Trinity Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

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Sermons

August 2003 (click here to return to "August 2003 Sermons" page)

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time (August 24, 2003)

“Be Strong in the Lord” Dr. Julie Adkins

Text: Ephesians 6:10-20

SERMON

I’m sure that if we started making a list,

we could think of lots of different ways in which

we are different from the early church and early Christians.

They spoke Greek, we don’t …

they were often persecuted, we aren’t …

we baptize infants, they didn’t …

they used only wine for communion,

many churches today use only grape juice …

I’m sure we could make a nice long list.

But what I’d like for us to think about today is this:

they took evil much more seriously than we do.

I suspect that most of us would like to avoid the whole topic of evil,

the whole notion or concept,

except maybe in the titles of horror movies or murder mysteries.

There, at least it’s a manageable size.

We can change the channel,

or shut the book,

or laugh at the plot for being so outrageous.

It doesn’t have to touch us personally,

even if it’s a little scary while we’re watching or reading it.

It’s just entertainment.

And at those times when we do try to deal more seriously

with the question of evil,

the whole thing makes us so profoundly uncomfortable

that we tend to end up trivializing it.

And we – by which I mean Christians throughout history thus far –

tend to do that in one of two ways:

Either we don’t take seriously enough

the evil within us, within human beings in general;

or we don’t take seriously enough

the evil outside us.

Let’s take the second one of those first:

difficulty in seeing the evil outside of us.

What I mean by that is this:

all of us, unless we are sociopaths,

know that there are times when

we have gone out and done the wrong thing,

times when we have failed to do the right thing,

times when our actions or words have hurt other people,

and so on, and so on.

We know that we aren’t perfect,

and neither is anyone around us!

And while we don’t as a rule intend to do evil,

we know that sometimes,

the things that we say or do have evil results.

So we can see that there is a possibility for evil

within every human person,

and we know that some days we resist it better than others!

But it is hard for us to talk about the possibility

of evil existing as a force outside of ourselves,

aside from human beings doing things that result in evil.

It sounds kind of superstitious, kind of unthinking,

like ghosts or séances or Ouija boards.

And we are logical, reasonable people.

We see no need to believe in a devil,

or a “dark side,”

or some other force of evil

that has a separate existence from evil human actions.

Surely it is all within us, and other humans.

And if we will only see a good enough therapist,

and say enough prayers for our own healing and the healing of others,

well, surely that will take care of it.

Other Christian people will tend to go

in just the opposite direction.

In some ways, that’s easy to do.

We can see bad things happening in the world all around us,

and we know we didn’t do any of them.

I’ll bet that none of us

ever tried to smuggle a bomb onto an airplane.

Never tortured another human being

to extract a confession.

Never made a hurricane or an earthquake or a typhoon

hit someplace and kill thousands of people.

And yet, those things all happen.

And so it seems to make sense that

someone or something other than ourselves

must be behind all of it somehow.

And whether you choose to call it Satan,

or “the forces of evil,”

or, like a Jedi knight, the “dark side,”

doesn’t matter very much.

Because whatever name you give it, it’s out there.

And it will get you, if you’re not careful.

The group that understands evil in this way

has a much more difficult time taking seriously

any tendencies toward evil that exist within human beings.

We make excuses for hurtful things we have done, or we rationalize them:

“I didn’t mean any harm by it,” we say, or,

“If I had known that at the time, I wouldn’t have done it;

so it isn’t really my fault,” or,

“You don’t understand how difficult my situation really is;

I had no choice.”

Or, we pin the blame on that outside evil,

as in, “The devil made me do it,” or,

“I just don’t know what came over me.”

Either way, all the bad stuff stays on the outside,

and we can maintain the illusion of ourselves

as good, almost-perfect little people.

And in either case,

whether we imagine that

all the evil is “out there,”

or all of it is “in here,”

we haven’t taken it seriously enough.

Paul uses some uncharacteristic language

when he describes what it is that we must fight against:

Rulers and authorities … the wiles of the devil …

the cosmic powers of this present darkness …

the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

I confess that I find that language kind of problematic …

a little weird … a little spooky-sounding …

it sounds almost too theatrical.

But regardless of the language he uses,

Paul is saying that there are forces outside ourselves,

and forces inside ourselves, working for evil …

whatever name you want to give to those forces.

And we have the responsibility

to put up a defense against them.

But we have to understand that

we are not just battling inner psychological disturbances;

and we are not just battling something dark and malevolent

that exists totally outside of ourselves.

It is a difficult combination of the two.

Let’s look at a couple of examples,

and with each one we will start from one of the two extremes,

but we will see how the other side of the question

has to inform us as well.

In the first instance,

let’s pretend that someone has broken into your house,

and stolen your stuff,

and left a huge mess behind.

What a horrible person to do that to me, we think.

How could a person be so evil

as to come into a house that isn’t theirs – your house! –

and make a horrible mess,

and take things that were important to you

and that belonged to you.

Some people are just bad, we conclude.

What’s less comfortable to think about is

the inequities that exist in our lives and in our nation

that turn some people to stealing.

- Somewhere around 20% of all children in the U.S. live in poverty.

- 41% of the U.S. population has no medical insurance,

no protection against catastrophic illness,

no way to afford any kind of preventive care.

- Even today, a man who did not finish high school

on the average, makes as much money

as a woman with a college degree.

- If you have a full-time job,

but are paid only minimum wage,

you and your family still fall below the poverty line.

None of which is to say that theft is justified!

But if we see evil only in a thief,

and not also in a system which

left him or her believing there was no other option,

we have missed an important part of the picture.

On the other side of the question of evil, for example,

we can look at our nation and at the world,

and see that we still have huge problems with racism,

and other forms of bad behavior against people

who are perceived as “different” from ourselves.

It seems like there is a problem in the system somewhere,

maybe even in the cosmos:

something is broken;

we might even describe it as evil.

Because even though none of us has ever owned a slave,

and though we may never tell a joke with a racist punch line,

and though we may make a conscious effort to treat everyone equally …

and even though there have been laws on the books

for how many decades now? …

it is obvious that people of light skin and Anglo background

still have advantages that other people don’t…

African-Americans, Hispanics, to name only two.

It’s tempting to see the evil of racism

as being something that is completely outside ourselves,

something that has a life of its own.

But that’s only half the story.

Did you see the results of a study done recently,

where identical resumes were submitted

to different companies’ personnel departments,

except that one would have an Anglo-sounding name

like Richard or Brooke,

and one would have a name that was probably African-American,

like Tyrone, or ShaMeeka.

Identical resumes.

Richard and Brooke would get called for interviews;

Tyrone and ShaMeeka would not.

Over and over, probably entirely unconsciously,

employers … and the rest of us …

make decisions about people based on our assumptions

about what people of different groups are like,

and, on our own comfort level with people of different groups.

Individual people make those decisions;

a system did not.

All of us are affected by, and afflicted with,

a culture that is more racist than we like to admit.

But all of us have the choice of

whether we will quietly go along with that system of evil

because it’s more comfortable and more familiar,

or whether we will stand up to it and try to change it.

Yes, it’s bigger than we are;

and some of it is outside ourselves.

But some of it is also deep within,

and we are far from being powerless against it.

So that, when Paul says “be strong in the Lord”

so that we can withstand …

And when he talks about

taking up the whole armor of God …

We have to be sure that we understand that

what we’re defending against

comes from within and without.

“Strong in the Lord” doesn’t just mean

having a good self-concept and self-esteem

so that you can do battle with your inner demons.

Nor does it mean that you

fortify yourself inside a shell

to fight the world outside and the evil that’s there.

The armor has to go both ways.

And notice also, that with only one exception

everything Paul describes among the armor

is defensive weaponry.

The breastplate of righteousness.

Shoes that will make us ready to proclaim the gospel of peace.

The shield of faith.

The helmet of salvation.

The only real weapon you’re allowed is

“the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

God’s word is your weapon.

Now, that doesn’t mean you get to go around

thumping people over the head with your Bible!

It means, in essence,

that it’s not up to us

to win the final victory against evil.

Jesus Christ has already done that for us.

What is up to us

is to keep evil at bay in our own lives,

and, so far as we can,

in the lives of people with whom we come in contact.

To be strong against temptations,

to be strong against selfishness,

to contend against the evil within ourselves,

and the evil outside that does harm to us and to others.

That’s a lifelong job,

and some days it’s scary.

Some days it seems like evil is winning.

But the promise is,

that if we fight with the armor of God,

using God’s strength and not depending on our own,

we will prevail.

God is stronger than evil.

But it is left largely up to us to determine

which will prevail in our own lives,

and the lives of the people we touch.

Like Paul, let us be strong,

and let us speak boldly.

Because if and when God is for us,

and if we are strong in the Lord,

none can prevail against us.

Amen.