Here’s a link to the worship video of this sermon which is also embedded at the bottom of the post.

Joshua 24: 1-2a, 14-18
Ephesians 6:10-20

And that building – it isn’t even half as old as our texts.

It’s kind of amazing when you stop to think about it, that these words that we read on a Sunday morning (and hopefully more often than that!) have been read or heard for as long as the they have – a little less than 2,000 years for the text from Ephesians, at leas 2,600 years for the current form of Joshua. And still we turn to them.  Still we read them.  Still we question them. Still we listen for what God is saying to the church today through them.

That’s the good news about really old Scriptures.

Now, the bad news.

OK, it’s not really bad new. It’s the sometimes hard to navigate news.

Sometimes the stories they tell are about geographies that still exist, but have governance or political realities that have changed dramatically. This morning we see that in a text from the book of Joshua. The “elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel” that Joshua summons are not equivalent to the heads of state of a modern country. The claim that God desired the Israelites to drive out all the residents of the land and that God even did it for them, is not a directive for the 21st century.  These texts just don’t work that way.

And sometimes the metaphors that are used in scriptures so ancient aren’t really comparisons or illustrations we can make much sense of.  What was obvious and familiar, say, to an ancient agrarian society (sowing seed and yoking animals) is less obvious to those of us who dress up nice to go to an office and sit in meetings or in front of computers – – or those who work from home in an office or the basement wearing headsets to talk to colleagues – – or those who care for children or parents by driving them places and tending to their health and wellness.

Thinking about today’s imagery from Ephesians – not many of us (probably not any of us unless you have a niche interest in ancient Roman history) have a whole lot of experience with the 1st century Roman armor. We listen to this description and maybe conjure up in our minds suits of armor we have seen in museums or castles on vacation, storybooks or movies. They may or may not be historically accurate to the actual setting of this passage.

But the people of Ephesus would have been able to pull familiar images to mind as they heard Paul’s letter read to them when they were together.  From just before the common era until about the 3rd century, Ephesus was the site of one of the major gladiatorial arenas in the Roman Empire. There was a gladiator school there, regular competitions, and future, current, and former gladiators were not an uncommon to know or be related to.

Now a lot of our assumptions about gladiators are probably based on depictions by Kirk Douglas or Russell Crowe, and I can’t possible debunk most of those myths and get us out on time. But let it suffice to say, they get a a few things right, a few things wrong, and take a lot of poetic license for the sake of entertainment. What we do know from historical record is that for the most part gladiators were people who were sentenced to that position as slaves. There were a few volunteers, but not a lot. Instead many of the gladiators came from the populations of nations that the Roman Imperial army conquered, rebellions they squashed, including the Jewish Revolt that took place in the time leading up to the writing of this letter to the Ephesians.

Also, gladiator schools and competitions were big business.  Big business.  This was all about entertainment and the crowds and spectacles brought the owners and sponsors big, big money. The folks at the top were far removed from the injurious action at the bottom, but one thing they were sure about was that they wanted to protect their investment.  So probably contrary to our usual assumptions, most gladiator battles weren’t actually to the death. Excavation of a necropolis in Ephesus in 1993 found that the bones of gladiators carried a lot of damage, but very few of them died because of injuries sustained in their work. Their owners, managers, and “coaches” didn’t want them dead, because that would be lost income. They simply wanted a dramatic battle. (See also “Gladiator Graveyard Discovered”)

And so, armor was provided. Helmets, metal chain mail, breastplates, shields, shin guards (to protect them from their own shields) – there were all sorts of protective pieces meant to keep the battle entertaining, but prevent the loss of an expensive investment.

So the Ephesians knew what armor would look like, and what it was supposed to do. By and large most of the pieces that are mentioned, as well as the directions on what to do with them, are defensive, not offensive. This call to “be strong in the Lord and in the strength of God’s power” is not a call to go “onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war.” While the writer names enemies – cosmic powers of the shadows of evil – the people of God are not called to violence against human enemies. They are not even called to initiate “spiritual warfare,” to go on the attack.

“Withstand,” the preacher writes. “Stand firm.” Depend on God’s strength, not your own, and be strong in the things God is strong in.

The battleground the Ephesians witnessed in the stadium was a monument to greed and personal success. It was extravagant entertainment and showmanship, propaganda even as the humanity of Rome’s enemies was stripped, and enslaved people with little to no power, were used to pad the pockets of those with great power and to provide entertainment for those who could be glad they were just one step above the fighters in the dirt. It was a picture of a false reality. It was the grounds of unholy dehumanization. It was violent denigration. 

And so, comes the teaching to the church at Ephesus, put on the armor of God, to withstand what the empire is doing around you, to turn from the other gods that are competing for your worship and devotion. Stand firm in who God is and who God calls you to be. Do not join in their games from the stands, cheering for a warrior. Do not seek to become one who deals in and profits from the live and death of others.  Do not lust after the kind of power that the rulers and authorities of evil wield with no regard for what is good and kind and just.

Hmmmm… now we’re talking about images and attitudes, powers and principalities that sound more familiar, aren’t we? The gladiator stadium may not be relevant to our context, but the impulses behind it, the greed, the dehumanization, the disregard for the well-being of others while gaining comfort from the work they provide, the facades of entertainment that hide unethical treatment of those society deems disposable, historically women, children, black and brown people, that sounds more familiar. 

It doesn’t take much investigation, we don’t have to scratch the surface too deeply, to find many of these same impulses driving all of our systems – not just entertainment, but commerce, politics, our drive to accumulate personal wealth. Isn’t it crazy how even these ancient texts can come alive for us?

And so this letter written to a church of disciples in ancient Ephesus little less than 2,000 years ago is a letter written to a church of disciples in Geneva, Illinois today.

Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of God’s power. Stand firm. Withstand the forces that are contrary to everything you know about who God is, how God is calling you, what God is about in the world.

Church, we are called to center ourselves in truth – the truth of who God is and the truth that that means we are not God! The truth that God is love and those who abide in love abide in God. The truth that all people, all of creation, belongs to God and is not ours for exploiting or abusing or treating in death-dealing manners.

Disciples, we are called to cover our hearts with righteous – but not self-righteous which is false righteousness. Righteousness is not ours by our own making, but our righteousness comes from Christ’s righteousness; it is a gift from God that comes over us and is what we are led into by the Holy Spirit. Righteousness is means standing where Christ would stand, being on the right side – with those who are disenfranchised, with those who are disregarded, with those who have been disinherited from the reward for their labor.

Friends, we are called to hold onto faith, hold onto Jesus who is always with us, and keep our eyes fixed on the way he would have go, the places he would have us show up in. Our faith is our commitment to walk where he has walked, and this shield doesn’t stop the arrows from flying toward us when we’re up agains the empire, but it promises that we need not be afraid or withdraw, but stand firm.

Beloved, we are called to live into our salvation that doesn’t let us off the hook, but frees us for serving in God’s name.  It isn’t an eternal “get out of jail free” card, but an immediate call to see how we can be a part of freeing others from the circumstances and situations and spirits that bind them.

Hearers of God’s word, we are called to carry that Word into the world – not as a deadly instrument to clobber those we dislike and with whom we disagree, but as the Word of peace. 

Which brings us to my absolute favorite part of this description of the uniform we are asked to wear. “As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace.”

I love that!!!

With all of this specificity of the armor of God, the writer leaves the shoe choice up you. Whatever you need, whatever shoes are appropriate for your particular work as a disciple, whatever footwear will be beneficial to the places where you are proclaiming peace – put those shoes on. They might be dance shoes proclaiming the beauty of creation. They might be pumps that take you into the courtroom seeking justice. They might be sneakers for a march or rally. Work boots for a mission trip. They might be sandals to go for a walk with a friend who needs comfort and a listening ear.

Whatever shoes you need to proclaim peace in a world that shouts with violence – put those shoes on, because along with standing firm, we’ve got some places to go. 

We’ve got some choices to make about whom we will serve and how. 

We have a gospel to proclaim boldly, in word and in deed, as ambassadors of love and peace.