A Sermon for Trinity 21
October 20, 2024 at Holy Communion
Ephesians 6:10–20
“We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the cosmic powers over this present darkness” (Ephesians 6:12). In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. ☩ Amen.
I was raised in the same disenchanted world as everyone else. Although we hear that it’s supposed to mean something when a black cat crosses your path, no one takes this seriously—or would even really know how to interpret it even if they wanted to take it seriously. So it’s to my own great surprise that I have gradually come to believe in omens.
It took Katy and I far too long after arriving in Shelburne to get down to the Hartz Point property and find the little cabin built during Reverend Ed’s time here. But when we did go, just as the cabin came in sight, a bald eagle flew low and slowly right over the cabin. Something in me deeper than simple curiosity thrilled. It was like my unconscious surged and brought up a nugget of pure intuition: “This is a blessèd place.” We have returned many times since.
Our Epistle says that “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). This is terribly difficult for modern people to understand.
Even if we acknowledge the existence of spiritual forces, we are most likely to think of them walking among us unseen and doing their work, whether for good or ill. We think of them as if they were ordinary individuals like ourselves, but invisible. When something bad happens a supposedly spiritual person might think that he had had a run-in with an evil spirit; or when a good thing happens that he was blessed by an angel.
But Paul has something different in mind: he calls the spiritual forces “rulers” and “authorities.”
For St Paul as for ancient writers in general, the material world we see is in fact just an expression of the world of spirit. (You may remember from two weeks ago how for Paul the spirit is the foundation of personhood, which is then expressed in mind, which is then expressed in action in the visible world.) I think that the reason I have come to believe in omens is that it has sunk in over the years that the visible world expresses the world of the spirit—and therefore nothing we encounter is meaningless.
So when Paul talks about “spiritual forces,” he doesn’t exactly mean “invisible forces.” He means the forces which move and shape the world we experience. They are the spirits behind the world we encounter on the daily.
Therefore the cosmic powers of darkness are “rulers” and “authorities.” They are the pure essence of the principles at work in our world which hold people down. None of the demons you might see in a horror movie could hold a candle to that great demon called Isolation or Loneliness which rampages through nursing homes and the basement apartments of single young adults. We’re tempted to blame politicians for our arcane tangle of rules and regulations, but really they are just pawns in the hand of that wicked spirit called Bureaucracy which has been working on us for two hundred years. Few fiends will starve your spirit like that two-faced devil called Boredom and Entertainment.
Even though St Paul’s original audience were ancient people who had easier access to this way of thinking, they also needed to be reminded that “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood” (v 12).
When we struggle, our temptation is to make an adjustment to our physical circumstances—the world of flesh and blood—in the hope that our struggles will cease. You’re lonely, so how about you get a new gadget that will make it easier to call your family? You’re addicted, so just get the thing you’re addicted to out of your house and it won’t bother you anymore. Those approaches might do something for you, but they don’t go to the spiritual heart of the matter, so the problem always re-emerges. What is needed more than anything else is to engage in the spiritual struggle—that is, the struggle within your own self—by which you will overcome the “schemes” (v 11) of the evil one.
So maybe we can now understand the magnitude of the Christian task. we need to reconquer our own souls, which have been occupied by the great powers of our age. You will not be free until you have resisted the Empire of Despair, the Dictatorship of Egoism, and the Commune of People-Pleasing.
You will not be up to this task unless you are armed, so St Paul prepares us: “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil” (v 11). You will be impervious to lies—the favourite weapon of every dark spirit—if you wrap the truth of the gospel around you like a belt (v 14). You will be protected against the wounds that stay with us after we do wrong only if wear your breastplate of righteousness day and night (v 14). Don’t let the cosmic powers of darkness surprise you; you are expecting an attack, so you keep the gospel ready like you keep shoes on your feet (v 15). You overcome discouragement in your struggle by lifting the shield of faith (v 16), and you cap it all off with confidence in the salvation signed on your forehead in baptism like a helmet (v 17).
The powers we face are too much for us without this help, and even then it will be a struggle. If you have no sense of spiritual struggle, it may simply be that you haven’t yet joined the resistance. You may be quietly acquiescing to the occupation of your own mind.
But for those who will answer the call and take up their cross, there is another word of encouragement. St Paul tells us to “be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might” (v 10). Everything Paul says derives from the Old Testament passage we also heard this morning (Isaiah 11:1–5), and its point is that the “armour of God” is really just the power of the Holy Spirit of God which rests upon the Son of God, the Messiah, Jesus Christ. So it is “in the Lord” that we are strong, and “in the strength of his might.” We will be clothed with the armour we need for the fight as we participate more deeply in the sonship of Jesus to the Father.
Participation in Jesus and clothing with the power of the Spirit are on offer this morning at the altar.
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