Ephesians 6.10-20

THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOI)

(Ephesians 6.10-20)

When I was planning the funeral of the late Major General, Sir George Burns, I could not think of a more suitable scriptural reading than the above.

"Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wilds of the devil". And you will recall that the author goes on to identify each piece of the Christian armoury. "Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the equipment of the gospel of peace; above all taking the shield of faith, with which you can quench the fiery darts of the evil one. And taking the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.

I thought such an image of the Christian protected from the power of evil by the armoury of God would have appealed to one who had had such a distinguished military career, and who at one time was saved from the effects of a bullet by the protective armoury of a metal helmet.

However, I am not so sure that the editorial remarks in the preface of our new hymn book would have appealed to Sir George.

The editors write, "We were also concerned that the book should use positive and appropriate images, and decided that the militarism and triumphalism were, therefore, not appropriate. We recognise that military imagery is in the bible, but history, including current events, show only too clearly the misuse to which these images are open. All too often, in the Christian and other religions, texts advocating spiritual warfare are used to justify the self-serving ambitions behind temporal conflicts. Christian "triumphalism is the triumphalism of love which 'is not envious, or boastful or arrogant' - the triumph of the cross".

I can hear Sir George saying "my dear Vicar, what is all the fuss about". Quite what he would make of the rewriting of two well-known hymns, to which this above principle has been applied, I cannot imagine since he always enjoyed a good sing. Take for instance, G. Duffield’s nineteenth century hymn:

"Stand up, stand up for Jesus

ye soldiers of the cross

lift high the royal banner

it must not suffer loss.

From victory unto victory

his army he shall lead

Till every foe is vanquished

and Christ is Lord indeed.”

Here we have a powerful image of the power of God as revealed in the cross of Christ overcoming the power of evil and I cannot but think that this has become somewhat lost in Jean Holloway’s recent re-writing of the hymn which states:

"Stand up, stand up for Jesus

before his cross

an instrument of torture

inflicting pain and loss

transformed by his obedience

in God's redeeming plan

the cross was overpowered

by Christ, both God and man".

Here the cross itself appears to have become the enemy rather than the forces of evil which first put Christ upon the cross.

Or take again, that other well-known hymn by Baring-Gould:

"Onward Christian soldiers

marching as to war,

with the cross of Jesus

going on before.

Christ the royal master

leads against the foe,

forward into battle

see his banner go".

Here we have the powerful image of Christians going out to war against the power and influence of evil behind the cross of Christ, the symbol of God's ultimate victory over such powers of evil.

Michael Foster, who was born in 1942, has rewritten this hymn thus:

"Onward Christian pilgrims

Christ will be our light

see the heavenly vision

break upon our sight.

Out of death’s enslavement

Christ has set us free

on then to salvation

hope and liberty".

Here the whole meaning of the hymn appears to have been completely changed to one of Christ who, like Moses in the Old Testament, leads his enslaved people to freedom from the captivity of sin.

Unless I am mistaken, it seems that in a desire to be politically correct, the whole meaning of these two well-known and loved hymns, has become lost. As a consequence, the whole concept of the power and influence of evil in the Christian life has become watered down, if not completely lost, and I would suggest we become poorer for it.

Our hymns are there, not just to express our innermost personal feelings, but also to proclaim Christian truths and our personal response to those truths. And one of the great truths that shine throughout the bible is that the power and influence of evil is very real and that we need to be protected from it by the power of God. In short, life is a battle between good and evil, and as the apostle Paul observes from his own personal experience somehow the power and influence of evil always appears to be more attractive. Like a magnet, left to our devices, we find ourselves very easily drawn towards it. "I don't accomplish the good I set out to do, and the evil I don't really want to do I find I am always doing. Yet if I do the thing that I don't really want to do then it is not, I repeat 'I' who do them but the sin which has made its home within me".

There is no doubt that St. Paul faced fairly and squarely the reality of the power and influence of evil. He did not dodge the issue with politically correct language or try and sweep it under the carpet.

He chose the imagery of secular warfare very carefully to express the spiritual conflict in which he and we often find ourselves involved. A view shared also by the writer of the epistle to the Ephesians when he writes, "For we are not contending against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the world's rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual host of wickedness in the heavenly places"

To become side-tracked by the unfortunate recollection of the Christian crusades and Islamic Holy Wars, as the editors of our hymn book appear to have done, is to miss the whole point of scriptural imagery of warfare. This seems to express the personal inner conflict in which many of us find ourselves, and from which we need to be protected by the armoury of the power of God.

Celtic Christianity took the power and influence of evil very seriously and in view of this, like the author of the above epistle, took the need for protection by the armour of God's presence equally seriously. This we see expressed in their “encircling prayers” or “breastplate prayers”. The best-known is that wrongly attributed to St. Patrick namely:

"Christ be with me, Christ within me.

Christ behind me, Christ before me,

Christ beside me, Christ to win me,

Christ to comfort and restore me.

Christ beneath me, Christ above me,

Christ in quiet, Christ in danger.

Christ in hearts of all that love me,

Christ in mouth of friend and stranger".

Here the author of the prayer paints a picture of the Christian being completely encircled by the protective presence of Christ,

In many respects, this sense of the power of evil and the need for protection by God the Holy Trinity has never died out in the Celtic tradition. For instance, Alexander Carmichael recorded a similar prayer in use in the Outer Hebrides which reads:

"The three who are over me

The three who are below me,

The three who are above me here

The three who are above my yonder

The three who are over the earth

The three who are over the air

The three who are in the heaven

The three who are in the great palling of the sea."

Perhaps the greatest spiritual danger from which we need protection today is that of being influenced by the old English heresy which teaches that human kind can save itself by its own efforts. In other words we can pull ourselves up by our own shoe strings and do not need the help of God.

But the experience of Christ in the wilderness and of the New Testament writers, including St Paul and the author of the Epistle to the Ephesians, and of Celtic Christianity, and of men and women throughout the centuries, is that we do need the protective armour of God's presence if we are to overcome our battle with the very real powers and influence of evil. And the good news is that God does offer his protection to us if first we will fall upon our knees and pray, as in the words of the following collect:

"Almighty God, you see that we have no power of ourselves

To help ourselves.

Keep us both outward in our bodies

and inward in our souls,

that we may be defended from all adversities

which may happen to the body

and from all evil thoughts

which may assault and hurt the soul;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen".