Trinity XXI                                                                                                                                                      Fr. Forrest Burgett

Trinity Anglican Church                                                                                                                                    Given: 11/13/2011

“Grant, we beseech thee, merciful Lord, to thy faithful people pardon and peace, that they may be cleansed from all their sins, and serve thee with a quiet mind”

(Trinity 21 Collect)

Our Collect for the 21^st Sunday after Trinity asks for pardon and peace.  The answer for such a request is cleansing from sin and a quiet mind with which to serve God.  The Gospel today tells of a nobleman from Capernaum with enough faith to believe with a quiet mind.  Capernaum was about twenty-five miles from Cana.  The Gospel tells us the son was healed at the seventh hour.  That is about 1:00 pm.  He had ample time to rush home that day.  Instead, he was so at ease he was still on the road a day later.  That is a sign of the quiet mind requested in our Collect today.

It is amazing how often our liturgy ties the Propers for the day into a single cohesive message?  However, in this particular case, the Epistle may need some clarification.  It appears to be about preparation for a battle against principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness and spiritual wickedness in high places.  Even a cursory look at that Epistle will disturb any peace of mind you brought to church today.  It talks about being strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.  It needs a closer look and we need a better understanding of Paul’s advice.

Paul tells us to put on the whole armour of God, that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.  The next statement gives us the context in which to place the rest of the reading.  “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,  . . . and spiritual wickedness in high places.”  Before we get into the meat of his message, Paul tells us we are not preparing for a physical battle.  We are preparing for a spiritual battle.  The physical metaphors he uses are intended to help us understand the seriousness of the challenge.  We are to take up the whole armour of God that we may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all, to stand.

When we talk of the whole armour of God, we are talking about spiritual armour.  God spent a lot of time telling the writers of the Old Testament how different our world is from the kingdom of God.  Jesus spent a lot of time telling the writers of the New Testament how different our world is from the kingdom of God.  Even better, Jesus gave us a clear example of how to live in our world with spiritual armour.  He did indeed suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune physically.  He did not, however, suffer any penetration of his spiritual armour.  Even in Gethsemane, he prays, “not my will but thine.”

The things asked for in our Collect were pardon and peace.  These are not physical things.  They are spiritual things.  They cannot be taken away from you.  We can give up our spiritual peace in pursuit of physical ends.  Still, spiritual peace is never taken away.  It only leaves when we give it up.  That sounds simplistic and idealistic and perhaps it is.  Nonetheless, Paul’s message today tells us how we can retain that peace in spite of the world around us.

We often forget just how effective our spiritual peace can be in the face of physical conflict.  We have all surprised ourselves at times with a calm demeanor in the face of adversity.  How quickly we forget the comfort of knowing everything will turn out just fine even without knowing how it will eventually do so.  When we are successful in following Christ’s example, we can feel the power and permanence of God’s peace.  When we fail, we turn to physical resolution of the controversy and give up our spiritual consolation and peace.

So far we have been talking about what to do without talking about how it can be done.  Paul was much more practical than that.  In this short portion of scripture, he gives us an instruction manual for handling the inevitable conflict.  He does so using physical metaphors that bring a sense of seriousness into the picture.  We are to put on the whole armour of God.  We now know that means spiritual armour.  Throughout all these physical metaphors, we are really talking about our spiritual preparation.

Paul starts with truth.  We are to girt our loins about with truth.  If we are not solidly wrapped in the truth of God, we are not prepared for the spiritual challenges to come.  In our world, truth has become a variable commodity.  Some say it is whatever we want or believe it to be.  But that is the atheist’s creed.  We are not talking about man’s perception.  We are talking about God’s truth.  It has not changed in the history of mankind and will not do so in the future.  We must educate our selves in the revelations of God so we can understand his intent for mankind.  To do anything less is to give up our peace for the sake of our own pride.

Next, Paul tells us to contain our lives and live them in accordance with God’s truth.  We are told to wear the breastplate of righteousness.  If our lives are permeated with righteousness, we will be protected from the tendency to fall in love with the physical things of this life.  We will retain our goal of living up to Jesus’ example.  We will not allow ourselves to be drawn into specious debate over mankind’s control over his own destiny.  And we will retain the peace of serving God with a quiet mind.

Paul talks about having our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.  Our feet lead us into battle or take us from battle and sometimes just lead us astray for no apparent reason.  If we are properly prepared with an understanding of the gospel of peace, our Walk with the Lord will be in his footsteps and they will never lead us astray.  Furthermore they will never lead us away from the spiritual conflict we must all face and conquer.

Next we are to take the shield of faith wherewith we can quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.  That sounds quite dramatic but it is a good metaphor.  Faith is what shielded the nobleman from further worry about his son.  Faith is what keeps us going when we have no idea what God has in store for us.  Faith is what protects us from the libelous claims that we are narrow-minded and bigoted when we hold to the truths of God.  We have the promises of God, the example of Jesus Christ and the influence of the Holy Spirit to support our faith.  It is almost impossible to dispel every attack on our Christian beliefs.  Consequently, we often rely on faith to keep us from wavering from our spiritual preparation.

The helmet of salvation tops our armour of God.  The promise of salvation and everlasting life provides protection against the temptation to think ourselves to be gods.  It reminds us that we owe everything to God and can hold nothing back.  It completes the picture of our defensive armour.  We are supplied with truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, the shield of faith and the helmet of salvation.  While it is an impressive set of defensive armour, you probably noticed, there is no mention of offense.  That comes next and it comes with instructions as well.

Finally Paul talks about the sword of the Spirit.  By that, he means, the word of God.  We have all the revelations of God in the Old Testament.  We have the example of Jesus Christ in the New Testament.  We have the proof of Christ’s divinity in the resurrection and ascension.  We have the tools with which to help others understand the truth.  We have the tools to help others act righteously.  We have the tools to help others develop spiritual peace.  We have the tools to help others acquire faith and strive for salvation.  These are our offensive weapons.  They are not offensive in a physical sense, but they are effective in promoting spiritual preparation.

Paul admonishes us to pray always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.  We must express our spiritual preparation by prayers of praise, adoration, joy, thanksgiving and supplication.  We must watch the perseverance and supplication of all the saints for another example of how we fight this spiritual conflict.  Finally, Paul asks that utterance may be given unto him that he may open his mouth boldly and that he may make known the mystery of the gospel.  Again, we have our marching orders.  We cannot win this spiritual battle by holding back.  We cannot win this spiritual battle by letting others do the dirty work.  This battle is won one soul at a time and each soul must be on one side or the other.  There is no middle ground.  We are either working for God’s truth or we are allowing it to be denigrated by our indifference.

In our Collect, we asked for pardon and to be cleansed from all our sins.  God will grant that request for those who are spiritually prepared.  We also asked for peace that we may serve Him with a quiet mind.  Again, that is granted to those who are spiritually prepared.  That spiritual peace can be given up, but it is never taken from us.  Unfortunately, it is often ignored until its effects are no longer felt.  Ultimately, we alone, are responsible for our own spiritual peace.

“Jesus said unto them, the harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few:  pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he send forth labourers into his harvest.

(St. Luke  x. 2.)