Cool. Now We Have a Sword.

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
August 25, 2024
Proper 16, B
Ephesians 6:10-20
Psalm 34:15-22
John 6:56-69

Put on the whole armor of God, Paul writes. Armor is a defensive tool, meant to keep us from harm. Armor up. Get yourselves ready, each day, for everything that’s gonna be coming at you, and let’s face it, on any given day, there’s a lot that may be coming at us. Bad news, loss, shouting and anger, physical attacks, sexual assault and rape, eviction, theft, derision, scorn. 

The armor of God is meant to protect us from these attacks. More accurately, the armor of God is meant to protect our spirits from these attacks, to keep our hearts and our minds from being beaten down and broken by the assaults we face every day. 

Paul writes that “our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers of this present darkness; against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Physical attacks are going to come. They are going to come. They’re going to hit us. They’re going to hurt us. The armor of God is meant to protect us from the spiritual attacks which come along with those physical attacks. 

Look at the armor and protection that Paul writes about. The belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and whatever shoes will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. 

So, look first at the belt of truth. Among the countless lies we hear, we are often told in a thousand different ways how worthless and terrible we are. If we believe those lies, then we begin to believe that we are, in fact, worthless and terrible. We hate ourselves, we hate the world around us, we live in darkness and fear. We’re also often told that various other groups of people are worthless and terrible, and if we believe those lies, well then we begin to believe that we can treat those other groups of people as terribly as we want to. With these lies of how terrible and worthless we and others are, we can have a pretty dark view of the world and take out our wrath on everyone around us. We see this a lot.

Against such assaults, Paul tells us to wear the belt of truth. If we believe the truth that we and all people are beloved and beautiful, made in God’s image and infinitely valued by God, then those terrible and worthless lies we are told will fall away, unheard. We won’t end up attacking ourselves and one another because we believe the truth of all of our blessedness and belovedness.

Look at the breastplate of righteousness. The more harm we do to others, the more our spirits are fractured and broken. The more we figure, “my life, my world, my way,” the angrier and more resentful we get when things keep not going our way. 

The breastplate of righteousness, then, allows us to give up the belief in “my life, my world, my way.” Rather, the breastplate of righteousness reminds us that the world is Gods, our lives are Gods, and the way is the way of Jesus. Living God’s life, in God’s world, following the way of Jesus, we get to give up the anger and resentment of me and mine. We get to live the harmony of letting go, of choosing to be righteous rather than getting what we think is righteously ours. 

The shield of faith and the helmet of salvation. We believe in God who is good and who is for us. We believe in life lived in unity with God, and we believe that life of unity with God continues on even after our mortal bodies die. With that faith, though many assaults may happen to our bodies, we still walk in this world with God. We can let that peace rule in our hearts, and heal the bitterness and anger over the things that have been done to us. 

Then there are our shoes, as we walk through this life with the armor of God, we can let people know how we can find peace amidst hurt, how we can find acceptance when things don’t go our way, how we can find worth in ourselves and love of others in a world full of people who tell us hate. As we walk through the world, we can let people know that our peace, acceptance, worth, and love come from our belief in God, walking in the ways of Jesus. 

Finally, there is one last piece to the armor of God, and this is the one piece that can be used both for defense and for offense. That is the “sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Cool. Now we have a sword. Now we get to attack people. 

Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s not what that means. Considering all the armor that has come before, suddenly getting to attack people doesn’t really make sense. What is the sword of the Spirit, and how do we use it?

The sword of the Spirit is the word of God, which doesn’t mean that it’s the Bible. Remember, the Bible as we know it didn’t exist yet when Paul wrote these words. It was centuries before Paul’s letters, the Gospels, other writings of the Christian scriptures and the writings of the Hebrew Bible were all collected together into one agreed-upon book. 

Also, if we look at the Bible itself, the books of the Bible aren’t the Word of God. Jesus is. So, Jesus is the Word of God, the sword of the Spirit. 

As offense weapons go, Jesus doesn’t seem like the best thing in the world with which to harm others. If we’re actually using Jesus, the Word of God as the sword of the Spirit, then we would be doing as Jesus did: caring for people, healing people, “loving one another, just as Jesus has loved us.” That is how we use the sword that is Jesus. Love, healing, caring, compassion and communion.

What about using Jesus to attack people in an argument, like a keen and bloody sword? Well, again, our enemies are not flesh and blood. Our enemies are not people to attack. Jesus is a sword against spiritual forces of darkness, and the way to attack spiritual forces of darkness is love, healing, caring, compassion, and communion with others. 

With the whole armor of God, we won’t feel the need to lash out and attack others with the sword of the Spirit. Rather, we’ll see other’s hurt, others’ brokenness, and we’ll want the sword of the spirit to attack what’s hurting them, and that is done through healing. The sword of the Spirit only attacks the spiritual forces that are harming people. As we give compassion, love, and healing, and caring in community, the sword of the Spirit defends people. 

So, armor up. Every day, we can help each other put on the whole armor of God: the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and whatever shoes will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. Finally, walk with Jesus, the sword of the Spirit to attack spiritual forces of darkness by defending, loving, and healing one another. 

Love, Grace, and Communion: The Holy Trinity

Brad Sullivan

Trinity Sunday, Year A

June 11, 2017

Emmanuel, Houston

2 Corinthians 13:11-13

Matthew 28:16-20

Love, Grace, and Communion:  The Holy Trinity

A couple of years ago on Trinity Sunday, I had this idea to preach about God as a frosted Donut, as a way of describing the Trinity, with The Father as the dough part, Jesus as the frosting, and the Holy Spirit as the hole, where, it’s kinda hard to define, it’s kinda hard to explain the Holy Spirit, but it isn’t a donut without the hole.  Thankfully for the sake of the congregation a couple of years back, I decided not to do that.  It would basically be heresy, unless it’s Shipley’s Donuts, but in all seriousness, I’ve heard similar approaches to describing the Trinity, such as, “God is like an egg” with the shell, white, yoke:  three and yet one.  Of course that’s three parts that make the whole egg, rather than three whole persons who make the whole God.  Honestly, if we’re going in that direction, I kinda like the donut thing better, but the big problem with any such means of trying to describe God as a trinity of persons is none of those metaphors say anything at all about God as a relationship of persons.  The relationship is key to who God is and what God is as a single God in Trinity of persons.

So as an analogy for understanding God as being three persons and yet one God, I’d like for us to think about our own relationships.  Are we closer to people whom we have never met and don’t even know exist, or are we closer to people whom we love deeply?  Obviously, we are closer to people whom we love deeply.  We know them intimately.  We get to know the deep parts of who they are.  As we love more and more, we become more and more connected to a person, and while we are still distinct persons, we become more and more united as our love for each other grows. 

Ok, so multiply that by infinity, and we have some understanding of God as three persons united so completely in love for one another that they are one.  It still doesn’t entirely make sense to our rational little brains, but it also kinda does.  God is a relationship of persons:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each fully God, and yet each distinct from the other, so completely united in a continual dance of love that they are one.

Then there are, of course, the inevitable questions of this Trinity of persons such as, “which one came first?”

“Oh, they’ve always been together as one.”

“But I thought the son was begotten of the father?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“So when did that happen?  How long was the Father around before the Son was begotten of him?”

“Oh no, they’ve always been together forever.”

Whenever we try to tease out all the specifics of how God as a Trinity of persons works we generally end up with God as a frosted donut.  Tasty, but perhaps an understanding of God as Trinity comes less from our brains and more from our hearts.

Think about how much logical sense some of our relationships make?  Brain work or heart work?  God is described after all as love, not logical rational sense.  Consider how Paul ended his second letter to the church in Corinth.  “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.”  Those are words of the heart. 

Love.  The basis of all our relationships.  The best of who we are.  Peaceful, giving, not worried or concerned about what’s next, but content with now and fully present with the person right in front of us, fully honoring the person right in front of us.  Love means seeing ourselves as we truly are, warts and all, and not only accepting who we are, but delighting in who we are.  Love means seeing others as they truly are, warts and all, and not only accepting who they are, but delighting in who they are.  Love means seeing our common humanity, that divine spark, divine image in which we were all made, and living into and honoring that common humanity.  Love means giving for the sake of the other and also receiving from the other.  Love means honoring, accepting, and delighting in each other, recognizing and celebrating the beauty in each of us.

Grace…for all the times we don’t love.  Grace.  Forgiveness and understanding.  Compassion and empathy.  Grace is forgiving others for the hurt they have caused us.  Grace is looking at those who have harmed us and seeing them through eyes of compassion and empathy, offering some understanding that they are wounded as well, and they only hurt out of their own hurt and fear.  Grace is saying “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing,” even as they nail you to a cross.  Grace is the acknowledgement of our common humanity, our common weakness, our common harming of each other and offering peace to those who have harmed us, even as we accept peace from others, accept in our own hearts for the harm we have caused. 

Communion.  Delighting in time spent together.  Shared meals.  Shared endeavors.  Shared lives.  With love and grace, we share and join together with others, enjoying the love we share, grateful for the grace we give and receive, free to be fully who we are, loved and accepted by others without pretense or show, without hiding our true selves, unashamedly being seen, seeing others, giving and receiving love, and gratefully receiving and giving grace.  We enjoy life together, and we share our lives with one another. 

You want to know what God is like as a Trinity of persons?  Who or what do we understand God to be?  Love, Grace, and Communion.

Love does not exist without grace and  communion.  Grace does not exist without love and communion.  Communion does not exist without love and grace.  Each are distinct, and yet they are inseparable. 

With such a life of love, grace, and communion, Jesus told his disciples to go and baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Go and baptize into the way, into the very life of love, grace, and communion.  We baptize and are baptized into the life of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  We baptize and are baptized into the life of God who is love, grace, and communion. 

Echoing and reminding us of Jesus’ command to his disciples to go and baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, I say this day to go and invite people into the life of God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Go and invite people into the life of God who is love, grace, and communion.  Live the life of love, and grace, and communion.  Life the very life of God; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Live that life with others in how you love them, how you offer them grace, and how you share communion with them. Say to those who are spiritual but not religious that the life of love, grace, and communion is the life of God.  Say to those who have been harmed by churches preaching an angry God who hates most of who and what we are that such a God does not exist, but is the vain invention of fearful men. 

Say to them that the God we know, the God we worship, the God whose very life we live is love, grace, and communion.  Go and teach them about God who is love, grace, and communion; God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Baptize them with your words.  Share communion with them in your actions.  Love them well, and ask for grace for those times when you don’t love them well.  Share the very life of God, the very life of Jesus, and invite them to be disciples of Jesus as well, sharing also in the life of God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; God who is love, grace, and communion.