Armor & Sword

Brad Sullivan

Proper 11, Year B

July 19, 2015

Saint Mark's Episcopal Church, Bay City, TX

Ephesians 2:11-22

Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

The people in Jesus’ day flocked to him.  They went running around a lake to reach him, and thronged to him in the marketplace.  He called them sheep without a shepherd, and we saw last week what their shepherds were like.  Herod had an innocent man killed so he would look powerful in front of his friends.  The Pharisees and other religious leaders demanded perfection regarding religious practice, but they didn’t help regular people connect to God while living their normal, everyday lives.  People flocked to Jesus and fought to be near him.

Why are so many not flocking to Jesus now?  Folks don’t seem to be getting healed of physical infirmities like they once were.  Physical healing is not needed as badly as it once was, we have doctors for much of that healing.  We still need healing from Jesus, however, healing from depression, disconnection, over-stretched lives, unending pull of the next thing.  Perhaps people don’t flock to Jesus nowadays because they aren’t sheep without a shepherd, but sheep with too many shepherds. 

For some, money and defining success and self worth through money is their shepherd.  Some find leisure activities to be their shepherd, with such a strong need to unwind and relax.  Self improvement can be a shepherd, “be your best self now.”  There are a huge variety of activities which promise the world to those who participate.  A lot of them offer good morals and to build good character.  In popular Christianity the church offers a kind of one and done baptism.  Once you’re baptized, you’re kinda done.  You get to go to heaven, so you don’t need to worry about anything else.  What else then, does the church offer in popular Christianity?  It offers good morals and good character. We’ll, if folks think they can get that playing soccer, then what’s the point of church?   

We have too many shepherds, and we’ve ended up with a lot of people who have forgotten the point of our life together in the church.  If all it is, is good morals and character, then people can get that elsewhere from all the other shepherds. 

These activities needn’t be in competition with the church, but it is a struggle.  It is a struggle to come to Jesus.  It is hard to break the hold of our other shepherds.  We have commitments which we don’t want to break.  We don’t want to break our word.  It’s tough. 

We also have our baptismal covenant, the commitment we made to live together as disciples of Jesus, to raise each other up, to teach our children to follow Jesus, to live as disciples of Jesus, to raise each other up, to teach and follow the ways of Jesus, our ways as Episcopalians, to be here for worship and Eucharist.

Many of the other activities and things we follow (other shepherds) are good things in and of themselves.  They seem like armor protecting us from boredom, disconnection, getting into trouble, allowing us to unwind, enjoy life, etc.  Many, when they end up excluding our communal faith and connection to God, however, become swords which leave us even more exhausted.  Our other shepherds, the armor we carry, become swords which harm us.

ARMOR AND SWORD

AVAILABLE ON SNAKES & ARROWS

Music: Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson

Lyrics: Neil Peart

The snakes and arrows a child is heir to, Are enough to leave a thousand cuts

We build our defenses, a place of safety, And leave the darker places unexplored

Sometimes the fortress is too strong Or the love is too weak

What should have been our armor Becomes a sharp and angry sword

Our better natures seek elevation, A refuge for the coming night

No one gets to their heaven without a fight

We hold beliefs as a consolation, A way to take us out of ourselves

Meditation, or medication, A comfort, or a promised reward

Sometimes that spirit is too strong Or the flesh is too weak

Sometimes the need is just too great For the solace we seek

The suit of shining armor Becomes a keen and bloody sword

No one gets to their heaven without a fight, A refuge for the coming night

A future of eternal light.  No one gets to their heaven without a fight

Confused alarms of struggle and flight, Blood is drained of color

By the flashes of artillery light.  No one gets to their heaven without a fight

The battle flags are flown At the feet of a god unknown

No one gets to their heaven without a fight.

Sometimes the damage is too great. Or the will is too weak

What should have been our armor Becomes a sharp and burning sword

If we want to keep this life we have, then we have to fight for it.  Mostly, we need to fight within ourselves to not to be pulled by the voices of the many shepherds around us, and listen to the voice of Jesus, our one true shepherd.

As we heard from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians:

you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God. (from Ephesians 2:11-22)

We are the Body of Christ.  We are connected to God and each other through Jesus.  We have God’s very eternal life abiding among and within us.  It is given as a gift, and yet we must fight to keep it.  We don’t fight others.  The fight is within ourselves, a war within us, as Paul says, between our spirit and our flesh, and we have many shepherds often clamoring for our attention.  We want to keep our life in Jesus.  We want to follow our one true shepherd, and we want to keep, strengthen, and grow our life together in Jesus, and we can’t do so without a fight.  Amen.