New School Clothers

from my sermon on 8/23/09, Ephesians 6:10-20

Boy and girls, do yo know what you are going to wear tomorrow on the first day of school? I always loved those new school clothes. You adults, how important are clothes? Do you have a power suit? Designer Labels? And you youth, how conscious are you of what others are wearing? Is there ever a clothes competition? I know that many schools have gone to dress codes and school uniforms.
So clothes are important. Mark Twain said this, "CLothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society."
As Christians what should we wear? This letter to the early church has some fashion advice. It says, "put on the whole armor of God." I know you may have some problems with the military imagery as I do, but remember who the dominant power was at that time...Rome. So the writer is simply referring to an image that everyone would be familiar with...that of a Roman soldier. Note also that 5 of the 6 dress items mentioned have to do with defense. They are non-violent terms. They provide protection. No part is left uncovered. In fact the word in Greek for the whole armor is a word that we sometimes use in English. It is the word panoply.
We need the whole armor to stand or withstand, a Greek word that is used 4 times in this passage, the rulers, cosmic powers, the evil one. Now I know you will have trouble with this imagery also, saying, we are sophisticated and have moved beyond this dualistic understanding of the world. But stay with me a moment. Isn't there evil in the world? Especially as we go back to school. When I was in grade school, the James Bond movies were just coming out. I remember a kid in my grade, a chubby kid, who came to school one day with a 007 sweat shirt on. That day on the playground, I hear another kid say to him, "I didn't know James Bond was fat." OUCH.
What the writer is saying here is that evil is more than just personal, it is systemic. Walter Wink has written extensively about this topic. He says that there is a domination system, that evil has become part of institutions, organization, and societies. To illustrate, he talks about a friend in the clothing industry who wants to provide health insurance for her employees. I know that is hot potato right now. She wants to do right by them and provide them with a benefit. But there is a cost to offering this coverage. She may not be able to compete with others in the U.S. much less with the sweat shops in 3rd world countries that offer no benefits, low wages, and long hours. Walter Wink says, "You don't have to be greedy. The system will be greedy enough for itself."
So what are we to wear in confronting evil? The belt of truth. The breastplate of righteousness. I take righteousness to mean right relationships. We are ready to run with the good news of peace with our shoes. We have a shield of faith. Now this was a large shield, that covered the whole body. What's more it was made to interlock with your fellow soldiers so that you could stand together and withstand the flaming darts. I take this to mean we need each other; we need Christian community. We have the helmet of salvation. And the only offensive weapon we have is the sword of the Spirit, the word of God. That's why we read the Bible. That's we are starting Disciple Bible study again.
Let me give you some examples of what this might look like. Remember Ghandhi in India and what he wore....the sari, the simple dress of a peasant. He took on the government with non-violence and by his stance was able to show the powers what their abuse meant. He brought about a transformation of his society. Corazon in the Phillipines did something very similiar and what did she wear? Yellow....and truth and righteousness..and... The system doesn't know what to do with the non-violence and so has to reflect upon itself and possible change.
So what you will wear tomorrow as you go to school or to work or to play? Jesus says, "don't be anxious about what you are to wear." Remember this from Matthew's gospel. I had a house blessing this past week. Yes, we pastors still make house calls. One of the suggested readings was from Matt. 6. It said, something like, don't worry about what you are to wear. Consider the lilies of the field, how they neither toil nor spin, and look how God clothes them with even finer robes than even Solomon in all of his glory had. I won't forget this passage because one of the little girls in this house was named Lily, and she looked up when she heard her name mentioned in the passage.
So we don't need to worry. In fact, we can wrap ourselves in prayer. That is how the passage ends. We pray a lot as a staff. Yes, we plan and calendar and coordinate, but we also pray a lot. This past staff meeting, Pastor Jim had a great story for us about prayer. Remember last week that Jim wasn't in worship with us. He was finishing up his questions for ordination. We are all students, life-time learners, aren't we? Well, we as a staff covered his parts without trouble. What we didn't know is that last Saturday night Jim was working on his laptop using a little flash memory drive. He stood up, the laptop slid off its lap board, crashed on the floor, breaking off the flash drive. Jim had not backed up anything. Half of his answers were on the flash drive. Now when I was a kid, we used to say, "The dog ate my homework." Today we can say, "The flash drive broke off in my laptop." Jim was devastated. He prayed. He said, "Help." He remembered other times when he felt helpless like taking Hebrew in seminary. His prayer then and now was, "God, help me. Help me take just the next step." Jim finished his questions by the Monday deadline. Prayer reminds where we get our help, our strength. Remember how this passage begins, "Be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his power." It is not by ourselves that we make it. It is by God and the community. So we wrap ourselves in prayer.
What will you be wearing tomorrow? I am hoping that as you get dressed you will be putting on the whole armor of God.
Clothes are important. They make the person. But I disagree with Mark Twain about naked people. What was Jesus wearing in his last hours? About all he had on was truth, righteousness, peace, faith. I know these seem so small against the cosmic powers. But I remember his helmet of salvation, a crown of thorns. I remember his word, his prayer, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
These are always in style. They always overcome. That's the good news I have to share.