fields of Cambodia. You can encounter it in your own life and your own family in much more subtle ways.

When there’s someone you love who’s very hard to love. And something chips away at you until you feel like giving up on that person. When you wrestle with doubts about yourself, and whether you’re even deserving of love. When you’re in a tough relationship and so filled with pain and disappointment and disillusionment that you become paralyzed. When you’re sick and begin to see yourself as a cancer patient instead of as a person. When you face death, and can’t or won’t see the possibility of life beyond death. Oh, in countless ways, the devil attacks our very spirit.

Anyone who wrestles with issues around alcoholism and drug abuse knows the nature of the struggle, too. It’s not just a matter of “turning it off”, you know. Overcoming addiction is a battle of immense proportions. You know, many recovering alcoholics and drug users will tell you that they were powerless to do anything about it until they turned to a power higher than themselves.

And that’s what Paul is urging us to do. Turn to, open your life to, seek out, immerse yourself in a power higher than yourself. And this power has a name, and his name is God, and this God is made known to us through Jesus Christ. And today’s headline for you and me as we face the important game days of our lives is, GOD LOVES YOU, AND WILL GIVE YOU STRENGTH!

Do you remember how Jesus raised up that child when her parents had reached their limit? God’s going to help you raise your children, too. Do you remember how Jesus fed the hungry when the disciples didn’t have enough food to go around? God’s going to show you how to find hidden resources for helping hungry people, too. Do you remember how Jesus set free the man hounded by demons who lived in the graveyard? God is going to show you how to best care for that family member or friend who is overwhelmed by the negatives of life. Do you remember how Jesus helped the woman by the well find self-dignity and a new life? God is going to help you make right decisions and take right actions that will get you back on track toward happiness and peace.

All the people on the pages of the Gospels were people just like you and me – doing their best to raise their kids, build their marriages, find happiness, deal with illness, handle success, overcome failure, make the world a better place, and – of course – face the ultimate struggle, which is death.

And time after time, the power of God proved itself to be more powerful than the powers of darkness.

And this same GOD LOVES YOU, AND WILL GIVE YOU STRENGTH!

But when you’re facing struggles against the dark powers of the world, you need more than promises. You need some equipment.

So in today’s text from Ephesians 6, Paul takes us into God’s locker room on game day, and shows us the kind of equipment we need to acquire if we’re going to triumph over the powers of darkness.

And just to list this required equipment as Paul describes it, there is a belt…and a chest protector…and special shoes…and a shield…and a helmet…and a sword. Today, I want to talk about this belt. I’ll go over the other five pieces of equipment next week.

You know, a belt is what keeps your pants up. And its interesting that Paul would think that the first thing we Christians need to do is to keep our pants from falling down around our ankles and embarrassing us. So the first piece of required equipment in our faith is a belt. The belt of truth.

I have to tell you how embarrassed I was at church a few weeks ago. We were worshipping with our sisters and brothers at Greendale People’s Church in Massachusetts. The service was great – full of lively singing and great preaching. But while all that was going on, there was this situation going on a few rows in front of where we were seated. There was this good looking young man – probably in his early twenties – and next to him a pretty, young twenty-something woman. And all the while the service was going on, these two were all over each other. I mean, there was a smooch here, and a touch there. There was a lot of rubbing of various body parts and glances that were full of…well, lust. When they stood to sing the hymns, you wondered how they were able to remain standing, so entangled in each other were they. This was stuff for the back row of a dark movie theater, not for the second row from the front at Greendale People’s Church! Even I, who has to put up with the weekly antics of Puckett and Nash, was embarrassed! I kept praying, “Lord, get them to stop that!” But, of course, God didn’t.

Later, I found out why. At the end of the service, my friend Jeff Newhall, the pastor of Greendale People’s, stood before the church and said, “Before we leave today, I want to give a special welcome to a visitor who is not really a visitor because he’s a member here. But he’s been away for a long time. We’re so happy to say, ‘Welcome!’ to Lance Corporal someone-or-another who just returned home yesterday from Iraq.” And then Jeff said some things about how his young wife had worked so hard raising their son by herself while he was gone, and Jeff mentioned that she was REALLY glad he was home!

And you could tell from her face that she was. And so was he. And so was the son. And so was the church!

Well, I slowly pulled my pants up from around my ankles, and apologized to God for embarrassing myself. Oh, how wrongly I had judged these two heroic and beautiful young people whose only sin was that they wanted to spend the first day of their reunion by going to church together.

Do you ever do that sort of thing? Judge people wrongly? It’s kind of a human weakness, and what it really consists of is this: sometimes we confuse the facts we see with the ultimate truth.

So the bible says the first piece of equipment we’ve got to acquire and learn to use if we’re going to be effective Christians is the belt of truth.

Now, if I had to define truth, I would say that truth is reality as God knows it. So putting on the belt of truth means to commit yourself to finding God’s reality in yourself, and in every person you meet, and in every situation you encounter. And when you encircle yourself with this belt of truth you will begin to find God’s strength available to you as never before.

A friend of mine has a developmentally disabled child. She was a very normal child until about two years of age when she just seemed to stop growing emotionally and socially. Caring for her has been a real struggle, especially since school systems and health care systems and social service systems are so limited in what they can do. This friend of mine and his wife have had to fight for everything they’ve gotten for their daughter. And over the course of the past twenty years, it’s taken a toll.

He told me once about a time when anger and bitterness had gotten the better part of him. He was mad at God, mad at “the system”, mad at his wife, mad at himself, even mad at his daughter. He felt like just giving up.

But one day, they were attending mass in the chapel of the school where the daughter resides. He was sitting there, stewing in his own bitter juices, when he happened to look to his left where his daughter was sitting. She was looking upward, her eyes fixed on the big crucifix above the altar. And there was a glow about her, and a spirit of peace that he’d never seen before. And in that moment, he says, “I saw my daughter as the most beautiful child in the world. Perhaps she is not normal in the eyes of the world, but that morning I knew that, to God, she is absolutely perfect and beloved.”

And as he stepped beyond the visible facts of his daughter’s life to God’s truth about his daughter, he says the bitterness began to recede, and new strength started to come, and he was empowered to work hard to be the dad she needs him to be.

There is a truth that lies beyond the apparent facts of peoples’ lives. And when you gird yourself with that truth, you find God’s strength for facing life triumphantly.

I was visiting a while back with one of our church members who is having a return engagement with cancer. I asked her how she felt about that, and she said, “Well, it is what it is.” She told me about how blessed she’s been in her life. I asked her how old she was and she said, “Eighty-eight.” I could have sworn she was only thirty! Then she told me about how nice it will be to be back with her husband, and her parents, and with all those loved ones who’ve gone on ahead of her, and to see Jesus face-to-face.

You see, this is a person who knows a truth that is far beyond the facts of her life. Human beings are made to live forever! And she’s got a lot more living to do beyond this world with all its cancer and all its tears. And armed with that truth, she lives life triumphantly, even in the shadow of her illness.

Oh, there is a truth about you and me and the world that lies beyond all the superficial facts of life!

We are the children of God….made in God’s own image…made to live forever! We have within us unlimited potential for doing good, and for loving others, and for bringing redemption to the brokenness of the world! We are loved people, who will not be abandoned in either life or death! We are capable people, gifted by God to be able to find solutions to the most difficult problems, and to bring healing to the brokenness of the world! And we are forgiven people, whose sins cannot stand in the way of God’s mercy as demonstrated on the cross where Jesus paid it all!

We are the sons and daughters of the living God, and there is nothing going to come our way in life that we and God can’t handle together! We can do all things through Him who strengthens us!!

And if, every day, you will encircle your life with the belt of this truth, you will find power to overcome all the darts of the evil one, face the challenges of daily life, and make the world a place of hope and justice and righteousness.

So here comes game day! As you step out into the world this week, put on the belt of truth, and learn to use it! It is required equipment for all the members of God’s amazing team!